DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0259
230
History of Garden Art
the feasts of his predecessor were both impious and hateful. First the theatre, and then
all the rest of the court that contained any heathenish statues, had to be stripped, and
wagon-loads of these made their way to Florence and other towns.
Care was taken by Sixtus V. that the old splendour should never return; for on the
second terrace, that cuts off the lower court on the garden side, he erected the so-called
library crosswise, and so dealt the death-stroke to Bramante's great masterpiece, only twenty-
five years after its completion. The uppermost garden did, to be sure, receive its greatest
glory in the seventeenth century with the pineapple fountain. Paul V. had this sacred
object (from the old basilica where it had stood under a small temple in the atrium)
FIG. 164. VILLA MADAMA, ROME—THE UPPER TERRACE WITH THE POOL GROTTO
moved away from its place to make room for the structure of St. Peter's. The great alcove
in Bramante's garden, at that time still empty, was worthily adorned with it, and the
garden from then onwards has borne the name of Giardino della Pigna. But through this
crossway building the place had become little more than an inside court; and even the
Braccio Nuovo (put up in front of the second terrace in the nineteenth century) could
scarcely do further injury to the cause of art and beauty.
Though Bramante could not accomplish all the different parts of his work, he exer-
cised a far-reaching and lasting influence on future development in gardens. It was
inevitable that rich men in Rome, who were ever more and more responsible for the form
that the new city was to take, should see their model in the Vatican. More than half a century
before, Pope Nicholas had dreamed of setting up a palace so vast that all the cardinals could
live within it. Now they were beginning to build, not only their own town palaces, but also
handsome country houses. Busiest of all were naturally the nephews of the reigning Pope.
History of Garden Art
the feasts of his predecessor were both impious and hateful. First the theatre, and then
all the rest of the court that contained any heathenish statues, had to be stripped, and
wagon-loads of these made their way to Florence and other towns.
Care was taken by Sixtus V. that the old splendour should never return; for on the
second terrace, that cuts off the lower court on the garden side, he erected the so-called
library crosswise, and so dealt the death-stroke to Bramante's great masterpiece, only twenty-
five years after its completion. The uppermost garden did, to be sure, receive its greatest
glory in the seventeenth century with the pineapple fountain. Paul V. had this sacred
object (from the old basilica where it had stood under a small temple in the atrium)
FIG. 164. VILLA MADAMA, ROME—THE UPPER TERRACE WITH THE POOL GROTTO
moved away from its place to make room for the structure of St. Peter's. The great alcove
in Bramante's garden, at that time still empty, was worthily adorned with it, and the
garden from then onwards has borne the name of Giardino della Pigna. But through this
crossway building the place had become little more than an inside court; and even the
Braccio Nuovo (put up in front of the second terrace in the nineteenth century) could
scarcely do further injury to the cause of art and beauty.
Though Bramante could not accomplish all the different parts of his work, he exer-
cised a far-reaching and lasting influence on future development in gardens. It was
inevitable that rich men in Rome, who were ever more and more responsible for the form
that the new city was to take, should see their model in the Vatican. More than half a century
before, Pope Nicholas had dreamed of setting up a palace so vast that all the cardinals could
live within it. Now they were beginning to build, not only their own town palaces, but also
handsome country houses. Busiest of all were naturally the nephews of the reigning Pope.