62 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



Eastern literature. He was one of the principal patrons of Gian Bologna, the famous French 

 sculptor, who worked in Italy. The beautiful bronze Mercury of this artist used to stand in 

 the vestibule of the villa. After a happy and glorious reign this great prince died in Florence 

 at the age of fifty-nine years, in 1608. He was one of the best examples of those ecclesiastical 

 potentates who headed the movement in favour of arts and letters in the sixteenth century. 



In a work dated 1750, Pietro Rossini gives us a description of the villa, while probably much 

 in the same state as it was when Ferdinand died. He tells us of the colossal statue of Rome, 

 that statue which, it is supposed, was one of those which the flames spared when Sallust's 

 villa was burnt. Passing through all changes and vicissitudes, this emblem has presided over the 

 garden as it still does to-day. He speaks of " fourteen statues representing the story of Niobe " 

 (he means the famous " Niobe and Her Children," now in the Pitti Palace). He describes the 



75. THE SOUTHERN TERRACE. 



wood of ilexes through which you ascend to that height on which tradition says once stood the 

 Temple of the Sun. The sixty steps are still there, though the fountain constructed by the Duke 

 of Tuscany no longer exists. Of the splendid lions which formerly stood there, but are now in 

 Florence, one is an antique and one from the hand of Flaminia Vacca. Under the loggia stood 

 various statues and the famous Medici vase. The great hall contained a Ganymede, an Apollo, two 

 Venuses and a table designed by Michael Angelo. Among the pictures were a Titian and two by 

 Andrea del Sarto. Another gallery had forty-five antique marbles, busts and statues. Above 

 the balcony window was an alabaster bas-relief of Constantine the Great. Another writer tells 

 of an obelisk, a porphyry bath, and reports that the ceilings of the second storey were decorated 

 by Sebastian del Piombo. In this chamber to-day are only wooden panels, but in others the 

 paintings, less precious, of Tempesta and the Zuccari still remain. 



Annibale Lippi seems to be accepted as the architect. It would seem as though he had 

 borrowed some ideas such as the Ionic capitals of the garden loggia from Michael Angelo 

 The loggia is upheld by six antique columns, two of granite and four of cipollino, of such 



