![ReggiadiCasertaFountain08](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/ReggiadiCasertaFountain08.jpg)
The Italian garden (or giardino all'italiana () is best known for a number of large
Italian Renaissance garden
The Italian Renaissance garden was a new style of garden which emerged in the late 15th century at villas in Rome and Florence, inspired by classical ideals of order and beauty, and intended for the pleasure of the view of the garden and the landsc ...
s which have survived in something like their original form. In the
history of gardening
The early history of gardening is largely entangled with the history of agriculture, with gardens that were mainly ornamental generally the preserve of the elite until quite recent times. Smaller gardens generally had being a kitchen garden as t ...
, during the Renaissance, Italy had the most advanced and admired
garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...
s in Europe, which greatly influenced other countries, especially the
French formal garden
The French formal garden, also called the (), is a style of garden based on symmetry and the principle of imposing order on nature. Its epitome is generally considered to be the Gardens of Versailles designed during the 17th century by the ...
and
Dutch garden
Dutch garden refers firstly to gardens in the Netherlands, but also, mainly in the English-speaking countries, to various types of gardens traditionally considered to be in a Dutch style, a presumption that has been much disputed by garden historia ...
s and, mostly through these, gardens in Britain.
The gardens were formally laid out, but probably in a somewhat more relaxed fashion than the later French style, aiming to extend or project the regularity of the architecture of the house into nature.
From the late 18th century many grand Italian gardens were remade in a version of the
English landscape garden
The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...
style.
History and influence
The Italian garden was influenced by
Roman garden
Roman gardens and ornamental horticulture became highly developed under Roman civilization, and thrived from 150 BC to 350 AD. The Gardens of Lucullus (''Horti Lucullani''), on the Pincian Hill in Rome, introduced the Persian gardens, Persian ga ...
s and
Italian Renaissance garden
The Italian Renaissance garden was a new style of garden which emerged in the late 15th century at villas in Rome and Florence, inspired by classical ideals of order and beauty, and intended for the pleasure of the view of the garden and the landsc ...
s. The principles of the
French garden
The French formal garden, also called the (), is a style of garden based on symmetry and the principle of imposing order on nature. Its epitome is generally considered to be the Gardens of Versailles designed during the 17th century by the ...
are based on those of the Italian garden, but
André le Nôtre ultimately eclipsed it in scale and concept at the gardens of
Vaux-le-Vicomte
The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte (English: Palace of Vaux-le-Vicomte) is a Baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne department of Île-de-France.
Built between 1658 and 1661 for Nicolas ...
and
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...
during the 17th Century. The formal early
English garden
The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...
was influenced by the fountains and cascades that were elements of the
Italian Renaissance garden
The Italian Renaissance garden was a new style of garden which emerged in the late 15th century at villas in Rome and Florence, inspired by classical ideals of order and beauty, and intended for the pleasure of the view of the garden and the landsc ...
, and though there are later water features – for example, the 300-year-old cascade at
Chatsworth House – Italian influence was superseded in England by seventeenth-century formal Franco-Dutch
parterre
A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the part of ...
s and
avenues. From the early eighteenth century onward, thanks to gardeners like
Charles Bridgeman
Charles Bridgeman (1690–1738) was an English garden designer who helped pioneer the naturalistic landscape style. Although he was a key figure in the transition of English garden design from the Anglo-Dutch formality of patterned parterres an ...
,
William Kent
William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748) was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, bu ...
,
Capability Brown, and
Humphry Repton
Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of ...
garden design in England took a completely different, romantic and informal turn.
Roman influence
Roman gardens ( la, horti) were greatly inspired by
Greek gardens A distinction is made between Greek gardens, made in ancient Greece, and Hellenistic gardens, made under the influence of Greek culture in late classical times. Little is known about either.
Minoan gardens
Before the coming of Proto-Greeks into the ...
and were usually in the peristyles. The administrators of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
(c.100 BC – AD 500) actively exchanged information on agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, hydraulics, and botany. The
Gardens of Lucullus
The Gardens of Lucullus ( lat, Horti Lucullani) were the setting for an ancient villa on the Pincian Hill on the edge of Rome; they were laid out by Lucius Licinius Lucullus about 60 BC. The Villa Borghese gardens still cover of green on the sit ...
(''Horti Lucullani'') on the
Pincian Hill
The Pincian Hill (; it, Pincio ; la, Mons Pincius) is a hill in the northeast quadrant of the historical centre of Rome. The hill lies to the north of the Quirinal, overlooking the Campus Martius. It was outside the original boundaries of th ...
at the edge of Rome introduced the
Persian garden
The tradition and style of garden design represented by Persian gardens or Iranian gardens ( fa, باغ ایرانی), an example of the paradise garden, has influenced the design of gardens from Andalusia to India and beyond. The gardens of the ...
to Europe, around 60 BC. The garden was a place of peace and tranquillity, a refuge from urban life, and a place filled with religious and symbolic meanings. As Roman culture developed and became increasingly influenced by foreign civilizations through trade, the use of gardens expanded and gardens ultimately thrived in
Ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...
.
The principle styles of the giardino all'italiana emerged from the rediscovery by Renaissance scholars of Roman models. They were inspired by the descriptions of Roman gardens given by
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...
in his ''
Metamorphoses
The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the ...
'', in the letters of
Pliny the Younger, in
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...
's ''Naturalis Historia'', and in ''Rerum Rusticanum'' by
Varro
Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...
, all of which gave detailed and lyrical description of the gardens of Roman villas.
Pliny the Younger described his life at his villa at Laurentum: " ...a good life and a genuine one, which is happy and honourable, more rewarding than any "business" can be. You should take the first opportunity to leave the din, the futile bustle and useless occupations of the city and devote yourself to literature or to leisure". The purpose of a garden, according to Pliny, was ''otium'', which could be translated as seclusion, serenity, or relaxation. A garden was a place to think, read, write and relax.
