172 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



It is an interesting villa to visit, as the grand series of rooms is freely shown. The frescoes 

 are late in date, and of that school which transforms the walls of an apartment into vistas of pro- 

 jected architecture peopled with Signori and Signoras who promenade therein, while the artist 

 himself sits on a balustrade and sketches the scene. The painter here is a figure in a blue coat 

 and a red cocked hat, while beneath is inscribed : 



Ghezzius 



Hie Faciem 



Gestus se pinxit 



et artem 



Sed magnus ingenhim 



Pingere non potuit 



MDCCXXVII. 



The most interesting room is, perhaps, the last one on the left, which is what could be called 

 to-day a palm court. It is the Camera del Primavera. Above walls of greenery a figure in the 



clouds throws down 

 flowers to greet the spec- 

 tator. There is a balcony 

 from this room carried 

 right round the end of 

 this wing of the villa, 

 from which a magnificent 

 prospect is obtained. 

 Immediately below are 

 extensive terrace plateaux 

 formally laid out with two 

 good basins of water. The 

 back of the house is all 

 rough. There is a central 

 porch on to the terrace, 

 which has a double line of 

 trees, below which the 

 ground falls rapidly away 

 dow r n the hill. From the 

 forecourt a columned 

 gateway in the wall on the 

 right-hand side leads into 

 a small enclosed yard with 

 minor buildings, from 

 which another and oppo- 

 site gate, having dogs on 

 the piers, leads out and 

 up the winding slopes 

 (Fig. 179). Imperceptibly 

 passing round at the back 

 of the house up to about 

 the roof level of the villa, 

 you reach the famous 

 lake-pond, surrounded by 

 tall cypress trees, one of the most characteristic of all the garden scenes in Italy, as our 

 illustration (Fig. 181) well shows. Preceding this lake is an enclosure, with a good water basin 

 and a double stairway, which, however, is rather small in scale and somewhat modern in feeling 

 (Fig. 181). In an apse is a kind of doorway, and an imitation rock recess serves as the final 

 outlet of the water. Above a tufa doorway in the forecourt is a tablet : 



Horatius Falconerius 



A.D. 1555. 



Rupe sub Hac, Vaga lympha fui hinc nomine sed mine, Rufina e domini nomine lympha vocor. 

 Ille Eternim sparsos lattices collegit et undas auxit et extructo fornice elausit aquas. ^_ 1^ JJ. 



179. GATEWAY IN THE FORECOURT WALL, VILLA FALCONIERI. 



