The Italian Formal Garden 



nated by the great ecclesiastical princes and the formidable 

 array of Pope's nephews who monopolized the higher posts of 

 Church and State. Most of the finest \illas were built for car- 

 dinals and church dignitaries, of whom the majorit}' sustained 

 this dubious relation to the head of the Church. The Lante, at 

 Bagnaia, first built in 1477 for Cardinal Riario, was, about 1550, 

 remodelled by X'ignola for one of the Farnese nephews. To 

 this family also belonged the imposing castle and beautiful 

 grounds at Caprarola, also Vignola's work. The superb Villa 

 d'Este at Tivoli, one of the earliest as well as finest of extant 

 works of the kind, was designed about 1540 by Pirro Ligorio, 

 for the Cardinal Ippolito d'Este. At Frascati, the ancient Tus- 

 culum, is an extraordinary group of contiguous villas — the 

 Aldobrandini, Falconieri, Mandragone, and others, all built for 

 cardinal princes by such artists as Delia Porta, Giovanni Fon- 

 tana, Olivieri, Martino Lunghi, Flaminio Ponzio, and others. At 

 Rome the Borghese Villa, originally built for the dukes of 

 Altemps, was enlarged in 1605 by (for) Cafi'arelli, nephew of 

 Paul V ; on attaining the cardinalate he assumed the name of 

 Borghese. The Farnese, Farnesina, Pamfili Doria, Albani, and 

 a dozen others, owe their existence to the wealth and extra\a 

 gance of these churchly lords. With the decline of the secular 

 power of the Church consequent upon the Reformation, the 

 social conditions out of which these vast establishments had 

 grown, slowly passed away ; the building of new villas ceased, 

 and it has been only with the utmost dif^culty that some of these 

 vast and wealth-consuming estates have since been maintained 

 in even tolerably perfect condition. Not a few have run to 

 decay, and are to-day endowed with the new and melancholy 

 charm of ruin. Nature has reconquered the domain where 

 she was held captive to man's caprice, and vines, trees, shrubs, 

 grass and dust have done their best to obliterate the work of 

 human hands. Other gardens have been sold under the ham- 

 mer or cut up into building lots, and there is no likelihood that 

 many new ones will arise in their places, for Italy is poor, and 

 there is no such concentration of wealth in strong families as 

 to make probable the creation of new splendors of the kind. 

 Those that remain are, therefore, doubly precious ; they are 

 unique, for no modern imitation can reproduce their antique 

 charm ; and nowhere else in the world is there the environ- 

 ment of atmosphere, associations and art which envelops these 



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