ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
Cassar’s campaigns, and taking a small volume of 
Sallust for reference in his pocket. 1 
As the circle of humanists at his Court grew larger 
these meetings were generally held at Belfiore, under 
the spreading boughs of a laurel tree in the garden 
or else in the sunny rooms which he had built on the 
south side of the house for use in winter, and adorned 
with choice pictures and antique marbles. 
The artists whose works Leonello admired the most 
were those who reproduced natural beauty the most 
closely. The triptych by the Flemish master, Rogier 
van der Weyden, which hung in his cabinet, contained a 
picture of Adam and Eve, in which the hills, meadows, 
and streams of the Garden of Eden were all painted 
“ with marvellous fidelity.” His favourite painter, 
Pisanello, was noted, as Guarino says in his verses, 
for the “ wonderful felicity with which he renders the 
delicate hues of the spring foliage, the sunlit slopes 
of the hills, the birds whose voices fill the air with 
song.” Whole sheets covered with studies of roses 
and grasses by the hand of the Veronese master are 
still preserved in the Louvre and confirm the truth 
of the old humanist’s words. Pisanello’s noble pro¬ 
file of Leonello himself, in the Morelli Gallery at 
Bergamo, has a background of exquisite wild roses, 
while his portrait of the Marquis’s sister, Ginevra, the 
hapless bride of Sigismondo Malatesta, is adorned with 
1 A. Decembrio, Politics Litterarice , i. 3, ii. 30. 
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