The villa suburbana, consisting of house,
garden, and agricultural component,
embodied the ideal of country living as
promoted by Alberti. Visual links from
the garden to the surrounding landscape,
and from the villa to the city,
were important contextual references
from a humanistic perspective.15 Nature
was understood in terms of varying
levels of organization, from uncultivated
to controlled, with emphasis on humans
at the center. A conceptual framework
of the villa acknowledged the close
relationship between wild woods (“fi rst
nature”), orchards or vineyards (“second
nature”), and ornamental fl ower gardens
(“third nature”).16