rilE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
123 
CHAPTF.R XI. 
VILLA. ALBANI, ROME. 
V ILLA ALBANI differs from other Italian residences in this — that it was built entirely 
with a view to the treasures it was to contain, and that even to-day, curtailed as those 
treasures are, it is impossible to think of it apart from them. The shining marble 
rooms and the long terraces are peopled by a world of marble men and women, 
and they have, and need, no other inhabitants. 
To no one in the eighteenth century does art owe more than to Cardinal Alexander Albani, 
whom his contemporaries called the Great Cardinal. His w'ondrous collection has rendered 
132. — VILLA ALBANI : JUNO .AND JUPITER. 
inestimable service to art and archteology. Since the time of Winckelmann, the distinguished 
German professor, under whose care the villa grew, there has been no student of the antique in 
Italy who has not found here a mine of riches upon which to draw for explanation and illustration. 
No great writer has been able to tell the history of sculpture without at every moment quoting 
from Villa Albani. The successors of the Cardinal enriched the collection with a long list of 
precious paintings and drawings, and before the French bore away many of its possessions there 
were few places in which were gathered together so many examples of incontestable value and, 
moreover, of ascertained history. 
