THE GARDENS ()/< ITALY. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

 PALAZZO BORGHESE, AND THE GOLONNA GARDENS, ROME. 



IT seems impossible for modern ideas of grandeur to compete with those of the Renaissance and 

 of the seventeenth century in Italy. The Borghese, during the years of their power, acquired 

 eighty estates in the Campagna of Rome. Cardinal Scipione, having a villa at the gates of 

 Rome as magnificent as the chief palace of most great nobles, retained it merely as a summer- 

 house and lived chiefly in his immense palace in the city itself.* It was begun in 1590 by 

 Cardinal Deza from the designs of Martino Lunghi, and finished by order of the great Borghese 

 Pope, Paul V, from the designs of Flaminio Ponzio. The architecture still has something of 

 early Renaissance beauty. The 

 courtvard is surrounded by a 



J <f 



colonnade, and an airy loggia 

 arches across the garden entrance, 

 such as one might see in a fresco 

 by Pintoricchio. From under the 

 cloistered granite columns, against 

 which are set several ancient 

 colossal statues, we pass into the 

 little garden. It is screened from 

 the courtyard by pedestals set in 

 pairs, on which stand small Roman 

 statues ; we can fancy the con- 

 noisseur Cardinal deciding that 

 they were poor works, not worthy 

 of gracing his choice collection 

 within the place, but that they would 

 do well enough for the garden. Two 

 low fountains play on either side of 

 the wide iron gate through which 

 we enter the garden. It is locked 

 now and no one passes down the 

 shallow steps, for the garden is the 

 emporium of a dealer in antiquities. 

 In the old times it must have been 

 the ideal of a little town garden, 

 shut in with high walls, into 



97. PLAN OF THE PALAZZO BORGHESE, ROME. 



which are built three huge fantastic fountain pieces in the baroque style f tasteless things, yet 

 not without a certain barbaric grace. The canopies are supported by young men crowned with 

 baskets of flowers, cupids riot with ropes of flowers, goddesses hold out alluring arms, all 

 are florid but effective. The banksias fling their careless foliage over the walls, and the arums 

 grow thick and tall in the old sarcophagi. Inside the palace the rooms still retain their 

 painted mirrors, their cupids by Giro Ferri, and their wreaths by Mario di Fiori, though the 

 celebrated pictures and statues have been removed to the Villa Borghese. 



* Between the Corso and the Tiber Via Borghese. t By Carlo Rainuldi 



