TREASURES OF ITALY AND UNESCO
Paestum and Velia and the Certosa di Padula Historic Centre of Urbino Archaeological Areas and the Patriarchal Basilica of Aquileia Villa Adriana (Tivoli) Aeolian Islands Assisi, the Basilica of San Francesco and other Franciscan Sites City of Verona Villa d’Este (Tivoli) Late Baroque towns of the Val di Noto Monte San Giorgio Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia Val d’Orcia Syracuse and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli Mantua and Sabbioneta Rhaetian Railway in the Albula/Bernina Landscapes The Dolomites The Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power (568-774 A.D.) Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany Mount Etna Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato Arab-NormanPalermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale
VILLA D’ESTE · TIVOLI
Rock Drawings in Valcamonica Church and Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie with “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci Historic Centre of Florence Venice and its Lagoon Piazza del Duomo, Pisa Historic Centre of San Gimignano The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian Churches of Matera City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto Historic Centre of Siena Historic Centre of Naples Crespi d’Adda Ferrara, City of the Renaissance and its Po Delta Castel del Monte The Trulli of Alberobello Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna Historic Centre of the city of Pienza 18th Century Royal Palace at Caserta with the Park, the Aqueduct of Vanvitelli and the San Leucio Complex Residences of the Royal House of Savoy Botanical Garden, Padua Portovenere, Cinque Terre and the Islands (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto) Cathedral, Torre Civica and Piazza Grande, Modena Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata Costiera Amalfitana Archaeological Areas of Agrigento Villa Romana del Casale di Piazza Armerina Su Nuraxi di Barumini Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park with the Archeological Sites of
VILLA D’ESTE TIVOLI
TREASURES OF ITALY AND UNESCO
One of UNESCO’s main objectives is identifying, protecting, safeguarding, and transmitting the world’s cultural and natural heritage to future generations. Since the adoption of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1972, to date, UNESCO has recognised 1031 world heritage sites 802 cultural, 197 natural and 32 mixed properties) in 163 countries. Italy is the country with the largest amount of sites included in the World Heritage List and the “Treasures of Italy and UNESCO” collection takes readers on a journey to admire its inimitable treasures of nature, art and architecture.
Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo COMUNE DI TIVOLI
euro 4,90 (i.i.)
TREASURES OF ITALY AND UNESCO
VILLA D’ESTE (TIVOLI)
Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo COMUNE DI TIVOLI
Texts: Marina Cogotti (Mi.BACT, Directorate Villa d'Este)
Editorial coordiantor: Alessandro Avanzino Account: Paola Ciocca Bianchi Editor: Titti Motta Graphics and layout: Gabriella Zanobini Ravazzolo Photos: authorization no. 0000220 del 07/01/2015 Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e Paesaggistici per le province di Roma, Frosinone, Latina, Rieti e Viterbo (photos Manlio Benedetti, Marina Cogotti) Mario D'Angelo, Rome Raimondo Luciani, Tivoli Translation: Langue&Parole, Milan Printed by: Grafiche G7 Sas per Sagep Editori Srl, September 2016
© 2016 Sagep Editori www.sagep.it ISBN 978-88-6373-441-6
UNESCO, founded in Paris on November 1945, is a United Nations organisation which deals with culture, education, sciences, and the arts. With its headquarters in Paris, UNESCO currently has 195 member states. UNESCO has two basic objectives: to promote the dialogue between the cultures of the member states and develop them, and to preserve the cultural and natural heritage of humanity. The former objective is extremely significant in the organisation’s activities, as the body itself was built on the conviction that only constant intercultural dialogue and development of culture, arts, sciences and education systems can encourage cooperation between nations, understanding between populations economic progress, social justice and world peace. UNESCO pursues the latter goal by identifying, protecting, safeguarding and transmitting the world’s cultural and natural assets to future generations. Based on an international treaty (the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage) UNESCO has recognised by now 1031 world heritage sites (802 cultural, 197 natural and 32 mixed properties) in 163 countries. According to the Convention, cultural heritage means a monument, a group of buildings or a site of historical, aesthetic, archaeological, scientific, ethnological or anthropological value. Natural heritage, on the other hand, indicates physical, biological, and geological features, in addition to the habitat of threatened species of animals and plants and areas of outstanding universal value from the aesthetic or scientific point of view. Heritage represents the inheritance of the past that we all benefit from and transmit to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritages are an irreplaceable source of life and inspiration. Unique and diverse places such as the wild stretches of the Serengeti National Park in Eastern Africa, the Pyramids in Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Baroque cathedrals of Latin American make up our World Heritage. It is the universal application that makes the concept of World Heritage truly exceptional. World Heritage Sites belong to the population of the world, beyond the borders where they are located. www.unesco.org
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2001 Villa d’Este enter the World Heritage List
he Villa d’Este in Tivoli, with its palace and garden, is one of the most remarkable and comprehensive illustrations of Renaissance culture at its most refined. Its innovative design along with the architectural components in the garden (fountains, ornamental basins, etc.) make this a unique example of an Italian 16th-century garden. The Villa d’Este, one of the first giardini delle meraviglie, was an early model for the development of European gardens.
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Inscription: 2011 Criterion (I): The Villa d’Este is one of the most outstanding examples of Renaissance culture at its apogee; Criterion (II): the gardens of the Villa d’Este had a profound influence on the development of garden design throughout Europe; Criterion (III): The principles of Renaissance design and aesthetics are illustrated in an exceptional manner by the gardens of the Villa d’Este; Criterion (IV): the gardens of the Villa d’Este are among the earliest and finest of the giardini delle meraviglie and symbolize the flowering of Renaissance culture.
The spectacular water front of the Fountain of Neptune.
