GARDENS OF ESTE AND GONZAGA PRINCES 



The new theatre at Marmirolo had cost some 20,000 

 ducats, and Giulio Romano was already beginning 

 his sumptuous palace on the marshy grounds of the 

 Te. So Michelangelo's designs were put aside and 

 forgotten. Fortunately they fell into the hands of 

 some of his friends at Florence, and long afterwards, 

 when Agostino Dini built himself a villa, they were 

 brought to light. The Dini family had been intimate 

 with Michelangelo himself, and Santi di Tito, the 

 architect whom Agostino employed, was a pupil of 

 Bandinelli and, like all his contemporaries, held the 

 great man's memory in the highest honour. The 

 house which he reared for Dini on the hills beyond 

 the Certosa di Val d'Ema has always been traditionally 

 ascribed to Michelangelo, and its noble and austere 

 simplicity bears the stamp of the master's genius. 

 It stands on the top of a lofty ridge looking towards 

 Pistoia and the distant Apennines. On either side 

 long cypress avenues lead up to a terrace from which 

 a majestic double flight of steps flanked with lions 

 ascends to a paved courtyard. The south front of 

 the villa, consisting of a two-storied arcade of slender 

 columns, supporting a roof with projecting eaves, is 

 built round three sides of this court. At the back 

 is a stately loggia and another double stairway leading 

 down to a sunny parterre, with orange and lemon trees 

 in terra-cotta pots, low box hedges, and an ilex grove 



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