HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 
33 
with Zucchero’s frescoes, and columns arranged in a masterly way. This court was probably 
originally used as a court of entrance, and as such doubtless had no parterre ; it is also probable 
that the * giardino secreto ’ and kitchen gardens occupied spaces upon either side. One of these 
spaces, which appears to have been the ‘ privy garden,’ contains a restoration of an Etruscan 
temple, for the Villa Papa Giulio is now a museum. The walls on either side of the courtyard 
are lavishly ornamented in delicate relief. A fine open loggia divides the two courtyards, so that 
a vista is obtained through the loggia and beyond to a small square parterre, where a little 
fountain sends up its silvery jet of sparkling water. From the second or further courtyard steps 
descend to the semicircular grotto (illustrated on Plate 2) enclosed within a well-proportioned 
balustrade ; here the murmur of rippling water is never absent from the air, tiny cascades descend 
over rocks of moss and maidenhair, and finally flow into a miniature canal, where gold and silver 
fish dart ceaselessly about. There are few more wholly satisfactory examples of garden architecture 
in Italy than this delightful grotto, and indeed the whole villa is so cleverly planned that it is 
well worthy of the close study that has so often been devoted to it. We can picture the aged 
Pontiff rowing to his villa in state from the Vatican, so infirm that he must needs be everywhere 
transported upon his white mule (the circular stairways are so constructed that it is easy for an 
animal to ascend to the first floor), from day to day inspecting the progress of the works, always 
indulging some new caprice which his architects must at once set themselves to realise. Such a 
villa was well suited to the pleasures of his court. 
In Genoa and the neighbourhood the architect Galeazzo Alessi constructed many villas 
about the middle and latter part of the sixteenth century. Of these creations there are now but 
few remains. The Villa Imperiali, Sampierdarena, still retains much of its original garden, and is 
perhaps the best preserved of his villas. In many of the Genoese villas, the entrance cortile is 
very cleverly treated; especially is this the case where the palace backs on to rising ground, 
and the retaining wall has of necessity to be made decorative. It is always the delight of an 
Italian that the passer-by in the hot street should get a glimpse through the archway of a cool 
green cortile with perhaps a fountain jet or water flowing from a mossy grotto, and the idea is 
a very charming one, and capable of much diverse treatment. At Bologna the effect of perspective 
is so real in one of the smaller palaces that the distance of the rear wall appears far away. At 
the Palazzo Bevilacqua, in the same city, the cortile has an unusual form of fountain, formed of 
a well-head basin and lion, seated above a square pilaster, from whose mouth the water issues. 
About the middle of the sixteenth century the great gardens of the Villa d’ Este [Plate 113] 
were commenced and continued during the whole of the life of Cardinal Ippolito d’ Este, who 
died in 1572. 
At the same the Boboli Gardens at Florence [Plate 29] were being constructed by Ammanati 
and Buontalenti. The Villa Medici at Rome [Plate 90] was commenced about 1550 from the 
designs of Annibale Lippi. In 1560 Pirro Ligorio built the charming little Villa Pia in the gardens 
of the Vatican, which is one of the most delightful examples of garden architecture left in Italy. 
F 