[Attlee, 2006: 13]
Pliny described shaded paths bordered with hedges, ornamental parterres, fountains, and trees and bushes trimmed to geometric or fantastic shapes; all features which would become part of the future Renaissance garden.
Italian Medieval gardens
Italian Medieval gardens were enclosed by walls, and were devoted to growing vegetables, fruits and medicinal herbs, and, in the case of
monastic garden A monastic garden was used by many people and for multiple purposes. Gardening was the chief source of food for households, but also encompassed orchards, cemeteries and pleasure gardens, as well as providing plants for medicinal and cultural uses. ...
s, for silent meditation and prayer. Generally, monastic garden types consisted of kitchen gardens, infirmary gardens, cemetery orchards, cloister garths, and vineyards. Individual monasteries might also have had a "green court", a plot of grass and trees where horses could graze, as well as a cellarer's garden or private gardens for obedientiaries, monks who held specific posts within the monastery.
Italian Renaissance gardens
The Italian Renaissance garden emerged in the late fifteenth century at villas in Rome and
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
, inspired by classical ideals of order and beauty, and intended for the pleasure of the view of the garden and the landscape beyond, for contemplation, and for the enjoyment of the sights, sounds and smells of the garden itself.
![Giardino3839](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Giardino3839.JPG)
During the late Renaissance, gardens became larger and even more symmetrical, and were filled with fountains, statues,
grottoes, water organs and other features designed to delight their owners and amuse and impress visitors.
While the early Italian Renaissance gardens were designed for contemplation and pleasure with tunnels of greenery, trees for shade, an enclosed '' giardino segreto'' (secret garden) and fields for games and amusements, the
Medici
The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mu ...
, the ruling dynasty of Florence, used gardens to demonstrate their own power and magnificence. "During the first half of the sixteenth century, magnificence came to be perceived as a princely virtue, and all over the Italian peninsula architects, sculptors, painters, poets, historians and humanist scholars were commissioned to concoct a magnificent image for their powerful patrons." The central fountain at
Villa di Castello
The Villa di Castello, near the hills bordering Florence, Tuscany, central Italy, was the country residence of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1519-1574). The gardens, filled with fountains, statuary, and a grotto, became famous thro ...
featured a statue of Hercules, symbolizing
Cosimo de' Medici, the ruler of Florence, and the fish-tailed goat that was an emblem of the Medici; the garden represented the power, wisdom, order, beauty and glory that the Medici had brought to Florence.
Italian villas with notable gardens
: ''Here follows a curated selection of gardens that makes no claim to be complete''
The Medici Villa at Fiesole (1455–1461)
The oldest existing Italian Renaissance garden is at the
Villa Medici in Fiesole
The Villa Medici is a patrician villa in Fiesole, Tuscany, Italy, the fourth oldest of the villas built for the Medici family. It was built between 1451 and 1457. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed as Medici Villas and Gar ...
, north of Florence. It was created sometime between 1455 and 1461 by
Giovanni de' Medici (1421–1463) the son of
Cosimo de' Medici, the founder of the Medici dynasty. Unlike other Medici family villas that were located on flat farmland, this villa was located on a rocky hillside with a view over Florence.
The Villa Medici followed
Leon Battista Alberti
Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. H ...
's precepts that a villa should have a view "that overlooks the city, the owner's land, the sea or a great plain, and familiar hills and mountains", and that the foreground have "the delicacy of gardens". The garden has two large terraces, one at the ground floor level and the other at the level of the first floor. From the reception rooms on the first floor, guests could go out to the
loggia
In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...
and from there to the garden so the loggia was a transition space connecting the interior with the exterior. Unlike later gardens, the Medici Villa did not have a grand staircase or other feature to link the two levels.
The garden was inherited by his nephew,
Lorenzo de' Medici
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492) was an Italian statesman, banker, ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Also known as Lorenzo ...
, who made it a meeting place for poets, artists, writers and philosophers. In 1479, the poet
Agnolo Poliziano
Agnolo (Angelo) Ambrogini (14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494), commonly known by his nickname Poliziano (; anglicized as Politian; Latin: '' Politianus''), was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scho ...
, tutor to the Medici children, described the garden in a letter: "..Seated between the sloping sides of the mountains we have here water in abundance and being constantly refreshed with moderate winds find little inconvenience from the glare of the sun. As you approach the house it seems embosomed in the wood, but when you reach it you find it commands a full prospect of the city".
The Palazzo Piccolomini at Pienza, Tuscany (1459)
The
Palazzo Piccolomini at
Pienza
Pienza () is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Siena, Tuscany, in the historical region of Val d'Orcia. Situated between the towns of Montepulciano and Montalcino, it is considered the "touchstone of Renaissance urbanism".
In 1996, UNESCO ...
, was built by
Enea Silvio Piccolomini
Pope Pius II ( la, Pius PP. II, it, Pio II), born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini ( la, Aeneas Silvius Bartholomeus, links=no; 18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 August ...
, who was Pope from 1458 to 1464, under the name of
Pius II
Pope Pius II ( la, Pius PP. II, it, Pio II), born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini ( la, Aeneas Silvius Bartholomeus, links=no; 18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 August ...
. He was a scholar of Latin and wrote extensively on education, astronomy and social culture. In 1459, he constructed a palace for himself and his Cardinals and court in his small native town of Pienza. Like the Villa Medici, a major feature of the house was the commanding view to be had from the loggia over the valley, the
Val d'Orcia
The Val d'Orcia or Valdorcia () is a region of Tuscany, central Italy, which extends from the hills south of Siena to Monte Amiata. Its gentle, cultivated hills are occasionally broken by gullies and by picturesque towns and villages such as Pie ...
, to the slopes of
Monte Amiata
Mount Amiata is the largest of the lava domes in the Amiata lava dome complex located about 20 km northwest of Lake Bolsena in the southern Tuscany region of Italy. It is located within the provinces of Grosseto and Siena.
