ITALIAN VILLAS 
destroyed, and the bosco above the villa has been cut 
down and replaced by bare grass-banks dotted with 
shrubs. 
The Villa Pia has been thus minutely described, first, 
because it is seldom accessible, and consequently little 
known; but chiefly because it is virtually not a dwelling- 
house, but a garden-house, and thus forms a part of the 
actual composition of the garden. As such it stands 
alone in Italian architecture, and Burckhardt, who notes 
how well its lavish ornament is suited to a little pleasure- 
pavilion in a garden, is right in describing it as the 
“ most perfect retreat imaginable for a midsummer after- 
noon.” 
The outer gardens of the Vatican, in a corner of which 
the Villa Pia lies, were probably laid out by Antonio da 
Sangallo the Younger, who died in 1546; and though 
much disfigured, they still show traces of their original 
plan. The sunny sheltered terrace, espaliered with 
lemons, is a good example of the “walk for the cold 
season ” for which Italian garden-architects always pro- 
vided ; and the large sunken flower-garden surrounded 
by hanging woods is one of the earliest instances of this 
effective treatment of the giardino segreto. In fact, the 
Vatican may have suggested many features of the later 
Renaissance garden, with its wide-spread plan which 
gradually came to include the park. 
The seventeenth century saw the development of this 
extended plan, but saw also the decline of the architec- 
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