THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



is a fallacy as detrimental as the built up shellwork that outranges the scale of nature. 

 The abuse of sculpture by a wild profusion of application has always been fatal to architectural 

 effect. The more expressive the art, the greater the need for a curb on false heroics. 

 Correggio's painting of the dome at Parma was not the only instance of a disorder which cuts 

 away the very basis of decorative art. It is an aspect of the last phase of Italian garden 

 art that cannot be ignored, and some of our illustrations exemplify the points. 



Tivoli in itself provides a great lesson in water treatment. The famous Vesta Temple 

 is an architectural recognition or outward sign of a great natural force that has the power 

 to captivate and awe the least receptive of mortals. As we descend the great crater 



the increasing force of water, 

 as it hastens to lose itself in 

 unfathomable depths and secret 

 caverns, stuns the imagination. 

 The tumult pervades the senses, 

 stimulated by a marvellous 

 atmospheric freshness, due to 

 the vapourised water that also 

 causes rocks to clothe them- 

 selves in a veil of greenery. 

 Everyday notions of life grow 

 weak in the presence of the 

 living forces of nature, and 

 the sense of the abnormal 

 weakens to the point where the 

 voice of the Sybil becomes 

 well-nigh audible. 



Italy, however, has other 

 and widely different aspects. 

 There is the interminable 

 grandeur of the great plains, 

 the Roman Campagna and the 

 Lombard fields that stretch m to 

 the Alpine wall of defence. 

 These also had their lessons 

 for the garden architects. The 

 long lines of poplars, ribbons 

 of green shade that bind the 

 cities as points of interest to 

 form a connected whole, appear 

 reflected in balanced plans that 

 convey a sense of scale and 



7. BELVEDERE. rder in the g arden Scheme - 



Canal and embanked river have 



their counterparts, and the regular scheme of vine and olive forms the foreground of many 

 an attractive villa. 



The Italian farm links naturally with the house (Figs. 5 and 6). The historic partnership of 

 noble owner with actual farmer and the sharing of profits paid in kind profoundly influence 

 the disposition and growth of the dwelling. Those vast " lay-outs " of the eighteenth century 

 Palladians in England, offices and stables, greenhouse and chapel, etc., pressed into service by 

 an unsuitable symmetry, are a clumsy perversion of the easy naturalism of the Italian villa-farm, 

 where the cart sheds and stables are natural porticoes in extension of the main house, built, if 

 you will, in a farmyard. On the road from Venice to Padua by the Brenta such portico sheds 

 can be seen and appreciated in their brick and timber built originals. Margaret Symonds, in her 

 Days Spent on a Doge's Farm, gives a graphic account of the life in such a palatial farmhouse. 



