DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0406
The Renaissance in Spain and Portugal
377
wagon-loads arrived from Valencia, and gifts of this sort from princes were very sure of
a welcome. Cardinal Pio of Savoy sent his own gardener Fabrizio from Rome with bulbs
worth 10,000 ducats. There were certain bits on the south that were more like open
country, with meadows and trees, "keeping the simplicity of country life and remarkably
pleasing."
In two matters destined to prove very important in a future development of the
garden, Buen Retiro was the precursor: the custom of making hermitages in the park,
and holding festivities in the actual garden. We have already mentioned the intimate
connection of pleasure with piety in the Spanish nature. Though the severe fanaticism of
the sixteenth century had by this time vanished, perhaps its decay led to more rapid and
immediate changes in festivals and church practices at a court where there was always a
burning desire for something new. From the start Buen Retiro had the monastery close
FIG. 301. BUEN RETIRO, MADRID-JARDIN DE LA REINA
at hand. And as Philip II. had no objection to the monks looking on from the windows of
the Escorial at any shows that he was pleased to give, so it was now the custom for the
Fathers at San Jeronimo to be invited to the parties at Buen Retiro. They knew very
well that their services would be in request at the confessional after these doings. But
the jaded palate did not remain for long satisfied with the older monastic habits, and
little hermitages v/ere now scattered about the park, mostly near the outside. These were
small garden villas, each with its chapel, a turret for the view, a small parterre, a labyrinth,
a grotto, and other invenzioni boscherecci. There was one hermitage to Saint Isidoro, next
to the palace on the north-west, and others to Saint Bruno, Saint Inez, Saint Magdalena
and Saint John the Baptist. The largest was dedicated to Saint Paul (Fig. 303); and in
its garden, adorned with statues, stood a triple Narcissus fountain. The house stands
in a parterre enclosed by trellises. The hermitage farthest towards the south-east was
Saint Anthony's, which was surrounded with moats like a little castle, the outside one
bending in a curious way and connecting with the great canal in the park.
All these were joined to one another and to the main park by avenues; inside they were
supplied with pictures and all kinds of luxury, and in them lived important members of
377
wagon-loads arrived from Valencia, and gifts of this sort from princes were very sure of
a welcome. Cardinal Pio of Savoy sent his own gardener Fabrizio from Rome with bulbs
worth 10,000 ducats. There were certain bits on the south that were more like open
country, with meadows and trees, "keeping the simplicity of country life and remarkably
pleasing."
In two matters destined to prove very important in a future development of the
garden, Buen Retiro was the precursor: the custom of making hermitages in the park,
and holding festivities in the actual garden. We have already mentioned the intimate
connection of pleasure with piety in the Spanish nature. Though the severe fanaticism of
the sixteenth century had by this time vanished, perhaps its decay led to more rapid and
immediate changes in festivals and church practices at a court where there was always a
burning desire for something new. From the start Buen Retiro had the monastery close
FIG. 301. BUEN RETIRO, MADRID-JARDIN DE LA REINA
at hand. And as Philip II. had no objection to the monks looking on from the windows of
the Escorial at any shows that he was pleased to give, so it was now the custom for the
Fathers at San Jeronimo to be invited to the parties at Buen Retiro. They knew very
well that their services would be in request at the confessional after these doings. But
the jaded palate did not remain for long satisfied with the older monastic habits, and
little hermitages v/ere now scattered about the park, mostly near the outside. These were
small garden villas, each with its chapel, a turret for the view, a small parterre, a labyrinth,
a grotto, and other invenzioni boscherecci. There was one hermitage to Saint Isidoro, next
to the palace on the north-west, and others to Saint Bruno, Saint Inez, Saint Magdalena
and Saint John the Baptist. The largest was dedicated to Saint Paul (Fig. 303); and in
its garden, adorned with statues, stood a triple Narcissus fountain. The house stands
in a parterre enclosed by trellises. The hermitage farthest towards the south-east was
Saint Anthony's, which was surrounded with moats like a little castle, the outside one
bending in a curious way and connecting with the great canal in the park.
All these were joined to one another and to the main park by avenues; inside they were
supplied with pictures and all kinds of luxury, and in them lived important members of