Geology
Mount Am ...
. Closer to the house, there were terraces with geometric flowerbeds surrounding fountains and ornamented with bushes trimmed into cones and spheres similar to the garden of Pliny described in Alberti's ''
De re aedificatoria''. The garden was designed to open to the town, the palace and the view.
The Cortile del Belvedere in the Vatican Palace, Rome (1504–1513)
![Giovanni antonio dosio, cortile del belvedere secondo il progetto del Bramante](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Giovanni_antonio_dosio%2C_cortile_del_belvedere_secondo_il_progetto_del_Bramante.jpg)
In 1504
Pope Julius II
Pope Julius II ( la, Iulius II; it, Giulio II; born Giuliano della Rovere; 5 December 144321 February 1513) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death in February 1513. Nicknamed the Warrior Pope or th ...
commissioned the architect
Donato Bramante
Donato Bramante ( , , ; 1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance styl ...
to recreate a classical Roman pleasure garden in the space between the old papal
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
palace in Rome and the nearby Villa Belvedere. His model was the ancient
Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia at
Palestrina
Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; grc, Πραίνεστος, ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Pre ...
or ancient Praeneste, and he used the classical ideals of proportion, symmetry and perspective in his design. He created a central axis to link the two buildings, and a series of terraces connected by double ramps, modelled after those at Palestrina. The terraces were divided into squares and rectangles by paths and flowerbeds, and served as an outdoor setting for Pope Julius's extraordinary collection of classical sculpture, which included the famous
Laocoön
Laocoön (; grc, , Laokóōn, , gen.: ), is a figure in Greek and Roman mythology and the Epic Cycle. Laocoon was a Trojan priest. He and his two young sons were attacked by giant serpents, sent by the gods. The story of Laocoön has been the su ...
and the
Apollo Belvedere
The ''Apollo Belvedere'' (also called the ''Belvedere Apollo, Apollo of the Belvedere'', or ''Pythian Apollo'') is a celebrated marble sculpture from Classical Antiquity.
The ''Apollo'' is now thought to be an original Roman creation of Hadri ...
. The heart of the garden was a courtyard surrounded by a three-tiered loggia, which served as a theater for entertainments. A central
exedra
An exedra (plural: exedras or exedrae) is a semicircular architectural recess or platform, sometimes crowned by a semi-dome, and either set into a building's façade or free-standing. The original Greek sense (''ἐξέδρα'', a seat out of d ...
formed the dramatic conclusion of the long perspective up the courtyard, ramps and terraces.
The Venetian Ambassador described the
Cortile del Belvedere
The (Belvedere Courtyard or Belvedere Court) was a major architectural work of the High Renaissance at the Vatican Palace in Rome. Designed by Donato Bramante from 1505 onward, its concept and details reverberated in courtyard design, formalized ...
in 1523: "One enters a very beautiful garden, of which half is filled with growing grass and bays and mulberries and cypresses, while the other half is paved with squares of bricks laid upright, and in every square a beautiful orange tree grows out of the pavement, of which there are a great many, arranged in perfect order....On one side of the garden is a most beautiful loggia, at one end of which is a lovely fountain that irrigates the orange trees and the rest of the garden by a little canal in the center of the loggia."
Unfortunately, the construction of the
Vatican Library
The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...
in the late sixteenth century across the centre of the ''cortile'' means that Bramante's design is now obscured but his ideas of proportion, symmetry and dramatic perspectives were used in many of the great gardens of the Italian Renaissance.
The Villa Madama, Rome (1516)
![Il giardino di Villa Madama](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Il_giardino_di_Villa_Madama.jpg)
The
Villa Madama
Villa Madama is a Renaissance-style rural palace (villa) located on Via di Villa Madama #250 in Rome, Italy. Located west of the city center and a few miles north of the Vatican, and just south of the Foro Olimpico Stadium. Even though incomplete, ...
, situated on the slopes of
Monte Mario
Monte Mario (English: Mount Mario or Mount Marius) is the hill that rises in the north-west area of Rome (Italy), on the right bank of the Tiber, crossed by the Via Trionfale. It occupies part of Balduina, of the territory of Municipio Roma I ...
and overlooking Rome, was begun by Pope
Leo X
Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521.
Born into the prominent political an ...
and continued by Cardinal
Giulio de' Medici (1478–1534). In 1516 Leo X gave the commission to
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...
who was at that time the most famous artist in Rome. Using the ancient text of ''De Architectura'' by
Vitruvius
Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled '' De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribut ...
and the writings of
Pliny the Younger, Raphael imagined his own version of an ideal classical villa and garden. His villa had a great circular courtyard, and was divided into a winter apartment and a summer apartment. Passages led from the courtyard to the great loggia from which views could be gained of the garden and Rome. A round tower on the east side was intended as garden room in winter, warmed by the sun coming through glazed windows. The villa overlooked three terraces, one a square, one a circle, and one an oval. The top terrace was to be planted in chestnut trees and firs while the lower terrace was intended for plant beds.
Work on the Villa Madama stopped in 1520 after the death of Raphael but was then continued by other artists until 1534. They finished one-half of the villa including half of the circular courtyard, and the northwest loggia that was decorated with
grotesque
Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...
frescoes by
Giulio Romano
Giulio Romano (, ; – 1 November 1546), is the acquired name of Giulio Pippi, who was an Italian painter and architect. He was a pupil of Raphael, and his stylistic deviations from High Renaissance classicism help define the sixteenth-cent ...
and stucco by
Giovanni da Udine
150px, Portrait in Vasari's Vite
Giovanni Nanni, also Giovanni de' Ricamatori, better known as Giovanni da Udine (1487–1564), was an Italian painter and architect born in Udine. A painter also named ''Giovanni da Udine'' was exiled from his na ...
