DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0309
28o
History of Garden Art
with a sunk parterre as flower-garden, and a gentle slope in terraces between the two
(Fig. 212). The pavilions are much smaller than those at Lante, and cannot have
entertained a large party. Their small size, with special giardini secreti at the side,
correspond with the pretty and delicate arrangement of the garden. In the main axis
there is a single elegant fountain above the exit-steps of the lowest terrace, from which
broad stairs lead to the wood of olives that clothes the hill. The terrace stairs and climbing
paths were at one time decorated with statues, and the main line was particularly marked
FIG. 2IO. CAPRAROLA-CASINO AND GARDEN BOUNDARY AT THE BACK
out with steps. A perfect picture is produced by these simple means, and probably it
belongs to the sixteenth century. But the noble avenues of cypress, which in regular lines
stand round the cheerful garden on the north side as well as the others, like a dark edging,
may perhaps belong to a time that is important later on, when Italy first felt the French
influence that brought even great parks into the line of the central axis.
This Villa Campi cannot count as one of that proud series of princely houses which
did so much for future development by reason of their actual size and as models of
elaborate art. But the small places show even more plainly what knowledge and cunning
had been acquired, and what a graceful ease; and scarcely ever has purity of style been
better maintained than in this case. Families which have been continually prosperous
and have handed down their houses from generation to generation have been apt to alter
their gardens according to the varying taste of the times; and it needs a careful scrutiny
History of Garden Art
with a sunk parterre as flower-garden, and a gentle slope in terraces between the two
(Fig. 212). The pavilions are much smaller than those at Lante, and cannot have
entertained a large party. Their small size, with special giardini secreti at the side,
correspond with the pretty and delicate arrangement of the garden. In the main axis
there is a single elegant fountain above the exit-steps of the lowest terrace, from which
broad stairs lead to the wood of olives that clothes the hill. The terrace stairs and climbing
paths were at one time decorated with statues, and the main line was particularly marked
FIG. 2IO. CAPRAROLA-CASINO AND GARDEN BOUNDARY AT THE BACK
out with steps. A perfect picture is produced by these simple means, and probably it
belongs to the sixteenth century. But the noble avenues of cypress, which in regular lines
stand round the cheerful garden on the north side as well as the others, like a dark edging,
may perhaps belong to a time that is important later on, when Italy first felt the French
influence that brought even great parks into the line of the central axis.
This Villa Campi cannot count as one of that proud series of princely houses which
did so much for future development by reason of their actual size and as models of
elaborate art. But the small places show even more plainly what knowledge and cunning
had been acquired, and what a graceful ease; and scarcely ever has purity of style been
better maintained than in this case. Families which have been continually prosperous
and have handed down their houses from generation to generation have been apt to alter
their gardens according to the varying taste of the times; and it needs a careful scrutiny