Il lusso spagnolo si fa consapevole dell’antico fasto romano e della storia dell’arte fioretina, contaminato dall’araba follia per la decorazione infinita. Ne nasce una villa che unisce l’idea del giardino romano-rinascimentale, in cui l’acqua è illusione, e quello arabo, in cui l’acqua è rigenerazione.

La Casa de Pilatos, considerata il prototipo del palazzo andaluso, è infatti un misto dello stile rinascimentale italiano e quello Mudejar. Sebbene la costruzione sia stata iniziata nel XV secolo per volontà di Pedro Enriquez de Quiñones (Adelantado di Andalusia) e di sua moglie Catalina de Rivera, fondatori della Casa de Alcalá, deve il suo nome a Fadrique Enriquez de Ribera (primo marchese di Tarifa) che lo completò. Fu dopo il suo  pellegrinaggio nel 1519 a Gerusalemme che decise di chiamarlo Palazzo di Pilato perché, si dice, scoprì che la distanza tra la sua abitazione e la chiesa collocata fuori dalle mura di Siviglia, era uguale a quella tra le rovine della residenza di Ponzio Pilato e il Calvario.

A metà del XVII secolo il palazzo, dopo una serie di vicissitudini dinastiche, divenne di proprietà della Casata ducale dei Medinaceli, tutt’oggi proprietari. Durante il XVIII secolo i Medinaceli, come molte altre casate aristocratiche, si trasferirono a Madrid e lasciarono il palazzo decadere nell’incuria, ancor più perché il suo stile non era più molto di moda con quello dell’epoca. Solo con il romanticismo, e con il revival dello stile mudejar, il palazzo riacquistò importanza e fu usato come residenza temporanea dei duchi di Medinaceli. Dopo una serie di restauri e ricostruzioni, il palazzo è tutt’oggi abitato dai Medinaceli, che abitano al primo piano, ma è comunque visitabile in tutte le sue parti.

Il grande patio del piano terra è circondato da ampie stanze dalle quali si accede ai giardini. Il bianco puro del marmo finemente decorato che ricopre le arcate del peristilio contrasta con i colori degli azulejos degli spazi interni.  La casa risulta come l’insieme di diversi stili, voluti e fusi insieme dagli stessi proprietari e specialmente da Fadrique Enríquez de Ribera che, dopo il suo ritorno dalla Terra Santa e dopo aver visitato Milano, Venezia, Roma, Firenze e Genova, rimase colpito dall’arte italiana e volle per questo modificare la casa. I soffitti cassettonati in legno sono infatti un evidente tributo alle dimore fiorentine; le statue classiche nel patio e i busti degli imperatori romani provengono dalle ville romane e rinascimentali; il portale di marmo in stile rinascimentale, sormontato dalle croci di Gerusalemme, proviene da maestranze genovesi. Anche la suddivisione della casa in due piani, il piano terra abitato durante l’estate e il primo durante l’inverno, è un’innovazione dovuta ai viaggi in Italia di Enríquez de Ribera. I due piani sono connessi da una sontuosa scalinata completamente ricoperta da piastrelle colorate e sormontata da una cupola in legno mudejar. Il primo piano contiene, oltre ai bellissimi arredi, una piccola ma pregevole collezione di opere tra le quali anche un piccolo quadro di Goya, una Pietà di Sebastiano del Piombo, una statua lignea e alcuni dipinti di El Greco e altre opere che si possono vedere qui.

La mattina in cui visitai La Casa de Pilatos era ancora presto per gli spagnoli e la casa deserta. La metafisica sospensione del luogo, la sensazione di trovarsi in uno spazio eletto e separato dal mondo proprio come un hortus conclusus medievale, è resa inquieta solo dagli occhi fissi delle statue silenti.

infos and source: official site

Patio:

Ground floor rooms:

First garden:

Staircase:

First floor:

(some indoor stolen pictures)

Second garden:

(a grotto with rocaille decoration)

Ground floor rooms:

the Chapel

(the marble gate, designed by the Genoese Antonio Maria Aprile in 1529)

This is the first post about my trip in Spain and I’ll start with Sevilla.

