Renaissance Gardens

L’individuazione dei soggetti finora non identificati, presenti in una raccolta epigrafica manoscritta ha consentito di ricostruire la ricca dotazione di iscrizioni del giardino fatto costruire da Diomede Leoni, procacciatore di antichità per i Medici e amico di Michelangelo, nella seconda metà degli anni Sessanta del Cinquecento nella sua città natale, San Quirico d’Orcia, vicino Siena.
Negli Orti detti Leonini oggi sopravvivono solo alcune di queste epigrafi, ma l’insieme originario testimonia la passione di Diomede per gli emblemi e per le sentenze di autori antichi e moderni, scelti con cura per veicolare significati morali trasmissibili in forma “esoterica” ad amici e visitatori del luogo.
La scoperta di questo corpus consente anche di gettare nuova luce sulla biografia del Leoni e di precisare ulteriormente, attraverso lo studio di altri documenti inediti o poco noti, le vicende originarie e la particolarità di questo fascinoso e enigmatico luogo di delizia.

Bartolomeo Ammanati’s letter to Marco Mantova Benavides (May 2, 1555) is a valuable verbal description of a villa by an architect and sculptor addressed to an intellectual patron, antiquarian and collector. Ammanati, an educated artist, reports in Italian on the Villa Giulia, in which he was involved in Rome, to Benavides, a jurist in Padua. Sculpture and stone materials are given more emphasis than architectural details and pictorial decorations, but no less attention is paid to plantings, verdant furnishings, agricultural features, and views. The letter is noteworthy above all for its mention of the monumental pergola connecting the Tiber landing point to the Fontana pubblica. A carpentry structure covered with vegetation documented in the papal accounts and recorded in contemporary maps, the pergola was used not only as a covered walkway but also as a ceremonial approach and a prelude to the villa experience. Constructed of light, diaphanous, and translucent materials, it provided a vista towards the villa building anticipating the painted pergola in the semicircular portico. The pergola motif was continued in the roof of the loggia flanked by aviaries on the east side of the nymphaeum, recorded in a print by Hieronymus Cock, which resonated with the two previous pergolas. Maximizing the sensation of nature, the pergola as a leitmotiv played a key role in enhancing a sensuous villa experience. The combination of real and fictive pergolas, observed also at the Villa d’Este at Tivoli and the Villa Medici in Rome, may have been a familiar concept among designers. Ammanati’s letter would have served as a means of transmission of design ideas from Rome to other cultural centers through social networks. It reveals the relationship between patrons and designers in the sixteenth-century, who both shared the same intellectual culture and contributed to the shaping of the design.

