The Italian Formal Garden 



AIR OF PLAYFUL CAPRICE' 



Fountain of the Goblet' 



Villa Farnese at Caprarola 



Coming down to specific details, the following features 

 deserve special attention : 



First, the terracing of the Italian gardens is worthy of care- 

 ful study. Originating in the preference for sloping sites by 

 means of which successive and diftering prospects are secured 

 from the various levels, without interference of one with the 

 other, it became a means of admirable effects within the gar- 

 den itself. With its stairs, niches, grottoes, pilasters and balus- 

 trades, it was studied, proportioned and arranged with great 

 care, and usually with great success. An instructive contrast 

 in the treatment of the terraces appears between the abruptly 

 sloping Villa d'Este at Tivoli, and the nearly level Villa Albani 

 or the Ouirinal Gardens at Rome. 



Secondly, tJie decorations of architecture and sculpture. 

 The judicious arrangement, distribution, and scale and balance 

 of the architecture have been noticed already, and its j)redomi- 

 nantlv decorative and festal character alluded to. This air of 



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