6 Villa d’Este One of the most lauded Italian-style gardens due to its extraordinary union of architecture, greenery, and water, Villa d’Este in Tivoli is considered one of the most complete expressions of Renaissance culture. With its creativity and innovation, it is one of the top wonder-gardens which immediately became a model for the development of gardens all over Europe, as seen in the statement of its outstanding value written by UNESCO in entering Villa d’Este to the List of World Heritage Sites in 2001.
É. Dupérac, Original design of the garden, etching from 1573.
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A bit of history herever you lay your gaze, pools spout in all ways and manners and with such splendid artistry that should there be a similar place on earth it is bound to be far inferior…” (a letter from Uberto Foglietta to Flavio Orsino, 1569)
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Construction of the villa began in 1550, with Ippolito II d’Este being appointed governor by Pope Julius III, who was
grateful for the former’s support in his candidacy at the conclave. The villa was constructed from the transformation of the convent annexed to the church of San Francesco, the office of the governor, progressively occupied and expanded by the cardinal to adapt the residence to his rank. The work began slowly due to problems in acquiring the surrounding properties, which led to much conflict with the local community,
and due to the absence of the cardinal, first busy in his position as lieutenant of the Siena Republic on behalf of King Henry II, and then banished from Rome with the accusation of simony by Pope Paul IV for the manoeuvres schemed in the conclaves following the death of Julius III. Following Ippolito’s rehabilitation by Pius IV, construction at Tivoli began once more in 1560 at full speed, occupying
teams of masters in the remodelling of the slope for the terracing of the garden, in the fountains, in the hydraulic supply and distribution system, and in the interior decor. The villa was created according to the design and erudite iconological plan developed by Pirro Ligorio and the humanists of Ippolito’s circle. The development of the symbolic, allegorical, and celebratory themes involved the
Pirro Ligorio, self-portrait.
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Ippolito II d’Este (Ferrara 1509 - Roma 1572) The second-born child of Alfonso I duke of Ferrara and Lucrezia Borgia, the daughter of Pope Alexander VI, Ippolito was destined for an ecclesiastical career right from birth. Appointed archbishop of Milan when he was still just a child, he spent many years at the French court and also thanks to the protection of king Francis I he was appointed cardinal by Paul III in 1539. The accumulation of titles and benefits made him one of the richest cardinals of that era, but he did not succeed in his goal of becoming pope, despite repeated attempts in various conclaves. He was an unstinting protector of artists, intellectuals, and musicians. In Rome, where he went for the conclave of 1549, then obtaining the title of governor of Tivoli from the newly-elected Pope Julius III, he became one of the most brilliant figures of political, artistic, and social life, perpetuating the family tradition inspired by magnificence, in his residence at Monte Giordano and Monte Cavallo (now the Quirinale) in Rome and the villa in Tivoli. The portrait of cardinal Ippolito II d’Este in a detail of the Sala dei Fasti farnesiani at Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola.
A view of the whole villa and the garden.
contribution of all of the elements of the architectural composition, the multiple fountains and water features, the vegetation, the pictorial decoration of the interiors, and the ancient statues. The design by Ligorio, busy researching ancient
villas in the Tivoli area for a long time, is known to us thanks to the etching by Étiénne Dupérac sent to Caterina de’ Medici in 1573, and the contemporary Descrittione (perhaps by Ligorio himself). With the contribution of Tommaso Ghinucci, one of the top hydraulic experts of that era, the Ferraraborn architect Giovanni Alberto Galvani, who coordinated the work, and the construction master Tommaso da Como, the steep terrain of the Valle Gaudente became a garden of fountains in just a few years. It was completely innovative compared to others known at that time. Despite the presence of the Rivellese aqueduct built in 1560, an underground channel was dug four years later to get water directly from the river Aniene, the only supply source capable of meeting the huge hydraulic demands of the garden’s large fountains. In the meantime, during 1565 and 1566, the central rooms of the villa’s lower floor were painted by groups of artists coordinated by Girolamo Muziano and Federico Zuccari. The decoration work was resumed during 1567 to 1569 by teams of stucco artists
and painters led by Girolamo Muziano, Livio Agresti, Cesare Nebbia, and Durante Alberti, who were joined by Matteo Neroni during 1570-71 and Federico Zuccari in 1572. The villa was almost finished when Gregory XIII came to visit it in September 1572. Three months later Ippolito died in Rome, ordering for his remains to be removed to the Tivoli church of San Francesco and that the ownership of the villa be passed to the cardinals of the House of d’Este or, in their absence, the Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals. Ippolito’s nephew Luigi (1538-86) continued the work, commissioning the architect Flaminio Ponzio, who replaced the deceased Galvani. It was only with Alessandro d’Este (1568-1624) that the villa’s ownership was guaranteed to stay with the Este lineage even in the absence of cardinals in the family. The bishop sponsored important construction campaigns, with the architects Gaspare Guerra and Francesco Peperelli, and the fountain engineers Orazio Olivieri, Curzio Donati, and Vincenzo Vincenti, who created new fountains and transformed some
sections of the garden. In 1661, two new fountains were constructed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, commissioned by cardinal Rinaldo I (1618-72), who in 1670 undertook more extended works directed by Mattia de Rossi. Restoration continued during 1672 to 1686 with the duke Francesco II d’Este, to whom Giovanni Francesco Venturini dedicated a series of etchings which remain the most complete iconographic documentation of the garden and fountains in the 17th century phase. The end of the 17th century saw the start of the deterioration of the villa which had been prolonged for almost two centuries. Starting from 1751 the villa was stripped of its last furnishings, sent to Modena, and the garden and fountains were gradually divested of their collection of ancient sculptures, which were dismembered into lots and sold all over Europe. After 1796, with the deposition of the duke Ercole III by the French, ownership was transferred to the Asburgo-d’Este and the abandoned villa was occupied by French troops. Between 1850 and 1896, the Bavarian cardinal Gustav von
Pirro Ligorio (Naples 1513 – Ferrara 1583) From a noble Neapolitan family, Pirro Ligorio started out as a painter in Rome in 1534, before turning his interest towards architecture and antique research. In 1548, he became a member of the congregation of learned persons known as the Virtuosi al Pantheon; the following year he began working for Ippolito d’Este. He painted a lost frieze in Palazzo Orsini of Monte Giordano for him, then immediately getting to work at Tivoli in designing the villa and in the excavations of the land, especially at Villa Adriana. In 1561, Pirro published a map of ancient Rome. His architectural works include the Palazzo Torres Lancellotti in Piazza Navona, the house of Pius IV and the redesign of the courtyard of the panoramic viewpoint in the Vatican, the Palazzina of Pius IV on Via Flaminia. He replaced Michelangelo (1564) as the architect of the Fabric of Saint Peter and, after clearing his name following an accusation of theft, after being fired he decided to abandon Rome to work for Alfonso II d’Este. At Ferrara he built the tomb of Ludovico Ariosto (now lost) and looked after scenic designs, Este family genealogy, and edited the monumental work Forty Books of Antiquity.
