DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0262
The Italian Renaissance and Baroque
233
The whole scheme, most intelligently thought out, looks like an illustration of what
Alberti asked for—circles and semicircles in the garden—and all the more if one looks
at the building plans. According to the last plan put forward, the central feature was to
be a round court, and the finished half makes the south facade a semicircle. But on the
hillside there ought to be, behind and above, another half-circle of a theatre, overlooking
the court and the whole >JBBBPJMBBI K
of the villa. Around this
middle court there ought
to be rooms attached to
north and south, and gar-
dens stretching in front.
Lastly, belonging to the
complete scheme is the
nymphseum, which was
to be in a fold of the
valley between Monte
Mario and Collina del
Romitorio, extending
from east to west on the
north side of the hippo-
drome.--
There are certain
remains which show that
this part of the garden
was also actually made,
just as Vasari describes it
in his life of Giovanni di
Udine. Raphael had not /^§/
only consulted with his /|y
pupils about the inside /s
decorations of the villa, ^
but he is also the artist
of the elephant grotto, \
wherein he worked in
admitted rivalry, accord-
ing to Vasari, with the
decorations, then just dis- FIG- I^7- villa madama—Raphael's design for the south garden
covered, of the so-called Temple of Neptune, thus gaining great honour (and pay as well)
from the cardinal. " Then," says Vasari, "he made yet another fountain for a country scene
(selvatico) in the depths of a woodland cleft; he skilfully contrived that the water should
trickle in little streams over porous stone, to look perfectly natural, and on the top of the
blocks of stone he set a lion's head with maidenhair fern and various grasses cunningly
woven about it. One would hardly believe how charming this looked in the pleasant
selvatico, which was indescribably lovely in all its details." The cardinal was so enraptured
with this piece that he made the artist a Knight of St. Peter.
233
The whole scheme, most intelligently thought out, looks like an illustration of what
Alberti asked for—circles and semicircles in the garden—and all the more if one looks
at the building plans. According to the last plan put forward, the central feature was to
be a round court, and the finished half makes the south facade a semicircle. But on the
hillside there ought to be, behind and above, another half-circle of a theatre, overlooking
the court and the whole >JBBBPJMBBI K
of the villa. Around this
middle court there ought
to be rooms attached to
north and south, and gar-
dens stretching in front.
Lastly, belonging to the
complete scheme is the
nymphseum, which was
to be in a fold of the
valley between Monte
Mario and Collina del
Romitorio, extending
from east to west on the
north side of the hippo-
drome.--
There are certain
remains which show that
this part of the garden
was also actually made,
just as Vasari describes it
in his life of Giovanni di
Udine. Raphael had not /^§/
only consulted with his /|y
pupils about the inside /s
decorations of the villa, ^
but he is also the artist
of the elephant grotto, \
wherein he worked in
admitted rivalry, accord-
ing to Vasari, with the
decorations, then just dis- FIG- I^7- villa madama—Raphael's design for the south garden
covered, of the so-called Temple of Neptune, thus gaining great honour (and pay as well)
from the cardinal. " Then," says Vasari, "he made yet another fountain for a country scene
(selvatico) in the depths of a woodland cleft; he skilfully contrived that the water should
trickle in little streams over porous stone, to look perfectly natural, and on the top of the
blocks of stone he set a lion's head with maidenhair fern and various grasses cunningly
woven about it. One would hardly believe how charming this looked in the pleasant
selvatico, which was indescribably lovely in all its details." The cardinal was so enraptured
with this piece that he made the artist a Knight of St. Peter.