Casino di Villa Medici

   Villa e Casino Medici sul Monte Pincio
  (Vasi at work in the Grand View of Rome)

Links to this page can be found in Book 10, Map B2, Day 2, View C5 and Rione Campo Marzio.

The page covers:
The plate by Giuseppe Vasi
Today's view
Villa Medici
   - The Gardens
   - Studiolo del Cardinale
   - The French Academy
Terrazza e Giardini del Pincio
   - Obelisco di Antinoo and Casina Valadier

The Plate (No. 188)

This 1761 etching by Giuseppe Vasi is one of the last views of Villa Medici showing the casino and the gardens with almost all their original decoration of ancient statues and reliefs. In 1780 Grand Duke Leopold I of Tuscany, after having hosted his brother Emperor Joseph II of Austria in Villa Medici in 1769, decided to move most of the statues and the obelisk to Florence.
The view is taken from the green dot in the small 1748 map here below. In the description below the plate Vasi made reference to: 1) obelisk made of Egyptian granite; 2) porticoes with statues; 3) hanging gardens; 4) granite and porphyry basins; 5) gallery with statues. The small map shows also: 6) Casino di Villa Medici; 7) entrance from Via di Porta Pinciana; 8) original location of the group of Niobe and her children; 9) Studiolo del Cardinale; 10) site of the Pincio terrace and gardens, at Vasi's time a property of the Augustinian monks of S. Maria del Popolo.

Florence - Galleria Palatina: Caspar Van Wittel - View of Villa Medici (early XVIIIth century)

Florence - Galleria degli Uffizi: Paolo Anesi - View of Villa Medici in 1763

Today

The view in June 2010

Most of the niches which housed busts and statues are empty and the two lions guarding the loggia are modern copies, but otherwise the elegant fa�ade designed by Bartolomeo Ammannati is intact.

Villa Medici

Loggia: (left) interior; (right) exterior

I remember I have heard, that the Magnificent Metello Vari when he was Overseer of the High Ways brought that ancient Lion which is now in the Garden belonging to the Great Duke on Mount Pincio and is plac'd in the Portico having formerly stood in the Prenestine Way without St. Laurence's Gate, which Lion at first had only half of his Body rising above the Work, but John Sceranus, a Carver of Fiesoli having carv'd solid and entire. (..) I remember that on the Tarpeian Hill, behind the House of the Conservators towards the Tullian Prison, there were many Pillars of Marble fit to make Statues dug up, with such Massive Capitals, that I carv'd out of one of them, by order of the Great Duke of Tuscany that Lion which is in the Gardens of Medicis at Mount Pincio.
Flaminius Vacca's 1594 account of discoveries of antiquities which took place in his lifetime, as quoted in "The Travels of the Learned Father Montfaucon from Paris thro' Italy - 1712"
It is a magnificent, strong building, with a substruction very remarkable, and a portico supported with columns towards the gardens, with two huge lions, of marble, at the end of the balustrade.
John Evelyn's Diary and Correspondence - 1644-1645
The beauty of Villa Medici is due to Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici who in 1576 bought the property from Cardinal Giovanni Ricci; the casino was enlarged and modified. Bartolomeo Ammannati, a Florentine sculptor and architect, designed a loggia, which is a very fine example of serliana, a window or loggia resembling a triumphal arch; Ammannati decorated also Palazzo di Fiorenza and Villa Giulia with serliana.

Apartment of the Cardinal: decoration of the ceiling of the bedroom by Jacopo Zucchi

Notwithstanding his position in the Roman church, the Cardinal did not choose religious subjects for the decoration of his apartment, but portraits of Muses, pagan gods, zodiac signs, which were very similar to those which embellished Villa la Farnesina of Agostino Chigi, a very rich banker. It is said that Zucchi portrayed Clelia Farnese, daughter of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese iuniore and mistress of Ferdinando, as an almost naked beautiful woman inside an octagonal medallion. The Cardinal had another apartment in his palace in town which also was decorated by Zucchi in a similar manner. You may wish to see a painting by Zucchi with a religious subject.

Decoration of the central section of the fa�ade

The whole outside of the facciata is incrusted with antique and rare basso-relievos and statues. Evelyn
In 1584 Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici bought the entire collection of antiquities of Palazzo Valle.
In line with the prevailing approach of the time the reliefs were adapted to the needs of the decoration and they were "completed" with parts in stucco in order to reach the appropriate size to fit into the frames designed by Ammannati.
The overall design of Villa Medici had an influence on that of nearby Villa Borghese, which was built some thirty years later. You may wish to see an aerial view of the casinos of the two villas side by side.

