ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



Caesar's campaigns, and taking a small volume of 

 Sallust for reference in his pocket. 1 



As the circle of humanists at his Court grew larger 

 these meetings were generally held at Belfiore, under 

 the spreading boughs of a laurel tree in the garden 

 or else in the sunny rooms which he had built on the 

 south side of the house for use in winter, and adorned 

 with choice pictures and antique marbles. 



The artists whose works Leonello admired the most 

 were those who reproduced natural beauty the most 

 closely. The triptych by the Flemish master, Rogier 

 van der Weyden, which hung in his cabinet, contained a 

 picture of Adam and Eve, in which the hills, meadows, 

 and streams of the Garden of Eden were all painted 

 "with marvellous fidelity." His favourite painter, 

 Pisanello, was noted, as Guarino says in his verses, 

 for the " wonderful felicity with which he renders the 

 delicate hues of the spring foliage, the sunlit slopes 

 of the hills, the birds whose voices fill the air with 

 song." Whole sheets covered with studies of roses 

 and grasses by the hand of the Veronese master are 

 still preserved in the Louvre and confirm the truth 

 of the old humanist's words. Pisanello's noble pro- 

 file of Leonello himself, in the Morelli Gallery at 

 Bergamo, has a background of exquisite wild roses, 

 while his portrait of the Marquis's sister, Ginevra, the 

 hapless bride of Sigismondo Malatesta, is adorned with 



1 A. Decembrio, Politics Litterari<z, i. 3, ii. 30. 



34 



