THE TIVOLI FALLS, THE VILLA D'ESTE AND HADRIAN'S VILLA. 211 



Thermae, and these ruins are remarkable for the skilful planning and construction of the piers and 

 vaults. The great hemicycle at the end of the artificial valley dug out to represent the Egyptian 

 pleasure resort at Canopus is a feature of great interest from the constructive point of view. 

 One of the most intriguing constructions is a circular court ringed with an internal portico 

 surrounding a marble paved canal whose floor still shows the grooves of the turning bridges 

 which alone gave access to the central island. This island is said to have been a stage for 

 music or theatricals, in which boats floating on the surrounding water might play a part. 

 Certain it is that the island was covered with a " scenic " architecture of loggias and porticoes, 

 doubtless of marble, and it looks as if the central feature resembled a shrine somewhat on the 

 lines of the circular Temple of Baalbec. 



The Crypto Porticus is another singular feature of the ruins. Under a quadrangular 

 cloister, as we should call it, is a basement constructed about one-third out of the ground, by 

 which means openings are obtained to illuminate the under-cloister walk on one side through 

 intersections in its vaulting. Remarkable effects of lighting, an idea which was not lost upon 

 the Renaissance architects, as we may see in the case of the Massimi Palace at Rome by 

 Peruzzi, were thus obtained. Probably these under-porticoes were the means by which the 

 service of the Imperial Court was carried on without the slaves being too much in evidence. 

 We know that there was a vast under-world to the great Roman Thermae by which the public 

 was served as unobtrusively as on a modern liner. 



Everyone knows that these villa ruins have given their finest spoil to the great museums of the 

 world. They were the quarries whence the Renaissance treasure-seekers, like Gavin Hamilton, 

 obtained some of the best works which we possess of both the Greek and Roman sculptors. In 

 what estimation did the serious architects and artists of Hadrian's time hold this Imperial caprice ? 

 We suffer under the 

 loss of the treatises of 

 the trained men, and are 

 ignorant of their standard 

 of criticism. Many of 

 the Imperial ruins were, 

 we may well believe, 

 works of very secondary 

 importance, official art 

 that received merely the 

 customary applause of 

 the crowd. Possibly the 

 future may yet unfold 

 some literary treasures 

 that will place us in 

 touch with the greater 

 minds of this amazing 

 transitional epoch. 



Hadrian's Villa 

 to-day is better excavated 

 and more instructive to 

 the architect than it was 

 twenty-five years ago, but we are brought no nearer to the haunting image of the captive Queen 

 Zenobia, assigned to reside here by the conquering Aurelian, than when the long, hot afternoon 

 could be passed amid thickets that veiled these mighty fragments with deep shades. The 

 impression then was of a garden whose delightful charm, at once old and new, was reviving 

 once again with the returning foliage of early summer and was animated once more by 

 the thrilling voice of the nightingale. It was then a spot in which Rome, with its myriad 

 interests and teeming activity, could be completely forgotten, and even the modern mind find 

 rest in the contemplation of that past greatness which has never wholly lost the secret power of 

 renewal. A. T. B. 



221. THE LONG WALL OF THE PECILE, VILLA HADRIANA. 