(left) Decoration of the right tower; (right) decoration of the right wing which includes a large decorative relief from "Ara Pacis Augustae"

According to art historians and archaeologists many reliefs were part of the decoration of Ara Pietatis Augustae, an altar similar to Ara Pacis Augustae, which was completed in 43 AD by Emperor Claudius and which was most likely located near the Tabularium.

(left) Museo dell'Ara Pacis: casts of two original ancient reliefs; (right) how they were utilized for the decoration of the casino

Casts were taken of the original marble reliefs during restorations of the fa�ade. The two reliefs shown above were most likely part of a larger one showing a sacrifice at the Temple of Magna Mater (Cybele). Each of the original marbles was embedded in a larger rectangle with additional figures in stucco.

(left) Fa�ade towards Rome (you may wish to see it in a 1909 watercolour by Yoshio Markino); (right) entrance and balcony

At the time of Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici the main access to the villa was located near Porta Pinciana; from the gate a long alley led the Cardinal's guests to the decorated fa�ade of the casino; the rear fa�ade, which has a commanding view over Rome, was given a more severe appearance, although we know that the Cardinal had plans to embellish it.
I spent the morning in attending the entrance and cavalcade of Cardinal Medici, the ambassador from the Grand Duke of Florence. (..) This night were glorious fire-works at the Palace of Cardinal Medici and lights of several colours all about the windows through the city, which they contrive by setting the candles in little paper lanterns dyed with various colours, placing hundreds of them from story to story; which renders a gallant show. Evelyn

(left) 1589 fountain which was supplied by Acqua Felice; (right) illustration from a XIXth century book

A popular postcard of Rome showed a fountain in front of the entrance to Villa Medici. It was shaded by ilexes, which framed a distant view of S. Pietro. Today the view is often impaired by the foliage of trees in properties below the fountain terrace.
The fountain is made up of two Roman basins; according to tradition the ball which spouts water is a later addition and it is a ball fired by Queen Christina of Sweden from Castel Sant'Angelo towards Villa Medici to test the guns of the fortress.

Views from near the fountain: (left) SS. Trinit� dei Monti; (right) the almost twin domes of S. Maria in Montesanto and S. Maria dei Miracoli

We lived on the Pincian Hill, close by the gardens of the French Academy. Far and wide beneath our windows lay the spires and house-tops of the Eternal city, with the Doria pines standing out against the Western horizon. (..) Ah, what glorious sights and sounds we had from those upper windows on the Pincian hill! What pomp and pageantry of cloud! What mists of golden dawn! What flashes of crimson sunset upon distant peaks!
Amelia B. Edwards - Barbara's History - 1864.

The Gardens

View of the gardens from the Apartment of the Cardinal

The first Garden had onely flowers; the second in the upper part, had a sweete Grove, and the lower part was full of fruit trees. (..) The outside of the Grove was all of Firre trees, which are greene in winter, but the inside had most pleasant walkes among rowes of many other kindes of trees. In this Grove was a most sweete Arbour, having foure roofes, and as it were chambers, one above the other, the first whereof is twentie staires from the ground, whence lay a most large and most faire Gallery of stone, under which was a most pleasant solitarie walke, betweene two walles, all set with Orange trees, and like fruit.
Fynes Moryson - An Itinerary: Containing His Ten Years Travel Through .. Italy (in 1594)
The gardens of Villa Medici were not as big as those of Villa d'Este, nor did they enjoy the same large supply of water which made that villa renowned for its fountains, however Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici managed to obtain a link with Acqua Felice, a new aqueduct built by Pope Sixtus V and to improve the supply of Acqua Vergine; a series of fountains were built in the gardens and Monte Parnaso, a small mound near the walls of Rome in the northern section of the property became known for its jeux d'eau.

(left) Copy of a bronze statue of Flying Mercury by Giambologna (original in Florence - Museo del Bargello - it opens in another window); (right) copy of the obelisk which was moved to Florence

Descending into the garden, is a noble fountain governed by a Mercury of brass. (..) There is likewise in this garden a fair obelisk, full of hieroglyphics. Evelyn
An obelisk bought by the Cardinal was placed at the centre of the terrace opposite the main fa�ade. It decorated Iseo Campense a temple to Isis in Rione Pigna, which is named after a gigantic bronze pine-cone which probably stood opposite the temple.