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The entrance gateway to the villa, alongside the church of San Francesco.
11 Hohenlohe used the complex. He limited the disrepair and reinstated its international cultural role, with the presence of artists, intellectuals, musicians at the property once more. These included Franz Liszt, who frequented the villa between 1865 and 1885, dedicating the compositions Les jeux d’eau à la Ville d’Este and I Cipressi to it. After the First World War, the property was requisitioned by the Italian State and, starting from 1922, it underwent full restoration coordinated by the honorary conservator Attilio Rossi. New radical works then followed after the Second World War to repair the damage caused by the bombing in 1944. An important restoration campaign began in 2000, under the aegis of the offices of the Ministry which is now in charge of managing the villa and continues the ongoing maintenance works.
Visiting the villa he current entrance in Piazza San Francesco was preferred by Ippolito and his court. Guests, on the other hand, were welcomed at the gate on Via del Colle to enjoy the view of the garden culminating with the façade of the villa on high. From the gate in travertino limestone, dating to the era of cardinal Bernardino Carvajal, the governor of Tivoli up to 1521 (his coat of arms is on the keystone of the arch), you enter into the north-east wing of the house, a former Benedictine convent from the 9th century, transferred by Pope Alexander IV in 1256 to the Franciscans, who transformed and expanded the building. From the entrance hall, decorated with stories from the Old Testament damaged in the bombings in 1944 along with the adjacent rooms hosting the ticket office, you can access the Courtyard, the original cloister of the convent of which few elements remain (the mullioned window on the south-west wall). Along three sides, there is a portico with round arches on narrow Doric columns in travertino, built by Raffaello da Sangallo, who was also
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responsible for the Fountain of Venus, the wonderful nymphaeum placed against the side wall of the church, constructed between 1568 and 1569. The design of the fountain – the only one which still has the original sculptures – recaptures the theme of the triumphal arch, found in other architectures of the villa, here with one sole arch framed by coupled Doric columns. In the central niche, surmounted by a frame with a bust of Constantine (4th century) a Sleeping Venus from Roman times pours water from a vase in the white marble labrum decorated by strigilated bands and lion heads (2nd century). In the background, a precious low relief in stucco illustrates the path of the Rivellese, the river
that fed the villa’s fountains and served domestic uses, through a typical Tivoli landscape, with rocks, houses, and mills. The scene is framed with quince tree branches, with reference to the eleventh labour of Hercules, taking the golden apples from the dragon Ladon in the Garden of the Hesperides, an explicit reference to Ippolito II d’Este and his achievement in creating the garden. The fountain is a preview of various
The garden seen from below, ar the original entry, in the etching by G.F. Venturini, 1691.
The villa courtyard, looking towards the entrance and the wall of the church with the Fountain of Venus.
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The Fountain of Venus.
13 themes found throughout the villa’s entire iconography: the theme of water, the legend of Hercules, and the eleventh labour chosen by Ippolito as his motto and emblem. The courtyard conserves stone artefacts, some of which were laid here by Ippolito himself, such as the sarcophagus placed under the mullioned window on the southwestern side. To the right of the portico opposite the Fountain of Venus (a plaque on the wall commemorates Franz Liszt), you can enter into the Apartment where Ippolito, his nephew Luigi d’Este,
and the archbishop of Siena and close friend of the cardinal, Francesco Bandini Piccolomini, lived. From the Corner Room, where you can watch an introductory video about the Villa, you first enter, to the right, the Room of Landscapes with Hunting Scenes, damaged greatly by the bombings; then, to the left, you can enter two small rooms, both originally decorated with yellow satin; the second room exhibits a small nucleus of paintings by the painter Virginia Tomescu Scrocco (Bucharest 1886 – Tivoli 1950). The adjacent Drawing Room, in a central, privileged position in the layout of the interior spaces, marked the beginning of the cardinal’s apartment. The walls have lost the precious leather decorated in gold and green, the work of the leathergilder Michele di Domenico, but they conserve the fresco decoration of the frieze and the vault divided up by stucco frames. As in the following two rooms, the decoration (1568) was performed by a large team of artists coordinated by Livio Agresti, comprising masters from Lombardy, Tuscany, and Marche, local
stucco artists like Tivolino, and Flemish painters who worked on the landscape scenes. The themes exalt the Virtues, personified by twenty figures (with inscriptions)
alternating along the frieze in medallions remained incomplete, like those in the vault, destined to contain portraits of illustrious men. An imaginative decoration of grotesques alternates
The cardinal’s apartment on the upper floor, the vault of the living room.
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The living room, a detail of the frieze with allegories of the Virtues.
