Villa d'Este .. Fantastical Gateway to Italy's Splendor

Allow yourself to give way to the atmosphere of Villa d’Este, and you’ll experience a fantastical gateway to the historic splendor of an Italy long past. A visit affords the opportunity to immerse yourself in the fireworks of spectacular water features that will animate your passage through an architectural masterwork of design and invention.

Villa d'Este (Photo: Alice Joyce)

Commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito d’Este, Villa d’Este is generally proclaimed to be the ultimate Renaissance garden. Sited near Hadrian’s Villa, with a design by Pirro Ligorio, the vast gardens spread across a steep landscape, taking in an enchanting vista of the town of Tivoli.

Villa d’Este – Photo: Alice Joyce

Ligorio employed terraces to work with the difficult yet dramatic terrain, creating a complex symmetry to delineate, and to draw one into the layout of the garden scheme. Although many original sculptures no longer exist to enliven the setting, the flamboyant water elements, for which the garden is known, still effectively startle and delight.

Villa d’Este (Photo: Alice Joyce)

To walk the Villa’s pathways is to be immersed in the art and history of gardening, aware that this exalted achievement demonstrates the Cardinal’s unqualified egocentric vision. It’s believed to have taken a half-century to complete these gardens. By blocking out the sounds of other visitors, you’ll imagine the experience of these magnificent surroundings in the late-16th century.

Villa d’Este (Photo: Alice Joyce)

Villa d’Este (Alice Joyce photo)

Villa d’Este

Prey yourself away from the Villa’s overlook, gazing upon the glistening organ fountain – the Fountain of Nature, and you’ll lose touch with modern-day Italy.

Italian Gardens … Amazon.com

Villa d'Este Grotto (Alice Joyce photo)

Villa d’Este (Photo: Alice Joyce)

In moving through the garden’s compelling structure, you’ll revel in the exuberant display of the Hundred Fountains, with its echoing play of water…

…and stand mesmerized before the nymphaeum, and fabled cascades of the Oval Fountain.

Italian Gardens … Books on Amazon.com

September 4th, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: Historic Gardens, Italy | 2 comments

Sacred Wood of Bomarzo .. Sojourn in Italy

BOMARZO: 16th century landscape populated by strangely compelling creatures, gods & goddesses carved in stone.

Bomarzo – Sleeping Beauty  (Alice Joyce photo)
Designed by the architect, Pirro Ligorio, the Sacred Wood of Bomazo is a marvelous Mannerist landscape in the province of Viterbo, in Italy’s Lazio region, north of Rome.

Bomarzo - Neptune (Alice Joyce photo)

The terrain of Bomarzo or Parco dei Mostri (Park of the Monsters) is a well-worn parkland today:  the price of admission yields a faded copy of a map. Yet, after having been abandoned for hundred of years, the 16th century estate of Prince Pier Francesco Orsini – called ‘Vicino’ – is open to the public to be experienced once more.

Imagine the astounding undertaking Orsini entered into when creating the setting, and you’ll be swept away by the Prince’s dramatic intent, unfolding along intricate, convoluted pathways: A theme that effectively rejected the dominant geometric formality common to gardens of the period.

Bomarzo's Dragon (Alice Joyce photo)

At the entrance to the woodland, an invitation is etched: “You who go wandering about the world in search of sublime and awesome wonders, come here where horrendous faces, elephants, lions, bears, ogres and dragons are to be seen.”

Bomarzo ..  ’Giants Do Battle’ – Hercules (Alice Joyce photo)

In Visions of Arcadia (Aurum, 1996), author, May Woods reflects on the playful character of one of Bomarzo’s stone beasts. The representation of a dragon with the wings of a butterfly. Woods suggests the depiction rests not in the creature’s diabolical nature, but rather in the role of protector, ensuring the purity of the fountain’s water.

Bomarzo Ogre (Alice Joyce photo)

Huge in size and impact, the landscape’s much photographed Ogre, albeit engaged in an apparent scream, houses a table where you can enjoy a picnic.

Bomarzo (Alice Joyce photo)

In the exoticism of the garden plan, Orsini presented an alluring challenge to his aristocratic guests – artists, poets, and intelligentsia of the day, to decode the symbolism, the iconography of mermaids, gods and monsters, populating the extravagantly theatrical setting.

Bomarzo (Alice Joyce photo)

Mask of Madness (Alice Joyce photo)

An elephant about to kill a warrior;  a mythological Orc carrying a globe of the world, topped by a model of the Orsini castle:

Melancholic or humorous?

Horrific or strangely compelling?

At the culminating point in one’s journey through the Prince’s gardens, you come upon a building of subtle beauty, The Temple of Divine Love; built in memory of Orsini’s wife by renowned architect, Vignola.

June 19th, 2010 | Tags: , | Category: Historic Gardens, Italy | Comments are closed

Resources & Links