no THE ART OF GARDEN DESIGN IN ITALY 



full of fine statues, amongst which the Sabines, antique and singularly rare. In the arcade near 

 this stand twenty-four statues of great price, and hard by is a mount planted with cypresses, with 

 a goodly fountain in the middle. Here is also a room balustraded with white marble, covered 

 over with the natural shrubs, ivy, and other perennial greens, divers statues and heads being 

 placed as in niches. At a little distance are those famed statues of Niobe and her family, 

 in all fifteen, as large as the life, of which we have ample mention in Pliny. There is likewise 

 in this garden a fair obelisk, full of hieroglyphics. In going out, the fountain before the 

 front casts water near fifty feet in height, when it is received into a most ample marble 



basin.' 



The casino stands against the hillside, above the Trinita dei Monti, upon a substantial 



stone basement ; with heavily barred windows below a charming architectural composition, 



thoroughly characteristic of ail that was best in the villa architecture of the Cinquecento. It is 



particularly interesting from the fact of its being probably the earliest instance of the use of 



fragments of ancient sculpture as panels and friezes in an architectural elevation. The garden 



facade is a veritable museum of antique ornament, and contains many fine panels that have thus 



been preserved, and do not appear to be much the worse for such treatment. 



The gardens are approached from the piazza by a shady drive ascending to about the 

 level of the first floor of the casino; this part of the grounds is divided into sixteen plots, with 

 ilex-trees, and stone-pines — traversed by hedged alleys leading to ' rond-points,' with marble 

 terms and stone seats, a delightful place for repose. Falda's drawing of the garden, illustrated 

 on Plate 95, clearly shows the original design, which, with the exception of the parterre and 

 the ' Giardino di Fiori e Agrumi,' has been little altered. This garden had been removed when 

 Nolli made his plan of Rome in 1748. The mount still remains, surrounded by its ilex 

 ' boschetto,' and from the belvedere upon its summit a grand view over Rome may be obtained. 

 The mount is rarely to be met with in Italian gardens except in the North, where, the situations 

 being usually more flat, it was necessary to construct such artificial hillocks in order to obtain 

 a view. 



There are few gardens in Italy that can be compared with the Villa Medici, or which 

 exhibit to a greater extent the good taste and simplicity which are so characteristic of the best 

 period of Italian garden-craft. One cannot but feel everywhere a sense of quiet repose, due 

 principally to the fact that no effort has been made to produce the violent contrasts in tree- 

 planting that so often completely destroy the charm of modern gardens. Stone-pine and ilex, 

 myrtle and box trees, with here and there a eucalyptus, give at all seasons of the year a pleasing 

 setting to the architecture, and cool shade during the hottest months. Mounting to the terrace, 

 we have a view across the parterre to the casino, with a peep of the dome of St. Peter's in the 

 distance (see Plate 92). At one end of the terrace is the statue of Meleager, shown on Plate 93, 

 underneath a pediment. The lower part of the figure is of Apollo, which has been restored by 

 the addition of a most beautiful head of Meleager, attributed to the hand of Scopas. 



