The Villa of Pratolino, located approximately six miles north of Florence, was built in the second half of the sixteenth century by the Grand Duke Francesco I de’Medici. Among the various gardens, fountains, paths, grottoes, and ponds that were planned to adorn the extensive grounds of the Villa was a tree house, also known as the Fountain of the Oak. The tree house was composed of two staircases that spiraled around the trunk of a great oak tree and culminated in a platform that offered places to sit and views of Florence and the Arno River. Unfortunately the tree was damaged in a storm in the seventeenth century and had to be torn down, but Stefano Della Bella’s etching provides a record of its magnificent appearance.