DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19775#0013
THE GARDENS OF ITALY.
IN this land of an old civilisation, gifted with
so transcendent a share of natural beauty,
the combination of art and nature is, perhaps,
the most fascinating of all its aspects ; and
so well have the men of the past understood how-
to combine the two, that in the villas and gardens
of Italy it is well-nigh impossible to divorce them.
The glades and woodland, the terraces and stone-
work, seem so inevitably to belong to one another,
and each to enhance the others' charm.
The ancient Romans thoroughly understood
villa life, but they differentiated between the villa
rusticana or farm and the villa urbana, a pleasure-
house in the country or on the outskirts of the town.
The pleasure-house, of course, varied with
time. There is a great gap between the villa of
Hadrian, with all its luxury, its gymnasium, its
splendid baths, its lake for mimic fights, its wealth
of statues, its mosaic pavements, and the simple
villa of Scipio Africanus, as described by Seneca,
with dark, narrow baths, its outer walls fortified
with towers, its stone floors and bare walls. That
simplicity passed away in the days of Metellus,
of Lucullus and Cicero. Seneca's descriptions
show us the magnificence and profusion which
obliterated all traces of the simpler life. We read
of the sumptuous refinements, which extended
even to the kennels and the aviary. Pliny the
younger gives us some idea of the kind of villa
that would be possessed by a wealthy Roman.
The first essential was that it should have a
southern exposure. It was generally built with
a body and wings ; a great portico led up to it,
enclosing a garden ; an inner garden or court was
set round with seats and architectural borders ;
galleries or loggie united several dining-halls with
different aspects, so as to ensure being able to have
the sun at different hours and seasons. One hall
was warmed by a calorifere, another was arranged
so as to be fresh and cool through the long, hot
summers. The baths were a little suite, composed
of bathing, heating, and dressing rooms, with a
frigidorium, or cooling apartment. There would
be a subterranean gallery, always cool, even in the
heart of summer, and everywhere, fountains, tumbling
into great basins, cooled the air. On every hand,
the position of the windows was chosen with the
greatest care, so as to have lovely views, looking over
the country or distant mountains, or down into the
gardens. In the gardens were groves of planes and
ilexes, summer-houses, pavilions with couches, marble
seats, more fountains, vast porticoes and terraces.
The farm villa had an outer wall," intended
to keep off robbers and to make it easier to guard
the slaves. The porter's lodge was situated at the
entrance, or the house of the master or steward
(villicus), so that it was easy to overlook all comings
and goings. All the outer court was built round
with workmen's dwellings. There was a vast
common hall, and a large kitchen, where all the
inhabitants of the farm could meet, cook, eat, and
divert themselves.
Burckhardt tells us that, when the Florentines
of the Renaissance revived the classic taste for villas,
they spent so much on their country residences that
their contemporaries looked on them as insane.
Within a radius of twenty miles of the city there
are said to have been twenty thousand estates, with
eight hundred palaces whose walls were built of
cut stone. There were many smaller villas too.
Burckhardt says he loved his own little villa, though
he had but a few fields and an orchard, and a few
rooms where his old mother lived, and where he
often went on horseback to attend to some matter
of the harvest or vineyard with his own hand.
He liked to have good vinegar in the house.
When staying at his villa he was prepared to eat
coarse food, and paid little attention to his dress.
He enjoyed his olives and capers, and kept early
hours. Another writer, who had a villa near Fiesole,
says, of one of his neighbours, " In his villa he
collected his friends. Without the fatigue of com-
pany, without the noise of the chase, they found
solace in the pages of Boethius and St. Jerome,
IN this land of an old civilisation, gifted with
so transcendent a share of natural beauty,
the combination of art and nature is, perhaps,
the most fascinating of all its aspects ; and
so well have the men of the past understood how-
to combine the two, that in the villas and gardens
of Italy it is well-nigh impossible to divorce them.
The glades and woodland, the terraces and stone-
work, seem so inevitably to belong to one another,
and each to enhance the others' charm.
The ancient Romans thoroughly understood
villa life, but they differentiated between the villa
rusticana or farm and the villa urbana, a pleasure-
house in the country or on the outskirts of the town.
The pleasure-house, of course, varied with
time. There is a great gap between the villa of
Hadrian, with all its luxury, its gymnasium, its
splendid baths, its lake for mimic fights, its wealth
of statues, its mosaic pavements, and the simple
villa of Scipio Africanus, as described by Seneca,
with dark, narrow baths, its outer walls fortified
with towers, its stone floors and bare walls. That
simplicity passed away in the days of Metellus,
of Lucullus and Cicero. Seneca's descriptions
show us the magnificence and profusion which
obliterated all traces of the simpler life. We read
of the sumptuous refinements, which extended
even to the kennels and the aviary. Pliny the
younger gives us some idea of the kind of villa
that would be possessed by a wealthy Roman.
The first essential was that it should have a
southern exposure. It was generally built with
a body and wings ; a great portico led up to it,
enclosing a garden ; an inner garden or court was
set round with seats and architectural borders ;
galleries or loggie united several dining-halls with
different aspects, so as to ensure being able to have
the sun at different hours and seasons. One hall
was warmed by a calorifere, another was arranged
so as to be fresh and cool through the long, hot
summers. The baths were a little suite, composed
of bathing, heating, and dressing rooms, with a
frigidorium, or cooling apartment. There would
be a subterranean gallery, always cool, even in the
heart of summer, and everywhere, fountains, tumbling
into great basins, cooled the air. On every hand,
the position of the windows was chosen with the
greatest care, so as to have lovely views, looking over
the country or distant mountains, or down into the
gardens. In the gardens were groves of planes and
ilexes, summer-houses, pavilions with couches, marble
seats, more fountains, vast porticoes and terraces.
The farm villa had an outer wall," intended
to keep off robbers and to make it easier to guard
the slaves. The porter's lodge was situated at the
entrance, or the house of the master or steward
(villicus), so that it was easy to overlook all comings
and goings. All the outer court was built round
with workmen's dwellings. There was a vast
common hall, and a large kitchen, where all the
inhabitants of the farm could meet, cook, eat, and
divert themselves.
Burckhardt tells us that, when the Florentines
of the Renaissance revived the classic taste for villas,
they spent so much on their country residences that
their contemporaries looked on them as insane.
Within a radius of twenty miles of the city there
are said to have been twenty thousand estates, with
eight hundred palaces whose walls were built of
cut stone. There were many smaller villas too.
Burckhardt says he loved his own little villa, though
he had but a few fields and an orchard, and a few
rooms where his old mother lived, and where he
often went on horseback to attend to some matter
of the harvest or vineyard with his own hand.
He liked to have good vinegar in the house.
When staying at his villa he was prepared to eat
coarse food, and paid little attention to his dress.
He enjoyed his olives and capers, and kept early
hours. Another writer, who had a villa near Fiesole,
says, of one of his neighbours, " In his villa he
collected his friends. Without the fatigue of com-
pany, without the noise of the chase, they found
solace in the pages of Boethius and St. Jerome,