282 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



of great beauty, and on the top of this stem Tribolo placed a bronze female figure a yard and 

 a half high to represent Florence ... of which figure he made a most beautiful model 

 wringing the water out of her hair with her hands." Many critics pronounce this figure to 

 have been executed by Giovanni Bologna. 



The villa was attacked in 1364 by the Pisans with their English and German allies in 

 the course of one of their chronic wars with the Florentines. It then belonged to the Brunelleschi, 

 and the young sons of the house made a gallant defence and succeeded in repulsing the enemy. 

 They were a different family to that of the great architect Filippo Brunelleschi. The Strozzi 

 succeeded as owners, and on their exile the property came to the Medici. Cosimo I, 



when wishing to escape from 

 the cares of State, passed most 

 of his time at Petraja. A 

 little villa on the hillside above 

 La Topaja was lent by him 



._, . ... ,. , -, rt ,v to Varchi, the historian, who 



<Xjr"V '' frjii''* ' - % ' " '<! --r %^4$ &"%$&& entertained all the notable 



.' rjrnjBI Wftfg Vmwr^^T ' iti Jrf BSpPP fiW*9BI 



*. /, Fn ' * .-* ** J5I -. -A- v'i*B v i s itors to Florence of the 



day, not least the celebrated 

 courtesan Tullia of Arragon, 

 one of those ladies of the late 

 Renaissance whose wise and 

 witty converse and rare beauty 

 and accomplishments made her 

 a personage in the society of 

 the great and learned. Her 

 picture by Bonvicino at Brescia 

 shows us the lovely woman to 

 whom poets addressed such 

 passionate verses the owner 

 of those 



beautiful eyes, 



Glancing eyes, loving eyes and dear, 

 More brilliant than the sun, and than 

 the stars more fair, 



of which Muzio writes. 



Cosimo's son, Cardinal 

 Ferdinando di Medici, commis- 

 sioned Buontalenti to enlarge 

 and improve the villa, but the 

 historian Scipione Ammirato,to 

 whom the Cardinal gave an 

 apartment at Petraja so that 

 he might write his history 

 of Florence in retirement, is 

 persuaded that the tower was 

 not touched and is the same 

 that was assaulted by the 

 Pisan army under the command 

 of Sir John Hawkwood, in the 

 fourteenth century. Ferdinando 

 and his wife Christine of 

 Lorraine lived here and in 1598 received the Sultan's Ambassador when he came to negotiate 

 about the trade with the Levant, so important in this century. E. M. P. 



Lying about three miles due north of Florence, this pair of Medicean villas have surroundings 

 somewhat different to those at Poggio Cajano. They lie, one above the other, in the valley of 





.. 



293. A FOUNTAIN OF COLOURED MARBLE IN GROTTO UNDER 

 UPPER TERRACE AT CASTELLO. 



