bensozia: Villa d'Este

Friday, May 9, 2025

Villa d'Este

The Neptune Fountain

The Villa d'Este – the one at Tivoli near Rome, that is; there are a bunch of Este villas – has one of the world's most famous gardens. The house is also sort of famous, or at least the paintings are, but it is the gardens that occupy a big space in our imagination of the Renaissance.

The Hall of Glory

The house was commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este (1509–1572), a younger son from the famous Estes of Ferrara. We hear that Cardinal d'Este wanted to be the Governor of Tivoli because it gave him the chance to oversee the excavations at Hadrian's famous villa and get his hands on any statues or other antiquities that turned up.

Once he had the job, Cardinal d'Este he set about building himself a suitable house and garden. The work was supervised by architect-engineer Alberto Galvani, court architect of the Este, but I haven't found any information on who actually designed the garden.

The Oval Fountain

Wikipedia:

The vast construction site required the demolition of houses, public buildings and roads. In 1568 the local residents filed twelve different lawsuits against the Cardinal, but did not deter him from his project. Between 1563 and 1565, a huge amount of earth was excavated and used to construct new terraces; arcades, grottos, niches, and nymphaeums. The nearby river Aniene was diverted to furnish water for the complex system of pools, water jets, channels, fountains, cascades and water games. The steep slope of the garden, more than 45 metres (148 ft) from top to bottom, posed special challenges. Canals were dug and 200 metres (660 ft) of underground pipes were laid to carry the water from the artificial mountain under the oval fountain to the rest of the garden. Following the aesthetic principles of the Renaissance, the garden was carefully divided into regular units, or compartments, each 30 metres (98 ft) across, laid out along a longitudinal median axis, with five lateral axes.