. Fine surviving features include a fountain of the head of an elephant by Giovanni da Udine and two gigantic stucco figures by
Baccio Bandinelli
Baccio Bandinelli (also called Bartolommeo Brandini; 12 November 1493 – shortly before 7 February 1560), was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, draughtsman, and painter.
Biography
Bandinelli was the son of a prominent Florentine goldsmith, ...
at the entrance of the ''giardino segreto'', the secret garden. The villa is now a state guest house for the Government of Italy.
Villa di Castello, Tuscany (1538)
Villa di Castello
The Villa di Castello, near the hills bordering Florence, Tuscany, central Italy, was the country residence of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1519-1574). The gardens, filled with fountains, statuary, and a grotto, became famous thro ...
was the project of
Cosimo de' Medici, first Duke of Tuscany, begun when he was only seventeen. It was designed by
Niccolò Tribolo
Niccolò di Raffaello di Niccolò dei Pericoli, called "Il Tribolo" (1500 – 7 September 1550) was an Italian Mannerist artist in the service of Cosimo I de' Medici in his natal city of Florence.
Life
Niccolò di Raffaello began as an apprent ...
who designed two other gardens: the
Giardino dei Semplici (1545) and the
Boboli Gardens
The Boboli Gardens ( it, Giardino di Boboli) is a historical park of the city of Florence that was opened to the public in 1766. Originally designed for the Medici, it represents one of the first and most important examples of the Italian garden, ...
(1550) for Cosimo.
The garden was laid out on a gentle slope between the villa and the hill of
Monte Morello. Tribolo first built a wall across the slope, dividing it into an upper garden filled with orange trees, and a lower garden that was subdivided into garden rooms with walls of hedges, rows of trees and tunnels of citrus trees and cedars. A central axis, articulated by a series of fountains, extended from the villa up to the base of Monte Morello. In this arrangement, the garden had both grand perspectives and enclosed, private spaces.
The lower garden had a large marble fountain that was meant to be seen against a backdrop of dark cypresses, with figures of
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the ...
and
Antaeus
Antaeus (; Ancient Greek: Ἀνταῖος ''Antaîos'', "opponent", derived from , ''antao'' – 'I face, I oppose'), known to the Berbers as Anti, was a figure in Berber and Greek mythology. He was famed for his defeat by Heracles as part ...
. Just above this fountain, in the center of the garden, was a
hedge maze
A hedge maze is an outdoor garden maze or labyrinth in which the "walls" or dividers between passages are made of vertical hedges.
History
Hedge mazes evolved from the knot gardens of Renaissance Europe, and were first constructed during the m ...
formed by cypress, laurel, myrtle, roses and box hedges. Concealed in the middle of the maze was another fountain, with a statue of
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
. Around this fountain, Cosimo had bronze pipes installed under the tiles for ''
giochi d'acqua
''Jeux d'eau'' (Italian ''giochi d'acqua'') or "water games", is an umbrella term in the history of gardens for the water features that were introduced into mid-16th century Mannerist Italian gardens.
History
Pools and fountains had been a f ...
'' ("water games"), which were concealed conduits which could be turned on with a key to drench unsuspecting guests. Another unusual feature was a
tree house
A tree house, tree fort or treeshed is a platform or building constructed around, next to or among the trunk or branches of one or more mature trees while above ground level. Tree houses can be used for recreation, work space, habitation, a hang ...
concealed in an ivy-covered oak tree, with a square dining room inside the tree.
![Ammannati, statua dell'appennino (o gennaio) 06](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Ammannati%2C_statua_dell%27appennino_%28o_gennaio%29_06.JPG)
At the far end of the garden and set against a wall, Tribolo created an elaborate
grotto, decorated with mosaics, pebbles, sea shells, imitation stalactites, and niches with groups of statues of domestic and exotic animals and birds, many with real horns, antlers and tusks. The animals symbolized the virtues and accomplishments of past members of Medici family. Water flowed from the beaks, wings and claws of the animals into marble basins below each niche. A gate could close suddenly behind visitors, and they would be soaked by hidden fountains.
Above the grotto, on the hillside, was small woodland, or ''bosco'', with a pond in the centre. In the pond is a bronze statue of a shivering giant, with cold water running down over his head, which represents either the month of January or the
Apennine Mountains.
When the last of the Medici died in 1737, the garden began to be altered by its new owners, the
House of Lorraine
The House of Lorraine (german: link=no, Haus Lothringen) originated as a cadet branch of the House of Metz. It inherited the Duchy of Lorraine in 1473 after the death without a male heir of Nicholas I, Duke of Lorraine. By the marriage of Fra ...
; the maze was demolished and the statue of Venus was moved to the
Villa La Petraia
Villa La Petraia is one of the Medici villas in Castello, Florence, Tuscany, central Italy. It has a distinctive 19th century belvedere on the upper east terrace on axis with the view of Florence.
History
In 1364, the "palace" of Petraia be ...
, but long before then, the garden had been described by many ambassadors and foreign visitors and had become famous throughout Europe. Its principles of perspective, proportion and symmetry, its geometric planting beds and rooms with walls of trees and hedges, were adapted in both the
gardens of the French Renaissance
Gardens of the French Renaissance were initially inspired by the Italian Renaissance garden, which evolved later into the grander and more formal ''jardin à la française'' during the reign of Louis XIV, by the middle of the 17th century.
In 14 ...
and the
garden à la française
The French formal garden, also called the (), is a style of garden based on symmetry and the principle of imposing order on nature. Its epitome is generally considered to be the Gardens of Versailles designed during the 17th century by the la ...
which followed.
Villa d'Este at Tivoli (1550–1572)
The
Villa d'Este
The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO World Herita ...
is a
villa
A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...
situated at
Tivoli, near Rome, Italy. Listed as a
UNESCO world heritage site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
, it is a fine example of
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...
and the
Italian Renaissance garden
The Italian Renaissance garden was a new style of garden which emerged in the late 15th century at villas in Rome and Florence, inspired by classical ideals of order and beauty, and intended for the pleasure of the view of the garden and the landsc ...
