Villa Cetinale is a 17th-century
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
villa and
Italian garden
The Italian garden (or giardino all'italiana () is best known for a number of large Italian Renaissance gardens which have survived in something like their original form. In the history of gardening, during the Renaissance, Italy had the most ...
in
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze'').
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...
. The property is located in the hamlet of
Cetinale near
Sovicille
Sovicille is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Siena in the Italian region Tuscany, located about south of Florence and about southwest of Siena.
Sovicille borders the ''comuni'' of Casole d'Elsa, Chiusdino, Monteriggioni, Monteroni ...
, about west of
Siena
Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.
The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...
, in Tuscany,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
. The property is best known for the expansive gardens, arrayed in classic symmetry, as well as for its
woodland garden
A woodland garden is a garden or section of a garden that includes large trees and is laid out so as to appear as more or less natural woodland, though it is often actually an artificial creation. Typically it includes plantings of flowering shrub ...
s.
History
17th century
The residence was originally a modest building surrounded by farm dwellings, owned by Fabio Chigi (1599-1667). Chigi employed
Benedetto Giovannelli, a local architect, to design the plans for a new
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 ...
, whose construction occurred between 1651 and 1655. After Fabio Chigi became
Pope Alexander VII
Pope Alexander VII ( it, Alessandro VII; 13 February 159922 May 1667), born Fabio Chigi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 April 1655 to his death in May 1667.
He began his career as a vice- papal legate, an ...
, in 1655, work came to a halt.
In 1676, the villa and lands were inherited by the Pope's nephew, Cardinal
Flavio Chigi (1631-1693), Prince of
Farnese, Duke of
Ariccia
Ariccia (Latin: ''Aricia'') is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, central Italy, southeast of Rome. It is in the Alban Hills of the Lazio (Latium) region and could be considered an extension of Rome's southeastern suburbs. On ...
and Prince of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
. Cardinal Chigi employed the architect
Carlo Fontana
Carlo Fontana (1634 or 1638–1714) was an Italian architect originating from today's Canton Ticino, who was in part responsible for the classicizing direction taken by Late Baroque Roman architecture.
Biography
There seems to be no proof that ...
in 1680 to redesign the villa, originally called Villa Chigi, and plan the gardens. Fontana was a former pupil of
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his ...
. His design transformed the villa into the
Roman Baroque style.
After the death of Cardinal Chigi in 1693 it passed into his family, the Chigi-Zondadari, who retained it into the late 20th century.
20th century
Villa Cetinale, by then in a somewhat ruinous state, was acquired by British aristocrat
Antony Lambton
Antony Claud Frederick Lambton, (10 July 1922 – 30 December 2006), briefly 6th Earl of Durham, styled before 1970 as Viscount Lambton, and widely known as Lord Lambton, was a Conservative Member of Parliament and a cousin of Sir Alec Douglas- ...
in 1977. Lambton retired there, following a personal scandal in England. For nearly three decades he meticulously restored the villa and the gardens' built features and plantings. He died in Siena in 2006. It is now available for private rental, with garden tours available by arrangement.
Villacetinale.com
. accessed 8.2.2012
British writer and garden design aficionado Harold Acton
Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton (5 July 1904 – 27 February 1994) was a British writer, scholar, and aesthete who was a prominent member of the Bright Young Things. He wrote fiction, biography, history and autobiography. During his stay in Ch ...
translated the Latin inscription on Villa Cetinale as follows:
Garden
Main axis
The plan of the Villa Cetinale gardens is in the Giardino all'italiana
The Italian garden (or giardino all'italiana () is best known for a number of large Italian Renaissance gardens which have survived in something like their original form. In the history of gardening, during the Renaissance, Italy had the most ...
style, with a strong solo primary axis.
It begins at the lower terminus far below the house, with a gigantic statue 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 Gr ...
. The axis extends across the natural and agricultural landscape, and the midway immediate villa surroundings, to its upper terminus, a hermitage—''Romitorio'' high on the hill above.
On axis at the front façade
A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'.
In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...
of the villa is the ''Limonaia'', a semi-walled potted lemon
The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China.
The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...
garden, accented with statues by Giuseppe Mazzuoli (1644-1725) and 'Baroque style' topiary
Topiary is the horticultural practice of training perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, whether geometric or fanciful. The term also refers to plants w ...
. On axis at the rear façade a symmetrical double staircase rises to the primary villa entry, at the piano nobile
The ''piano nobile'' (Italian for "noble floor" or "noble level", also sometimes referred to by the corresponding French term, ''bel étage'') is the principal floor of a palazzo. This floor contains the main reception and bedrooms of the hou ...
('floor one') level, following the Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
custom of reserving the ground floor unnumbered for the domestic service uses.
Behind the villa an avenue (''allée'') of Italian cypress (''Cupressus sempervirens'') defines the axis through gardens and fields to the base of the hill. A significant and very long stone stairway carries the axis up through the hillside's woodlands, to the focal point of the hermitage tower.
Other elements
From beside the villa a secondary axis extends northeast across a balustrade
A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...
d terrace, and through an olive grove
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' 'M ...
to a very tall masonry bell tower, with clock.
There are several original non-axial elements of the gardens. Northeast of the main axis beyond the bell tower a garden walkway proceeds around a hill, going through the 'Holy Woods' with stone statues and sculptures of animals, also by Giuseppe Mazuoli. West across the axis a long looping walkway passes through open woods past a series of religious shrines with statues. Olive groves are also part of the landscape surrounding the villa and long axis.
The Lambton restoration also developed new off-axis garden terraces and flower gardens beside the villa.
;Publications
Villa Cetinale was one of the 70 gardens included by Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...
in her 1904 book ''Italian Villas and Their Gardens'', with illustrations and a plan of it. The garden is also included in the 1997 book ''Edith Wharton’s Italian Gardens'' by Vivian Russell, and featured on the cover.
See also
* 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 ...
* Giardino all'italiana
The Italian garden (or giardino all'italiana () is best known for a number of large Italian Renaissance gardens which have survived in something like their original form. In the history of gardening, during the Renaissance, Italy had the most ...
* 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 l ...
— ''Baroque garden style''.
References
Further reading
*
* Ramsay, A., and Attlee, H. ''Italian Gardens'', Robertson McCarta, London 1989.
* Russell, Vivian. ''Edith Wharton’s Italian Gardens'', 1997.
External links
Villa Cetinale: website
— ''(English'')
Villa Cetinale: photo gallery
* https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Villa+Cetinale&f=hp Flickr gallery] — ''all images tagged Villa Cetinale''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cetinale
Villas in the Province of Siena
Italian Renaissance gardens
Gardens in Tuscany
Baroque architecture in Tuscany
Buildings and structures in Sovicille
Baroque villas
Woodland gardens