Italian villas and their gardens . ns of the villa. Below the housea series of splendid stone terraces lead to a long tapisvert, with an ilex avenue down its centre, whichdescends to the much-admired grille of stone andwrought-iron enclosing the grounds at the foot of thehill. Behind the villa, in a semicircle cut out of thehillside, is Fontanas famous water-theatre, of whichEvelyn gives a picturesque description: Just behindthe Palace . . rises a high hill or mountain all overcladwith tall wood, and so formed by nature as if it hadbeen cut out by art, from the summit of which falls acascade .
Italian villas and their gardens . ns of the villa. Below the housea series of splendid stone terraces lead to a long tapisvert, with an ilex avenue down its centre, whichdescends to the much-admired grille of stone andwrought-iron enclosing the grounds at the foot of thehill. Behind the villa, in a semicircle cut out of thehillside, is Fontanas famous water-theatre, of whichEvelyn gives a picturesque description: Just behindthe Palace . . rises a high hill or mountain all overcladwith tall wood, and so formed by nature as if it hadbeen cut out by art, from the summit of which falls acascade . . precipitating into a large theatre of this is an artificial grot wherein are curiousrocks, hydraulic organs, and all sorts of singing birds,moving and chirping by force of the water, with severalother pageants and surprising inventions. In the centreof one of these rooms rises a copper ball that continuallydances about three feet above the pavement, by virtueof a wind conveyed secretly to a hole beneath it; with. VILLAS NEAR ROME many other devices for wetting the unwary In one of these theatres of water is an Atlasspouting, . . and another monster makes a terribleroaring with a horn ; but, above all, the representationof a storm is most natural, with such fury of rain, windand thunder as one would imagine oneself in someextreme tempest. Atlas and the monster are silent, and the tempest hasceased to roar; but the architecture of the great water-theatre remains intact. It has been much extolled by sogood a critic as Herr Gurlitt, yet compared with Vi-gnolas loggia at Mondragone or the terrace of the OrtiFarnesiani, it is a heavy and uninspired production. Itsuffers also from too great proximity to the villa, andfrom being out of scale with the latters modest eleva-tion : there is a distinct lack of harmony between thetwo facades. But even Evelyn could not say too muchin praise of the glorious descent of the cascade from thehilltop. It was in the gui
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksub, booksubjectarchitecture