.
The garden plan is laid out on a central axis with subsidiary cross-axes of carefully varied character, refreshed by some five hundred jets in fountains, pools and water troughs. The copious water is supplied by the
Aniene, which is partly diverted through the town, a distance of a kilometer, and by the Rivellese spring, which supplies a cistern under the villa's courtyard. The garden is now part of the
Grandi Giardini Italiani.
The Villa's uppermost terrace ends in a balustraded balcony at the left end, with a sweeping view over the plain below. Symmetrical double flights of stairs flanking the central axis lead to the next garden terrace, with the
Grotto of Diana, richly decorated with frescoes and pebble
mosaic
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
to one side and the central ''Fontana del Bicchierone'' ("Fountain of the Great Cup") loosely attributed to
Bernini, where water issues from a seemingly natural rock into a scrolling shell-like cup.
The Villa d'Este at Tivoli is one of the grandest and best-preserved of the Italian Renaissance gardens. It was created by Cardinal
Ippolito II d'Este, son of
Alfonso I d'Este
Alfonso d'Este (21 July 1476 – 31 October 1534) was Duke of Ferrara during the time of the War of the League of Cambrai.
Biography
He was the son of Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and Eleanor of Naples and became duke on Ercole's death i ...
, the Duke of Ferrara, and
Lucretia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia (; ca-valencia, Lucrècia Borja, links=no ; 18 April 1480 – 24 June 1519) was a Spanish-Italian noblewoman of the House of Borgia who was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. She reigned as the Govern ...
. He was made a Cardinal at the age of twenty-nine and became governor of Tivoli in 1550. To develop his residence, he took over a former Franciscan convent, and for the garden he bought the adjoining steep hillside and the valley below. His chosen architect was
Pirro Ligorio
Pirro Ligorio ( October 30, 1583) was an Italian architect, painter, antiquarian, and garden designer during the Renaissance period. He worked as the Vatican's Papal Architect under Popes Paul IV and Pius IV, designed the fountains at Villa d’ ...
, who had been carrying out excavations for Ippolito at the nearby ruins of the ancient ''Villa Adriana'', or
Hadrian's Villa
Hadrian's Villa ( it, Villa Adriana) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site comprising the ruins and archaeological remains of a large villa complex built c. AD 120 by Roman Emperor Hadrian at Tivoli outside Rome. The site is owned by the Republic of ...
, the extensive country residence of the
Emperor Hadrian that had numerous elaborate water features.
Ligorio created the garden as a series of terraces descending the steep hillside at the edge of the mountains overlooking the plain of
Latium
Latium ( , ; ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire.
Definition
Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil ( Old Latium) on w ...
. The terraces were connected by gates and grand stairways starting from a terrace below the villa and traversing down to the Fountain of Dragons at the foot of the garden. The stairway was crossed by five traversal alleys on the different levels, which were divided into rooms by hedges and trellises covered with vines. At the crossing points of the stairway and the alleys there were pavilions, fruit trees, and aromatic plants. At the top, the promenade used by the Cardinal passed below the villa and led in one direction to the grotto of
Diana, and in the other to the grotto of
Aesclepius.
![Lallée aux Cent-Fontaines (Tivoli) (5869058344)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Lall%C3%A9e_aux_Cent-Fontaines_%28Tivoli%29_%285869058344%29.jpg)
The glory of the Villa d'Este was the system of fountains, fed by two aqueducts that Ligorio constructed from the River Aniene. In the centre of the garden, the alley of one hundred fountains (which actually had two hundred fountains), crossed the hillside, connecting the Oval Fountain with the Fountain of Rome, which was decorated with models of the famous landmarks of Rome. On a lower level, another alley passed by the Fountain of Dragons and joined the fountain of
Proserpine with the Fountain of the Owl. Still lower, an alley of fish ponds connected the Fountain of the Organ to the site of a proposed Fountain of Neptune.
Each fountain and path told a story, linking the d'Este family to the legends of
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the ...
and
Hippolytus (or Ippolito), the mythical son of
Theseus
Theseus (, ; grc-gre, Θησεύς ) was the mythical king and founder-hero of Athens. The myths surrounding Theseus his journeys, exploits, and friends have provided material for fiction throughout the ages.
Theseus is sometimes describ ...
and the Queen of the Amazons. The central axis led to the Fountain of Dragons, which illustrated one of the labors of Hercules, and three other statues of Hercules were found in the garden. The myth of Ippolito, the mythical namesake of the owner, was illustrated by two grottos, that of
Aesclepius and
Diana.
The Fountain of the Owl used a series of bronze pipes like flutes to make the sound of birds but the most famous feature of the garden was the great Organ Fountain. It was described by the French philosopher
Montaigne, who visited the garden in 1580: "The music of the Organ Fountain is true music, naturally created...made by water which falls with great violence into a cave, rounded and vaulted, and agitates the air, which is forced to exit through the pipes of an organ. Other water, passing through a wheel, strikes in a certain order the keyboard of the organ. The organ also imitates the sound of trumpets, the sound of cannon, and the sound of muskets, made by the sudden fall o water ...
The garden was substantially changed after the death of the Cardinal and in the 17th century, and many statues were sold, but the basic features remain, and the Organ fountain has recently been restored and plays music once again.
Villa Della Torre (1559)
The
Villa Della Torre, built for Giulio Della Torre (1480–1563), a law professor and humanist scholar in Verona, was a parody of the classical rules of Vitruvius; the
peristyle
In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle (; from Greek ) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön ( grc, τετράστῳον or τετράστοον, lit=f ...
of the building was in the perfectly harmonious Vitruvius style, but some of the stones were rough-cut and of different sizes and decorated with masks which sprayed water, which jarred the classical harmony. "The building was deformed: it seemed to be caught in a strange, amorphous condition, somewhere crude rustic simplicity and classical perfection.". The fireplaces inside were in the forms of the mouths of gigantic masks. Outside, the garden was filled with disturbing architectural elements, including a grotto whose entrance represented the mouth of hell, with eyes that showed fires burning inside.
