348 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 







360. ELEVATION OF THE VILLA OF MALCONTENTA, FACING THE 

 BRENTA, BETWEEN PADUA AND VENICE. 



Andrea Palladia, Architect, 1558, for Nicolo e Luigi Foscari. Nicolaus et Aloysins 

 Foscari fratres Frederick filii. From O. B. Scamozzi. 



interior must have presented 

 a gay scene. There were 

 twenty-four horses in each 

 stable planned on either side 

 of the centre portico. 



The vista does not stop 

 abruptly with the stables, but 

 passes through an enclosure 

 to a small casino beyond. 

 This is a characteristic of the 

 lay-out, which by gateways 

 and clairevoyees seems to 

 desire to eliminate all boun- 

 daries. The French School 

 of Versailles was the model 

 in view ; there are designs 

 in fresco on the walls of one 

 of the rooms upstairs showing 

 in the first scheme which 

 was not carried out an even 

 closer following of that 

 original. This style of 

 gardening is apt to bear the 

 relation to the older Italian school of a hotel to a house. The avenue on the right, running 

 parallel to the main axis, passes a maze, with a centre circular tower, having a stairway wreathed 

 round it, and then runs through a unique hexagonal domed archway. This may be regarded as a 

 free development of a triumphal arch, though by its present position it seems to be devised 



merely to reconcile the divergent 

 angles of two ranges of subsidiary 

 buildings. It may have been 

 designed simply as a pavilion djour, 

 similar to those used in theatrical 

 scenery. The avenue ends in a 

 square enclosure, planned diagonally 

 to the approach, and entered at one 

 angle. Surrounded by clipped 

 hedges and set with grass plots, 

 statues and pedestals for vases, this 

 retreat was calculated for the advan- 

 tageous display of plants when 

 brought out after being housed for 

 the winter in the columned 

 porticoes of wood, planned on two 

 sides of the enclosure. In the 

 window frames of these lemonaia 

 some lead glazing of the old Venetian 

 pattern still remains. 



The Palace inside is like many 

 another. It is very well planned, 

 with wide corridors, and the central 

 position of the great ballroom must 

 have been splendid for receptions. 

 Napoleon I bought the Palace in 



. PLAN OF THE VILLA OF MALCONTENTA. B 



Andrea Palladw, Architect. From O. B. Scamozzi. 1 807 for Eugene B 6 a U h a T n a 1 S, 



