VILLA MADAMA, FARNESIAN GARDENS AND VILLA PAPA GIULIO. 45 
The Villa Madama will best be understood by reading into it much that afterwards followed. 
A circular court was to form the centre of the plan, to which the existing loggia appears as 
merely a side entrance. This of itself reveals the vast scale of the entire design. We should, 
therefore, imagine the leading features of Caprarola, Palazzo del Te, Alondragone, Villa d Este 
and other subsequent examples to be anticipated here. Carried out as they would have been 
in the detail of the best period and with the decorations of Raphael’s school, this Villa 
Madama would thus have been a unique masterpiece. Time and damp have so damaged the 
interior of the existing loggia that the only illustrations available are not clear enough to do 
justice to the work. The circle of Raphael’s students in Rome, the artists and architects who 
formed that most brilliant school, was broken up by the sack of Rome in 1527. All must have 
participated in the discussions that this villa scheme called forth, so that the Villa .Madama, 
56. — SECTION OF THE FARNESI.VN GARDENS ON THE PALATINE. 
though not carried very far itself, led up to much that was subsequently effected. like Inigo 
Jones’s Palace at Whitehall, the scheme of the Villa Madama remains as a source of inspiration 
and an architectural ideal. 
The loss of the Farnesian Gardens is part of the price paid for our present knowledge 
of the vast palaces of the Caesars on the Palatine. The drawings reproduced from Percier 
and Fontaine’s invaluable record show what an interesting scheme were these Farnesian 
Gardens on the Palatine. Seen by every visitor to Rome, they were among the best known 
examples of Italian gardening, and their influence was correspondingly widespread. For 
this reason these gardens have particularly been included in the present book. It will be 
seen that the scheme presents many analogies with the ascent to the casino in the gardens of 
(1) Kiitrance I'roin the Canipo \'accino. 
{2) \'cstibulc. 
(3) Semicircular couvt. 
(4) Stairway up to grotto. 
(5, 0) C.rottocs under ground. 
(7) Stairways to terrace over grottoes. 
(8) Stairways to level oi pavilions. 
(y) Grand fountain. 
[See plini on page 4.1.) 
(10) Pavilions. 
(ir) Plantations. 
(12) Sloping ways. 
(13) Terrace. 
