GARDENS OF ESTE AND GONZAGA PRINCES 



a bower of pinks and columbines, where red admiral 

 and swallow-tail butterflies flit to and fro, and a sprig 

 of juniper on the lady's shoulder denotes her name. 



Leonello's brothers shared his love of art if they 

 hardly equalled him in devotion to learning. Borso, 

 who first bore the title of Duke, completed the 

 Schifanoia Palace begun by his grandfather, and em- 

 ployed Cossa and his followers to paint the interior 

 with frescoes of the months and seasons. The low 

 red-brick house is still standing among the fruit trees 

 at the end of the grass-grown street, with Borso's uni- 

 corn on the marble portal and his brother Ercole's 

 diamond wrought in the terra-cotta frieze. Within are 

 the faded and half-effaced pictures which tell of life 

 in the court and camp, in the town and countryside. 

 The Duke is there, magnificent in cloth of gold, riding 

 out to the chase, administering justice to his subjects 

 and looking on with courtiers and ladies at the famous 

 races that were run for the Palio on St. George's Day. 

 We see the peasant at work in the harvest and vintage, 

 the merchant at the counter, the scholar at his books, 

 women bending over the embroidery loom, youths and 

 maidens playing viols and whispering together among 

 the pomegranate trees on the flowery grass where the 

 rabbits are at play, while Venus drives her chariot 

 drawn by swans under a blue sky flecked with soft 

 white clouds. A scene in which the Duke was repre- 

 sented receiving a basket of cherries from a child has 



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