GARDE \S .I\D VILLAS O.V L.IKE MAGGIORK. 



by reason of its excessive 

 dimensions. It would 

 seem as if at first the 

 palace was to have 

 been correctly in scale 

 and of a size which 

 would have accorded with 

 the interesting church 

 facing the water's edge. 

 The vast unfinished 

 structure of the present 

 palace has, however, some 

 historical interest. Here 

 it was that Napoleon slept 

 after the great victory of 

 Marengo, the crowning 

 mercy of that campaign, 

 which as a manifesta- 

 tion of the youthful 

 genius of the great con- 

 queror still fi r e s the 

 imagination to-dav as 



385. THRONE ROOM, ISOLA BELLA. 



much as when he first burst into Italy. The baroco interiors (Figs. 385 and 387) are monu- 

 mental in scale, and have more imagination to mitigate their wildness than is often found 

 elsewhere. The hall of tapestries is distinctly a fine room (Fig. 386). It ends in an open 

 grotto court, by which the garden lay-out is most ably connected to the palace block. From 

 this very curious oval court, which conceals a change of axis, you ascend up to the level of the 

 terrace plateaux (Fig. 382). The garden itself is in perfect relation, and reveals the mind of a 



386. ISOLA BELLA : THE HALL OF TAPESTRIES. 



