DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19775#0164
THE GARDENS OF ITALY.
school. It is difficult to say which facade of the
palace is the more imposing. Passing behind it, we
find that it confronts a sort of theatre of waterworks,
where nymphs and water-gods recline in grottoes,
and fountains rush from above, though with some-
thing less than the volume of other times. A
good many of the fountains have, indeed, disap-
peared, but what has been lost is more than retrieved
by the beauties which three centuries of time have
added—the mellow tints given to the stonework of
palace and balustrade, the luxuriance of the ilex
woods, and the stately plane trees, which are worthy
descendants of those described by Pliny when he
ascribes their size to their being nourished with
wine.
President de Brosse, in the delightful and witty
letters which describe Rome in the middle of the
eighteenth century, gives an entertaining account of
the rather puerile forms of amusement then in
vogue. After an enthusiastic description of the
Belvedere, as Villa Aldobrandini was then called, he
describes groups of statues, some of which have now
disappeared, a faun and centaur, the nine Muses,
and Apollo, all joining in a concert on musical
instruments played by water. He calls it "deplorable
music." " What can be more chilling than to see
these stone creatures, daubed with colour, making
melancholy music without piping or moving ? "
He and his friends spent an afternoon at Frascati
in getting thoroughly drenched. The fun began at
Mondragone, round the " basin of the polypus,"
so called from leather pipes set round it, which
looked dry and innocent, but on a secret tap being
turned the water swelled into them, and they
gradually turned their showers upon all within
reach. De Brosse and his grave companions
abandoned themselves to the sport of turning them
against one another, with such gusto that they
were soon soaked from head to foot. Having
changed their wet clothes at the inn, they were
presently, after sitting quietly at Villa Aldobrandini,
listening to the doleful strains of the centaur,
without having suspected a hundred little jets of
water concealed in the stonework, which suddenly
spurted upon them. Being thoroughly wet through
again, he says, they gave themselves up to these
games for the rest of the evening, and lie particularly
commends " one excellent little staircase, which as
soon as you go up it, sends out jets of water which
cross from right to left and from top to bottom,
so that there is no escape." At the top of the
stairs they were revenged on the mischievous
comrade who had turned the tap. He tried to
turn a fresh one, hut this was constructed expressly
pour tromper les trompeurs. It turned upon
the farceur, by name Legouz, with astonishing
force, a torrent as thick as his arm, which caught
him full in the middle. " He fled with his
breeches full of water, running out into his shoes."
After this they had to eat their supper in dressing-
gowns, having no more dry clothes ; and having
eaten two or three pounds of nougat, in addition
to a had supper, it is not surprising to hear that
they had a violent nightmare, and we only marvel
that apparently no one died of rheumatism or
inflammation of the lungs.
The fine rooms of the palace were at one time
hung with paintings by Domenichino. executed at
the time he was painting the famous frescoes at
Grotta Ferrata, but as they were suffering from
damp, they were carried off to the Borghese
palace, the Borghese being at that time proprietors
of the villa. The gallery has paintings of the
temptation and fall, the expulsion from the Garden
of Eden, and other Old Testament scenes, by
Cavaliere d'Arpino, a fashionable and mediocre
painter of the day.
When Goethe was staying at Frascati, he was
invited to see Prince Aldobrandini. A German
artist named Kaisermann was just then engaged in
painting the views of Frascati which are still to be
seen on the walls of the grand saloon. Goethe
gave the artist a commission to paint the town and
the panorama beyond, from the terrace, and the
picture still hangs in the room in which the poet
died, at Weimar.
The estates of the Aldobrandini were left to
the Borghese on condition that they should belong
to the second brother, who was to assume the
name. A hundred years ago Don Paolo Borghese,
Prince Aldobrandini, being afraid of the damp,
fitted up a casino in the town of Frascati, which
was furnished with every comfort that his taste
could devise, and here he entertained parties of
friends, including many English travellers of the
day. He did the honours of Tusculum to the Duke
of Gloucester among others, and was very proud
of an English carpet which was the Duke's gift.
Georges Sand wrote with true insight into
the charm of these delicious haunts, with their
fascinating combination of art and nature, aided,
as it already was in her day, by the hand of Time.
The over-artificial air had already vanished. The
water no longer moved the musical instruments
which roused the ire of De Brosse. "They still
bound into marble shells, but the music is that
of Nature, the stucco grottoes are hung with a
ferny tapestry, the moss has laid its velvet upon
staring mosaics, Nature has rebelled, has taken a
forsaken look, we hear a note of ruin and a song
of solitude." Nothing can adequately convey the
charm of the deep woods which lie all around, where
the sacred grove of Diana is believed once to have
flung its shade. Here we come upon a tiny
antique altar, there in the green dusk is a moss-
grown stone seat, the lizards bask in the shafts
of sunlight, the never-ceasing plash of fountains
fills the air, and beyond is the wide sunny terrace,
with its rows of huge vases and one or two giant
pines standing out against the far campagna,
which changes in beauty all through the day, till
the sun sinks in rose and gold into that shining
line of sea beyond Ostia, and a wonderful luminous
pink haze bathes the whole vast plain.