I’ve never seen something so much decorated such as the Real Alcázar of Sevilla and, in general, all the alcazeres I visited in Andalusia. The decoration of every wall is so rich and overlaborated that gives you a stifling  feeling. This kind of effect can be seen also in catholic churches and this way of covering every centimeter with something is called fear of emptiness (horror vacui).

As you see, every inch is inlayed, murble or wood, coloured or natural, in a geometrical mazy shape that lead to infinity. Unlike occidental churches, this arabic way of decoration is totally based on geometry (the best example of this style is the Alhambra in Granada) and ignore anthropomorphic figures. Water, so rare and preciuos, is always in the centre of every garden and plays a starring role in the whole structure of the palace.

Least but not last, I discovered inside the palace, a room hosting a fans collection from XIX century and before, made of lace, metal, gold, ebony, handmade paintings, inlaid ivory, feathers and paper, that left me speechless.

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Fan collection:

“Et le feu s’éteignit sur le mer”

Jacques Fersen

Vorrei essere oggettiva nel raccontare la storia del Barone Fersen, ma così tanto a fondo ha colpito la mia sensibilità che non posso. Al contrario di Villa San Michele, dove tutto riposa esattamente nello stesso punto in cui fu lasciato, Villa Lysis è vuota, svuotata da decenni di abbandono e di noncuranza dei vari proprietari i quali l’hanno vista come un bottino dal quale depredare e prendere, nel loro anonimo e volgare susseguirsi senza lasciar traccia, ne hanno privato gli oggetti, i frammenti, i testimoni. Che cosa resta del Barone Fersen? Il recente restauro, che le dà un aspetto un po’ stucchevole, quasi di bomboniera dal melenso color confetto, fa forse rimpiangere l’abbandono decadente degli anni in cui la villa, dimenticata, era avvolta dalla vegetazione, con un odore di morte intorno.

Jacques Fersen scelse Capri come luogo per rifugiarsi dal mondo. L’aveva vista per la prima volta da ragazzo, quando, come ogni giovane rampollo della sua età, aveva fatto un tour dell’Italia mediterranea. Capri era per lui “l’écho de la douleur du munde” e “l’ile claire, la sieme de soie, l’ame des roses”. Sicuramente un sogno, così lontano e diverso dalla realtà, che detestava e che lo aveva respinto, che decise di viverci per sempre. Oggi resta ancora la sua villa, chissà come, conservata dopo decenni di incuria e dimenticanza. E’ vuota, ma il ricordo resta e la presenza del barone si sente ancora fortissima.

Cocteau disse: “Fersen, al pari di Ludwig di Baviera, appartiene a quel tipo di decadenti o di esteti che, incapaci di creare un capolavoro, vollero fare di se stessi e della propria vita un capolavoro”. In realtà tentò timidamente una carriera letteraria, più per diletto che per altro e un po’ con il mito di Wilde in mente. La poesia era una sorta di ideale di purezza perfetta a cui tendere, che però non bastò a salvarlo dal baratro. La fissazione della villa perfetta, che diventerà la sua tomba, la storia al limite dell’asfissia con Nino Cesarini, la frenesia dei viaggi e poi la dipendenza dall’oppio, raccontano una storia di follia, autodistruzione e ossessione che si concluderà con l’esclusione dal mondo, la solitudine e lo sdegno della società, cosa che continuerà anche dopo la morte. Né mai sono riuscita a capire quale colpe commise per meritarsi una simile damnatio memoriae.

Lo scandalo del 1903

La vita del barone Jacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen non fu felice, anche se lui era ricchissimo e nobile. Tra i suoi antenati infatti vantava Axel von Fersen, amante di Maria Antonietta. Nato nel 1880 a Parigi, dove viveva, poteva contare già a 22 anni su una fortuna vastissima, essendo erede di una famosa acciaieria fondata da suo nonno a Longwy-Briey. Questo lo rendeva un ambitissimo scapolo tra le giovani nobili in età da marito, essendo anche particolarmente di bell’aspetto. E per un certo tempo si fidanzò con una di loro, tale Blanche Maupéou, che però fu più una copertura. Era infatti ben noto ormai che i suoi gusti erano altri. Affittò così un appartamento al numero 18 di Avenue Friedland, solo due porte dopo la residenza della madre, per godere di una maggiore solitudine, oltre che di libertà. Lo scandalo non tardò ad arrivare.

