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ITALIAN VILLAS AND THEIR GARDENS


[Illustration: VILLA CAMPI, NEAR FLORENCE]


ITALIAN VILLAS AND THEIR GARDENS

by

EDITH WHARTON

Illustrated with Pictures by Maxfield Parrish
and by Photographs







[Illustration]

New York
The Century Co.
1905

Copyright, 1903, 1904, by
THE CENTURY CO.

Published November, 1904

The De Vinne Press





                                   TO

                               VERNON LEE

   WHO, BETTER THAN ANY ONE ELSE, HAS UNDERSTOOD AND INTERPRETED THE
                         GARDEN-MAGIC OF ITALY




                                CONTENTS


                                                     PAGE
               INTRODUCTION                             5


                                   I

               FLORENTINE VILLAS                       19


                                   II

               SIENESE VILLAS                          63


                                  III

               ROMAN VILLAS                            81


                                   IV

               VILLAS NEAR ROME

                               I CAPRAROLA AND LANTE  127
                              II VILLA D’ESTE         139
                             III FRASCATI             148


                                   V

               GENOESE VILLAS                         173


                                   VI

               LOMBARD VILLAS                         197


                                  VII

               VILLAS OF VENETIA                      231




                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                                    PAGE

 Villa Campi, near Florence                               _Frontispiece_

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 The Reservoir, Villa Falconieri, Frascati                             4

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 The Cascade, Villa Torlonia, Frascati                                 9

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Fountain of Venus, Villa Petraja, Florence                           18

 From a Photograph.

 Villa Gamberaia at Settignano, near Florence                         20

 Drawn by C. A. Vanderhoof, from a Photograph.

 Boboli Garden, Florence                                              24

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Entrance to Upper Garden, Boboli Garden, Florence                    27

 From a Photograph.

 Cypress Alley, Boboli Garden, Florence                               31

 From a Photograph.

 Ilex-walk, Boboli Garden, Florence                                   36

 From a Photograph.

 Villa Gamberaia, near Florence                                       39

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 View of Amphitheatre, Boboli Garden, Florence                        44

 From a Photograph.

 Villa Corsini, Florence                                              49

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Vicobello, Siena                                                     62

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 La Palazzina (Villa Gori), Siena                                     67

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 The Theatre at La Palazzina, Siena                                   73

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 The Dome of St. Peter’s, from the Vatican Gardens                    80

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Entrance to Forecourt, Villa Borghese, Rome                          87

 From a Photograph.

 Grotto, Villa di Papa Giulio, Rome                                   91

 From a Photograph.

 Temple of Æsculapius, Villa Borghese, Rome                           96

 From a Photograph.

 Villa Medici, Rome                                                  100

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Courtyard Gate of the Villa Pia, Vatican Gardens                    102

 Drawn by E. Denison, from a Photograph.

 Villa Pia—In the Gardens of the Vatican                             105

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Gateway of the Villa Borghese                                       108

 Drawn by E. Denison, from a Photograph.

 Villa Chigi, Rome                                                   111

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Parterres on Terrace, Villa Belrespiro (Pamphily-Doria),            116
   Rome

 From a Photograph.

 View from Lower Garden, Villa Belrespiro                            121
   (Pamphily-Doria), Rome

 From a Photograph.

 Villa d’Este, Tivoli                                                126

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Villa Caprarola                                                     129

 From a retouched Photograph.

 The Casino, Villa Farnese, Caprarola                                133

 From a Photograph.

 Villa Lante, Bagnaia                                                138

 From a Photograph.

 The Pool, Villa d’Este, Tivoli                                      141

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Villa Lante, Bagnaia                                                146

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Cascade and Rotunda, Villa Aldobrandini, Frascati                   149

 From a Photograph.

 Garden of Villa Lancellotti, Frascati                               153

 From a Photograph.

 Casino, Villa Falconieri, Frascati                                  157

 From a Photograph.

 The Entrance, Villa Falconieri, Frascati                            161

 From a Photograph.

 Villa Lancellotti, Frascati                                         165

 From a Photograph.

