ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



indispensable to perfect enjoyment. A fountain, as 

 Crescenzi writes, is necessary to the smallest garden. 

 Michelozzo and his brother architects built aqueducts 

 and brought water from the Arno and Mugnone to 

 supply the fountains of the Medici villas, and the 

 best sculptors of the day, from Verrocchio to Tribolo, 

 lavished their skill and ingenuity on the bronze and 

 marble putti and colossal figures which adorned them. 

 Statues, again, were a decorative element of which 

 the Florentine garden-architect made extensive use. 

 At first a few antique busts were placed along the 

 parapet of the terrace or under the central loggia. 

 But, ere long, Greek gods and heroes, fauns and 

 naiads were seen at the end of every alley, while 

 giants and caryatides were introduced to support walls 

 and porticoes. 



One great charm of Renaissance gardens was the 

 skilful manner in which Nature and Art were blended 

 together. The formal design of the giardino segreto 

 agreed with the straight lines of the house, and the 

 walls, with their clipped hedges, led on to the wilder, 

 freer growth of woodland and meadow, while the 

 dense shade of the bosco supplied an effective contrast 

 to the sunny spaces of lawn and flower-bed. The 

 ancient practice of cutting box-trees into fantastic 

 shapes, known to the Romans as the topiary art, 



was largely restored in the fifteenth century and 

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