DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0323
294
History of Garden Art
of a picturesque park—indeed it had already partly made this change. Fortunately Duke
Ferdinand had the good taste on his return to restore the old garden as far as possible, in
spite of his fancy for the picturesque style. A great deal may have come to grief by then,
and the statues, so wonderfully extolled for their number and beauty, have almost
entirely vanished.
An important matter now is the plantation. It has been already said that the great
avenue of cypresses must have been planted not earlier than 1640; anyhow the poor draw-
ings we have depict the divisions by this path as indefinable low hedges, possibly belonging
FIG. 225. BOBOLI GARDENS, FLORENCE—VIEW INSIDE THE GROTTO
to a labyrinth. When Evelyn saw the garden a little later, he spoke well of the topiary work
and the pillars by the hedges and also near the fountains, the fish-ponds and the aviaries
of the little wood; also every later visitor likes to say that this garden is green the whole
winter through, because of its laurels and cypresses. It is probable, therefore, that the
thickets at the side are densely planted so as to add a border of dark colouring to the
parts that are architecturally laid out. All flowers are expelled from the chief garden, or
else confined to the pretty beds round the Neptune fountain, or to the land on the Isolotto.
But all the same the Dukes of Florence were wonderful flower-lovers, and it is said of
Cosimo I. that he was not ashamed to plant fruit-trees and flowers with his own hand.
A narrow strip that runs on the north beside the thicket was treated as a special flower-
and fruit-garden, and there to-day we find forcing-houses and kitchen-gardens of every
sort and kind. The aviaries, animals' cages and fish-ponds that travellers speak of will
History of Garden Art
of a picturesque park—indeed it had already partly made this change. Fortunately Duke
Ferdinand had the good taste on his return to restore the old garden as far as possible, in
spite of his fancy for the picturesque style. A great deal may have come to grief by then,
and the statues, so wonderfully extolled for their number and beauty, have almost
entirely vanished.
An important matter now is the plantation. It has been already said that the great
avenue of cypresses must have been planted not earlier than 1640; anyhow the poor draw-
ings we have depict the divisions by this path as indefinable low hedges, possibly belonging
FIG. 225. BOBOLI GARDENS, FLORENCE—VIEW INSIDE THE GROTTO
to a labyrinth. When Evelyn saw the garden a little later, he spoke well of the topiary work
and the pillars by the hedges and also near the fountains, the fish-ponds and the aviaries
of the little wood; also every later visitor likes to say that this garden is green the whole
winter through, because of its laurels and cypresses. It is probable, therefore, that the
thickets at the side are densely planted so as to add a border of dark colouring to the
parts that are architecturally laid out. All flowers are expelled from the chief garden, or
else confined to the pretty beds round the Neptune fountain, or to the land on the Isolotto.
But all the same the Dukes of Florence were wonderful flower-lovers, and it is said of
Cosimo I. that he was not ashamed to plant fruit-trees and flowers with his own hand.
A narrow strip that runs on the north beside the thicket was treated as a special flower-
and fruit-garden, and there to-day we find forcing-houses and kitchen-gardens of every
sort and kind. The aviaries, animals' cages and fish-ponds that travellers speak of will