HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 
37 
sparkling fountains form a most cool and pleasing picture, whilst the great fountains terminate 
every vista with canopies supported by graceful figures of young men crowned with baskets of 
flowers, and cupids running riot amidst garlands of fruit and flowers. 
About 1640 Isola Bella, on Lake Maggiore, was commenced, and the great works continued 
for more than thirty years under the direction of Count Carlo Borromeo. Already we can begin 
to detect a falling off in the architectural detail and a straining after effect. Though the con¬ 
ception of Isola Bella is undoubtedly good, its detail is often coarse and lacks the refinement we 
find in so many of the earlier gardens round Florence. 
The Villa Belrespiro or Pamphilj on the Janiculum Hill, Rome, and the Villa Sauli in the 
same city were both laid out by Alessandro Algardi about 1640, a Bolognese architect, also 
distinguished as an engraver and sculptor. In 1648 the Villa Falconieri at Frascati was 
