Villa Lante at Bagnaia near Viterbo, attributed to Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (there is no contemporary documentation [1]) is, with the famous garden at Bomarzo, one of the most famous Italian 16th century Mannerist gardens of surprises. The first surprise to a visitor coming fresh from Villa Farnese at Caprarola 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 hillslope 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, Duke of Bomarzo, in the 17th century, when it was already 100 years old.
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Villa Lante, Rome
Another Villa Lante, Villa Lante al Gianicolo, is located in Rome on the Gianicolo. This summer house was designed by Giulio Romano during the early part of the 16th century. The impoverished Lante family had to sell the Villa Lante in Rome by the early 19th century. After the sale the house belonged, among others, to the famous German archaeologist Wolfgang Helbig in the late 19th century. Today, the property is owned by the Republic of Finland though Senate Properties, and the building houses the Institutum Romanum Finlandiae and the Vatican Embassy of Finland
Introduction: Bagnaia
Bagnaia is located on a once busy Roman road through the Cimini Hills that became part of the Via Francigena; however, the first specific mention of Bagnaia is in 963 A.D., when the village was known as Bangaria. Since the 13th century, the lands of Bagnaia had been in the gift of the pope, usually given to the Bishop of nearby Viterbo, however, it was not until the 16th century that an episcopal residence was built there. During the sixteenth century the village obtained some fine architecture, especially after the construction of the Villa Lante increased its popularity as a resort. In 1576 Tommaso Ghinucci, a Siennese architect, oversaw the enlargement of the suburbs of what was now becoming a small town. These changes today are most obvious in the vicinity of the Piazza Venti Settembre, inspired by Piazza del Popolo in Rome.
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Architectural design
From the quiet piazza at the upper end of the unpretentious village, a flight of curved steps leads to a heavily rusticated arch. The buildings of the piazza display, in their ancient facades, worn stone coats-of-arms of popes and cardinals. Passing through the arch one comes to the first surprise: there is no Villa Lante.
The Villa Lante is in fact two casini; each casino, nearly identical, though built by different owners in a period separated by 30 years. Each square building has a ground floor of rusticated arcades or loggias which support a piano nobile above. Each facade on this floor has just three windows, alternating round or pointed pediments. Each window is divided by pilasters in pairs. An upper floor is merely hinted at by small rectangular, mezzanine type, windows above those of the piano nobile. Each casino is then crowned by a tower or lantern in the summit of the pantiled roof. These elaborate square lanterns too have pilasters, and windows both real and blind.
Each of these casini, in their severe mannerist style was built by a different unrelated owner. Villa Lante was first commissioned by Cardinal Gianfrancesco Gambara who gives his surname to the first casino.
It appears that work commenced in 1566 on the right hand (as one enters) casino. It is thought Gambara commissioned Vignola to design the project (the villa is only attributed to Vignola), and begin the work and the design of the gardens for which the villa was to become justly famous. The first casino and upper garden were quickly completed, but work was then suspended for the remainder of Gambara's lifetime.
Following the death of Gambara in 1587, he was succeeded as Apostolic Administrator of Viterbo, by the 17-year-old nephew of Pope Sixtus V, Cardinal Alessandro Peretti di Montalto. It was this mere youth who completed the project at Bagnaia and built the second casino. The two casini differ most in their frescoes: frescoes of landscapes in the Gambara and in the Montalto frescoes by a later artist in a more classical style. In the Gambara Casino the vaulted frescoed loggias are a riot of colour highlighting the architectural detail, while in the Montalto Casino the principal reception room is a combination of fresco and plaster sculpture, almost trompe l'oeil.
Garden Design
The gardens of the Villa Lante are what the villa is principally famous for and especially the water features, from cascades to fountains and dripping grottoes. The visual and harmonious choreography of water and the mechanical perfection of its flow was only achieved after Tommaso Ghinucci, a hydraulics engineer and architect from Siena, was called in; it is thought that his role was to oversee the hydrolics and building work [2]. Although the renowned antiquarian and architect Pirro Ligorio was also consulted, it seems likely that the success of the water features is due to Ghinucci's expertise which ensured that water lives and flows through the gardens to this day.
