Watkin on Milizia: Frontispiece to The Lives of the Celebrated Architects, Ancient and Modern

– David Watkin

The illustration on the title page to the Vite is striking and can be seen as a preparation for that of Pugin’s Contrasts (Sailsbury 1836). Milizia depicts a crowded scene in which, on the left hand side, a Corinthian portico and Laugier’s primitive hut, fashioned from trees and branches, represent Antiquity and Nature. Pallas, standing in the centre, points approvingly at these, her judgment being confirmed by a tablet beneath them which bears the injunction, Hoc Amet. Behind her to the right appear a small Gothic edifice and a much larger building with an undulating Baroque facade inspired by Borromini: these are condemned by the words, Hoc Spernat, inscribed on a tablet beneath them.

Excepted from The Rise of Architectural History (London: Architectural Press, 1980), 31.