THE GARDENS OF PAPAL ROME 



fallen in, several of the rooms were roofless, and the 

 beautiful frescoes were mouldering on the mildewed 

 walls a truly pitiful condition ! 



Meanwhile, Raphael's unfinished villa had supplied 

 a model for many other splendid pleasure-houses, and 

 his original designs exerted a lasting influence on 

 the development of villa architecture in Italy. 

 Already in 1522, only two years after the master's 

 death, the Duke of Urbino, Francesco Maria, asked 

 Castiglione to lend him Raphael's letter with the de- 

 scription of the Medici Vigna^ in order that it might be 

 a guide to him in laying out the house and grounds of 

 the Villa Imperiale at Pesaro. Count Baldassare had 

 unluckily left Raphael's letter in his house at Mantua, 

 but referred the Duke to a cousin of the painter, Don 

 Girolamo Vagnino, who had another copy with him at 

 Urbino. With the help of this precious letter, Genga 

 and his assistants were able to build and adorn the 

 palace which Duchess Leonora reared in her lord's 

 absence on the heights above Pesaro and the Adriatic. 

 This villa, rich in marbles and frescoes, and sur- 

 rounded with terraces, colonnades, orange and myrtle 

 groves, was long the wonder and delight of all 

 visitors to Pesaro, and Bembo declared that it was 

 designed with greater skill and resembled antique villas 

 more closely than any modern building that he had 

 ever seen. At the same time, Giulio Romano, coming 



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