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anthropomorphic figures, atlantes, and river deities on the vault with rich garlands of fruit and flowers. As in the entire villa, the landscapes are inspired by the Tivoli terrain, while the symbols of the Este family (eagles, lilies, pomes) appear constantly. Facing out onto the loggia, there is a first panoramic view out onto the garden, with
an ample visual of the surrounding countryside. The floor, in earthenware tile, features recycled majolica inserts. In the frieze of the following room, the Antechamber, attributed to the same group of artists, sixteen Virtues are portrayed standing. On the vault, decorated by elaborate mixtilinear frames, the painted coat of arms of the cardinal of Ferrara dominates. In the subsequent Bedroom we find the precious wooden coffered ceiling, made in 1569 by the axe master Giovanni da Tivoli, inlayed with gold. In the central coffers, alongside the cardinal’s coat of arms, we can see the achievement and motto of Ippolito: the eagle with the quince tree branches and the motto “ab insomni non custodita dracone” (they were not kept by the vigilant dragon), a verse from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The also allegorical frieze features Virtues, female figures in vivid colours seated to the sides of the oval frames in stucco; the walls were covered with leather shaded in silver and gold, the work of the same artisan who made the leather gilding in the Drawing Room. The frieze of the subsequent Room of the Arts and Trades was painted in tempera
by Emilio Notte during the restoration carried out during the First World War. The representations of the Virtues found in the previous rooms here make way for powerful figures of labourers and craftsmen. Residents of Castel Madama, the birth place of the conservator and promotor of the decoration, were used as models for the figures. The apartment finishes with the Gallery, the only room on this floor that still conserves the original flooring. From here you can admire the Chapel, completed before 1572 by Federico Zuccari and assistants. In this small environment, elaborate illusionistic architecture completely covers the space, divided into sections by Ionic pilasters
framing niches, with monochrome low relief on top and occupied by figures of Prophets and Sibyls which seem to emerge from the background. On the vault, scenes from The Life of the Virgin framed by golden stucco, culminate in
The living room, a detail of the vault with grotesques and a landscape scene inspired by the Tiburtine land.
The cardinal’s apartment, antechamber, a detail of the coat of arms of Ippolito II d’Este painted on the vault.
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17 back under the portico of the cloister, you come to the large staircase which leads down to the lower floor.
The cardinal’s apartment, the bedroom, a detail of the cardinal’s coat of arms in the central lacunar of the wooden coffered ceiling.
The chapel, the vault with The Coronation of the Virgin.
the centre with The Coronation. On the altar, the fresco of the Madonna of Ghiara is a copy of the painting by Giovanni Bianchi (1573) made for the church of the same name in Reggio Emilia. Leaving the Room of the Arts and Trades, you take the corridor to the left and, passing
The “Long channel”, a corridor lit by the basement windows, served the various rooms and was used in summer for “healthy and pleasant walks” (U. Foglietta, 1569), punctuated by the gurgle of the water percolating from small rustic fountains placed at the entrances into the rooms. The first two were made in 1969 by Ludovico De Negri and “Andrea fontaniere”. Two years later, the third was built with stucco caryatids, similar to the fountain in the nearby Room of the Fountain. In this stretch of the long ambulatory, the vault still conserves its covering in rustic mosaics and an arbour covered in flowers and populated by birds, very accurate in the more ancient parts made with tiles of precious recycled marbles. In the last stretch of the long corridor, the windows that now face onto the terrace, in the past enabled people to watch the games of real tennis being played in the courtyard below. Walking back up the staircase, you enter
into the Noble Apartment, a series of fully-frescoed rooms that were used for the private life of the cardinal and his circle for music, poetry, and cultured talks. The decoration develops themes linked to water following an erudite iconological route which starts from some
episodes of the Old Testament, continues with legends about the foundation of the ancient city of Tibur, and ends with a celebration of the cardinal as a second Hercules, for his achievement in constructing the villa, finishing up in the rooms of Glory and
The chapel, the altar.
The lower floor, the “Long channel”, a detail of the vault’s mosaic decoration.
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19 Nobility. The Room of Noah, the first of the apartment, gave access out into the secret garden. On the walls, large painted tapestries frame landscapes animated by rustic buildings, ruins, trees, and views which stretched out to far-off horizons, attributed to the methods of Girolamo Muziano. The artist – already famous at that time – perhaps used the work of the landscape painter Matteo Neroni as a basis. In the vault, decorated with grotesques by a team coordinated by the Tuscan Durante Alberti, appear the personifications of The Four Seasons and the allegories of Prudence and Temperance within mixtilinear frames; at the four corners, the coat of arms of Ippolito is flanked by female herms. In the middle, we see portrayed Noah Securing the Pack of Allegiance with God after the flood, an episode related to God’s dominion over the waters, which implicitly refers to the work constructed by Ippolito (his emblem, a white eagle, is depicted in the foreground). In the adjacent Room of Moses, the vault illustrates the episode of Moses Quenching the Thirst of Jews
Fleeing Egypt making water flow out of rock, again here referencing the work of the cardinal who managed to conduct the waters needed to supply the villa by perforating the caves. By the same group of artists, the walls are painted with a loggia that opens out
onto fantastical landscapes framed by herms. Four monochrome herms on the doors (real and painted) illustrate Stories of Moses. The following Room of Venus contains a nymphaeum originally decorated with a rich framing, featuring a
The Room of Noah. On the opposite page: The “Long channel”, rustic fountains.
The Room of Moses, Moses Striking Water from Rock, the central square of the vault.
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The Room of Moses.
The second Tiburtine room.