Entering from that rustic arch in the village piazza, leaving behind the dry dusty populated square, one immediately enters a new highly verdant, clean and fresh world. The first confrontation is the Quadrato, a perfectly square parterre, achieved a full generation before the first French parterres at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and at Fontainebleau: the contrast between the village piazza beyond and the sight of the new parterre must have been even more astounding then than today.
The twin casini stand on one side, on the remaining three sides the garden is enclosed by high box hedges. In the centre, low box is sculpted and formed into decorative patterns around small fountains and sculptures. The main feature of this parterre is the complex fountain at its centre, formed of four basins, separated by parapeted walks, the parapets decorated with stone pineapples and urns that intersect the water. At the heart of the complex, a centre basin contains the celebrated Fontana dei Mori by Giambologna: four life-sized moors stand square around two lions; they hold high the heraldic mountain surmounted by the star shaped fountain jet, the Montalto coat of arms. This is the focal point of this unusual composition of Casini and parterre. The Moors occupy the space that one would expect to be occupied by a vast palazzo flanked by the casini. It is now that one appreciates that the whole is in fact one perfectly planned unostentatious composition. Instead of the gardens being a mere appendage or at best a complement to a villa, here they are an integral part of the original conception of the villa.
Above the principal parterre a visitor climbs upwards, passing through the oaks, ilex and planes, glimpsing the fountains and sculptures below through unexpected vistas, and seeing them anew in unexpected contexts. One then comes to the first of the ascending terraces: here, lodged between two stone staircases, is the Fontana dei Lumini ("Fountain of the Lamps") a circular tiered fountain; on the ledge of each tier, smaller fountains, imitating Roman oil lamps, spout small jets of water which in the sunlight appear to blaze like lamp flames. Camellias, and other ericacious flowering shrubs added in the 19th century blaze in the shade of this terrace.
On the next (third) terrace is a large and long stone table where Cardinal Gambara and his guests would have dined al fresco. The table has a central channel with water flowing to keep the wine cool. At the back of this terrace, are large sculpted river gods flanking a fountain. Directly above and supplying the water for the fountain is the catena d'acqua or chain of water, a water feature (gioco d'acqua) that can be seen in other 16th century gardens (such as the Villa Farnese and Villa d'Este); this rill of small basins allows the water to ripple down to arrive at the fountain between the sculpted crayfish claws, a reference to Cardinal Gambero's heraldic device. In the meantime, stairs flanking the catena d'acqua lead up to the next terrace.
On the next upper terrace are yet further fountains and grottos and two small casini called the Houses of the Muses, the sides of which frame the large Fountain of the Deluge that terminates the main axis of the garden. A roughened texture has been given to the sides of these small buildings to harmonise with the natural rough rock of the Fountain, and water conduits set in their eaves (and operated by a remote switch) project jets of water to complete a visual ensemble known as the 'theatre of the waters'. The main facades of these small casini, like their grander relations on the lower terrace, have architectural merit with Serliana loggias articulated by Ionic columns, suggesting they might have been designed by Vignola. They bear the name of Cardinal Gambara engraved on the cornices. One casino gives access to a small secret garden, a garden of hedges and topiary, with a line of columns creating an air of an almost melancholic nature.
A perspective plan of 1609 shows a wooded area of walks and vistas to obelisks, plus a maze.
Twentieth century
Following the demise of Lante's last cardinal owner in 1656, the villa passed to the family of Duke Ippolito Lante, in whose family it remained for many generations. In the 19th century the family, revived by an American heiress Duchess, (a daughter of Thomas Davies of New York[3]) still lived at Lante in some style: the Gambara Casino was lived in by the ducal family and the Montalto was reserved for their guests.
In 1944 the gardens and casini were heavily damaged by Allied bombing after the fall of Rome. In the late 20th century the Villa was acquired by Dr. Angelo Cantoni, who completed a long program of restoration. It is now part of the Grandi Giardini Italiani.
Another Villa Lante, built on the outskirts of Rome to designs by Giulio Romano is today in use as the official Finnish cultural centre in Rome [1].
Notes
- ^ Coffin, David The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, Princeton University Press, 1979, p. 140
- ^ Coffin, 1979, p.343
- ^ Sitwell. Page 48
References
- Sitwell, Sacheverell (1961). Great Houses of Europe. London: George Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd. ISBN 0-600-33843-6.
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