6 
THE GARDEXS OE ITALY. 
is a fallacy as detrimental as the built up shellwork that outranges the scale of nature. 
The abuse of sculpture by a wild profusion of application has always been fatal to architectural 
effect. The more expressive the art, the greater the need for a curb on false heroics. 
Correggio’s painting of the dome at Parma was not the only instance of a disorder which cuts 
away the very basis of decorative art. It is an aspect of the last phase of Italian garden 
art that cannot be ignored, and some of our illustrations exemplify the points. 
Tivoli in itself provides a great lesson in water treatment. The famous Vesta Temple 
is an architectural recognition or outward sign of a great natural force that has the power 
to captivate and awe the least receptive of mortals. As we descend the great crater 
the increasing force of water, 
as it hastens to lose itself in 
unfathomable depths and secret 
caverns, stuns the imagination. 
The tumult pervades the senses, 
stimulated by a marvellous 
atmospheric freshness, due to 
the vapourised water that also 
causes rocks to clothe them- 
selves in a veil of greenery. 
Everyday notions of life grow 
weak in the presence of the 
living forces of nature, and 
the sense of the abnormal 
weakens to the point where the 
voice of the Svbil becomes 
well-nigh audible. 
Italy, however, has other 
and widely dilTerent aspects. 
There is the interminable 
grandeur of the great plains, 
the Roman Campagna and the 
Lombard fields that stretch to 
the Alpine wall of defence. 
These also had their lessons 
lor the garden architects. The 
long lines of poplars, ribbons 
of green shade that bind the 
cities as points of interest to 
form a connected whole, appear 
reflected in balanced plans that 
convey a sense of scale and 
7.-- BELVEDERE. Order in the garden scheme. 
Canal and embanked river have 
their counterparts, and the regular scheme of vine and olive forms the foreground of many 
an attractive villa. 
The Italian farm links naturally with the house (Figs. ^ and 6). The historic partnership of 
noble owner with actual farmer and the sharing of profits paid in kind profoundly influence 
the disposition and growth of the dwelling. Those vast “ lay-outs ” of the eighteenth century 
Palladians in England, offices and stables, greenhouse and chapel, etc., pressed into service by 
an unsuitable symmetry, are a clumsy perversion of the easy naturalism of the Italian villa-farm, 
where the cart sheds and stables are natural porticoes in extension of the main house, built, if 
you will, in a farmyard. On the road from Venice to Padua bv the Brenta such portico sheds 
can be seen and appreciated in their brick and timber built originals. Margaret Symonds, in her 
Days Spent on a Doge's Farm, gives a graphic account of the life in such a palatial farmhouse. 