Nel 1903 fu accusato di praticare messe nere, che degeneravano in orge e in cui coinvolgeva ragazzini e altri giovani nobili. L’accusa fu caricata più del dovuto, non senza qualche insopportabile perbenismo, le messe nere erano nulla più che tableaux vivant forse un po’ osè, ma nient’altro. Così il barone fu condannato a sei mesi di prigione, una multa di 50 franchi e perse i diritti civili per cinque anni. Del resto pochi anni prima una vicenda analoga era successa ad Oscar Wilde, non che per questo tali realtà cominciassero ad essere accettate, ma questa volta, il probabile coinvolgimento di qualche giovane di famiglia nobile, dovette favorire l’acquietarsi della vicenda. Ovviamente il fidanzamento andò a rotoli e quando Jacques si presentò alla porta della sua promessa sposa per chiedergli perdono, questa lo cacciò. Provò anche il suicidio, ma fallì. Tentò poi di entrare nell’esercito, ma non fu accettato perché troppo debole. Respinto dalla società e dalle sue regole, rinunciò ad ogni tentativo di piacergli. Stanco di farsi accettare e poiché a Parigi, ormai, non c’era più niente per cui restare, decise di partire.

Il viaggio

Fu forse questo il momento in cui il barone si ricordò di Capri. Gli sembrava, dai ricordi, il luogo adatto in cui riparare, lasciandosi indietro il chiassoso cicaleccio della città. Un rifugio lontano da tutti e l’unico che poteva preservare la sua delicata intimità, messa alla berlina così spudoratamente, soffocandola nel silenzio dell’isola. Ma ancora non conosceva Nino e quando comprò un appezzamento di terreno su una collina alla punta dell’isola, non molto distante da Villa Jovis, non immaginava lontanamente che sarebbe diventato il luogo della jeunesse d’amour. Affidò il progetto ad Edouart Chimot, suo amico, e intanto lui partì per l’Oriente.

Chissà cosa cercava. Visitando Ceylon, scoprì il buddhismo e l’hindusimo, di cui ammirava il senso di annullamento, e l’oppio, un vizio che non lo abbandonerà più. Durante il viaggio continuò la stesura di un romanzetto iniziato qualche anno prima, Lord Lyllian. Messes Noires, una specie di visionario racconto con fatti autobiografici misti a finzioni e in cui si parla anche dello scandalo del 1903, di ricordi d’infanzia e di desideri repressi. Il libello sarà pubblicato nel 1905. Intanto, l’anno prima, era tornato a Capri ma ci restò poco a causa di un altro scandalo. Durante i lavori della villa, uno dei lavoranti, un ragazzo di Capri, morì in un incidente e gli isolani protestarono non poco. Così, per far calmare le acque, il barone se ne andò a Roma per qualche tempo. Era il 1904.

