The Italian Renaissance and Baroque

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surpassing antiquity; for from one drawing we get a comprehensive bird's-eye view of the
place. All the villas that exist to-day, though for the most part spoiled and even ruined
so far as gardens are concerned, were then there in all their beauty, but mature enough
to display their utmost charm both in nature and art. The oldest sites belong to the six-
teenth century; but some of them, such as Villa Falconieri (called La Rufina) (Fig. 240)
and the present Villa Lancelotti, were so rebuilt in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries that their present condition really belongs to the latest period, both house and
garden. Thus in all essentials the villas at Frascati belong to the first half of the seven-
teenth century. Here we see, even more markedly than in Roman palaces and gardens, the
pride and magnificence of the Popes' nephews at the time of the Counter-Reformation.
Most of the villas were built during the reign of the Popes, and we ought to realise that
at this period the garden stood next to church architecture as leader of the arts.

The town palaces in Rome were imposing for their size from the very first decades
of the seventeenth century, but they became ever more and more uniform, alike in the
whole and in details. Indeed there is an inexhaustible abundance of detail of the most
various kinds both in the garden itself and in the decoration of the buildings, and the
sculpture of the Baroque period and style grew to what it was in the garden. There is
doubtless in indoor life a certain exaggeration, and also a certain oppressiveness and weari-
ness. But when we get into the open air, and find ourselves allied with that world of nature
which is treated more and more as the beautiful green background of the whole, the art
of picturesque expression no longer offers us what is wearisome or discordant, but brings
to us a feeling of wide spaces and the glowing brilliant colours of an Italian sky.

Among the villas of Frascati, Aldobrandini (Fig. 241) is unquestionably the first,
showing as it does the finest skill of the time in full flower. Taken as a whole, it is the most
beautiful, and has served as a model for many others. It may be regarded as villa urbana
m the ancient meaning of the term. Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, the powerful nephew
of Clement VIII., had a garden or perhaps a villa in the town on the slope of Monte
Cavallo, which is still in existence, though hard pressed by an ever-growing region. This
garden, of no intrinsic importance, became notorious because a copy of a very famous
Greek painting was discovered there, the so-called Aldobrandini Wedding. It was found
m a cellar, and the cardinal had it taken up and placed in the dining-room with a
wooden porch to protect it. There it was seen in 1625 by the Spanish ambassador and
connoisseur, the Duke of Alcala, who had a copy made for his own house, Casa de
Pilato, in Seville.

When, in 1598, the cardinal decided to build a villa at Frascati, he was at the
height of his power. The dukedom of Ferrara had just come into the hands of the Church
as an inheritance from Lucrezia, the sister of the last legitimate duke; and the cardinal
looked on this event as a triumph for the papal chair, as a pledge of peace that he gave
to Christendom, and felt that he could not celebrate it better than by founding the superb
villa at Frascati with part of the wealth that had come to his share. This is explained in
a Latin inscription over the semicircle of the theatre. The likeness of the cardinal in
bronze still stands on the chimney-piece of the banqueting-hall, which runs the whole
width of the building and opens on both facades. His face is short, bearded, with an
expression of great power and energy, but with a benevolent look also.

The cardinal employed Giacomo della Porta, a pupil of Michael Angelo—an architect