Nel cuore di tufo': vernacular architecture and the genius loci of Bomarzo katherine coty Rarely are the characteristics of a people and the region they live in so intimately linked as they are in Tuscia. In the silence, nestled between the copper-colored walls of the forre (almost like churches excavated from tufo, whose vault is the sky), there resonates an arcane but unmistakably present air of subtle enchantment. The landscape, the rocks, the trees, the air itself, are impregnated with it. 1 In his article inaugurating the issue of the Quaderni dell'Istituto di Storia dell'Architettura (1955) devoted to the Sacro Bosco, Arnaldo Bruschi suggested that this enigmatic garden was an extension or distillation of the bewitching atmosphere of the surrounding region, a strange but ultimately natural product of the otherworldly landscape around Bomarzo. While Bruschi's discussion sometimes veers into florid, lyrical passages, his reading rings true with anyone who passes through Tuscia and the Monti Cimini on their way to Vicino Orsini's bosco of marvels. The region thrums with a powerful and pervasive genius loci, of which the Sacro Bosco seems a condensed expression. Bruschi did not shy away from sharing his subjective and even poetic experience of the place that we are often cautioned against in the world of professional scholarship. 2 This reliance on personal and scholarly intuition, however, seems fully appropriate in the discussion of the Sacro Bosco, as the garden traffics in a currency of wonder to elicit atypical responses from its visitors. Rivers of ink have been spilled situating this site within the context of Renaissance literature, antiquarianism, or fascination with monstrosity; yet, as the field of Bomarziana expands, we might still feel compelled to follow Bruschi's lead and probe further into the relationship between the Sacro Bosco and its surroundings. It is with this methodological license allowing me to draw on the subjective experience of the site and its genius loci that I turn to a closer examination of Vicino's garden. My particular focus in this article is the role that tufo-the pumice-like volcanic rock from which the bosco's figures are sculpted-plays in the vernacular culture of Tuscia, which allows me to frame the garden within the discourse of local identity. Geography and geology of Tuscia Key to demonstrating how designed landscapes of sixteenth-century Tuscia engaged in dialogue with their surroundings, the idea of the genius loci is also necessary for explaining how this region differs from the rest of Lazio, Tuscany, and Umbria. For our purposes, Tuscia can be defined as an ovalshaped area bounded on the eastern side by the Tiber river and the Tyrrhenian coast on the west, which borders on Sovana, Aquapendente, and Orvieto to the north, with Lake Bracciano and Veii forming its southernmost reaches. Drawing on the description of Tuscia by Claudio Margottini, Laura Melelli, and Daniele Spizzichino as a cultural landscape 'where human modifications contrast with and overlap the natural landforms', 3 these boundaries largely coincide with the area of the distribution of tufo, which enabled the local tradition of rock-cut architecture peculiar to this part of central Italy. Tuscia is almost entirely comprised of three volcanic districts: the Monti Volsini that encircle Lake Bolsena, the Vico-Cimino complex (which includes Lake Vico and the Monti Cimini), and the Monti Sabatini surrounding Lake Bracciano. 4 Active during the Pleistocene era, these volcanic

ISBN 978 88 222 6274 5 PREMESSA Alcuni anni fa, sfogliando una raccolta di disegni architettonici settecenteschi nella collezione del Victoria & Albert Museum, mi sono inaspettatamente trovata fra le mani cinque grandi tavole inedite che mostravano nei dettagli, in pianta e in alzato, Poggioreale, la leggendaria villa fatta costruire nel tardo Quattrocento, fuori Napoli, dal principe ereditario Alfonso d' . Per verificare l'attendibilità della documentazione ritrovata ho iniziato a svolgere indagini sull'origine della raccolta e sulla storia della villa, appassionandomi, così, alle 'delizie' e ai misteri della perduta dimora aragonese: un'opera fra le più celebrate e citate, ma meno conosciute, dell'architettura residenziale del Rinascimento. Più lo studio si approfondiva, più si estendeva e diramava. Conquistandomi, perché, insieme alla possibilità di ricostruire l'aspetto dell'intera villa, vi riconoscevo l'occasione per affrontare temi generali e sostanziali dell'architettura, come la circolazione di idee e modelli, la concezione e lo sviluppo condivisi del progetto e infine i significati e le intime motivazioni, spesso ignorate, delle maggiori imprese architettoniche e del riferimento alle antichità, ossia l'essenza di un'opera 'rinascimentale'.

The study deals with the purchase, cultivation and use of exotic fruits, particularly citruses, in the residences of King Ferdinand I in Prague and Innsbruck. It provides a number of unknown archival reports on the details of such trades, from which the significant role of Queen Anna of Jagiello is apparent. It arises from the analysis that a complicated and lengthy transport of this luxurious good from Italy could have been the reason of the interest of Ferdinand I in its cultivation in Prague, which was developed here a little earlier than in Vienna.

Tre gigli per il cardinale. Una lettura iconografica del ciclo di Domenichino nel «Casino della Morte» di Palazzo Farnese Profuma e allieta la mia vita il ricordo delle ore in cui trovai il piacere e lo tenni come volli. Profuma e allieta la mia vita a me ch'ebbi ribrezzo d'ogni routine nei godimenti d'amore.

