THE TIVOLI FALLS, THE VILLA D'ESTE .IM) 1 1 ADRIAN'S VILLA. 209 



of Fcrrara. Liszt, the famous musician, was his guest for several summers, and we are 

 told how he spent the hours composing and playing, mimicking the Angelus from the 

 bells of the town, or varying the music of Chopin in rivalry with the liquid sounds of 

 the silvery spray without. Fit successors these of all the poets, painters and philosophers 

 who have wandered here. Needless to say, it is a haunt beloved of artists, and several 

 well known Roman painters have their studios in Tivoli. 



The frescoes that adorn the long range of rooms in the Villa D'Este are wonderfully well 

 preserved, and give an excellent idea of the villa decorations of the late Renaissance. They are by the 

 brothers Xuccari, Tempesta, Mu/iano and Georgio Vasari. The eagle and the lily are introduced 

 at every possible point. The scenes are chiefly symbolical. The white eagle looms large among 

 the animals saved from the flood, Moses strikes the rock in allusion to the streams that flowed, 

 at the will of the Cardinal, the gods banquet overhead in the great dining hall. The labours 



219. FRAGMENT OF THE GREAT THERMS, VILLA HADRIANA, TIVOLI. 



of Hercules upon one ceiling are a compliment to the reigning Duke Ercole, the Cardinal's 

 brother. His own cipher, ' Hyp . est . Card . Ferrar.," runs across the wall, and 

 above, Liberality, Generosity and Immortality suggest his virtues. Servants are painted coming 

 in at simulated doors, and on the w r alls of what was evidently the Cardinal's bedroom, w'.th a 

 closet off it for a secretary or attendant, are shelves painted with a cardinal's hat and a bishop's 

 mitre. Over the entrance to the dining hall the artist Zuccaro, painted as Mercury, follows 

 us everywhere with his eyes. Above the doorway two charming piitti support the arms of the 

 Cardinal. The end room, the Hall of Sports, is decorated with painted birds and 

 hunting scenes. Here tradition says that Tasso wrote his Aminta and read it aloud to a chosen 

 circle by the fountain dedicated to the Goddess of Nature at the bottom of the garden. Though 

 there is no positive record of Tasso 's presence here, we know that he was secretary to Cardinal 

 Luigi d'Este in 1572, the year before the Aminta was represented in Ferrara, and would naturally 



