GARDENS OF FLORENTINE HUMANISTS 



representing the Graces doing homage to the bride, 

 while her accomplished husband, " the friend of all the 

 Muses," is welcomed by the Arts and Sciences. To- 

 day Sandro's frescoes hang on the staircase of the Louvre, 

 and Ghirlandaio's portrait of the lovely maiden, a 

 masterpiece of Florentine art, is the pride of Mr. 

 Pierpont Morgan's library at New York. Only the 

 old white house remains, with the square tower and 

 pillared loggia, and a doorway with the Tornabuoni arms 

 carved in stone amid a tangled thicket of roses and 

 jessamine. 



At the foot of Monte Morello, two miles beyond 

 Careggi, stood another country house closely con- 

 nected with a younger branch of the Medici. This 

 was the beautiful villa of Castello, built, says Vasari, 

 " with rare skill by Cosimo's nephew, Pier Francesco." 

 In front of the house was a wide lawn with tanks 

 of water divided by clipped hedges and long avenues 

 of mulberry-trees leading down to the Arno, while 

 behind, the gardens were laid out in terraces, adorned 

 with statues and fountains, against the steep hillside. 

 Castello was the scene of many brilliant festivities in 

 the days of Pier Francesco's son Lorenzo, the intimate 

 friend of Poliziano and patron of Botticelli. For him 

 Sandro painted those great pictures of " Primavera " 

 and the " Birth of Venus," in which the humanists' love 

 of old myths and delight in the joyous May-time alike 



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