ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



of Tivoli above the rushing waters of the Anio, to be 

 the site of his famous pleasure-house? But already 

 the great age was passing away and the baroque was 

 fast gaining ground. Everywhere during the seven- 

 teenth century we find chateaux d\aux^ water-organs, 

 girandolas, spouting giants, " wetting sports and all 

 those artificial miracles" which were the inevitable 

 features of a Roman garden in the days of our English 

 travellers, Evelyn and Lassels. Such extravagances 

 bore witness to the widespread perversion of taste and 

 general decadence which prevailed on all sides, and 

 could only be redeemed by the beauty of landscape 

 and the luxuriant vegetation which is the glory of 

 Italian gardens. 



But we have travelled a long way from the Bel- 

 vedere courts and Raphael's villa. It is now the 

 saddest, most desolate spot in all Rome, this house 

 which the Cardinal meant to be so gay. The marble 

 statues are gone, those priceless antiques which filled 

 Isabella's soul with wonder. The mighty pillars of 

 the hemicycle are crumbling away, its empty niches 

 are covered with moss and lichen. Hardly a trace 

 remains of the gardens designed by Raphael with such 

 elaborate care. The Nymphaeum is a barren waste. 

 Of all the temples and porticoes which once adorned 

 the grounds only the modest roof of the Palazzina 



may still be seen, half-hidden among the cypresses in 

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