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marble Venus stretched out at the foot of a grotto percolating water and a fawn. Two female figures to the sides of the arch poured water into a bath, then replaced with the current plaster cast statues depicting Peace and Religion by
the cardinal Hohenlohe, as part of his plan to “Christianise” the decorative themes of the villa. The ceiling features a painting on canvas from the 17th century that portrays a Venus. Here, as in the Room of Moses,
the original flooring has been conserved. Returning to the Room of Noah, the route restarts once more with the Second and First Tiburtine Rooms, two spaces dedicated to the legendary history of Tivoli, characterised by similar themes and methods, decorated by a team of artists (including Matteo da Lecce, Gaspare Gasparini, and Palma il Giovane) coordinated by Cesare Nebbia and finished by 1569. In the Second Room (the first one on the visitors’ route), we see episodes from the story of the Tiburtine Sibyl: on the vault, The Madness of Athamas and The Death of Anius in the ovals; in the long frames The Three Tiburtine Rivers and the Sibyl Seated at the Spring, with the Aniene at her feet; in the centre The Triumph of Apollo. On the back
wall, the frame with Venus among the Sea Foam and Neptune commemorates the deities who helped the queen Ino (transformed into Leucothea, then the Tiburtine Sibyl Albunea). Under the glass flooring we can
The Death of King Anius, the vault of the second Tiburtine room.
The Triumph of Apollo on the Day Chariot, the vault of the second Tiburtine room.
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The Room of the Fountain or “the views”. The Room of the Fountain, a fresco depicting Villa d’Este.
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see the remains of a Roman villa dating to the 1st century BC that were unearthed during the works
carried out in 1983. The subsequent First Tiburtine Room narrates the events of the foundation of the
ancient Tibur by the three Greek brothers Tiburtus, Catillus, and Coras, after their victory over the Latins. The vault shows Scenes of Sacrifices propitiatory to the foundation of the city, the long walls feature The Battle of the Three Brothers for the Conquest of Sicletum (then Tibur), and opposite The Sacrifice after the Victory. The back wall shows the episode that illustrates The Tenth Labour of Hercules. On the wall of the window side we can see the Oval Fountain under construction. The subsequent Room of the Fountain, built
between 1565 and 1570, welcomed guests in from the garden and was used as a summer triclinium, suited to music and social gatherings. The walls open up with an illusionary loggia onto landscapes framed by solomonic columns, whose views also depict some of the family’s properties. On the back wall, we can see the Villa d’Este with the garden under construction as it was at that time. The wall opposite features a fountain covered in delicate, multi-coloured mosaic devices; the
A rustic fountain.
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The Council of the Gods, the vault of the second Tiburtine room.
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niche frames a view of the Tivoli landscape with the temple of the Sibyl, the crowning with the branches of the golden quince tree and the white eagle evoking the achievements of Ippolito. Began by Curzio Maccarone, it was completed in 1568 by Paolo Calandrino with the use of tiny tiles of ancient marble, shells, and glass mixtures. The vault shows The Council of the Gods, framed by a colonnade with strong perspective, the work of the workshop of Girolamo Muziano, formerly attributed to Federico Zuccari. Before exiting out onto the loggia to descend down into the garden, we continue on to the Room of Hercules, built in the two-year
period from 1565 to 1566 by Girolamo Muziano and assistants, with architectural framing
opening out onto vast rural landscapes. The vault decorated with grotesques shows frames around eight episodes of The Labours of Hercules (with a further four within the ovals) culminating in The Apotheosis of Hercules in the middle of the vault, whose attribution oscillates between Zuccari and Muziano. Certainly attributable to Federico Zuccari and his assistants – according to Giorgio Vasari – are the next two rooms, both characterised by a decorative structure that is coherent and organic: the Room of
Nobility and the Room of Glory. The Room of Nobility presents fake tapestries within an architectural frame featuring allegorical depictions (Graces, Virtues, Liberal Arts), in honour of the qualities of the owner of the villa, such as the Nobility painted in the centre of the vault, flanked by Liberality and Generosity. The decoration of the following Room of Glory has a particularly strong effect. An illusionary structure pervades the entire space, with fake doors, painted sculptures, trompel’oeil, fake marble,
The Room of Hercules, a detail of the frescoed vault.
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and painted drapes. The Virtues are set among the grotesquestyle framings, while though the vault has since lost the central Allegory of Glory, the panels of The Four Seasons alternating with images of Religion, Fortune, Magnanimity, and Time still remain. The final room of the apartment, the Room of the Hunt was decorated after Ippolito’s death (1572). Formerly attributed to Antonio Tempesta, it was perhaps the work of a northern artist. The scenes of deer and bird hunting, the rustic landscapes, and the decorative details with game and garlands of fruit celebrate one of the most beloved pastimes of that era. From the Room of the Hunt, we reach the garden by descending down the
spiral staircase, passing by the book shop, or by turning back through the Room of Hercules, from there exiting onto the loggia.
The Room of Nobility. The Room of Glory. The Room of the Hunt, a detail with hunting scenes. Game painted on the walls of the Room of the Hunt.
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Visiting the garden twin staircase leads from the summer apartment to the Vialone, originally shaded by rows of elm trees, bordered uphill by the Fountain of Europe, decorated in 1671 with the classical era sculpture group Europe Embracing the Bull (now at Villa Albani in Rome) and, towards the panorama, by the Gran Loggia or The Last Supper, a
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The facade of the villa in the etching by G.F. Venturini, 1691. The so-called “Vialone” in the etching by G.F. Venturini, 1691.
