62 
THE GARDEXS OF ITALY. 
Eastern literature. He was one of the principal patrons of Gian Bologna, the famous French 
sculptor, who worked in Italy. The beautiful bronze Mercury of this artist used to stand in 
the vestibule of the villa. .-\fter a happy and glorious reign this great prince died in Florence 
at the age of fifty-nine years, in 1608. He was one of the best examples of those ecclesiastical 
potentates who headed the movement in favour of arts and letters in the sixteenth century. 
In a work dated 1750, Pietro Rossini gives us a description of the villa, while probably much 
in the same state as it was when Ferdinand died. He tells us of the colossal statue of Rome, 
that statue which, it is supposed, was one of those which the flames spared when Sallust's 
villa was burnt. Passing through all changes and vicissitudes, this emblem has presided over the 
garden as it still does to-day. He speaks of “ fourteen statues representing the story of Niobe ” 
(he means the famous “ Niobe and Her Children.” now in the Pitti Palace). He describes the 
75.- THE SOUTHERN TERR.yCE. 
wood of ilexes through which you ascend to that height on which tradition says once stood the 
Temple of the Sun. The sixty steps are still there, though the fountain constructed bv the Duke 
of Tuscany no longer exists. Of the splendid lions which formerly stood there, but are now’ in 
Florence, one is an antique and one from the hand of Flaminia Vacca. Under the loggia stood 
various statues and the famous Medici vase. The great hall contained a Ganymede, an .■\pollo, two 
Venuses and a table designed by Michael Angelo. Among the pictures were a Titian and two by 
Andrea del Sarto. Another gallery had forty-five antique marbles, busts and statues. Above 
the balcony window' was an alabaster bas-relief of Constantine the Great. Another writer tells 
of an obelisk, a porphyry bath, and reports that the ceilings of the second storey were decorated 
by Sebastian del Piombo. In this chamber to-day are only w'ooden panels, but in others the 
paintings, less precious, of Tempesta and the Zuccari still remain. 
.Annibale Lippi seems to be accepted as the architect. It would seem as though he had 
borrowed some ideas — such as the Ionic capitals of the garden loggia— from Michael .Angelo 
The loggia is upheld by six antique columns, two of granite and four of cipolUno, of such 