Villa Lysis

Sembra che Jacques Fersen vide per la prima volta Nino Cesarini mentre vendeva giornali su via Vittorio Veneto a Roma. Dovette innamorarsene a prima vista se di lì a poco lo portò con se a Capri. Nino aveva 15 anni, Jacques vide in lui la perfezione, l’idea divenuta realtà, la bellezza pura, la fine delle sue ricerche estenuanti: lo chiamerà “più bello della luce di Roma”. Si trasferirono a Capri, nella villa ormai quasi ultimata, e per lui ne cambia il nome da Gloriette a Villa Lysis, ispirandosi al dialogo platonico Liside. La villa è in stile art nouveau con elementi neoclassici, suggerendo un dialogo con le ricostruzioni ideali di Villa Jovis. Il paesaggio, che teatralmente la circonda e la isola, si offre a strapiombo sul mare e le dà quel tanto di tenebroso e di soavemente delirante. Vi appone su una parete esterna la targa: “L’AN  MCMV / CETTE VILLA FÛT  CONSTRUITE / PAR  JACQUES / CTE  ADELSWARD FERSEN / ET DÈDIÉE / À  LA JEUNESSE  D’AMOUR” e sull’architrave dell’ingresso il motto “AMORI ET DOLORI SACRUM”.E’ preso da un fervore di vitalità, comincia a scrivere altri romanzi (Une Jeunesse e Le Baiser, entrambi editi nel 1907) e fonda nel 1909 anche il giornale Akademos, Revue Mensuelle d’Art Libre et de Critique che dura solo un anno, perché troppo costoso da mantenere. Anche se fortemente incentrato sull’idea di una critica libera, si parlava, in ogni numero, di un argomento omosessuale e sebbene potesse contare su contributi di Colette, Henry Gauthier-Villars, Laurent Tailhade, Marcel Boulestin, Maxim Gorky, Achille Essebac, Anatole France, Jean Moréas e anche di Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, non ebbe molto successo di pubblico. Ma Jacques continua a scrivere e continuerà fino alla fine dei suoi giorni, perché il culto della poesia lo acquieterà sempre.

Nino

Instancabile si reca a Parigi con Nino, forse per acquistare gli ultimi arredi per la Villa e poi con lui parte di nuovo per l’Oriente. Animato e quasi esaltato da questa fase di inaspettata felicità, sente il bisogno di condividere con lui le sue scoperte. Ritornano dalla Cina con una pregiatissima collezione di pipe d’oppio appartenuta ad un imperatore: trecento pezzi di cui alcune in oro, in argento, in avorio, in pietre dure. Andranno tutte ad arredare l’ultima stanza progettata nella sua villa, la camera cinese o Opiarium. Era ormai completamente dipendente dall’oppio e molto probabilmente iniziò anche Nino, che però evitò sempre la dipendenza.

I due adesso vivano in piena serenità a Capri. Qui Jacques lo presentava negli ambienti più formali come suo segretario, ma a tutti era nota la sua devozione. Era impossibile infatti non accorgersene, dopo tutti i ritratti con cui aveva fatto arredare la Villa. Oggi, l’unico ritratto che ci resta, è il dipinto di Paul Hocker, che appare anche nello sfondo in una fotografia di Guglielmo von Plüschow (cugino di Wilhelm von Gloeden e che Fersen conobbe durante il suo viaggio in Sicilia). Da fotografie dell’epoca possiamo avere un’idea della scultura che Francesco Ierace fece di Nino e che fu posta al centro del belvedere esterno. Anche l’illustratore Umberto Brunelleschi fece un ritratto di Nino, adesso perduto, così come la statua. Non rimane che qualche fotografia, come quella di Nino sul terrazzo di Villa Lysis vestito da antico romano e poche altre, forse alcune scattate proprio da von Plüschow.

L’esule

Già leggendo qualche poesia della raccolta Ainsi chantait Marsyas, del 1907, si intravede qualche nota di gelosia o, per lo meno, di paura di abbandono. E’ probabile che Nino si fosse interessato a qualcun’altro, forse anche a delle ragazze, e Jacques non poteva sopportarlo. Del resto anche lui aveva cominciato a frequentare altri ragazzi di Capri, dove la sua posizione si faceva sempre più compromessa. In realtà Fersen non era solo esule dal mondo perché si era ritirato a Capri, ma era esule anche dentro Capri. Non frequentava nessuno e aldilà degli aristocratici o degli intellettuali che andavano a trovarlo nella sua villa, era escluso dal mondo. Non aveva rapporti con i diplomatici del paese, a cui era inviso, e non aveva bella fama tra la gente perché sempre visto come diverso. Solo poche persone erano sincere con lui: Gilbert Clevel spesso trascorreva interi pomeriggi nel suo belvedere, la Marchesa Casati lo raggiungeva nella sua camera cinese quando si trovò a Capri per un periodo, Ephi Lovatelli sua carissima amica e altri artisti a cui era legato per commissionargli piccoli lavori, erano sempre presenti. Poi anche lo conobbero Norman Douglas, Ninì Franchetti, Renata Borgatti, Ada Negri, che ne lascia un ricordo, e non manca nemmeno di apparire nel pettegolo Vestal Fire di Compton Mackenzie. All’uscita del suo ultimo romanzo, Et le feu s’éteignit sur le mer, qualcuno aveva storto il naso, ma la goccia che fece traboccare il vaso fu la pantomima che si mise in mente di fare per il ventesimo compleanno di Nino. Organizzò un grande tableaux vivant replicante, secondo lui, un rito pagano con tanto di sacerdote e di Tiberio nella grotta di Matermània durante la notte. Nino sarebbe assurto, quella notte, a divinità. Tutto nella mente di Jacques e al limite del ridicolo: una cosa così assurda ed eccentrica che poco dopo fu espulso da Capri.

