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THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



we seem to know but little about him, and more particularly so in regard to his earlier achieve- 

 ments. Some of the work attributed to him, like the portico on the Capitol at Rome, is flat and 

 delicate, as of the school of Bramante, to which order of ideas the casino of the Villa Lante 

 belongs. It is the difficulty of reconciling this work with other examples of his architecture 

 that confronts us. The truth probably lies in the fact that he fell under the influence of 

 Michelangelo, whom he was destined to succeed as architect at St. Peter's. To that great pile 

 Vignola contributed the secondary domes, which are, for sound architectural expression, perhaps 

 the best part of that colossal building. Thoroughly trained as an architect, his death at the age of 

 sixty-six was a great misfortune for the art, then falling into the hands of a school of mannerists. 

 How little we know of Vignola is shown by the fact that, in spite of his famous visit to France in 

 1537-39, there remains no actual well established example of his work in that country. If it 



had not been for his 

 book on the Orders, 

 and a few outstanding 

 works like Caprarola, 

 his name might other- 

 wise have been entirely 

 forgotten. There may 

 have been in the 

 character of the man a 

 fine element which 

 contributed to his being 

 passed over. No one 

 could have had a better 

 right, after Peruzzi, to 

 the position of architect 

 at St. Peter's, which 

 was, however, given to 

 Michelangelo. 



Vignola's real 

 name was Jacobo 

 Barozzi, and he was 

 born at Vignola in the 

 region of Modena, in 

 1507. His father was 

 a wealthy Milanese who 

 had been ruined by a 

 civil war, and the 

 mother was the 

 daughter of a German 

 o f f ic e r. He was 

 educated at Bologna 

 with a view to painting, 

 but turned to archi- 

 tecture, and par- 

 ticularly to perspective, 

 of which he became a 

 master. He then 

 resorted to Rome, and 

 became a great student 

 of the antique. He 

 was early engaged as 

 draughtsman and 

 248. NORTH GATE. technical expert to a 