Sacro Bosco at Bomarzo, Lazio (1552–1585)
Sacro Bosco
Johannes de Sacrobosco, also written Ioannes de Sacro Bosco, later called John of Holywood or John of Holybush ( 1195 – 1256), was a scholar, monk, and astronomer who taught at the University of Paris.
He wrote a short introduction to the Hi ...
("Sacred Wood"), near the village of
Bomarzo
Bomarzo is a town and '' comune'' of the province of Viterbo ( Lazio, Central Italy), in the lower valley of the Tiber. It is located east-northeast of Viterbo and north-northwest of Rome.
History
The city's current name is a derivation o ...
, is the most famous and extravagant of the
Manieristic gardens. It was created for
Pier Francesco Orsini (1523–1585). It was witty and irreverent, and violated all the rules of Renaissance gardens: it has no symmetry, no order, and no focal point. An inscription in the garden says: "You who have travelled the world in search of great and stupendous marvels, come here, where there are horrendous faces, elephants, lions,
orcies and dragons."
The garden is filled with enormous statues, reached by wandering paths. It included a mouth of Death, a house that seemed to be falling over, fantastic animals and figures, many of them carved of rough volcanic rock in place in the garden. Some of the scenes were taken from the romantic epic poem ''
Orlando Furioso'' by
Ludovico Ariosto, others from works by
Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
and
Francesco Petrarca
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...
. As one inscription in the garden notes, Sacro Bosco "resembles only itself, and nothing else".
Villa Lante
Villa Lante
Villa Lante is a Mannerist garden of surprise in Bagnaia, Viterbo, central Italy, attributed to Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola.
Villa Lante did not become so known until it passed to Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rovere, Duke of Bomarzo, in the 1 ...
at Bagnaia near
Viterbo
Viterbo (; Viterbese: ; lat-med, Viterbium) is a city and ''comune'' in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo.
It conquered and absorbed the neighboring town of Ferento (see Ferentium) in its early history ...
, attributed to
Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola
Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola ( , , ; 1 October 15077 July 1573), often simply called Vignola, was one of the great Italian architects of 16th century Mannerism. His two great masterpieces are the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the Jesuits' Churc ...
(there is no contemporary documentation) is, with the famous
Gardens of Bomarzo, one of the most famous Italian 16th century
Mannerist gardens of surprises. The first surprise to a visitor coming fresh from
Villa Farnese
The Villa Farnese, also known as Villa Caprarola, is a pentagonal mansion in the town of Caprarola in the province of Viterbo, Northern Lazio, Italy, approximately north-west of Rome. This villa should not be confused with the Palazzo Farnese a ...
at
Caprarola Caprarola is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Viterbo, in the Lazio region of central Italy. The village is situated in a range of volcanic hills known as the Cimini Mounts.
The town is home to the large Renaissance mansion or villa which ...
is the difference between the two villas in the same area, period, architectural mannerist style and possibly by the same architect: there is little if any similarity. Villa Lante is arranged not as a dominant single building with adjacent gardens as at Caprarola, but with the gardens as the principal feature, set on the main axis and stepping up the hill slope as a series of terraces between the two small and relatively subservient casinos.
The villa is known as the "Villa Lante". However, it did not become known as this until the villa was passed to
Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rovere
Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rovere (15 June 1618 – 29 June 1688) was an Italian nobleman and Duke of Bomarzo.
Biography
Lante was the son of Marcantonio Lante (1566–1643) and his wife Lucrezia della Rovere. He was nephew to his f ...
,
Duke of Bomarzo, in the 17th century, when it was already 100 years old.
Boboli Gardens
The
Boboli Gardens
The Boboli Gardens ( it, Giardino di Boboli) is a historical park of the city of Florence that was opened to the public in 1766. Originally designed for the Medici, it represents one of the first and most important examples of the Italian garden, ...
, in Italian Giardino di Boboli, form a famous park in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
, Italy, that is home to a distinguished collection of sculptures dating from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, with some Roman antiquities.
The Gardens, behind the
Pitti Palace
The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...
, the main seat of the
Medici
The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mu ...
grand dukes of
Tuscany
it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Citizenship
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 = Italian
, demogra ...
at
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
, are some of the first and most familiar formal sixteenth-century Italian gardens. The mid-16th-century garden style, as it was developed here, incorporated longer axial developments, wide gravel avenues, a considerable "built" element of stone, the lavish employment of statuary and fountains, and a proliferation of detail, coordinated in semi-private and public spaces that were informed by classical accents:
grottos,
nympheums, garden temples and the like. The openness of the garden, with an expansive view of the city, was unconventional for its time.
Giardino Giusti
![Giardino Giusti 2016 8](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Giardino_Giusti_2016_8.jpg)
The
Giardini di Giusti (''Giusti Gardens'') were planted in 1580 to surround the
Palazzo Giusti
The Giusti Palace and Garden ( it, Palazzo e giardino Giusti) are located in the east of Verona, Italy, a short distance from Piazza Isolo and near the city centre. The palace was built in the sixteenth century. The garden is considered one o ...
, in
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...
, Italy. They are regarded as some of the most beautiful
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
gardens in Europe.