La caduta nel baratro

Se ne tornò a Parigi per un po’. Nino invece, già dal 1915, era stato chiamato alle armi e i due vivono distanti. Le vicende della guerra, così come la lontananza, cambiano inequivocabilmente la loro relazione. Mentre Jacques scriveva altre raccolte di poesie (Paradinya e poi Le Sourire aux yeux fermés) da una villa a Nizza, Nino fu intanto ferito in battaglia e ricoverato all’ospedale di Milano. Quando si ricongiunsero, ormai nel 1912, non c’era più quell’entusiasmo di prima. Nino ormai era adulto, più consapevole, più maturo. Jacques stava male, soffriva la solitudine, si sentiva sradicato dalla sua Capri e la dipendenza d’oppio, a cui ormai inframmezzava anche la cocaina, lo stava logorando. Il permesso di tornare a Capri giunse nel 1913.

Sono anni di confusione, di perdizione. Gli viene diagnosticata una dipendenza grave da oppio e viene mandato a Napoli per disintossicarsi, inutilmente. L’idillio amoroso sembra scomparso: Nino, dopo l’esperienza della guerra, guarda le cose con più distacco e si accorge di alcune debolezze dell’amico il quale, invece, capricciosamente non perde occasione di sedurre nuovi giovani. L’ultima sua conquista è Corrado Annicelli, chiamato Manfred (1905-1984), che vede mentre era in vacanza con la famiglia all’Hotel Quisisana. Si ripete la stessa storia di Nino: chiede il permesso alla famiglia e comincia a invitarlo nella sua villa, lo porta con se nei suoi viaggi in Sicilia, a Sorrento. Nino è sempre presente, guarda quello che accade con amorevole distacco. In qualche modo lo sorveglia nella sua caduta nel baratro, ma non riuscirà a salvarlo.

La fine

L’ultima raccolta di poesie di Jacques Fersen è Hei Hsiang. Le parfum noir (1921), palesemente ispirata all’oriente e dedicata a quella camera in cui ormai passava quasi intere giornate. La copertina ha dei decori orientali, simili a quelli che si trovano nella camera cinese. Non riuscirà invece a finire il romanzo La Neuvaine du petit faune. Alcuni hanno detto che la morte, Fersen, l’aveva a lungo meditata. Fatto sta che quando la sera del 5 novembre si ritirò, come di consueto, nella camera cinese, non rivide il mattino. Erano presenti anche Nino e Corrado alla sua morte, avvenuta per overdose di cocaina dissolta in un bicchiere, forse accidentalmente o forse no. Le vicende che seguono la sua morte sono squallide. Il sindaco di Capri non gli concesse molti onori, la casa fu subito sigillata e pare che molte cose furono anche derubate e rivendute subito dopo da un antiquario locale. Curò le esequie la sua cara amica principessa Ephi Lovatelli. Corrado tornerà dalla sua famiglia, diventerà in futuro un attore bravino. A Nino il testamento lasciava l’uso della Villa e altri beni, ma la sorella di Jacques, Germaine, iniziò una battaglia legale con Nino per averla e lo accusò dell’ omicidio del fratello allo scopo di arricchirsi. Alla fine Nino gliela cedette per 200,000 lire e le accuse caddero nel dimenticatoio, anche perché infondate. Nino tornerà a Roma, dove riprese la stessa vita che qui vi aveva lasciato, come se niente fosse successo. Per nulla arricchito da questa vicenda, continuerà a vendere giornali fino alla sua morte, avvenuta nel 1943.

