VILLA MAD AM A, FARNESIAN GARDENS AND VILLA PAPA GIULIO. 45 



The Villa Madama will best be understood by reading into it much that afterwards followed. 

 A circular court was to form the centre of the plan, to which the existing loggia appears as 

 merely a side entrance. This of itself reveals the vast scale of the entire design. We should, 

 therefore, imagine the leading features of Caprarola, Palazzo del Te, Alondragone, Villa d'Hstr 

 and other subsequent examples to be anticipated here. Carried out as they would have been 

 in the detail of the best period and with the decorations of Raphael's school, this Villa 

 Madama would thus have been a unique masterpiece. Time and damp have so damaged the 

 interior of the existing loggia that the only illustrations available are not clear enough to do 

 justice to the work. The circle of Raphael's students in Rome, the artists and architects who 

 formed that most brilliant school, was broken up by the sack of Rome in 1527. All must have 

 participated in the discussions that this villa scheme called forth, so that the Villa Madama, 



PLAN 



ENTRANCE GATEWAY 



SECTION 



^6. SECTION OF THE FARNESIAN GARDENS ON THE PALATINE. 



.' 



though not carried very far itself, led up to much that was subsequently effected. Like Inigo 

 Jones's Palace at Whitehall, the scheme of the Villa Madama remains as a source of inspiration 

 and an architectural ideal. 



The loss of the Farnesian Gardens is part of the price paid for our present knowledge 

 of the vast palaces of the Caesars on the Palatine. The drawings reproduced from Percier 

 and Fontaine's invaluable record show what an interesting scheme were these Farnesian 

 Gardens on the Palatine. Seen by every visitor to Rome, they were among the best known 

 examples of Italian gardening, and their influence was correspondingly widespread. For 

 this reason these gardens have particularly been included in the present book. It will be 

 seen that the scheme presents many analogies with the ascent to the casino in the gardens of 



(i) Kntnmc c from the (.'ainpo Yaccino. 



12) Vestibule. 



(3) Semicircular court. 



(!) Stair\v;iy up to grotto. 



(5, 6) (irottoes under ground. 



(7) Stainviiys to lemur over 



(8) Stairways to level of pavilions. 

 MI! C-raiul fountain. 



(Sse phm mi fxiKi' | | 



(10) Pavilions. 



(11) Plantations. 



(12) Sloping ways. 



(13) Tetrace. 



