ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



and spend his leisure hours in luxurious ease. The 

 best artists in Rome the Sienese master Baldassare 

 Peruzzi, who was probably the architect of the house, 

 Sebastiano del Piombo and Sodoma decorated the 

 rooms with frescoes. At the end of one hall Raphael 

 painted his divine Galatea, in which Castiglione saw 

 the perfect flower of the humanist's dreams, while 

 his scholars decorated the spandrils of the open loggia 

 with scenes from the popular tale of Cupid and Psyche, 

 and transformed its vaulted roof into a bower of green 

 leaves and garlands of flowers with rich tapestries 

 spread out against the blue sky. When at Christmas 

 1518 the wealthy banker opened his villa doors to the 

 public, all Rome flocked to Trastevere, and a scene of 

 the wildest enthusiasm took place. Poets celebrated 

 the marvels of Chigi's villa in Latin and Italian verse 

 and congratulated the owner on the possession of this 

 pearl without price. Unfortunately the garden-house 

 designed by Raphael on the edge of the river, where 

 Chigi entertained the Pope and Cardinals at banquets 

 of Lucullan fame, was demolished, together with the 

 greater part of the villa grounds, when the new em- 

 bankment was built in 1883. 



T .eo the Tenth, the typical Renaissance Pope, who 

 determined, from the moment of his election, " to 

 enjoy the Papacy," and took especial interest in all 



the minor branches of art, shared the fashionable taste 



80 



