THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
Another writer says that Albani’s nobility of soul 
made him so beloved that he was often given, or 
helped to find, things that might otherwise have 
escaped him. Immediately within the entrance 
we come upon a series of box avenues, all con- 
verging towards a circle formed by eleven splendid 
pines, which stand round a space in the middle of 
which an antique obelisk is the central feature. 
About it there is a curious story. It belonged 
to the Prince of Palestrina, who refused to sell 
it to the Cardinal at any price. Shortly after 
the Prince went on a journey, whereupon the 
Cardinal sent a large body of men who entered 
the garden by force, bore off the obelisk, and 
placed it in the gardens of the Villa Albani. 
As the Cardinal was excessively powerful in 
Rome, the Prince did not dare to bring an action 
against him, but made a joke of the whole 
affair, complimenting him on_ his exploit and 
remaining upon friendly terms. It is now sur- 
mounted by the mount and star of the Albani 
family, and stands out beautifully against a group 
of cypresses and a background of far blue moun- 
tains. Close-cut hedges of cypress, set with busts 
and terminal figures, screen the approach to the 
great formal garden which lies in front of the 
villa. The casino opposite is ablaze with masses 
of azaleas. “It is roses, roses all the way” in 
the long flower-beds, flanked by pots of lemon 
and orange trees, noble fountains make a centre 
here and there, a river god reclines under a 
portico, for which we can find the original 
drawing of Marchionni in an old book on the 
table within. In one of his letters Winckelmann 
says: “The Cardinal has brought from Tivoli 
on a carro drawn by sixteen bullocks a female river 
deity of colossal size, well preserved,” and _ here, 
sure enough, she is, reclining on the edge of a 
marble reservoir. “I write from our villa, which 
grows more beautiful every day,” he says; ‘one 
of the last acquisitions is a colossal head of Trajan, 
in perfect preservation except the nose.” The 
nose has been restored, and the colossal bust 
looms from a bower of honeysuckle. ‘* The 
Cardinal has just brought to his villa the few 
last of the best statues left in the Villa d’ Este, 
at Tivoli.” 
The lower storey of the villa is faced by a 
spacious open colonnade, which runs its whole 
length, and along which stand statues and vases. 
In the photograph we can see, 
beautiful reclining statue of Agrippina. 
Within doors the rooms are gleaming with 
marble, rich with gilding, and are still rich in 
masterpieces of painting and sculpture. One of 
Perugino’s most exquisite panel paintings glows 
upon the wall; above one mantel-piece is framed 
the splendid sulky Antinous, crowned with lotus 
blossom ; over another is that most lovely and 
delicate bas-relief of the parting of Orpheus 
and Eurydice ; archaic Greek reliefs, fine Roman 
work, alabaster vases, sarcophagi, statuettes, 
midway, a 
frescoes, are placed with thought and care which- 
ever way you turn; bits of exquisite classic carving 
are let in as overdoors ; everywhere inscriptions tell 
us how Alexander Albani built and adorned the 
edifice, and how Alexander Torlonia restored it 
in 1871. 
Winckelmann speaks of many beautiful things 
which have since disappeared, 294 of the finest 
specimens having been carried off in the French 
invasion. He tells us, too, of the English visitors 
whom the Cardinal entertained—Milady Montagu, 
Milady Bute, Lord Baltimore, and ‘the celebrated 
and famous Wilkes of England.” He speaks of 
the head of a Pallas, which he holds to be the 
most perfect beauty under the sun, but which 
was snapped up while he was thinking about the 
price, and tells us he has become so wrapped up 
in the villa that he cannot bear anyone to visit 
it without him, and when a German count wanted 
to go and visit it with one of his acquaintances, 
he said, ‘* No! plump.” 
There is a charming small casino at the far 
side of the garden, which was probably the great 
Professor’s private apartment. It is easy to 
imagine him and the Cardinal exulting over their 
new acquisitions, deciding their positions, sauntering 
in the gardens, which grew more beautiful year 
by year, while Winckelmann wrote his famous 
works on art. His patron gave him time and 
opportunity for perfecting himself as a connoisseur, 
He was sent to other galleries to see any treasures 
they possessed, and gradually acquired a certainty 
of eye and taste which made him the greatest 
living authority on sculpture. Truth, harmony, 
and beauty were his guiding principles, and he 
joined to wide knowledge and reading a ready 
and tenacious memory. He was an indefatigable 
worker, and book after book came from his hand, 
on engraved gems, on the state of art and science 
in Italy, and his greatest on the history of Greek 
art. The revised edition of this was just finished, 
in 1768, when the pleasant friendship that had 
lasted for eleven years came to an end in dismal 
tragedy. | Winckelmann decided to go for a tour 
to Vienna, to see old friends and to accept some 
of the invitations he had received from famous and 
learned men. In Vienna he was received with the 
most gratifying honours. The King and Queen 
loaded him with presents, the Ministers, many of 
them great connoisseurs and patrons of art, expressed 
their gratitude to the man who had written its 
famous history. He passed delightful days in the 
old villa of Schénbrun, where the Baron de Sperges 
invited him to meet the Queen and a bevy of 
archdukes and archduchesses. On June ist he 
left Vienna on his return to Rome, from which he 
had with difficulty remained so long away. His 
letters written at this time to the Cardinal express 
his continual longing to get back. On his arrival 
at Trieste he was obliged to wait for a ship for 
Ancona, and struck up an acquaintance with a 
stranger, who lodged next door to him in the inn, 
