348 
THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
360. 
ELEVATION OF THE VILLA OF MALCONTENTA, FACING THE 
BRENTA, BETWEEN PADUA AND VENICE. 
.Andrea Palladio. Architecl, 1358, joy y^icolo e Luigi Foscari. Xicoluus el Aloysius 
Poscari jratres I'rederici filii. From O. B. Scamozzi. 
interior must have presented 
a gay scene. There were 
twenty-four horses in each 
stable planned on either side 
of the centre portico. 
The vista does not stop 
abruptly with the stables, but 
passes through an enclosure 
to a small casino beyond. 
This is a characteristic of the 
lay-out, which by gateways 
and clairevoyees seems to 
desire to eliminate all boun- 
daries. The French School 
of Versailles was the model 
in view ; there are designs 
in fresco on the walls of one 
of the rooms upstairs showing 
in the first scheme — which 
was not carried out — an even 
closer following of that 
original. This style of 
gardening is apt to bear the 
relation to the older Italian school of a hotel to a house. The avenue on the right, running 
parallel to the main axis, passes a maze, with a centre circular tower, having a stairway wreathed 
round it, and then runs through a unique hexagonal domed archway. This may be regarded as a 
free development of a triumphal arch, though by its present position it seems to be devised 
merely to reconcile the divergent 
angles of two ranges of subsidiary 
buildings. It may have been 
designed simply as a pavilion djoiir, 
similar to those used in theatrical 
scenery. The avenue ends in a 
square enclosure, planned diagonally 
to the approach, and entered at one 
angle. Surrounded by clipped 
hedges and set with grass plots, 
statues and pedestals for vases, this 
retreat was calculated for the advan- 
tageous display of plants when 
brought out after being housed for 
the winter in the columned 
porticoes of wood, planned on two 
sides of the enclosure. In the 
window frames of these lemonaia 
some lead glazing of the old Venetian 
pattern still remains. 
The Palace inside is like many 
another. It is very well planned, 
with wide corridors, and the central 
position of the great ballroom must 
have been splendid for receptions. 
361.^ — PLAN OF THE VILLA OF MALCONTENTA. Napoleon I bought the Palace in 
Andrea Palladio. Architect. From 0 . B. Scamozci. 1807 for Eugene Beauharnais, 
