ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



Mantua, such a home had been prepared for her. 1 

 In 1535 she visited the shores of the Lake of Garda 

 once more and revelled in the beauties of the gardens 

 at Sermione and Salo as fully as when she had first 

 seen them five-and-forty years before. 



All through Isabella's life the foremost masters of 

 the age were ready to do her bidding. Raphael 

 painted a Madonna for her Grotta and designed a 

 tomb for her lord. Leonardo once sent her a sketch 

 of a Florentine villa and garden which the Marquis 

 had admired, but remarked that in order to make 

 the thing perfect it would be necessary to bring the 

 site of the house to Mantua. He excused himself 

 for not colouring the ivy, box, and other evergreens 

 of the garden, but offered to send her a painting and 

 a model of the villa, a thing which we may be quite 

 sure he never did. Many years afterwards, when 

 Castiglione returned to Mantua on his way to Spain, 

 he brought with him from Rome the plan of a 

 beautiful garden and habitation designed by Michel- 

 angelo. Great was the excitement at Court when the 

 model was set up before Madama. Courtiers and 

 ladies alike were loud in praises of the ingenuity of 

 the plans, and her son, the Duke, declared that he 

 would certainly build a palace from these admirable 

 designs. But money, as usual, was scarce at Mantua. 



1 S. Davari, Arch. st. Lombardo, 1895. 

 62 



