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as artists, except in acting, which was rarely seen as an altogether respectable profession. William Kent was very respectably adopted by his patron Lord Burlington, and became a closely integrated member of the family. Colen Campbell was not, as he had a healthy income from his flourishing architectural practice and did not need to make himself dependent on the earl. The type of projects in which the two men could engage were therefore rather different, as Campbell needed to have an eye to the business, whereas Kent could experiment more freely and was not dependent on attracting commissions but only on the goodwill of his patron. The fashionable building, whatever its form, had meaning, as it automatically marked its proprietor as belonging to a social élite. It could be said that this is the most important thing to be said about the building, and it is possible that it could be the main reason for wanting to build it. However, for someone like Lord Burlington who belonged absolutely securely to the highest level of society, with or without a fashionable villa, that was not the point at all. For him it worked the other way round: he conferred social status on architecture by taking an interest in it.

16. Chiswick Villa, London, England (1725); Lord Burlington (1694–1753). Lord Burlington had a Jacobean mansion to the west of London, and was an enthusiastic amateur architect and devotee of Palladio, whose drawings he collected. The villa shown here was built next to the large house, and was an architectural showpiece that was used for entertaining, most famously for entertaining artists, some of whom Burlington supported with his patronage. The villa therefore had an influence much greater than its size alone would indicate. Lady Burlington had her bedroom here, and was the only person who actually lived in the building, which operated as an adjunct to the house (which is now demolished), and she had an important influence on the interiors, as did William Kent (1685–1748) who lived as part of the household and was responsible for the design of much of the furniture and the gardens. In designing the villa, Burlington took his inspiration mainly from Palladio’s Villa Capra (Figure 15) and Rocca Pisani, at Lonigo (1576) a villa by Palladio’s pupil Vincenzo Scamozzi (1552–1616), which adapted Palladio’s design by reducing the number of porticoes to one, and making the central rotunda an octagonal salone (or saloon). Burlington followed him in these modifications.

The matter of artistic accomplishment works by altogether different means, and can be reached only by acquiring familiarity with culture and by developing skills. Buildings often acquire meaning by artfully alluding to earlier buildings – admired prototypes – as we have seen before. Here there was the model of the Villa Capra, and also a villa designed by Scamozzi, Palladio’s pupil, the Rocca Pisani near Lonigo, the design of which was published in Scamozzi’s book, L’idea della architettura universale, of 1615. Colen Campbell had already built a version of the Villa Capra as Mereworth Castle (1722–5), and the villa at Chiswick has variation from one façade to another, rather than making them all identical. Nevertheless, all the elements in the building have their precedents in either Palladio or Scamozzi, and the building was therefore authoritatively Italianate. Why was that seen to be a good thing? Because at this time the English gentry all knew that Italy was the cradle of the arts and culture, and therefore travelled there if they could. One of the important educational accomplishments that gave a man social standing and ease in polished company was the Grand Tour, usually a visit to France and Italy, made at an impressionable age by way of education. The grandest of the grand tourists would take a retinue of servants and a tutor with them, but they would also meet artists and scholars who were resident in the places they visited. Indeed Burlington met Kent when he was travelling in Italy. The tour could take years – the point was to absorb the culture,