Italian Garden

The Italian Garden draws on the design traditions of Renaissance Italy — and the Gould family’s passion for European art and sculpture made this one of the most remarkable private gardens in New Jersey.

At its heart is the Fountain of Apollo, sculpted by John Massey Rhind and turned on for special events. Nearby stands a spectacular wrought-iron eagle and dragon sculpture commissioned by Emperor Wilhelm II and forged by the Armbruster Brothers of Frankfurt for the German pavilion of the Paris Exposition of 1900. Life-size statues of Greek gods and goddesses flank the garden’s main axis, while ornamental urns on marble pedestals add structure and seasonal color.

One of the garden’s most prized features is a non-functioning fountain containing a replica of Andrea del Verrocchio’s Putto with Dolphin — an iconic Renaissance work originally sculpted in the late 1400s for the Medici Villa at Careggi. Two semicircular pergolas with Tuscan columns, marble benches, and classical statuary frame the southern end of the garden.

Most of the trees here are conifers, including Himalayan Pine (Pinus wallichiana), White Pine (Pinus strobus), Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida), Shortleaf Pine (Pinus echinata), Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens), Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus virginiana), Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), Hinoki Falsecypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa), and Moss Cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera). Italian Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) — the first trees of Italian origin — were added to the garden in 1999–2000.

At the north end of the garden is the Casino, its southeast entrance doors adorned with a large-scale sculptural replica of Henri Regnault’s famous 1868 painting Automedon with the Horses of Achilles. The southwest entrance features a sculpture of a charioteer and four horses. Both works were created by the noted Italian sculptor Geremia Grandelis.