Fonti: Sulla vicenda e l’opera di Jacques Fersen calò il silenzio così come la stessa villa fu dimenticata. Il primo a essere interessato alla ricostruzione dei fatti fu Roger Peyrefitte che, dopo una lunga opera di ricerca e ricostruzione, scrisse un romanzo a lui ispirato L’exilé de Capri, pubblicato nel 1959. Soltanto recentemente sono state ripubblicate alcune raccolte delle sue poesie, molte delle quali edite da La Conchiglia, casa editrice che si preoccupa di raccogliere libri su Capri. Degno di nota è il libro di  Fausto Esposito I misteri di villa Lysis. Testamento e morte del barone Jacques Fersen. Online si può leggere qui il saggio di Will H.L. Ogrinc “Frère Jacques A shrine to love and sorrow in inglese; qui un bell’articolo in italiano di Renata Ricci Pisaturo quando visitò la villa ancora in rovina nel 1978, qui alcuni pezzi dell’articolo di Ada Negri e qui la prima edizione de Le baiser de Narcisse pagina per pagina, qui una piccola biografia di Nino Cesarini.

Outside:

sculpture by Francesco Ierace, now lost, in an old picture

old picture of the facade of the Villa dated 1980′s

pictures of Jacques Fersen

First floor:

terrace on the first floor

view from one of the bedroom

one of the bathroom

view from another bedroom

another bathroom

Nino and Jacques with a servant

Glorification of Nino Cesarini

photograph of a young boy (not Nino) by Guglielmo Pluschow. On the wall, to the left, the painting of Nino by P. Hocker

Nino Cesarini by Paul Hocker 1908

other pictures of Nino Cesarini

Ground floor:

the hall, now hosting old pictures

how the hall looked like

the kitchen

terrace on the 1st floor

the column on the left is what remains of the little temple (see picture below)

cover of first number of Akademos, 1909

first edition of Lord Lyllian, 1905

The chinese room or Opium room:

this is the place where Jacques Fersen died

The Fountain of Ceres

The Royal Palace of Caserta (Reggia di Caserta) was constructed for the Bourbon kings of Naples. The construction of the palace was begun in 1752 for Charles VII of Naples, who worked closely with his architect Luigi Vanvitelli who used as model Versailles. Vanvitelli died in 1773 and the construction was continued by his son Carlo and finished in 1780. Charles VII of Naples never slept a night at the Reggia, as he abdicated in 1759 to become King of Spain, and the project was carried to completion for his third son and successor, Ferdinand IV of Naples.

Pictures can’t show enough the majesty of this park but I tried the same to capture the astonishment feeling that I felt visiting it. Pictures of the Palace’s interiors soon.

The Italian Garden:

The park of the Royal Palace of Caserta goes on for 3 kilometers. It was inspired by the park of Versailles and it’s a typical example of the baroque extension of formal vistas. The garden was conceived as an upward path from the ground to the source of the water, symbol of life and birth. Walking along the way, up to the final Big Fountain, you’ll flank  a long alley with artificial fountains and cascades, only interrupted by big groups of sculptures.

The Fountain of the Margherita

Big Peschiera

The Fountain of Dolphins

The Fountain of Aeolus

The Fountain of Ceres

The Fountain of Venus and Adonis

The Fountain of Diana and Actaeon

group of Diana

group of Actaeon

The Big Fountain

The English Garden:

Inside the park, at the end of all the fountains and cascades, there is a botanical garden, called “The English Garden”, designed in the 1780s. Queen Maria Carolina of Austria, Ferdinando IV’s wife and Marie Antoinette’s sister, wanted a garden in the english style and entrusted the task to the German-born botanist, nurseryman, plantsman-designer John Graefer.

The english garden was a new way of landscaping which emerged in England in the early 18th century and replaced the more formal, symmetrical italian renaissance garden. Unlike the italian garden, the english one was inspired by Romantic ideas about an idealized view of nature and featured grottoes, temples, tea-houses, belvederes, pavilions, sham ruins, botanical curiosity and flowers.

