ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
to Mantua with the remembrance of Villa Madama fresh 
in his mind, transformed the stables of the Gonzaga 
dukes on the marshes of the Te into another 
splendid pleasure-house, adorned with similar frescoes 
and stucco reliefs. 
Yet another palatial villa in North Italy was clearly 
modelled on the same pattern. This was Cricoli, the 
sumptuous house built by Leo the Tenth and Clement 
the Seventh’s nuncio, the learned patrician Trissino, on 
the green hills near his home at Vicenza. Trissino’s 
keen admiration for antique art led him to a close 
study of Vitruvius, and, fired by the examples of 
Renaissance architecture which he saw in Rome, he 
laid out his villa and gardens with so much taste and 
judgment that, in the words of a contemporary, they 
made the Muses forget Helicon and Parnassus. It is 
interesting to remember that this house at Cricoli, 
which certainly bears a close resemblance to Villa 
Madama, inspired the boy Palladio with his first 
passion for classical building, and started him on the 
career that was to affect the whole future course of 
architecture. So, as Geymiiller has justly remarked, 
Raphael became the link that connects Bramante with 
Palladio, and Roman architecture with that of northern 
cities. 
When, in the latter half of the century, the great 
outburst of gardening took place in Rome, the in- 
98 
