ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



and it became known by the name of Villa Madama. 

 Even in her lifetime, however, many of its treasures 

 were dispersed. The noble statue of Jupiter, which 

 excited the admiration of both Isabella d'Este and 

 Vasari, was given by the Farnese to King Francis the 

 First, while they presented another very fine bust to 

 Charles the Fifth's powerful minister, Cardinal de 

 Granvelle. After Margaret's death in 1586, Villa 

 Madama remained the property of the Farnese family, 

 who added a few new rooms and domestic offices with a 

 view to rendering the house more habitable. Cardinal 

 Odoardo Farnese often spent the summer here, and 

 gave at least one memorable entertainment at Villa 

 Madama. This was in the closing years of the six- 

 teenth century, when // Pastor Fido, the pastoral drama 

 of the Ferrarese poet, Battista Guarini, was per- 

 formed in these grounds in the presence of a brilliant 

 company of cardinals and princes. The last represen- 

 tative of the family, Elisabetta Farnese, became the 

 wife of King Philip the Fifth of Spain. At her death 

 Villa Madama passed to her son, Charles the Third, 

 King of Naples, and still belongs to his Bourbon 

 descendants. During the last 1 50 years Villa Madama 

 has been abandoned by its owners and allowed to fall 

 into ruin. The English traveller Eaton, who visited 

 Rome in 1820, gives a melancholy picture of the state 

 to which it was reduced by this time. The chapel had 



