30 



THE ART OF GARDEN DESIGN IN ITALY 



One of the greatest among the villa architects of the sixteenth century was Vignola. His 

 masterpiece is the palace of Caprarola, near Viterbo, standing backed by a chestnut wood, looking 

 down from its high platform upon the roofs of the little town clustered below. The palace was 

 built for the Farnese family. It is approached by a magnificent stairway, and surrounded by a 

 moat. The plan is in the form of a pentagon, enclosing a circular court ; each of the five sides 

 measures 130 feet and the circular court is 65 feet in diameter. According to Fergusson, the object 

 of adopting the form here used was to give it a fortified or castellated appearance, as most citadels 



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of that age were pentagons, and this palace is accordingly furnished with small sham bastions at 

 each angle, which are supposed to suggest the idea of defensibility. 



Besides Caprarola, Vignola built the Villa di Papa Giulio outside the Porta Romana at 

 Rome, and transformed the Palatine slopes into the sumptuous Farnese gardens. The Villa Lante 

 at Bagnaia is also believed to have been designed by him. 



The garden scheme at Caprarola was a stupendous undertaking. Round four angles of the 

 five-sided palace stretches a broad raised walk, whence one looks sheer down into the moat far below. 

 Two of the sides of the pentagon were occupied by quadrangular gardens, joined together by a 