Group portraying Niobe and her children (original at Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence). The copies were made at the initiative of Balthus, a Polish-French painter who was Director of the French Academy in 1961-1977. Other statues related to Niobe (it opens in another window) were found in Rome after 1870 and are on display at Centrale Montemartini and Museo Nazionale Romano

Not far from St. John's Gate, without the City, in my memory were found many Marble Statues, which only represented the Fable of Niobe. Ferdinand Great Duke of Tuscany bought them, and they are now in his Garden near the Trinity. Vacca
The Niobe. I confider'd This, and every part of it for several Hours Alone. The Figures are placed upon a vast Rock-like Heap of Stone, about the bigness of an ordinary Room, and not Grouped at all; every one is detach'd from the other, but nevertheless by Threes, of which there is Five; they form a sort of a Square, three Figures on each Side, and three in the Middle, in all Fifteen, comprehending the Horse. This Injudicious way of letting them is very Offensive to the Eye at first View. Nor are they all of a Taste; the Niobe herself and the Danghter she covers are Divine, and so is she that keeps up her Drapery with her Hand over her Shoulder; the Head of another of the Daughters is so too, as is the whole Figure of one of the Sons that is dead, and which is of the most beautiful Parian Marble, which the other Figures are not.
Jonathan and Jonathan Richardson - Account of Some of the Statues, etc. in Italy - 1722
A complex set of ancient statues found in Rome in 1583 and representing Niobe and her children was placed at the end of the long alley which started at the entrance in Via di Porta Pinciana. They were found near Porta S. Giovanni and perhaps they decorated Horti Lamiani. Grand Duke Leopold I was so fond of these statues that he arranged a special room at Galleria degli Uffizi (it opens in another window) for them.
The myth of Niobe is a symbol of punished pride: she despised Leto who had only two children (Apollo and Diana), whereas her offspring numbered ten (or fourteen), but Apollo and Diana killed all her children and Niobe was turned into a weeping rock.

(left) Statues and fountain at the end of the alley along the walls; (centre) statue of Dea Roma; (right) masks at the sides of the said statue

The group of Niobe was replaced by a gigantic ancient statue donated by Pope Gregory XIII to Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici; it was found near Palazzo del Quirinale and it portrayed a seated woman; it was restored in order to resemble Dea Roma, the personification of the City of Rome.

Florence - Galleria degli Uffizi: sarcophagus of an unknown military commander (IInd century AD) - reliefs on the box: (left) birth and education; (right) accepting the surrender of an enemy

This sarcophagus was selected for being moved to Florence because of its fine execution, but even more because it depicted scenes of the whole life of a military commander. This subject was not a very common one, thus the sarcophagus made an interesting addition to the Uffizi collection. In particular the first scene is rarely seen and it depicts two women studying the astronomical globe to determine the horoscope at birth.
Horoscopes were derided by Saint Augustine, but they did not completely disappear. In the XVIth century they were so much in fashion that Villa La Farnesina was decorated with the horoscope of its landlord.

Florence - Galleria degli Uffizi: two other sarcophagi from Villa Medici (IInd century AD): (above) Fall of Phaeton (see another Roman sarcophagus with the same subject at Verona); (below) Rape of the daughters of Leucippus by Castor and Pollux

The sarcophagus of Phaeton is thought to have inspired some XVIth century painters, e.g. in the decoration of Palazzo Farnese di Caprarola. It was most likely placed near S. Maria in Aracoeli before being acquired by Cardinal Ferdinando. The sarcophagus depicting the Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus was part of the Valle collection.

Florence - Galleria degli Uffizi: funerary inscriptions from Villa Medici

Cardinal Ferdinando and his successors at Villa Medici were very selective in including funerary inscriptions in their collection of antiquities; the inscriptions needed to have some historical references or some unusual words. The first one refers to Zosimus, a freedman of Emperor Claudius who served as chief food taster for Emperor Domitian; the second one refers to Posphorus, an architect or rather a chief engineer of the imperial household. The third inscription refers to Theopropus; it was chosen because of its relief depicting Cupid and Psyche and because it was written in Greek, which made it less common than those in Latin.

