ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
vedere, together with a sleeping Cleopatra, afterwards 
more correctly named Ariadne. The Laocoon, the 
so-called Venus of Cnidus, and the famous Apollo 
which had belonged to the Pope before his accession, 
were placed in the niches of Bramante’s Cortile, and 
the other statues and sarcophagi were arranged among 
the orange trees, planted at intervals and watered with 
running streams. 
On summer evenings the Pope often supped in the 
cool loggia and played backgammon with Federico 
Gonzaga, or listened to music and recitations. In the 
days of Leo the Tenth these gardens were the scene 
of frequent entertainments. The strains of viols and 
flutes were heard far on into the night, while his 
Holiness, who was passionately fond of music, listened 
with closed eyes and head thrown back, beating time 
with his hand and singing the tune under his breath. - 
Bramante and the goldsmith Caradosso both had 
rooms in the villa in the time of Julius the Second. 
Later on, the sculptor Baccio Bandinelli lived there, 
and was employed by L.eo the Tenth to make a copy 
of the Laocoon for King Francis, who had boldly 
asked his Holiness to make him a present of the 
original marbles. The Florentine master never forgot 
the beauty of the Belvedere grounds; and twenty or 
thirty years afterwards, when he was making a fountain 
for the Grand Duchess Eleonora’s gardens in the Pitti, 
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