panoramic viewpoint facing out onto the garden and the countryside constructed by Pirro Ligorio between 1568 and 1569. The façade of the villa remained unfinished. It is only structured by the slight overhanging of the lateral foreparts and the simple mouldings of string-courses and cornices. The front is ennobled by an elegant loggia in two overlapping styles (Doric and Corinthian), flanked by flights of steps, which evoke Michelangelo’s steps at the Palazzo Senatorio in Campidoglio. In the portico on the ground floor we find the Fountain of Leda, now decorated with a headless Minerva, originally displayed with the sculpture group Leda with Jupiter transformed
into a Swan (now at the Borghese Gallery) flanked by four statues of her children Helen, Clytemnestra, Castor, and Pollux, which were sold at the end of the 18th century. In the small terrace and panoramic viewpoint, the Fountain of the Tripod is a copy of the original Fountain of the Seahorses, a precious work that came from Villa Adriana comprised of a basin with marble supports (now at the Louvre), topped with a sculpture group of horses supporting a small bowl (now at the Vatican Museums). The garden opens out onto the underlying slope over an area of almost four hectares that is nearly square, structured in a grid of parallel paths that are perpendicular to the central axis linking
the façade of the villa to the original entrance to the garden on Via del Colle, with a difference in height of roughly 50 metres between the two points. The paths to the various parts give order to the architectural composition and, with the visual depths established by the main fountains placed on the margins, they broaden the perception of the space, pushing visitors to cross over the garden while exploring it. The work required huge excavation and levelling of the hill and the construction of large arches to support the terracing of the Flat Garden. Before the creation of the Rotunda of the Cypress Trees (1611), the large parterre contained the Garden of Simples, four large flowerbeds united by a wooden arbour with
The Vialone, the Fountain of the Tripod.
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an octagonal pavilion at the crossing of the two arms. The vegetation component of the tall trees has varied significantly over time, with the disappearance of the little woods that protected the most exposed parts of the garden and the elm trees that shaded the main paths, while cypress trees were inserted in the early decades of the 17th century. Over the subsequent periods, various other species
were introduced, some of which have reached considerable sizes and ages. Among the most remarkable individual trees, the 17th century cypress trees set alongside the Staircase of the Passions and the specimens at the Rotunda of the Cypress Trees. Dating to when the villa was founded, there are three surviving plane trees in the enclosure of the Oval Fountain. Comprised of a wellstructured underground network of pipelines, tunnels, and pipes that have been partially replaced over time, the garden’s complex hydraulic system still works by gravity today and is fed by the river Aniene as it was when first built. Before entering the 282metre-long underground pipeline constructed upon Ippolito’s wishes, the
water destined for the pools, jets, and gushes of the numerous fountains is now subject to filtering and purification treatment. The creators of the system, Pirro Ligorio, Tommaso Ghinucci, and the craftsmen led by Tommaso da Como, drew from the knowledge and ancient tradition illustrated in the works written by Vitruvius and Frontinus. They were also inspired by the unusual conformation of the Tiburtine mountain, perforated and interspersed by numerous veins of water that poured out in an extraordinary natural show of waterfalls and cascades. From the Vialone, descending one of the two ramps in front of the villa’s staircase, you reach the Cardinal’s Walk,
crossing over the Loggia of Pandora, a nymphaeum with a serliana façade that acts as a connection hub, in the past decorated with a Pandora originally from Villa Adriana flanked by two statues of Minerva (the Pandora and one of the Minerva are now at the Capitoline Museums). Strolling along the cardinal’s favourite path for walking, to the right you come to the Grottos of Hygeia and Asclepius, two nymphaea covered in mosaics taken from the
The Rotunda of the Cypress Trees in the etching by G.F. Venturini, 1691. On the opposite page: The Flat Garden, the area of the Fish ponds. The Staircase of the Bubbling Fountains. A partial view of the Fountain of Neptune.
The Fountain of Pegasus.
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The Grotto of Diana, a detail of the mosaic decoration of the vault. The Grotto of Diana, the internal decoration.
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large niches of the substructions that support the Vialone, the work of Tommaso da Como, which once
held statues of Asclepius (now at the Louvre) and Hygeia (now at the Vatican Museums). Before going down the path to the left, you can admire the Fountain of Pegasus, conceived as one scene with the Oval Fountain below, placed at a lower level. The mythical winged horse is shown in the act of stamping his hoof to release the Hippocrene spring on Mount Helicon and his position significantly matches the point where the Este-built channel arrives into the garden. Taking the path once more, down further you come to the Grotto of Diana, a precious nymphaeum in a cruciform layout dedicated to the goddess of hunting and chaste love, which you can look
at from the outside due to the fragility of the materials used. The surface of the vaults and walls is completely covered by a decorative system created by Paolo Calandrino (1570-72), with the use of stucco, stones, glaze, glass mixtures, shells, and majolica. The flooring conserves the remains of the original covering in majolica by Bernardino de’ Gentili from Aversa. A complex sculpture decoration completed the staging of the nymphaeum, with large low relief panels with scenes from
mythology remaining on the walls of the side compartments. The central niche held a Diana; two statues of Amazons and a Minerva, originally from Villa Adriana, are now at the Capitoline Museums. From the Loggia of Pandora, you can admire the gushing Fountain of the Big Cup, which you can see by descending the cordonata and continuing along the path at the bottom of the steps. It is one of two fountains created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini between 1660 and 1661 (the other
The Fountain of the Bicchierone after the recent restauration.
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The Oval Fountain in the etching by A. Lafréry, 1575. On the opposite page: The Oval Fountain, a detail of the 16th century majolica covering. The nymphs in peperino stone in the exedra with porticos. The Oval Fountain with the statue of the Sibyl in the background. The Oval or “Tivoli” Fountain.
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one was transformed in 1927 into the current Fountain of Neptune). The artist – who had previously made a muchadmired marble bust of the duke Francesco I d’Este and was already famous – personally coordinated the building of the two fountains despite his numerous contracts.
Placed on the central axis of the garden, the structure of the fountain was constructed by workers directed by one “Mastro Filippo”. A tall, precious serrated chalice, with a jet of water spurting out, which Bernini lowered so as not to interfere with the perspective visual, is placed in a shell, evoking a motif already developed in Rome in the fountain of Triton, reinterpreted in Tivoli with the expressive freedom allowed by the use of different materials, which enabled pictorial effects to emerge that had been limited in the use of just travertino.