In: Conan, Michel (ed.) (2008): Gardens and Imagination: Cultural History and Agency. Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium Series in the History of Landscape Architecture (30). Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection (Distributed by Harvard University Press), pp. 116–137.

Les relations des Francini avec la gravure sont relativement précoces et constantes dans leur carrière, caractéristiques d’un domaine d’activité où l’invention est reine. Dès 1614, l’année du mariage de Louis XIII et d’Anne d’Autriche, paraissent deux grandes vues topographiques des maisons royales de Fontainebleau et Saint-Germain-en-Laye, gravées d’après des dessins d’Alessandro qui mettent l’accent sur les fontaines. Moins de dix ans plus tard (1623-1624) est publiée à Paris, à l’initiative sans doute de Tommaso, une longue suite de planches qui consacre l’œuvre des Francini, dans le domaine des grottes et des fontaines, en même temps qu’elle propose au public de nouveaux modèles. Alessandro est enfin l’auteur d’un Livre d’architecture, publié en 1531 chez Melchior Tavernier, qui contient une quarantaine de portails de son invention.
Nous reviendrons sur l’origine et la fabrication des gravures de grottes et de fontaines, lesquelles résultent d’une collaboration, apparemment étroite, entre trois jeunes graveurs : Michel Lasne, Abraham Bosse et Jean Blanchin. Témoignage essentiel sur l’œuvre des Francini en France, ces images nous permettent aussi de réfléchir sur la typologie des aménagements, les principes de composition, le rôle assez mineur de l’iconographie et l’importance des effets d’eau, qui est capitale. On tentera enfin de dégager, par le biais des comparaisons, la spécificité des « inventions » de Tommaso Francini dans le domaine des fontaines. Nous reviendrons ainsi sur l’attribution et la datation d’un manuscrit de la Bibliothèque nationale, que Gerold Weber avait mis en relation avec l’œuvre des Francini mais dont les compositions, très « italiennes », nous semblent témoigner d’une origine différente.

This article explores connections between istoriato (narrative-painted) maiolica dishes created for marchesa Isabella d'Este and her son duke Federico II Gonzaga and dining rituals at their suburban palaces. Due to its low intrinsic value, maiolica was especially well-suited for use at their suburban palaces, as these retreats were usually expected to be less ostentatious than the court in Manuta. These palaces outside the Mantuan city limits, such as Isabella’s palazzo di Porto, were places of learned discussion, lush gardens, and outdoor dining. The decoration of the Gonzaga maiolica dishes, which included imprese of the marchesa and duke, stories and characters from classical literature, musical motifs, and verdant landscapes, would have resonated with visitors to the palaces, who would have viewed similar iconography in the palace decoration and enjoyed the suburban palace gardens. Therefore, the Gonzaga maiolica dishes served as an important part of the dining rituals that took place at these retreats by inspiring discussions and reinforcing the palaces’ visual messages.

La palazzina di Ottavio Mascarino sul colle del Qui rinale, una delle ville più grandi del tardo Cinquecen to, fino ad oggi è stata appena apprezzata come tale ( .D E questo è spiegabile proprio perché, già po Originalveröffentlichung in: Bollettino d'arte, Volume Speciale: Restauri al Quirinale, Bd. 1, Roma (1999), S. 15-62 2 -NEW YORK, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM -TACCUINO DI JANOS SCHOLTZ -ANONIMO FRANCO -FIAMMINGO: COPIA DAL PROGETTO DEL 1560 CIRCA PER LA VILLA DI IPPOLITO D'ESTE

