ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



over a hundred, and his portrait, painted by El Greco in 

 extreme old age, may be seen in the National Gallery, 

 where it still goes by the name of a " St. James/' He 

 wrote his famous book at the age of eighty-three, and 

 describes in its pages how, owing to careful and temperate 

 habits, he has kept his full powers of body and mind, and 

 can mount a horse without help, and enjoy walking and 

 travelling, and take part in the pleasures of the chase, as 

 if he were still in the prime of life. A wealthy and liberal 

 patron of art, Cornaro had a fine house in Padua, close to 

 the church of II Santo, which he built in 1524, from the 

 designs of the Veronese architect Falconetto. The 

 painters Domenico Campagnolo and Girolamo del Santo, 

 who worked with Titian in the Scuola del Santo close 

 by, were employed to decorate the interior, and, accord- 

 ing to Michieli, the painted ceilings were executed by 

 Domenico Veneziano from the cartoons of Raphael. 

 Unfortunately this once splendid Palazzo has now been 

 entirely rebuilt, and all that remains of Messer Alvise 

 and Falconetto's creation is the elegant garden-house, 

 with its open loggia and charming decorations in white 

 stucco and fresco, in the style of the Vatican Loggie. 

 Besides his town house, Cornaro built two fine villas, 

 the one at Este in the Euganean hills, the other at 

 Codevigo in the plains near the mouth of the Brenta. 

 Their venerable owner attributed the robust health 



which he enjoyed in his old age in great part to his love 

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