Identifier: italianvillasthe00whar (find matches)
Title: Italian villas and their gardens;
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937
Subjects: Architecture Architecture, Domestic Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Century
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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la Medici. One was designedfor display, the other for privacy, and the success withwhich the purpose of each is fulfilled shoAvs the origi-nality and independence of their creators. It is a com-mon error to think of the Italian gardens of the Renais-sance as repeating endlessly the same architecturaleffects : their peculiar charm lies chiefly in the versatilitywith which their designers adapted them to differentsites and different requirements. As an example of this independence of meaninglessconventions, let the student turn from the Villa Mediciand the Orti Farnesiani to a third type of villa createdat the same time—the Casino of Pope Pius IV in theVatican gardens, built in 1560 by the Neapolitan archi-tect Pirro Ligorio. This exquisite little garden-house lies in a hollow ofthe outer Vatican gardens near the Via de Fondamenti.A hillside once clothed with a grove rises abruptlybehind it, and in this hillside a deep oblong cut hasbeen made and faced with a retaining-wall. In the 98
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VILLA MEDICI, ROME ROMAN VILLAS space thus cleared the villa is built, some ten or fifteenfeet away from the wall, so that its ground floor is cooland shaded without bemg damp. The building, whichis long and narrow, runs lengthwise into the cut, itslong facades being treated as sides, while it presentsa narrow end as its front elevation. The propriety ofthis plan will be seen when the restricted surroundingsare noted. In such a small space a larger structurewould have been disproportionate; and Ligorio hit onthe only means of giving to a house of considerable sizethe appearance of a mere garden-pavilion. Percier and Fontaine say that Ligorio built the VillaPia after the manner of the ancient houses, of whichhe had made a special study. The influence of theRoman fresco-architecture is in fact visible in this deli-cious little building, but so freely modified by the per-sonal taste of the architect that it has none of the rigidityof the reconstitution, but seems rather the day-dreamof a

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