Introduction

THIS series includes features which belong essentially to the ornamental aspect of architectural design. The grotto is used as a feature of embellishment in parks and public places remote from the centre of the city, and also to ornament gardens and parks on private estates. Various treatments are peculiar to the Continent and the theory of the grotto has not been overlooked in England, but of recent years insufficient attention has been paid by architects to this subject with the result that treatments of rock-work have been allowed to usurp the distinctive character which properly belongs to such a structure. The grotto, whatever its treatment as an individual motive, should be considered as forming the culmination of a series of incidents connected with the display of ornamental water. Theoretically, in the innermost groves of a park, there should be a source either in the form of a spring or a cistern: the water would then be conducted to a stream which further on becomes a cascade with suitable falls, passing from a naturalistic setting to a long canal, whence it would descend over another cascade on conventional lines and finally to the grotto: a group of fountains beyond the grotto would mark the furthest extent to which the water is carried.

In the formation of the grotto, advantage is taken of the natural fall of the ground to build at a point which readily affords more than one level. The plan form usually favoured is based upon the hemicycle, with subsidiary recesses, while ranges of steps, columnar screens and symbolic statuary play an important part in the grouping. Where marked differences of level do not occur, the grotto should be treated on more conventional lines, as is the case in the gardens at Versailles, where a screen surrounds a basin with a central fountain.

The grotto on a small scale is best designed to form part of its natural surroundings, in which case highly conventional forms give place to simpler and more natural arrangements in accord with the character of the earth and rocks. Reference to the grottoes in innumerable gardens adjoining important villas in Italy (Fig. 18) should enable the student to master the characteristic treatments and to select suitable architectural detail and sculpture. In this series of illustrations eight examples are given, and although the subject cannot here be dealt with in greater detail, sufficient information is given for the designer to appreciate the relative importance of the subject.