ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



the garden where Ariosto looked in vain for his 

 capers. 



Meanwhile the Este princesses took their father's 

 love of building and gardening to other homes. 

 Beatrice, the youngest of Duke Ercole's daughters, 

 and the wife of Lodovico Sforza, flung herself 

 passionately into the delights of her new life at 

 Milan. During a few short years her joyous laughter 

 rang through the halls of the Rocchetta and woke the 

 echoes of the Castello gardens. The foremost artists 

 were ready to carry out her fancies and do her 

 pleasure. Leonardo designed a pavilion with a round 

 cupola for her labyrinth ; Bramante made an elegant 

 ponticella from her rooms to the garden below. 

 Beatrice's name, set in a wreath of myrtle and laurel, 

 may still be seen inscribed on the walls of the Sala 

 Grande, which the great Florentine transformed into 

 a bower of foliage. But the end came all too soon. 

 One night the walls of Beatrice's own garden fell 

 down with a sudden crash, and when dawn broke the 

 Court and city learnt that the young Duchess was no 

 more. Her husband, the proud Moro, whose career 

 ended in disaster and captivity, was noted for his love 

 of flowers. The choicest roses were sent him, with 

 baskets of peaches and pears, of artichokes and apples, 

 by his friends at Genoa and Pavia. He adorned the 

 palace at his birthplace of Vigevano with hanging 