Giardino Bardini
The
Giardino Bardini is a
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
garden in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
. Only opened recently to the public, it is relatively little-known. Access is gained via the Via de' Bardi, just over the road from the
Museo Bardini in the
Oltrarno
The Oltrarno (''beyond the Arno'') is a quarter of Florence, Italy. It is located south of the River Arno. It contains part of the historic centre of Florence and many notable sites such as the church Santo Spirito di Firenze, Palazzo Pitti, Bel ...
district of the city, although the gardens exit onto the Costa di San Giorgio, onto which the
Forte di Belevedere and the
Giardino di Boboli
The Boboli Gardens ( it, Giardino di Boboli) is a historical park of the city of Florence that was opened to the public in 1766. Originally designed for the Medici, it represents one of the first and most important examples of the Italian garden, ...
connect in turn.
Villa Aldobrandini
Villa Aldobrandini
The Villa Aldobrandini is a villa in Frascati, Italy. It is still owned and lived in by the Aldobrandini family, and known as Belvedere for its location overlooking the valley toward the city of Rome.
It is the only grand Pope, Papal garden not o ...
is a villa in
Frascati
Frascati () is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated wit ...
, Italy, property of
Aldobrandini
The House of Aldobrandini is an Italian noble family originally from Florence, where in the Middle Ages they held the most important municipal offices. Now the Aldobrandini are resident in Rome, with close ties to the Vatican.
History
Their ...
family. Also known as Belvedere for its charming location overlooking the whole valley up to Rome, it was built on the order of Cardinal
Pietro Aldobrandini
Pietro Aldobrandini (31 March 1571 – 10 February 1621) was an Italian cardinal and patron of the arts.
Biography
He was made a cardinal in 1593 by his uncle, Pope Clement VIII. He took over the duchy of Ferrara in 1598 when it fell to the P ...
, Pope
Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII ( la, Clemens VIII; it, Clemente VIII; 24 February 1536 – 3 March 1605), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1592 to his death in March 1605.
Born ...
's nephew over a pre-existing edifice built by the Vatican prelate Alessandro Rufini in 1550.
The villa was rebuilt in the current form by
Giacomo della Porta
Giacomo della Porta (1532–1602) was an Italian architect and sculptor, who worked on many important buildings in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica. He was born at Porlezza, Lombardy and died in Rome.
Biography
Giacomo Della Porta was ...
from 1598 to 1602, and then completed by
Carlo Maderno
Carlo Maderno (Maderna) (1556 – 30 January 1629) was an Italian architect, born in today's Ticino, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His façades of Santa Susanna, St. Peter's Basilica and Sant'Andrea della Vall ...
and
Giovanni Fontana. Particularly famous is the Teatro delle Acqua ("Water Theater"), by Carlo Maderno and
Orazio Olivieri Orazio is a male given name of Italy, Italian origin, derived from the Latin language, Latin name (Roman naming conventions, ''nomen'') Horatius (disambiguation), Horatius, from the Roman gens (clan) Horatia gens, Horatia.
People so named include: ...
. Other noted villas with water-play structure are the
Villa d'Este
The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO World Herita ...
in
Tivoli and
Villa Torlonia also in
Frascati
Frascati () is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated wit ...
.
Palace of Caserta
The
Royal Palace of Caserta
The Royal Palace of Caserta ( it, Reggia di Caserta ) is a former royal residence in Caserta, southern Italy, constructed by the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies as their main residence as kings of Naples. It is the largest palace erected in Europ ...
(Italian: ''Reggia di Caserta'') is a former royal residence in
Caserta
Caserta () is the capital of the province of Caserta in the Campania region of Italy. It is an important agricultural, commercial, and industrial '' comune'' and city. Caserta is located on the edge of the Campanian plain at the foot of the Ca ...
, constructed for the Bourbon
kings of Naples
The following is a list of rulers of the Kingdom of Naples, from its first separation from the Kingdom of Sicily to its merger with the same into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Kingdom of Naples (1282–1501)
House of Anjou
In 1382, the Kin ...
.
The garden, a typical example of the Baroque extension of formal vistas, stretch for 120 ha, partly on hilly terrain. It is inspired by the
Gardens of Versailles
The Gardens of Versailles (french: Jardins du château de Versailles ) occupy part of what was once the ''Domaine royal de Versailles'', the royal demesne of the château of Versailles. Situated to the west of the palace, the gardens cover so ...
, but it is commonly regarded as superior in beauty. The park starts from the back façade of the palace, flanking a long alley with artificial fountains and cascades. There is an
English garden
The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...
in the upper part designed in the 1780s by
Carlo Vanvitelli and the London-trained plantsman-designer
John Graeffer John Graefer or Johann Andreas Graeffer (1 January 1746 – 7 August 1802) was a German botanist nurseryman born in Helmstedt. Graeffer/Graefer is remembered by garden historians as having introduced a number of exotic plants to British gardens ...
, recommended to
Sir William Hamilton by
Sir Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences.
Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James C ...
. It is an early Continental example of an English garden in the svelte naturalistic taste of
Capability Brown.
The fountains and cascades, each filling a ''vasca'' ("basin"), with architecture and hydraulics by
Luigi Vanvitelli
Luigi Vanvitelli (; 12 May 1700 – 1 March 1773), known in Dutch as (), was an Italian architect and painter. The most prominent 18th-century architect of Italy, he practised a sober classicising academic Late Baroque style that made an eas ...
at intervals along a wide straight canal that runs to the horizon, rivalled those at
Peterhof outside
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
. These include:
* the Fountain of Diana and Actaeon (sculptures by Paolo Persico, Brunelli, Pietro Solari);
* the Fountain of Venus and Adonis (1770–80);
* the Fountain of the Dolphins (1773–80);
* the Fountain of
Aeolus
In Greek mythology, Aeolus or Aiolos (; grc, Αἴολος , ) is a name shared by three mythical characters. These three personages are often difficult to tell apart, and even the ancient mythographers appear to have been perplexed about which A ...
;
* the Fountain of
Ceres
Ceres most commonly refers to:
* Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid
* Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture
Ceres may also refer to:
Places
Brazil
* Ceres, Goiás, Brazil
* Ceres Microregion, in north-central Goiás ...