S. Pietro and Casino del Belvedere from Villa Medici

The best view of Ancient Rome was from the Janiculum, but when Giuseppe Vasi drew his 1765 Grand View of Rome from the Janiculum he had to modify the actual view in order to show S. Pietro.
Villa Medici, while being too much to the north to provide a view over the whole of Rome, is perfect to fully enjoy that over the great basilica and the other monuments of the Vatican.

Studiolo del Cardinale

Decoration of the studiolo by Jacopo Zucchi: (left) Flora and Zephyrus surrounded by allegories of the Winds; (right) the Frog and the Ox

The main purpose of Villa Medici was to be the stage where Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici entertained his guests and in doing so pursued his political objectives; the Cardinal however enjoyed spending long hours in a small study room built in a tower of the ancient walls. His father and his brother had similar study rooms at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.

Decoration of the studiolo: (left) a child playing with the Medici's heraldic symbol; (right) project for a fountain in front of the villa (side towards Rome)

On October 17, 1587 Francesco I, Grand Duke of Tuscany and elder brother of Cardinal Ferdinando died suddenly together with his second wife; the couple had a male descendant, a boy of eleven, but the Cardinal rushed to Florence and building upon the hostility of the Florentines towards the dead couple, he managed to succeed his brother. Two years later he renounced the cardinalate in order to marry and ensure the continuity of the Grand Duchy.
All activity at Villa Medici stopped; in the early XVIIth century Alessandro, another Medici cardinal resided in the villa. He died in 1605, 26 days after having been elected Pope Leo XI.

Decoration of the "aviary" adjoining the study room. The depiction of birds as a decorative motif was popular in antiquity (as at Carthage's Villa of the Aviary) and it was rediscovered during the Renaissance (e.g. at Palazzo Farnese di Caprarola and Villa Giulia)

Villa Medici became one of the many properties of the Medici in Rome (including Palazzo Madama), which greatly exceeded the needs of the family, whose relevance declined after the death of Ferdinando in 1609. Without the direct involvement of a great personage, the casino, its collections and its gardens were not properly maintained, although they continued to attract the interest of all those who visited Rome.
The image used as background for this page shows a detail (FERD) of an inscription outside the study room.

View from the study room over the gardens which were added to Villa Borghese in the late XVIIIth century. At the time of Cardinal Ferdinando the area had a more rural aspect

The French Academy

Collection of plaster casts: (left) statues and busts; (right) reliefs from Colonna Traiana

March 1788. I have been this morning to the French Academy, where are collected the casts of the best statues of antiquity. How could I express the farewell feeling, so to say, which here mastered me! In the presence of such figures a man becomes more than he normally is; he feels that the worthiest subject to engage the faculties of man is the human form, which he here beholds in all its manifold splendour. Yet, at such a view, who does not straightway feel how all-inadequate to the occasion he is? Even if prepared for the spectacle, he cannot help dwindling into nothingness before it.
J. W. Goethe - Italian Journey - Translation by Charles Nisbet
In 1801 the Grand Duchy of Tuscany was replaced by the Kingdom of Etruria, a puppet state which was controlled by France. In 1804 Villa Medici became a French possession where the French Academy in Rome was relocated from a palace in Via del Corso where Goethe saw the collection of casts. As a consequence the collection, which included the casts of Colonna Traiana which were commissioned by King Louis XIV, the founder of the Academy, was moved to Villa Medici.

Jean Alaux (a boarding student at Villa Medici): Louis Vincent L�on Palli�re, another boarding student, in his room in 1817 - Wrightsman Collection

Many great French artists have studied at Villa Medici or directed the Academy.
I should name for my own first wish that one did n't have to be a Frenchman to come and live and dream and work at the Acad�mie de France. Read more of Henry James's account of his visit to Villa Medici in 1873.

Terrazza e Giardini del Pincio

Terrazza del Pincio (Piazzale Napoleone I)

In 1809 Rome was annexed to the French Empire; the new administration found that citizens did not have a proper promenade publique, a public place where to leisurely walk, see and be seen by others; an ambitious project was developed to create a series of alleys from Porto di Ripetta to new gardens on the Pincio hill which overlooked Piazza del Popolo. The ancient Romans called the hill Collis Hortulorum (Hill of the Gardens) owing to its many villas, one of which belonged to the Pincii family.
According to the project endorsed by Emperor Napoleon the name of the gardens should have been Jardins du grand C�sar and the statue of Dea Roma at Villa Medici should have been placed at the centre of the terrace overlooking Rome. The project was completed only in 1834 and some of the planned references to Ancient Rome were played down, while those to Napoleon were cancelled, although, after the 1870 end of the Papal State, the terrace was dedicated to the Emperor (see a page on the terraces of Rome).

