i88 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



and tower-like masses of the taller houses contrast the generality of the long, level lines of walls 

 punctuated by the brown depths of arch and window opening. 



Laurel and cypress in their own home provide a green setting perfect in harmony of form 

 and colour. Such is the locale where the famous Pirro Ligorio, whose delightful Casino at the 

 Vatican has been already illustrated, conceived in 15501559 the vast Villa D'Este for the 

 Cardinal Ippolito D'Este. Son of Lucre/da Borgia and brother of Duke Ercole II, he was 

 created Cardinal in 1539 and Governor of Tivoli in 1550. After his death the villa was 

 inherited by Cardinals Luigi and Alessandro, until, in 1796, the male branch of the house of 

 D'Este being extinct with Ercole III, his daughter brought it to Ferdinand, Archduke of 

 Austria, in whose family it remained up to the entrance of Italy into the Great War. 



Lying to the west of the town, to which it adjoins rather than belongs, there were two main 

 features in the selected site for this palatial villa a stream of the Anio, to supply the indispensable 



194. GENERAL VIEW OF TIVOLI AND THE FALLS. 



water effects, and a great fall in the ground, which admitted of magnificent terraces and descending 

 stairways. The villa itself is ledged on the hillside, and from the entrance at the back a cortile, 

 adjacent to the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, gives access to a great descending barrel- 

 vaulted staircase leading to a vaulted corridor of great length, running at the back of a series of 

 frescoed chambers, forming the lower main floor of the house. A projecting loggia, central 

 to the fa9ade, with twin raking flights of steps, descends to the great terrace, which is closed at 

 either end by well designed architectural features reminiscent of Roman triumphal archways. 

 The further one is a most interesting open loggia hall with balconied recesses, from which fine 

 views are commanded over the gardens and the surrounding hillsides. The corresponding 

 terminal is treated as a great niche framing a group of sculpture. The whole lay-out is 

 dominated by a magnificent axial vista extending down the centre of the gardens, and bordered 

 by immense cypresses some two hundred and ten feet high, with trunks nearly ten feet thick. 

 About half way down is a great cross view over a series of lake-like ponds leading up to the 



