VILLA MEDICI, FLORENCE, AND FONT-ALU-ERTA. 
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In 1850 the villa was bought by the Italian statesman Count Pasolini, who left it to his daughter, 
Countess Angelica Rasponi of Ravenna, by whose kind permission these particulars have been 
obtained. 
Of the exterior the most notable feature is the loggia, grand in scale, arched and pilastered 
with banded rustics in the style of Ammanati’s work at the Pitti. Here is the same breadth of 
treatment which marks the earlier Florentine work. The whole villa has a massive simplicity 
of style that is most attractive. In the loggia is a medallion of the school of Della Robbia, show- 
ing the Gondi and Strozzi arms combined. From the loggia runs a gallery, or wide corridor 
dividing the house. From it opens the salone, or great hall, considered to be of the early seven- 
teenth century and to have been obtained by building over the older courtyard. Its vaulted 
ceiling rises higher than the remainder of the house. A balcony runs round this hall on a level 
with the first floor. It is a fine room quite in the later style and somewhat cubical in 
shape. To the left of the hall are the drawing-room and studio of about 1598, with very good 
open joisted timber ceilings and deep frescoed friezes. In the former Maso da S. Friano has 
painted at one end “ The Three Fates weaving the Destiny of Man,” while on the left hand or 
window side he represents the good genius influencing a man in a series of scenes ; and on the 
opposite, better lit wall the more amusing if bad mentor is equally shown at work. The other 
end wall he has appropriately devoted to the portrayal of the Final Judgment. The ceiling is 
divided into four bays by main beams on which the open joists rest. The soffits and the sides 
of the joists as well as the spaces between being decorated in the Early Italian fashion, a singu- 
larly interesting colour effect has been obtained. These deep pictured friezes of Italy found 
their way into England and inspired the decorative treatment of Wolsey’s apartments at Hampton 
Court. The Ducal Palace at Mantua in the older rooms contains many fine examples of the 
Early Renaissance scheme of decoration. 
From the drawing-room a door leads into the studio, or “ Credo ” room, as it has been called 
from the subjects with which an unknown painter of the earlier (1598) epoch has decorated the 
frieze. In the drawing-room on one of the door casings of Pietra Serena, which is a bluish-grey 
sandstone, is cut in fine lettering “ Nic. Gad. Eqi.” The cross of the Gaddi is to be seen on the 
fine masonry of the fireplace opening, and also on the north entrance doorway of the villa. On 
the other or north side of the hall are the dining and other rooms which have the original fifteenth 
century vaulted ceilings resting on corbel caps of grey stone. 
The great staircase on the opposite side of the gallery to the Salone is on the open plan, 
and is no doubt of the same date. It has a lantern light over it planned as an irregular octagon. 
Naturally it is the earlier work of the Gaddi at Fonte-all’-ErCa that claims attention, and 
a sense of regret arises in the mind of the visitor that the original architect was unable to finish 
the villa as a complete design. For all that, however, the later additions are by no means lacking 
in value, since they deepen the interest of the house for those who feel the historic charm of the 
built records of the past. A. T. B. 
