THE TIVOLI FALLS, THE VILLA D’ESTE AND HADRIAN’S VILLA. 21 1 
ThermiE, and these ruins are remarkable for the skilful planning and construction of the piers and 
vaults. The great hemicycle at the end of the artificial valley dug out to represent the Egyptian 
pleasure resort at Canopus is a feature of great interest from the constructive point of view. 
One of the most intriguing constructions is a circular court ringed with an internal portico 
surrounding a marble paved canal whose floor still shows the grooves of the turning bridges 
which alone gave access to the central island. This island is said to have been a stage for 
music or theatricals, in which boats floating on the surrounding water might plav a part. 
Certain it is that the island was covered with a “ scenic ” architecture of loggias and porticoes, 
doubtless of marble, and it looks as if the central feature resembled a shrine somewhat on the 
lines of the circular Temple of Baalbec. 
The Crypto Porticus is another singular feature of the ruins. Under a quadrangular 
cloister, as we should call it, is a basement constructed about one-third out of the ground, by 
which means openings are obtained to illuminate the under-cloister walk on one side through 
intersections in its vaulting. Remarkable effects of lighting, an idea which was not lost upon 
the Renaissance architects, as we may see in the case of the Massimi Palace at Rome bv 
Peruzzi, were thus obtained. Probably these under-porticoes were the means by which the 
service of the Imperial Court was carried on without the slaves being too much in evidence. 
We know that there was a vast under-world to the great Roman Thermae by which the public 
was served as unobtrusively as on a modern liner. 
Everyone knows that these villa ruins have given their finest spoil to the great museums of the 
world. They were the quarries whence the Renaissance treasure-seekers, like Gavin Hamilton, 
obtained some of the best works w'hich we possess of both the Greek and Roman sculptors. In 
what estimation did the serious architects and artists of Hadrian’s time hold this Imperial caprice ? 
We suffer under the 
loss of the treatises of 
the trained men, and are 
ignorant of their standard 
of criticism. Many of 
the Imperial ruins were, 
we may w'ell believe, 
works of very secondary 
importance, official art 
that received merely the 
customary applause of 
the crowd. Possibly the 
future may yet unfold 
some literary treasures 
that w'ill place us in 
touch with the greater 
minds of this amazing 
transitional epoch. 
Hadrian’s Villa 
to-day is better excavated 
and more instructive to 
the architect than it was 
221.— THE LONG W'ALL OF THE PECILE, VILLA HADRIANA. 
twenty-five years ago, but we are brought no nearer to the haunting image of the captive Queen 
Zenobia, assigned to reside here by the conquering Aurelian, than when the long, hot afternoon 
could be passed amid thickets that veiled these mighty fragments with deep shades. The 
impression then was of a garden whose delightful charm, at once old and new, was reviving 
once again with the returning foliage of early summer and was animated once more by 
the thrilling voice of the nightingale. It was then a spot in which Rome, with its myriad 
interests and teeming activity, could be completely forgotten, and even the modern mind find 
rest in the contemplation of that past greatness which has never w'holly lost the secret power of 
renewal. A. T. B. 
