THE GARDENS OF PAPAL ROME 



inscribed with the motto " Procul este profani" into 

 an inner court about 100 feet square, paved with 

 terra-cotta tiles and planted with most beautiful orange 

 trees. Here at length they beheld the renowned 

 statues. In the centre of the garden were the colossal 

 groups of the river-gods Nile and Tiber, with 

 fountains sending up jets of water on either side. 

 Close to the entrance stood the Hercules, with the 

 boy in his arms ; in a niche to the left, mounted on 

 a massive pedestal, was the Apollo, " famous in the 

 whole world," a life-size figure of the finest marble, 

 and on the other side the still more wonderful group 

 of Laocoon, " a work," they exclaimed, " so natural 

 and full of life that it can never, surely, be surpassed 

 in the whole history of human art." " Even the 

 exquisite grace of the Greek Venus," continues Pesaro ; 

 " nay, the glory of the celebrated Apollo itself, are 

 forgotten in the presence of this most excellent 

 work." x So, in impassioned words that fill many 

 pages of his narrative, the Venetian ambassador 

 describes the wonders of the Belvedere, in the golden 

 age of the Renaissance. 



Bramante's creation, as may be supposed, gave a 

 marked impulse to the art of gardening in Rome. 

 Everywhere on the Seven Hills new gardens sprang 



1 E. Alberi, Relazioni degli ambasciatori Veneti, Serie II, vol. iii. 

 p. 116. 



77 