Views from the terrace: (left) Piazza del Popolo; (right) S. Giacomo in Augusta and behind it S. Agnese in Agone: in the background S. Pietro in Montorio and Acqua Paola

In this pleasant spot the red-trousered French soldiers are always to be seen; bearded and grizzled veterans, perhaps, with medals of Algiers or the Crimea on their breasts. To them is assigned the peaceful duty of seeing that children do not trample on the flower-beds, nor any youthful lover rifle them of their fragrant blossoms to stick in his beloved one's hair. Here sits (drooping upon some marble bench, in the treacherous sunshine) the consumptive girl, whose friends have brought her, for a cure, into a climate that instils poison into its very purest breath. Here, all day, come nursery maids, burdened with rosy English babies, or guiding the footsteps of little travellers from the far western world. Here, in the sunny afternoon, roll and rumble all kinds of carriages, from the Cardinal's old-fashioned and gorgeous purple carriage to the gay barouche of modern date. Here horsemen gallop on thorough-bred steeds. Here, in short, all the transitory population of Rome, the world's great watering-place, rides, drives, or promenades! Here are beautiful sunsets; and here, whichever way you turn your eyes, are scenes as well worth gazing at, both in themselves and for their historical interest, as any that the sun ever rose and set upon.
Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Marble Faun - 1860.

Museo di Roma a Palazzo Braschi: Pope Pius IX's Promenade at the Pincio in 1864 by Pio Joris (see another painting of the same period showing the Pincio gardens)

When the Pope drove abroad it was a solemn spectacle; even if you neither kneeled nor uncovered you were irresistibly impressed. Read more of Henry James's account of his visit to the Pincio in 1873.

Obelisco di Antinoo

(left/centre) Obelisco di Antinoo; (right) Casina Valadier

In 1822 Pope Pius VII erected in the main alley of the gardens an obelisk found in 1570 in a Roman circus near Porta Maggiore and which for a long time was kept in the premises of Palazzo Barberini before being placed in Cortile della Pigna.
The obelisk was dedicated by Emperor Hadrian to his favourite Antinous, who drowned in the Nile; in the reliefs at the top of the obelisk Antinous and in one case Hadrian are shown offering gifts to Egyptian gods; the hieroglyphic inscription below was dictated by Hadrian and it ends with a prayer to the gods "that Antinous may enjoy everlasting youth" (you may wish to see all the obelisks of Rome in one page).
In 2005 archaeologists identified a temple to Antinous at Villa Adriana and the obelisk is now believed to have been erected there and then relocated by Emperor Heliogabalus to his circus near Porta Maggiore.
The gardens were designed by Giuseppe Valadier, who turned a small existing building into a Neoclassic coffee-house. A bridge across Via del Muro Torto links these gardens with those of Villa Borghese.

Museo di Roma a Palazzo Braschi: Amenities of the Pincio Gardens (late XIXth century): (left) Carlo Montani: Water clock designed by Father Giovan Battista Embriaco, similar to that at Palazzo Berardi; (right) Stefano Donadoni: Water tank disguised as a Swiss chalet

Next plate in Book 10: Casino di Villa Lodovisi presto Porta Pinciana.
Next step in Day 2 itinerary: Porta Pinciana.
Next step in your tour of Rione Campo Marzio: Piazza di Spagna.

Excerpts from Giuseppe Vasi 1761 Itinerary related to this page:

Villa Medici sul Pincio

Dopo il divisato convento vedesi il magnifico casino, con un fonte, che per essere sull' altura di questo colle, � ammirabile; ma molto pi� ammirabile � quello , che sta nell' alto del giardino. Fu eretta questa delizia dal Card. Medici con somma magnificenza, e ricchezza di statue, busti, e bassirilievi di marmo, di porfido, ed ancora di metallo; perci� far� meglio il rimettersi alla relazione del Custode di quelle maraviglie, da cui il gentil Lettore sar� ben accolto, che volerle qu� con brevit� descrivere.