DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0296
240
THE LANDSCAPE ANNUAL.
stands. A remnant only of the imperial architect’s
labours is to be seen. In the amplitude of its original
magnificence the villa of Hadrian is said to have extended
three miles in length and one in breadth, comprising,
within its city-like limits, imitations of all the most cele-
brated edifices and scenes in the world. The Lyceum,
and the Academy, the Serapeon of Canopus, and even
a mimic vale of Tempe were found within its borders.
Numerous temples, three theatres, a naumachia and a
hippodrome contributed to the magnificence of the scene.
But the -splendors which formerly adorned the imperial
edifice have been long scattered over Europe. Goths and
pontiffs, antiquarians and masons have plundered, or re •
duced to dust and ruins, those wonders of architecture
and sculpture which the villa of Hadrian once exhibited.
Its site has become a farm, and strangers with difficulty
find a shelter within the ruins which formerly afforded a
luxurious residence to the whole imperial court, and its
numerous bands of guards. The villa of Hadrian, like
that of Maecenas, has given to the classical pencil of
Wilson a subject for one of his most celebrated pictures.
THE LANDSCAPE ANNUAL.
stands. A remnant only of the imperial architect’s
labours is to be seen. In the amplitude of its original
magnificence the villa of Hadrian is said to have extended
three miles in length and one in breadth, comprising,
within its city-like limits, imitations of all the most cele-
brated edifices and scenes in the world. The Lyceum,
and the Academy, the Serapeon of Canopus, and even
a mimic vale of Tempe were found within its borders.
Numerous temples, three theatres, a naumachia and a
hippodrome contributed to the magnificence of the scene.
But the -splendors which formerly adorned the imperial
edifice have been long scattered over Europe. Goths and
pontiffs, antiquarians and masons have plundered, or re •
duced to dust and ruins, those wonders of architecture
and sculpture which the villa of Hadrian once exhibited.
Its site has become a farm, and strangers with difficulty
find a shelter within the ruins which formerly afforded a
luxurious residence to the whole imperial court, and its
numerous bands of guards. The villa of Hadrian, like
that of Maecenas, has given to the classical pencil of
Wilson a subject for one of his most celebrated pictures.