The valve of the shell visually connected the two overlapping loggia and originally acted as a backdrop for the sculpture group Hercules holding the infant Achilles in his arms (now at the Louvre), one of the three statues dedicated to Hercules which dotted the ascending route. Descending the cordonata to the right of the fountain, passing in front of the Grotto of Pomona (with a great marble mask from classical times), you come to one of the most symbolic sectors of the garden, with fountains that are linked each other by an organic narration. Crossing the enclosure to the right you come to the Oval or Tivoli Fountain, built between 1565 and 1569 by Tommaso da Como following the design of Pirro Ligorio, with the contribution of the fountain engineer Curzio Maccarone, Raffaello da Sangallo (the stone works), and Paolo Calandrino (mosaics and stucco). The spectacular nymphaeum was one of the first “water theatres”, defined “first and foremost of all the fountains in this garden, and perhaps in all of Italy”, much admired in every era. The channel that brings
water from the Aniene springs out behind the construction and from here divides up into the various lines of distribution throughout the garden. The water theatre is set in an ample enclosure decorated by fountains dedicated to Bacchus and originally shaded by plane trees, with three specimens now remaining. At the ground level, an
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The road of the Hundred Fountains.
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exedra, alternating in arches and niches, hosts ten statues of Nereids designed by Ligorio and made in peperino stone stuccoed by Giovanni Battista della Porta (1567); the portico surrounds the back of a large oval basin, with a parapet covered in majolica with Este family symbols, the work of Bernardino Gentili from Aversa (mostly lost or replaced). On the terrace, walled in by a balustrade with vases gushing out water (reconstructed in 1926), three grottos with water coming from them hold, at the centre, the status of the Sibyl Albunea with her son Melicertes, the work of Gillis van den Vliete (1568); and to the sides, the sculpture groups of the rivers Herculaneum and Anius, by Giovanni Malanca (1566).
The construction is a celebration of the Tivoli area, reproducing its typical elements: the rivers, the rocks, the waterfalls of the Aniene near the acropolis of Tivoli. Topographical references which, in the elaborate iconological plan conceived by Pirro Ligorio, are linked to the two other fountains placed on the same level. Indeed, the metaphor of the rivers and the aqueducts from Tivoli, continues in The Hundred Fountains, one of the most spectacular inventions of the villa. A path 130 metres long crosses the garden diagonally as far as the Fountain of Rome, towards which the waters flow, flanked upstream by a streaming façade of almost 300 jets and gushes of water placed
in three overlapping channels. The fountain was built between 1565 and 1571. Originally, the cornice featured 22 boats simulating navigation towards Rome, spaced out by vases of limoncello, pomegranates, and bitter oranges. In 1622, the cardinal Alessandro inserted the Este eagles in place of some of the vases, which were then definitively removed by Francesco II d’Este who replaced them with obelisks flanked by fleurs-de-lys. Various types of gushing water flow out from these elements on the cornice, while the water goes down into the underlying channels through the gargoyles and mask mouths. The parapet of the channels was covered in low reliefs in stucco inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, set in elaborate frames (already reconstructed in 1630) and zoomorphic mosaic decorations. The delicate decorative devices did not pass the test of time and water and little is conserved under the maidenhair fern that now covers the fountain. Built between 1567 and 1570 by Curzio Maccarone following the design by Ligorio, the Fountain of Rome or “Rometta” symbolically ends the
route of the water, which flows into the Tiber here. The fountain juts out on a terracing over the walls of the city which mark the garden’s edge, set up like a theatre scene. An ample exedra hosts the reconstruction of ancient Rome, mostly demolished in 1850 following various collapses during the previous decades. In the middle, we find the statue of Victorious Rome, placed in an axis with the statue of the Tiburtine Sibyl on
The Hundred Fountains, a mask.
The Fountain of Rome, known as “Rometta”, in the etching by G.F. Venturini, 1691.
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The Rometta Fountain.
The Fountain of the Little Owl.
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the opposite side of the garden. It is the work of Pierre de la Motte (1568), like the Wolf Breastfeeding the Twins, placed here only in 1611. In
the grotto to the left, the marble statue portrays the Tiber which flows and calmly reaches the ship with the obelisk in the lower basin, a
representation of the Tibertine Island. On the left, the scenic layout commemorates the links with the Tivoli area, with reference to the life of the cardinal: the artificial mountain, supported by the Apennine (a figure in the grotto), with the waterways which descend from there to flow into the Tiber. On high, the stucco statue of the Aniene clasps the Temple of the Sibyl in its left hand. From Rometta, passing by the Fountain of Proserpine, a lovely nymphaeum with a triumphal arch dotted with solomonic
columns, the 1570 work of Giovanni Alberto Galvani, descends to the Fountain of the Little Owl, one of the villa’s three loud fountains, together with the fountains of the Organ and the Dragons. Constructed by Giovanni Del Duca between 1565 and 1569, it is comprised of a closed courtyard with high walls, decorated with arches and niches with basins that gush out water. At the back you find the large niche flanked by Ionic columns, topped with a high attic culminating with an Este eagle. Mosaic decorations cover the entire front, evoking themes and symbols of the Este family, such as the branches of golden apples that spiral up the columns. In the niche, there remains a portion of the stucco decoration (Ulisse Macciolini,
The Fountain of the Little Owl, a detail of the sound mechanism.
