278 THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
In the villa there is a splendid portrait of Lorenzo the Magnificent by Bronzino ; the figure 
is in crimson, with black hair contrasted with laurel leaves. The background by a stroke of 
artistic perception is a portraval of Florence. The portrait is interesting for the character and 
vigour it displays. There are four mottoes displayed in the hall — Magnanimas, Liberalitas, 
Fortitudo, Vigilancia - doubtless as qualities requisite to the Medici at all times. If the 
house is entered at the ground-floor level a convenient portico hall is met with under the 
arcade, and the lower hall has a curious staircase in pietra serena, apparently of Sangallo’s time, 
bracketed off the walls. This ground floor, or basement, now contains a theatre and other 
rooms. Walking round the house outside, a space of some thirty yards will be found at the 
back, and the enclosure wall be seen to be completed with two back pavilions like those in 
front. In the centre betw'een them is a fine double staircase of twenty-seven steps leading 
down to the park. Lender the landing is the grotto illustrated (Fig. 2S6). It is twenty feet 
290. — GASTELLO — THE GARDEN BEHIND THE VILLA. 
across. There is a pebble mosaic floor and a plain apsidal vault over, with heavy sunk panels 
in the ribs. The park is of some extent, but, being “ English,” calls for no special remark. 
The stable block is on the left of the main enclosure of the villa at a lower level. On the 
opposite side is a garden containing a great lemonaia a hundred yards long. Twenty-six steps 
in a great flight lead down to this garden, but it is nowadays laid out in serpentine paths with 
indiscriminate planting. 
In the troublous times of May, 1527, the Medici retired from Florence to Poggio Cajano 
as a place of refuge. In July, 1539, Cosimo I and Eleonora of Toledo, his bride, spent five 
days here. Their son, Francesco di Medici, twenty-six years later met his bride, Joan of 
.Austria, at this same villa. Joan died in 157S, and in October, 15871 Francesco and his second 
wife, the notorious Bianca Capella, a Venetian, both fell suddenly ill, and died while staying 
here with Cardinal Ferdinando for the seasonal shooting. Naturally poison was freely alleged 
on all sides as the cause of the tragedy. A year later the survivor, who had meanwhile left the 