( 154 )
school. It is difficult to say which facade of the
palace is the more imposing. Passing behind it, we
find that it confronts a sort of theatre of waterworks,
where nymphs and water-gods recline in grottoes,
and fountains rush from above, though with some-
thing less than the volume of other times. A
good many of the fountains have, indeed, disap-
peared, but what has been lost is more than retrieved
by the beauties which three centuries of time have
added—the mellow tints given to the stonework of
palace and balustrade, the luxuriance of the ilex
woods, and the stately plane trees, which are worthy
descendants of those described by Pliny when he
ascribes their size to their being nourished with
wine.
President de Brosse, in the delightful and witty
letters which describe Rome in the middle of the
eighteenth century, gives an entertaining account of
the rather puerile forms of amusement then in
vogue. After an enthusiastic description of the
Belvedere, as Villa Aldobrandini was then called, he
describes groups of statues, some of which have now
disappeared, a faun and centaur, the nine Muses,
and Apollo, all joining in a concert on musical
instruments played by water. He calls it "deplorable
music." " What can be more chilling than to see
these stone creatures, daubed with colour, making
melancholy music without piping or moving ? "
He and his friends spent an afternoon at Frascati
in getting thoroughly drenched. The fun began at
Mondragone, round the " basin of the polypus,"
so called from leather pipes set round it, which
looked dry and innocent, but on a secret tap being
turned the water swelled into them, and they
gradually turned their showers upon all within
reach. De Brosse and his grave companions
abandoned themselves to the sport of turning them
against one another, with such gusto that they
were soon soaked from head to foot. Having
changed their wet clothes at the inn, they were
presently, after sitting quietly at Villa Aldobrandini,
listening to the doleful strains of the centaur,
without having suspected a hundred little jets of
water concealed in the stonework, which suddenly
spurted upon them. Being thoroughly wet through
again, he says, they gave themselves up to these
games for the rest of the evening, and lie particularly
commends " one excellent little staircase, which as
soon as you go up it, sends out jets of water which
cross from right to left and from top to bottom,
so that there is no escape." At the top of the
stairs they were revenged on the mischievous
comrade who had turned the tap. He tried to
turn a fresh one, hut this was constructed expressly
pour tromper les trompeurs. It turned upon
the farceur, by name Legouz, with astonishing
force, a torrent as thick as his arm, which caught
him full in the middle. " He fled with his
breeches full of water, running out into his shoes."
After this they had to eat their supper in dressing-
gowns, having no more dry clothes ; and having
eaten two or three pounds of nougat, in addition
to a had supper, it is not surprising to hear that
they had a violent nightmare, and we only marvel
that apparently no one died of rheumatism or
inflammation of the lungs.
The fine rooms of the palace were at one time
hung with paintings by Domenichino. executed at
the time he was painting the famous frescoes at
Grotta Ferrata, but as they were suffering from
damp, they were carried off to the Borghese
palace, the Borghese being at that time proprietors
of the villa. The gallery has paintings of the
temptation and fall, the expulsion from the Garden
of Eden, and other Old Testament scenes, by
Cavaliere d'Arpino, a fashionable and mediocre
painter of the day.
When Goethe was staying at Frascati, he was
invited to see Prince Aldobrandini. A German
artist named Kaisermann was just then engaged in
painting the views of Frascati which are still to be
seen on the walls of the grand saloon. Goethe
gave the artist a commission to paint the town and
the panorama beyond, from the terrace, and the
picture still hangs in the room in which the poet
died, at Weimar.
The estates of the Aldobrandini were left to
the Borghese on condition that they should belong
to the second brother, who was to assume the
name. A hundred years ago Don Paolo Borghese,
Prince Aldobrandini, being afraid of the damp,
fitted up a casino in the town of Frascati, which
was furnished with every comfort that his taste
could devise, and here he entertained parties of
friends, including many English travellers of the
day. He did the honours of Tusculum to the Duke
of Gloucester among others, and was very proud
of an English carpet which was the Duke's gift.
Georges Sand wrote with true insight into
the charm of these delicious haunts, with their
fascinating combination of art and nature, aided,
as it already was in her day, by the hand of Time.
The over-artificial air had already vanished. The
water no longer moved the musical instruments
which roused the ire of De Brosse. "They still
bound into marble shells, but the music is that
of Nature, the stucco grottoes are hung with a
ferny tapestry, the moss has laid its velvet upon
staring mosaics, Nature has rebelled, has taken a
forsaken look, we hear a note of ruin and a song
of solitude." Nothing can adequately convey the
charm of the deep woods which lie all around, where
the sacred grove of Diana is believed once to have
flung its shade. Here we come upon a tiny
antique altar, there in the green dusk is a moss-
grown stone seat, the lizards bask in the shafts
of sunlight, the never-ceasing plash of fountains
fills the air, and beyond is the wide sunny terrace,
with its rows of huge vases and one or two giant
pines standing out against the far campagna,
which changes in beauty all through the day, till
the sun sinks in rose and gold into that shining
line of sea beyond Ostia, and a wonderful luminous
pink haze bathes the whole vast plain.
( 154 )