The bathing of Venus

Cryptoporticus

sham ruins inside the Cryptoporticus

Doric Temple

The greenhouse

old greenhouse

The English palace

Villa San Michele, the Bedroom

I already talk about Marchesa Luisa Casati plenty and passionately and now I can confess that my attraction for Capri started when I knew that she lived there for some years during the 20′s. I came to know that the Villa where she lived was still existing and used today as a museum. Its name is Villa San Michele, a place I was so longing to see and that I visited trying to capture every single feeling I could. Here is its story.

Axel Munthe, wandering soul

Although I came to know Villa San Michele through Marchesa Casati’s story, I can’t ignore the story of its owner, doctor Axel Munthe (1857-1949). He was a swedish psychiatrist who, after attending medical school and opening his first practice in France, fell in love with Italy. The reason that Munthe finished his studies in record time was a visit to Capri that changed his life forever. After a visit to the island he fell in love with it. He discovered on a cliff a crumbled chapel called San Michele and decided to find the money to make the chapel and the surrounding property his. This is how the story of Villa San Michele started.

Between 20 years the Villa was completed and Munthe considered it as his second home. Under the little chapel he finds remnants of the villa of the Roman emperor Tiberius. The ground was filled with these treasures, which will form the nucleus of the collection of antique art that graces San Michele today. In return he treats the islanders for free. He saw his profession as a sacred calling, and absolutely refused to ask for payment for his services. His efforts and his charity bring him closer and closer to the people of Capri, who highly value his presence on the island.

He became famous as a doctor and his new circle of acquaintances arrived to include members of the Swedish royal family, including Prince Eugen, who was studying painting in Paris. Munthe became the prince’s doctor and they remained good friends. During his roman period, he soon made contact with the foreign colony in Rome, including the British diplomatic corps, and with the most prominent Roman families, he was also introduced to the Italian royal family.

By this time he was regarded as a true cosmopolitan, and his circle of acquaintances stretched across all borders in Europe, both socially and geographically. His acquaintance with Prince Eugen leads to the confidence of the Swedish royal family, and he begins to treat Crown Princess Victoria, whose health is unstable. This responsibility would transform the rest of his life. The acquaintanceship between Munthe and Crown Princess Victoria grows over the years into an intimate friendship. They share common interests, including photography and travel.

As the permanent personal physician to Queen Victoria during his later life Axel Munthe spends more of his time in Sweden, and at the Stockholm palace, but his life on Capri became a painful memory.

The Story of San Michele

The Villa became famous because its story is recorded by Dr. Munthe in his book entitled “The Story of San Michele”. Published in 1929, he began writing in 1884, when as a doctor he found himself in Naples during a severe cholera epidemic. This book is together the story of the Villa and his biography.

Munthe mixes dream and reality in an unusual manner, he displays an obvious fascination with death and a love of life at the same time, and he gives a voice during his travels to doctors and streetcleaners, people from the far north of Sweden and Parisians, saints and Father Christmases and dogs.

Reading his book one must see he had a dark side which grew stronger with the years. He was obsessed by death and surrounded himself with death and vanitas symbols. His view of life was at times pessimistic and misanthropic and he had periods of depression. I think that Villa San Michele was a kind of shelter from the world that he built for being alone, a place where he could stay in harmony with nature, sea.

The italian journalist Indro Montanelli said, after an interview with him, that Axel Munthe used to have always a ticket for Capri in his pocket because, as he said, “even die is different, in Capri”.

info source: villasanmichele.eu

book sources: “Infinite Variety. The Life and Legend of the Marchesa Casati” by Scot D. Ryersson and Michael Orlando Yaccarino; “The Story of San Michele” by Axel Munthe. The article by Indro Montanelli was issued in “La settimana INCOM” on the 19th february 1949. You can still read it if you visit the Villa.

