ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



find expression, and which in Vasari's time still hung 

 on the villa walls. It was to Castello that Cater ina 

 Sforza, the heroic Madonna of Forli, came to end her 

 days after her cruel captivity in Rome, while her little 

 son, afterwards the great captain, Giovanni delle bande 

 Nere, was kept in hiding and brought up in girl's 

 clothes by the good nuns of Annalena. Giovanni's son 

 Cosimo became the first Grand Duke of Florence, 

 and employed Buontalenti and Tribolo to lay out the 

 gardens of Castello on a grander scale and adorn them 

 with the splendid fountains, the grottoes, and labyrinths 

 which excited the admiration of Montaigne and Evelyn. 

 The sister villa of Petraja, which stands a mile ofF 

 at the other end of an ilex-wood, originally belonged 

 to the Brunelleschi and Strozzi families, and still 

 retains its ancient tower, but was confiscated by Cosimo 

 de' Medici after the rebellion of Filippo Strozzi, and 

 became this prince's favourite residence. Another 

 house which, with its strong walls and towers, bears a 

 marked resemblance to Careggi, is Villa Salviati. It 

 was the residence of this family for three hundred and 

 fifty years, and the lovely terraced gardens looking 

 towards Fiesole were laid out by Jacopo Salviati, the 

 son-in-law of Lorenzo de' Medici, whose daughter 

 Maria married Giovanni delle bande Nere y and became 

 the mother of the first Tuscan Grand Duke. 



Another kinsman of the Medici, Giovanni Rucellai, 

 22 