 Villa Scassi, Genoa                                                 172

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 A Garden-niche, Villa Scassi, Genoa                                 181

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Villa Cicogna, Bisuschio                                            196

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Villa Isola Bella, Lake Maggiore                                    203

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 In the Gardens of Isola Bella, Lake Maggiore                        210

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Villa Cicogna, from the Terrace above the House                     216

 From a Photograph.

 Villa Pliniana, Lake Como                                           221

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Iron Gates of the Villa Alario (now Visconti di                     224
   Saliceto)

 Drawn by E. Denison, from a Photograph.

 Railing of the Villa Alario                                         225

 Drawn by Malcolm Fraser, from a Photograph.

 Gateway of the Botanic Garden, Padua                                230

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 View at Val San Zibio, near Battaglia                               235

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Plan of the Botanic Garden, Padua                                   239

 Drawn by E. Denison, from Sketch by the Author.

 Val San Zibio, near Battaglia                                       241

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.

 Gateway, Villa Pisani, Strà                                         244

 Drawn by E. Denison, from a Photograph.

 Villa Valmarana, Vicenza                                            247

 Drawn by Maxfield Parrish.




                    ITALIAN VILLAS AND THEIR GARDENS


[Illustration: THE RESERVOIR, VILLA FALCONIERI, FRASCATI]




                    ITALIAN VILLAS AND THEIR GARDENS




                              INTRODUCTION

                          ITALIAN GARDEN-MAGIC


Though it is an exaggeration to say that there are no flowers in Italian
gardens, yet to enjoy and appreciate the Italian garden-craft one must
always bear in mind that it is independent of floriculture.

The Italian garden does not exist for its flowers; its flowers exist for
it: they are a late and infrequent adjunct to its beauties, a
parenthetical grace counting only as one more touch in the general
effect of enchantment. This is no doubt partly explained by the
difficulty of cultivating any but spring flowers in so hot and dry a
climate, and the result has been a wonderful development of the more
permanent effects to be obtained from the three other factors in
garden-composition—marble, water and perennial verdure—and the
achievement, by their skilful blending, of a charm independent of the
seasons.

It is hard to explain to the modern garden-lover, whose whole conception
of the charm of gardens is formed of successive pictures of
flower-loveliness, how this effect of enchantment can be produced by
anything so dull and monotonous as a mere combination of clipped green
and stonework.

The traveller returning from Italy, with his eyes and imagination full
of the ineffable Italian garden-magic, knows vaguely that the
enchantment exists; that he has been under its spell, and that it is
more potent, more enduring, more intoxicating to every sense than the
most elaborate and glowing effects of modern horticulture; but he may
not have found the key to the mystery. Is it because the sky is bluer,
because the vegetation is more luxuriant? Our midsummer skies are almost
as deep, our foliage is as rich, and perhaps more varied; there are,
indeed, not a few resemblances between the North American summer climate
and that of Italy in spring and autumn.

Some of those who have fallen under the spell are inclined to ascribe
the Italian garden-magic to the effect of time; but, wonder-working as
this undoubtedly is, it leaves many beauties unaccounted for. To seek
the answer one must go deeper: the garden must be studied in relation to
the house, and both in relation to the landscape. The garden of the
Middle Ages, the garden one sees in old missal illuminations and in
early woodcuts, was a mere patch of ground within the castle precincts,
where “simples” were grown around a central wellhead and fruit was
espaliered against the walls. But in the rapid flowering of Italian
civilization the castle walls were soon thrown down, and the garden
expanded, taking in the fish-pond, the bowling-green, the rose-arbour
and the clipped walk. The Italian country house, especially in the
centre and the south of Italy, was almost always built on a hillside,
and one day the architect looked forth from the terrace of his villa,
and saw that, in his survey of the garden, the enclosing landscape was
naturally included: the two formed a part of the same composition.

The recognition of this fact was the first step in the development of
the great garden-art of the Renaissance: the next was the architect’s
discovery of the means by which nature and art might be fused in his
picture. He had now three problems to deal with: his garden must be
adapted to the architectural lines of the house it adjoined; it must be
adapted to the requirements of the inmates of the house, in the sense of
providing shady walks, sunny bowling-greens, parterres and orchards, all
conveniently accessible; and lastly it must be adapted to the landscape
around it. At no time and in no country has this triple problem been