DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68272#0387
THE GARDENS OF ITALY.
369
CHAPTER XXXII.
GENOESE GARDENS AND VILLAS: INTRODUCTORY.
HE architecture of Genoa, owing to its special character, is of great interest to the
modern world. As an outcome of successful commerce and prompted by a love of
display, it possesses many of the drawbacks that are apt to accompany the rapid
growth of wealth in a community where art is liable to be under a relaxed control in
the element of selective taste. The redeeming element in Genoa may, perhaps, be found to
reside in an adequate scale—that quality of monumental dignity which counteracts the destruc-
tive poison of meanness and vulgarity. The streets of old Genoa may thus have a lesson for
the great modern cities. Alike in lay-out and in individual mass there is ample evidence of strong
character. The merchant princes of Genoa carried the same feeling that leavened their
palace architecture into
the design of the great
villas that lay outside,
or just within, the ring
of fortifications. These
latter, now obsolete, have
been superseded by iso-
lated forts that crown
the lofty hills surrounding
the town, and the old
villas are either absorbed
into the city or are now
surrounded by growing
residential or industrial
suburbs. This change
in their setting must be
constantly borne in mind.
The Villa Cambiaso
is, probably, one hundred
feet square, while the
Villa Paradiso is a great
oblong whose least
dimension is perhaps
about the same. With
three storeys and a half-
basement these palaces
have adequate size to
produce a striking effect
by reason of their mass.
When we add to this all
the advantages derived
from their position on the
hillsides, with successive
terraces nobly embanked
388.—FOUNTAIN IN THE CORTILE OF THE PALAZZO PODESTA
AT GENOA,
369
CHAPTER XXXII.
GENOESE GARDENS AND VILLAS: INTRODUCTORY.
HE architecture of Genoa, owing to its special character, is of great interest to the
modern world. As an outcome of successful commerce and prompted by a love of
display, it possesses many of the drawbacks that are apt to accompany the rapid
growth of wealth in a community where art is liable to be under a relaxed control in
the element of selective taste. The redeeming element in Genoa may, perhaps, be found to
reside in an adequate scale—that quality of monumental dignity which counteracts the destruc-
tive poison of meanness and vulgarity. The streets of old Genoa may thus have a lesson for
the great modern cities. Alike in lay-out and in individual mass there is ample evidence of strong
character. The merchant princes of Genoa carried the same feeling that leavened their
palace architecture into
the design of the great
villas that lay outside,
or just within, the ring
of fortifications. These
latter, now obsolete, have
been superseded by iso-
lated forts that crown
the lofty hills surrounding
the town, and the old
villas are either absorbed
into the city or are now
surrounded by growing
residential or industrial
suburbs. This change
in their setting must be
constantly borne in mind.
The Villa Cambiaso
is, probably, one hundred
feet square, while the
Villa Paradiso is a great
oblong whose least
dimension is perhaps
about the same. With
three storeys and a half-
basement these palaces
have adequate size to
produce a striking effect
by reason of their mass.
When we add to this all
the advantages derived
from their position on the
hillsides, with successive
terraces nobly embanked
388.—FOUNTAIN IN THE CORTILE OF THE PALAZZO PODESTA
AT GENOA,