3 o 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



The lower storey of the villa is faced by a spacious open colonnade which runs its whole 

 length, and along which stand statues and vases. In the photograph we can see, midway, a 

 beautiful reclining statue of Agrippina. 



Within doors the rooms are gleaming with marble, rich with gilding, and still contain many 

 masterpieces of painting and sculpture. One of Perugino's most exquisite panel paintings 

 glows upon the wall ; above a mantelpiece is framed the splendid sulky Antinoiis, crowned 

 with lotus blossom ; over another is that most lovely and delicate bas-relief of the parting of 

 Orpheus and Eurydice. Archaic Greek reliefs, fine Roman work, alabaster vases, sarcophagi, 

 statuettes, frescoes are placed with thought and care whichever way you turn ; bits of exquisite 

 classic carving are let in as overdoors. At every turn inscriptions tell us how Alexander Albani 

 built and adorned the edifice, and how Alexander Torlonia restored it in 1871. 



Winckelmann speaks of many beautiful things which have since disappeared, two hundred 

 and ninety-four of the finest specimens having been carried off in the French invasion. He 

 tells us, too, of the English visitors whom the Cardinal entertained Milady Montagu, Milady 

 Bute, Lord Baltimore, and " the celebrated and famous Wilkes of England." He speaks of 

 the head of a Pallas, which he holds to be the most perfect beauty under the sun, as being 



snapped up while he was 

 thinking about the price. 

 He tells us he has 

 become so wrapped up 

 in the villa that he cannot 

 bear anyone to visit it 

 without him, and when 

 a certain German count 

 desired to go and visit it 

 with one of his acquaint- 

 ances he said, " No ! " 

 plump. 



There is a charming 

 small casino at the far side 

 of the garden, which was 

 probably the great Profes- 

 sor's private apartment. 

 It is easy to imagine him 

 with the Cardinal exulting 

 together over their new 

 acquisitions, deciding 

 their positions, and saun- 

 tering in the gardens, 



which grew more beautiful year by year, while all the time Winckelmann was writing his famous 

 works on art. His patron gave him time and opportunity for perfecting himself as a connoisseur. 

 He was sent to other galleries to see any treasures they possessed, and thus he gradually acquired a 

 certainty of eye and taste which made him the greatest living authority on sculpture. Truth, 

 harmony, and beauty were his guiding principles, and he joined to wide knowledge and reading a 

 ready and tenacious memory. He was an indefatigable worker, and book after book came from 

 his hand on engraved gems, on the state of art and science in Italy, and, greatest of all, his work 

 on the history of Greek art. The revised edition of this was just finished in 1768 when the 

 pleasant friendship that had lasted for eleven years came to an end in a dismal tragedy. 

 Winckelmann decided to go on a tour to Vienna to see his old friends and to accept some of 

 the invitations which he had received from famous and learned men. In Vienna he was 

 received with the most gratifying honours. The King and Queen loaded him with presents, the 

 Ministers, many of them great connoisseurs and patrons of art, expressed their gratitude to the man 

 who had written its history. He passed delightful days in the old villa of Schonbrun, where the 

 Baron de Sperges invited him to meet the Queen and a bevy of archdukes and archduchesses. 



139. GARDEN FRONT VILLA ALBANI. 



