VILLA MAD AM A, FAR\ESI.l\ GARDENS A\D VILLA PAPA GIULIO. 47 



Caprarola. It is said, in fact, that the latter great work took the plaee of a palace intended 

 to be built by Cardinal Alexander Farnese at the top of these Farnesian gardens on the 

 Palatine. Vignola (1507 1573) was certainly the architect for the grand doorway of access 

 from the Campo Vaccino. The fountain was designed by Michael Angelo, and the two side 

 pavilions by Girolamo Rainaldi (1570-1655). The absence of the crowning palace explains a 

 definite want of a central 

 point of interest and a 

 definite lack of unity 

 apparent in the scheme. 



The Villa Papa Giulia 

 is to-day one of the most 

 important museums i n 

 Rome, as containing the 

 priceless results of 

 Etruscan research. As its 

 surroundings have been 

 much altered by new roads, 

 it is most interesting to 

 approach it from the 

 main road, on which the 

 unfinished Casino di Papa 

 Giulio III still stands. 

 This fine, massive design, 

 with its canted angle 

 treated as screen wall 

 fountain, is ascribed to 

 that very great architect 

 Baldassare Peruzzi ( 1 48 1 

 1537), though built at a 

 date of about 1550. A 

 way enclosed by walls 

 leads up from this point 

 direct to the villa, which 

 is seen at an angle. It is 

 one of the most interesting 

 of Vignola's works, being 

 very skilfully planned for 

 a maximum of internal 

 effect. There are few 

 prettier sights than the 

 view across the garden 

 court, gay with flowers 

 in box-edged patterns set 

 on margins of grass, and 

 backed by sturdy palm 

 trees symmetrically 

 balanced. The view 

 extends right through on 

 an axis which threads the 

 screen -like centres of 58. DETAIL OF THE CASINO. 



the further pavilions, to end in a little walled garden hung with roses and filled with laurel trees. 



The villa was built by Vignolain 1550-55 for Pope' Giulio III. Vasari claims to have had 



a share in it, and drags in Michael Angelo as well. Vignola, however, was an extremely 



competent person, as Caprarola, completed in 1549, remains to show. The fine barrel-vaulted 



