female, and the Corinthian on the maiden, or kore. If
MacIntire���s summer-house is an upright maiden, then
Johnson���s glass house is a reclining nude, a transparent box utterly open to nature, like Gaia receiving Zeus.
However, the critic, Paul Goldberger, elaborates on the
artifice of this openness: ���The vistas tell the occupant
he is open to the whole world, while in truth there is
no world outside at all���just an elegantly arranged landscape that is as much a part of the house as the furniture. The ���real world��� toward which the walls of glass
beckon is far away and invisible.���
In fact, Johnson was as much artist as architect, using
his compound as a clearing house for innovation and
exploration of evolving aesthetic positions as much as
theoretical ones. In this respect, unlikely as it may seem,
he resembles the ���woodcarver of Salem,��� obsessively
whittling away at the natural landscape of his Connecticut acres to create what he called ���very expensive wallpaper��� for his unique residence. H
HYLAND
