THE TIVOLI FALLS, THE VILLA D’ESTE AND HADRIAN’S VILLA. 209 
of Ferrara. Liszt, the famous musician, was his guest for several summers, and we are 
told how he spent the hours composing and playing, mimicking the Angelus from the 
bells of the town, or varying the music of Chopin in rivalry with the liquid sounds of 
the silvery spray without. Fit successors these of all the poets, painters and philosophers 
who have wandered here. Needless to say, it is a haunt beloved of artists, and several 
well known Roman painters have their studios in Tivoli. 
The frescoes that adorn the long range of rooms in the Villa D’Este are wonderfully well 
preserved, and give an excellent idea of the villa decorations of the late Renaissance. They are by the 
brothers Zuccari, Tempesta, Muziano and Georgio Vasari. The eagle and the lily are introduced 
at every possible point. The scenes are chiefly symbolical. The white eagle looms large among 
the animals saved from the flood, Moses strikes the rock in allusion to the streams that flowed, 
at the will of the Cardinal, the gods banquet overhead in the great dining hall. The labours 
219. — FRAGMENT OF THE GREAT THERMiE, VILLA HADRIANA, TIVOLI. 
of Hercules upon one ceiling are a compliment to the reigning Duke Ercole, the Cardinal’s 
brother. His ow'n cipher, “ Hyp . est . Card . Ferrar.,” runs across the w’all, and 
above. Liberality, Generosity and Immortality suggest his virtues. Servants are painted coming 
in at simulated doors, and on the walls of what was evidently the Cardinal’s bedroom, with a 
closet off it for a secretary or attendant, are shelves painted with a cardinal’s hat and a bishop’s 
mitre. Over the entrance to the dining hall the artist Zuccaro, painted as Mercury, follows 
us everywhere u'ith his eyes. Above the doorway two charming putti. support the arms of the 
Cardinal. T.he end room, the Hall of Sports, is decorated with painted birds and 
hunting scenes. Here tradition says that Tasso wrote his Aminta and read it aloud to a chosen 
circle by the fountain dedicated to the Goddess of Nature at the bottom of the garden. Though 
there is no positive record of Tasso’s presence here, we know that he was secretary to Cardinal 
Luigi d’Este in 1572, the year before the Aminta was represented in Ferrara, and would naturally 