.
A large population of figures from classical antiquity were modelled by Gaetano Salomone for the gardens of the Reggia, and executed by large workshops.
Isola Bella (Lake Maggiore)
![Isola Bella, belvedere](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Isola_Bella%2C_belvedere.jpg)
The
Isola Bella (Lago Maggiore) is one of the
Borromean Islands of
Lago Maggiore
Lake Maggiore (, ; it, Lago Maggiore ; lmo, label=Western Lombard, Lagh Maggior; pms, Lagh Magior; literally 'Greater Lake') or Verbano (; la, Lacus Verbanus) is a large lake located on the south side of the Alps. It is the second largest la ...
in north Italy. The island is situated in the Borromean Gulf 400 meters from the lakeside town of
Stresa
Stresa is a town and ''comune'' of about 4,600 residents on the shores of Lake Maggiore in the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in the Piedmont region of northern Italy, about northwest of Milan. It is situated on road and rail routes to the Simp ...
. Isola Bella is 320 meters long by 400 meters wide and is entirely occupied by the Palazzo Borromeo and its Italian garden.
Influences on other gardening styles
French garden
The form of the French garden was strongly influenced by the Italian gardens of the Renaissance, and was largely fixed by the middle of the 17th century.
Following his campaign in Italy in 1495, where he saw the gardens and castles of Naples, King
Charles VIII brought Italian craftsmen and garden designers, such as
Pacello da Mercogliano, from Naples and ordered the construction of Italian-style gardens at his residence at the
Château d'Amboise
The Château d'Amboise is a château in Amboise, located in the Indre-et-Loire ''département'' of the Loire Valley in France. Confiscated by the monarchy in the 15th century, it became a favoured royal residence and was extensively rebuilt. K ...
. His successor
Henry II, who had also traveled to Italy and had met
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
, had an Italian garden created nearby at the
Château de Blois. Beginning in 1528, King
Francis I of France
Francis I (french: François Ier; frm, Francoys; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin on ...
created new gardens at the
Palace of Fontainebleau
Palace of Fontainebleau (; ) or Château de Fontainebleau, located southeast of the center of Paris, in the commune of Fontainebleau, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. The medieval castle and subsequent palace served as a residence ...
, which featured fountains, parterres, a forest of pine trees brought from
Provence
Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...
and the first artificial
grotto in France. The
Château de Chenonceau had two gardens in the new style: one created for
Diane de Poitiers
Diane de Poitiers (9 January 1500 – 25 April 1566) was a French noblewoman and prominent courtier. She wielded much power and influence as King Henry II's royal mistress and adviser until his death. Her position increased her wealth and famil ...
in 1551, and a second for
Catherine de Medici
Catherine de' Medici ( it, Caterina de' Medici, ; french: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King H ...
in 1560.
[Prevot, ''Histoire des Jardins'', 114]
In 1536 the architect
Philibert de l'Orme
Philibert de l'Orme () (3-9 June 1514 – 8 January 1570) was a French architect and writer, and one of the great masters of French Renaissance architecture. His surname is also written De l'Orme, de L'Orme, or Delorme.
Biography
Early care ...
, upon his return from Rome, created the gardens of the
Château d'Anet
The Château d'Anet is a château near Dreux, in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France, built by Philibert de l'Orme from 1547 to 1552 for Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II of France. It was built on the former château at the ...
following the Italian rules of proportion. The carefully prepared harmony of Anet, with its parterres and surfaces of water integrated with sections of greenery, became one of the earliest and most influential examples of the classic French garden.
[Bernard Jeannel, '' Le Nôtre'', Éd. Hazan, p. 17]
English garden
There is some Italian influence in the Elizabethan part of the garden at
Hardwick Hall
Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire is an architecturally significant country house from the Elizabethan era, a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. Built between 1590 and 1597 for Bess of Hardwick, it was designed by the architect ...
. An Italian garden at
Wotton House
Wotton House, Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire, England, is a stately home built between 1704 and 1714, to a design very similar to that of the contemporary version of Buckingham House. The house is an example of English Baroque and a Grade I ...
in Surrey, planted between 1643 and 1652 by
John Evelyn
John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society.
John Evelyn's diary, or ...
(1620–1706) and his elder brother George. is that house's best-known feature.
Glossary of the Italian Renaissance garden
*Bosco sacro. Sacred wood. A grove of trees inspired by the groves where pagans would worship. In Renaissance and especially
mannerist
Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Ita ...
gardens, this section was filled with allegorical statues of animals, giants and
legendary creatures.
*Fontaniere. The fountain-maker, a hydraulic engineer who designed the water system and fountains.
*Giardino segreto. The Secret Garden. An enclosed private garden within the garden, inspired by the cloisters of Medieval monasteries. A place for reading, writing or quiet conversations.
*Giochi d'acqua. water tricks. Concealed fountains which drenched unsuspecting visitors.
*Semplici. "Simples," or medicinal plants and herbs.
Notes
References
*
Hobhouse, Penelope, ''Gardens of Italy'', Mitchell Beazley, 1998, ISBN 1857328965
*
Hobhouse, Penelope, ''Plants in Garden History'', 2004, Pavilion Books,
*''The Oxford Companion to Gardens'', eds.
Geoffrey Jellicoe
Sir Geoffrey Allan Jellicoe (8 October 1900 – 17 July 1996) was an English architect, town planner, landscape architect, garden designer, landscape and garden historian, lecturer and author. His strongest interest was in landscape and gard ...
,
Susan Jellicoe
Lady Susan Jellicoe ( Pares; 30 June 1907 – 1 August 1986) was an English plantswoman, photographer, writer, and editor who worked in collaboration with her husband, the landscape architect Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe. Her main interest was in la ...
, Patrick Goode and Michael Lancaster, 1986, OUP, ISBN 0192861387
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Persian gardens in Italy