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1568) which showed two young girls holding a goatskin from which a jet of water flowed towards the basin supported by three satyrs. The fountain is known for the hydraulic device created by the fountain engineer Luc Leclerc in 1566, thanks to which a group of twenty painted bronze birds would sing until a little owl appeared. The device, partly restored, was inspired by the inventions of Hero of Alexandria and enjoyed immediate success, acting as a model for many gardens in Europe. The fountain is the backdrop of a long path. Walking down this path you come to
the Fountain of the Dragons, placed in the focal point of the entire garden, corresponding to the central visual axis which frames the series of loggia and terraces. The oval cave of the nymphaeum, flanked by two cordonate, links the level of the path with the upper level of The Hundred Fountains. Known as the “fountain of the windmill” due to the plays of water that decorated it starting from the early 1600s, it was one of the wonders of the garden due to the sound devices that simulated the bangs and blasts of firearms, such as bombards and arquebuses. In Ligorio’s original plan, the “warlike”
sounds obtained through different water pressure by Tommaso Ghinucci were linked to the theme of the fountain, which celebrated the eleventh labour of Hercules: taking the apples guarded by the dragon Ladon in the Garden of the Hesperides, a theme linked to the cardinal’s achievement and central to the entire iconology of the villa. At the centre of the pool, the guard dragon is found in the guise of Four Winged Dragons from whose mouths jets of water spurt out, with the powerful central jet rising from the middle. The group was modelled in 1572 for the visit of Gregory XIII, whose coat of arms featured
On the opposite page: The Fountain of the Dragons. The high jets of the Fountain of Neptune.
The fountain designed by G.L Bernini (etching by G.F. Venturini, 1691).
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43 the Flat Garden. To the right opens the extraordinary water show of the Fountain of Neptune, built in its current form in 1927, transforming the Cascade commissioned to Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1661. The fountain by Bernini, documented by the etchings of Venturini, completed the project by Ligorio which remained unfinished upon the death of the cardinal, with the creation of a cascade which started from the Fountain of the Organ, leaping over the Grottos of the Sibyls on a suspended slide, plummeting down the
The Fish Ponds and the Fountain of Neptune as designed by A. Rossi (1930 ca., repainting in the Room of the Fountain).
the figure of a winged dragon. To the side, two dolphins release more jets of water. A statue of Hercules with a Club was originally supposed to be placed in the central large niche, flanked by Ionic columns and topped with a marble balustrade, but instead the statue of Jupiter was positioned there at the start of the 17th century. Two statues of Gladiators and the statues of Mars and Perseus completed the scenic unit of the sculptural device. Descending the cordonata facing the Fountain of the Dragons, you come to
rocky crags as far as a lake to which two smaller cascades merge to the sides. With Bernini’s work lost due to long neglect, Attilio Rossi and Emo Salvati created the current fountain in the thirties, scenically placed on the complex play of water composed of high jets and gushes of declining height, symmetrically arranged with respect to a central cascade, based on Bernini’s original cascade. Pools placed at different heights enable the water to flow down among them to the system of
A view of the Fish Ponds.
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45 pools on the flat space of the Fish ponds. In the grotto at the base of the cascade you can get a glimpse of the bust of Neptune which gives the fountain its name. The three large Fish ponds which collect the water from the Fountain of Neptune were originally a magnificent “waterway”, which transported the water from the above Fountain of the Flood (Fountain of the
The Fountain of Mother Nature.
Organ) towards the Fountain of the Sea, which was never built. The large pools of water, crossed by streams of water, were began in 1563-64 but were never completed. The pools were used to farm fish species destined for the cardinal’s table. Along the edges of the two central pools, six herms released fan jets which made the water rain down, offering a show in the afternoon hours described
admiringly by various travellers, such as Montaigne, for the iridescent effects produced by the sunlight on the fine drops of water. On the walls of the Flat Garden, before turning back, you can admire the Fountain of Diana of Ephesus or of Mother Nature, created in 1611 by moving from the current position a statue carved in 1568 by Gillis van den Vliete for the Fountain
The Fountain of the Organ.
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The hydraulic organ.
On the opposite page: The Fountain of the Organ, a decorative detail of the parapet.
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of the Flood, inspired by the famous Diana of Ephesus already in the Farnese collection (now in Naples). Returning towards the terrace of the Organ, you can pass through the balcony below, where the Grottos of the Sibyls lie, three grotto nymphaea animated by fan jets of water and a cascade, made from the substructions that support the Fountain of the Organ, with which it was originally closely connected. Placed on a terrace from which you can enjoy a beautiful panoramic view over
the Fish ponds and the garden, originally the Fountain of the “Flood” or “Mother Nature” due to the statue that was subsequently moved to the garden’s outer walls, this fountain owes its name to the hydraulic devices and the organ made by the French experts Luc Leclerc and Claude Venard, which were already working in 1572 for the visit of Pope Gregory XIII. The fountain became famous and was immediately imitated in the villas of Pratolino and Quirinal. In actual fact, the monumental façade
was the frons scenae of a show produced by the water and the sounds coming from the complex hydraulic mechanisms. Subject to rapid deterioration, as early as the start of the 17th century, the cardinal Alessandro d’Este had it restored, enriching the decorative device limited up to then by the four Atlantes in travertino carved by Pirrino del Gagliardo, placing the stucco statues of Apollo and Orpheus in the front niches, the Sereniformi Caryatids in the second row, the Winged Victories in the pendentives
corresponding to the vault keystones of the arch, and stucco low reliefs with scenes from mythology linked to music. The mixtilinear basin was also built, while inside the large niche, with the statue of Mother Nature moved, the octagonal aedicule was made for the placement of the organ. The current instrument, renovated in the restoration of 2003 with nonperishable materials, reproduces the original pneumohydraulic mechanism using the few surviving elements (the wind chamber and the inverted siphon).
Worth visiting in the vicinity: Villa Adriana The residence of the emperor Hadrian, built between 118 and 138, is one of the archaeological complexes that best represent the history of Rome. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. Villa Gregoriana Villa Gregoriana is a nature park commissioned by Gregory XVI in the early decades of the 19th century at the Aniene waterfall and near the Temple of the Sibyl.
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Index
UNESCO
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2001 – Villa d’Este enter in the World Heritage List
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A bit of history
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Visiting the villa
10
Visiting the garden
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Worth visiting in the vicinity
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