According to Georgina Masson, writing of it in Italian Garden, in 1961, the history of Gamberaia is obscure. An older villa was replaced by the present traditionally classical building in the late sixteenth century, probably including the terrace and the orthodox parterre water gardens. The argument is that this garden as it stands echoes almost every part of human mind: the sensual, the practical, the contemplative, the mystical, the childish and, overall, the ordered grandeur of the individual. Operating through some unrecorded architect or architects whose professionalism was immaculate, the Capponi family were able to create an environment whose ethos was an extension of its own deepest feelings. The unknow architect himself is like a portrait painter who records not only the visible and conscious of his sitter, but also the invisible and subconscious.