In January 1512, when a colossal ancient statue of the Tiber River was unearthed in Rome, many people gathered to see it ). 1 Pope Julius II immediately acquired the work for his sculpture garden in the Vatican, already famous for such antiquities as the Laocoon and the Apollo Belvedere. A year or two later, a second statue representing the Nile River , also from the sanctuary of Isis, entered the Vatican Statue Court, and soon after a third river god. The Tiber and Nile led to a clear understanding of the ancient type, the identification of other statues, and ultimately the tremendous popularity in the sixteenth century of river gods in fountains, festivities and triumphal entries, political propaganda, and much more. 2 This essay examines selected early steps in this development to demonstrate how the Renaissance appropriated the ancient river god through installations, restoration, and the reinvention of the figure type. Over the course of the sixteenth century, the understanding of nature also developed in new directions, in part inspired by ancient texts. Artists explored how the human body could represent the natural world, how anthropomorphisms, rivers given human form, could function as personifications, figures who speak and act, 3 and how the human body could embody the meaning imprinted on it. 4 At the same time, patrons discovered the potential of river gods as vehicles for political messages about rule over territory. In particular, the Medici, especially Pope Leo X and later Duke Cosimo de' Medici, played important roles in some of the foundational stages of these investigations.

The article summarizes information about the gardens and grottoes of Albrecht von Wallenstein in Prague. It covers not only the famous garden of the Wallenstein Palace in Lesser Town (with its grotto wall) but also two other areas in Prague that have been destroyed and their situation is known only from plans or old photographs.

Dès la Renaissance, les maisons des champs se sont développées dans les environs de Lyon, accompagnées parfois de jardins élaborés dotés de grottes ou de nymphées. On connait aujourd’hui neuf grottes documentées possiblement pour la période 1550-1700 dont six subsistent – à tout point de vue, un nombre étonnamment élevé en France. Trois grottes pourraient se rattacher à la deuxième moitié du XVIe siècle avec un décor de l’émerveillement basé sur l’emploi d’une architecture classique de pierres polychromes et d’effets d’eau. Dans ces plaisirs rustiques, le nymphée d’Ombreval se rattache à la culture de la cour par sa sculpture monumentale et sophistiquée, tandis que les grottes de La Porte et de Beauregard mettent en scène les collections d’antiques lyonnaises ou le réemploi de la sculpture de la Renaissance. Elles permettent de montrer la continuité des savoir-faire spécialisés en hydraulique, rocaille, sculpture comme leur évolution au service des usages sociaux et du goût.

From the Renaissance, country homes were built in the surroudings of Lyon, sometimes with beautiful gardens ornamented with grottos and nymphaeums. Nine grottoes are documented for the period 1550-1700 of whom six have survived. A very high number for a French town ! Three grottos can be linked to the second half of 16th centhury with a search for astonishment based on the use classical architecture with colored stones and water effects. In these rustic pleasures, the nymphaeum of Ombreval looks towards a courtly culture stamped by monumental and refined sculptures, while the grottoes of La Porte and Beauregard stage a collection of ancient artefacts or the reuse of Renaissance sculptures. They point to the continuity of highly skilled crafts in hydraulics, rockwork, sculpture as well as their link to social uses and taste.

In one of the most comprehensive sixteenth-century treatises on wine, De naturali vinorum historia (Rome, 1596), physician Andrea Bacci boasted that in contrast to earlier eras, his Rome was marked by a period of frugality and sober moderation in drinking and banquets at the papal and ecclesiastical courts of Rome.  His comments resonate with a body of contemporary medical and health advice books that decried over-indulgent eating and warned of the dangers of excessive wine consumption.  Scholars have thus suggested that the period following the Council of Trent was one of greater austerity and temperance in dining at the Roman Curia. 

Yet this conclusion overlooks the many sumptuous villa gardens in Rome built by later sixteenth-century cardinals as luxurious statements of wealth and power, and for entertaining elite guests, diplomats, and friends.  Gardens and vineyards were also prime spots for raucous parties of poets’ sodalities, as well as illicit wine-filled rendezvous in a city with a high population of prostitutes.  Indeed, gardens were frequently sites of temptation throughout the post-Tridentine period.

To better understand the social and experiential aspects of gardens in late sixteenth-century Rome, this paper examines the design, furnishings, accessibility, and uses of gardens which rendered them as pleasure sites for drinking, banqueting, and occasional debauchery.