Lorenzo the Magnificent desired to have a large hall, vaulted with one arch of huge span in his villa, so Giuliano da San Gallo constructed a room according to Lorenzo’s idea in a house he was building for himself in Florence, and this being a success he carried it out on a large scale at Poggio a Cajano. Vasari writes “There is no doubt this is the largest vault ever seen till now.” Later, by order of Leo X, Andrea del Sarto, Franciabigio and Pontormo decorated the hall with frescoes allegorical of the glories of the Medici. Del Sarto represents the gifts sent by Egypt to Cæsar—metaphorical of the presents given by the Sultan to Lorenzo; Franciabigio, under the guise of Cicero returning from exile, illustrates the return of Cosimo de’ Medici to Florence in 1434; Pontormo, in the banquet given by Syphax to Scipio, figures the one given by the King of Naples to Lorenzo; while Titus Flaminius, rejecting the ambassadors of Antiochus (also by Pontormo), is illustrative of Lorenzo defeating the ambitious designs of Venice at the Diet of Cremona. But the finest fresco by far is seldom pointed out by guide book or guide—Pontormo’s exquisite lunette at one end of the hall. I am proud to find my opinion ratified by Mr Berenson, who writes, “Pontormo, who had it in him to be a decorator and portrait painter of the highest rank, was led astray by his awe-struck admiration for Michelangelo, and ended as an academic constructor of monstrous nudes. What he could do when expressing _himself_, we see in the lunette at Poggio a Cajano, as design, as colour, as fancy, the freshest, the gayest, most appropriate mural decoration now remaining in Italy.”[4] The fine external staircase, up and down which horses can easily walk, was the work of Stefano d’Ugolino da Siena, and the frieze is by one of the Della Robbia. Beautiful are the gardens sloping down to the little river Ombrone. Trees and shrubs grow luxuriantly, thanks to the moist soil. The fields are intersected with small canals which in spring are fringed with tall yellow iris, purple loosestrife and feathery meadowsweet, and decked with white water-lilies. In the time of the Medici the whole plain was cultivated with rice, which made it very unhealthy, and it is still feverish. The little streamlet Ambra, flowing into the Ombrone close by, has been more honoured in song than many a larger river. Poliziano writes in his introduction to the study of Homer, “We also, therefore, with glad homage dedicate to him this garland of Pieria’s flowers, which Ambra, loveliest of Cajano’s nymphs, gave to me, culled from meadows on her father’s shore, Ambra, the love of my Lorenzo, whom Umbrone, the horned stream begat—Umbrone, dearest to his master Arno—Umbrone, who now henceforth will never break his banks again.”[5]