Italian villas and their gardens; . atment of its extensivegrounds, show the complete triumph of the baroque. The grounds of the Villa Borghese, which include apark of several hundred acres, were laid out by Dome-nico Savino and Girolamo Rainaldi, while its water-works are due to Giovanni Fontana, whose name isassociated with the great jeux deatix of the villas atFrascati. Faldas plan shows that the grounds aboutthe house have been little changed. At each end of thevilla is the oblong secret garden, not sunken but walled ;in front an entrance-court, at the back an open spaceenclosed in a wall
Italian villas and their gardens; . atment of its extensivegrounds, show the complete triumph of the baroque. The grounds of the Villa Borghese, which include apark of several hundred acres, were laid out by Dome-nico Savino and Girolamo Rainaldi, while its water-works are due to Giovanni Fontana, whose name isassociated with the great jeux deatix of the villas atFrascati. Faldas plan shows that the grounds aboutthe house have been little changed. At each end of thevilla is the oblong secret garden, not sunken but walled ;in front an entrance-court, at the back an open spaceenclosed in a wall of clipped ilexes against which statueswere set, and containing a central fountain. Beyond theleft-hand walled garden are various dependencies, in-cluding an aviary. These little buildings, boldly baroquein style, surcharged with stucco ornament, and not with-out a certain Flemish heaviness of touch, have yet thatgaiety, that imprevii, which was becoming the distin-guishing note of Roman garden-architecture. On a 107 ITALIAN VILLAS. larger scale they would be oppressive; but as meregarden-houses, with their leafy background, and thepicturesque adjuncts of high walls, wrought-iron gates,vases and statues, they have an undeniable charm. The plan of the Borghese park has been the subjectof much discussion. Faldas print shows only the vicinity of the villa, andit has never been decid-ed when the outlyinggrounds were laid outand how much they havebeen modified. At pres-ent the park, with itsromantic groves of um-brella-pine, its ilex ave-nues, lake and amphitheatre, its sham ruins and littlebuildings scattered on irregular grassy knolls, has theappearance of 2,jardin anglais\2\d out at the end of theeighteenth century. Herr Tuckermann, persuaded thatthis park is the work of Giovanni Fontana, sees in himthe originator of the sentimental English and Ger-man landscape-gardens, with their hermitages, mauso-leums and temples of Friendship ; but Percier and Fon-taine, from whose plan of t
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