ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



vedere, together with a sleeping Cleopatra, afterwards 

 more correctly named Ariadne. The Laocoon, the 

 so-called Venus of Cnidus, and the famous Apollo 

 which had belonged to the Pope before his accession, 

 were placed in the niches of Bramante's Cortile, and 

 the other statues and sarcophagi were arranged among 

 the orange trees, planted at intervals and watered with 

 running streams. 



On summer evenings the Pope often supped in the 

 cool loggia and played backgammon with Federico 

 Gonzaga, or listened to music and recitations. In the 

 days of Leo the Tenth these gardens were the scene 

 of frequent entertainments. The strains of viols and 

 flutes were heard far on into the night, while his 

 Holiness, who was passionately fond of music, listened 

 with closed eyes and head thrown back, beating time 

 with his hand and singing the tune under his breath. 



Bramante and the goldsmith Caradosso both had 

 rooms in the villa in the time of Julius the Second. 

 Later on, the sculptor Baccio Bandinelli lived there, 

 and was employed by Leo the Tenth to make a copy 

 of the Laocoon for King Francis, who had boldly 

 asked his Holiness to make him a present of the 

 original marbles. The Florentine master never forgot 

 the beauty of the Belvedere grounds ; and twenty or 

 thirty years afterwards, when he was making a fountain 



for the Grand Duchess Eleonora's gardens in the Pitti, 



72 



