DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36839#0070
50 COUNT BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE
completed by his pupils, and was universally pro-
nounced to be the finest and most perfect work of
the kind in existence. At the same time the hall
of Agostino Chigi's villa on the Tiber was adorned
with frescoes of the story of Cupid and Psyche in
a lovely setting of dowers and leaves, and a sumptuous
pleasure-house for Cardinal de' Medici was erected
on the slopes of Monte Mario from Raphaels designs.
Great progress had been made with the excava-
tions of ancient Rome, and the task of preparing a
systematic survey of these classical monuments was
entrusted to the same master. On all sides, as
Castiglione tells us in his own fine Latin poem, there
was much to see and learn.
' Now your eyes once more behold these wonders
of a former age ; the trophies of heroes are once more
known by their right names ; now the marble temples
of the Vatican rise around you, and the golden roofs
of their porticoes glitter in the sun.'
Here, too, as his verses describe, he found again
those companions whose names were renowned
throughout the world—the poets and humanists who
made Leo's age famous for all time. With them
he spent his leisure hours in convivial gatherings,
seasoned by wit and mirth, and beguiled the fierce
heats of the dog-days with music and song in the
shady groves and green fields along the Tiber, in
Angelo Colocci's gardens or Sadoleto's house on the
Quirinal.
Time had brought other changes. Some familiar
faces were missed from these pleasant meetings.
Inghirami, the incomparable Phasdra, was dead, killed
by a fall from his mule, which took fright at a
buffalo-cart one day when he was riding past the Arch
completed by his pupils, and was universally pro-
nounced to be the finest and most perfect work of
the kind in existence. At the same time the hall
of Agostino Chigi's villa on the Tiber was adorned
with frescoes of the story of Cupid and Psyche in
a lovely setting of dowers and leaves, and a sumptuous
pleasure-house for Cardinal de' Medici was erected
on the slopes of Monte Mario from Raphaels designs.
Great progress had been made with the excava-
tions of ancient Rome, and the task of preparing a
systematic survey of these classical monuments was
entrusted to the same master. On all sides, as
Castiglione tells us in his own fine Latin poem, there
was much to see and learn.
' Now your eyes once more behold these wonders
of a former age ; the trophies of heroes are once more
known by their right names ; now the marble temples
of the Vatican rise around you, and the golden roofs
of their porticoes glitter in the sun.'
Here, too, as his verses describe, he found again
those companions whose names were renowned
throughout the world—the poets and humanists who
made Leo's age famous for all time. With them
he spent his leisure hours in convivial gatherings,
seasoned by wit and mirth, and beguiled the fierce
heats of the dog-days with music and song in the
shady groves and green fields along the Tiber, in
Angelo Colocci's gardens or Sadoleto's house on the
Quirinal.
Time had brought other changes. Some familiar
faces were missed from these pleasant meetings.
Inghirami, the incomparable Phasdra, was dead, killed
by a fall from his mule, which took fright at a
buffalo-cart one day when he was riding past the Arch