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The Atrium

Actually the atrium is not the first place you visit when you entering the Villa, you can reach it through the kitchen but I’m showing you as the first because I think is symbolic of the Villa’s style. As you can see it’s a small courtyard in which Axel Munthe put Roman tomb inscriptions and various types of antique fragments discovered among the remains of Roman villas on Capri.

This place where old and new meet and blend each others, may be interpreted as a symbol of Axel Munthe’s philosophy. It’ s a place of peace and meditation where dead things like roman fragments perfectly dialogue with plants and nature, symbolising the connection between life, art and death.

In the middle of the atrium there is a roman well-mouth (puteal), cut from a single block of white marble.

The Loggia: here we can see a bronze copy of a female figure belonging to the mysterious group of sculptures called “The Sibyls from Herculaneum”.

an old picture of the Atrium and the Loggia

The Dining Room

The Dining Room is the first room you visit when you enter in the Villa. It displays the original objects in their original arrangement.

“The dining-room surprises the visitor with its replica of a Roman mosaic placed in front of the door. It shows a skeleton holding a carafe of wine in one hand and a jug of water in the other hand. The message could either be a call to moderation, or on the contrary, a recommendation to enjoy life to the full while there is still time. The decorative details vary both in age and artistic value. The heavyu Renaissance sideboard is from Bologna. The large chest with inlaid frontal dates from the 15th century.” Levente Erdeös

The original of this black and white mosaic floor is Pompeian and was covered by ashes and pomice when the Vesuvius exploded in 79 A.D.

An old picture of how the dining room looked like.

The Kitchen

The stove with three hotplates in iron, two boxes in wood and six doors in iron.

Old pictures of the kitchen. The girl (whose name I can’t remember) was Munthe’s housemaid. He knew her in Capri, tought her to read and write and she stayed at the Villa taking care of the kitchen together with her mother.

Munthe and a guest in the dining room

The Bedroom

Probably the most beautiful of the rooms for its unique way of combine ancient and modern things. The room is divided into two parts by an arcade and a middle column, a recurrent architectural motif of the Villa. The 15-th century wrought-iron bed is Sicilian and was presumably a campbed. On the tables and on walls are roman remains or relieves. Furnishing is ancient too but coming from 15th and 18th centuries. The twilight pervading the room helps meditation and reflection.

The French Salon

The most empty of the rooms of the villa, it houses the first copy of the book “The Story of San Michele” with Munthe’s autographic corrections and his reading glasses. But this room is for me the most important of the house because it shows on the wall a precious finds: Casati’s motto.

This is ONLY surviving thing that Marchesa Luisa Casati left to us. During her stay in the Villa she changed the furnishing and decoration of the house according to his eccentric tastes and she wrote on the walls these french words; “Oser. Vouloir. Savoir. Se-taire” that mean “To dare. To want. To know. To be quite itself”. Munthe decided to keep this motto, unlike other changes Casati did in the Villa. The most famous book about Marchesa’s story, written by Scot D. Ryersson and Michael Orlando Yaccarino “Potraits of a Muse” took inspiration from here.

Cave Canem floor mosaic by a photographer unknown ca. 1920

Luisa Casati’s bedroom at Villa San Michele, 1920′s

Luisa Casati at Villa San Michele.

Luisa Casati arrived in Capri in 1920 and chose to stay at Villa San Michele, with or without Munthe’s permission. Her arrive was troubled because Munthe was not so glad to having the Marchesa as tenant knowing her eccentricities but at the end she made it. Luisa did not wait to give her personal touch to the Villa and decided to change the original decoration: “Ivory walls and windows were obscured behind golden curtains and heavy draperies of black velvet. Black carpets and animal skins hid the mosaic floors, while Munthe’s collection of antiques was shut away to allow space for the Marchesa’s ebony forniture. In a room now reserved for Casati’s sorcery pharaphernalia, a black sheepskinhad been nailed to one wall and the others were adorned with quotations and proverbs handwritten in french and with black paint”. She was in her black period wearing swathing gowns and dyeing her hair first in green and then black, rumors said she used to celebrate black masses in the Villa.

Axel Munthe did not frequently socialize with Casati but others on the island found her a curiosity and accepted invitations to San Michele like Sir Compton Mackenzie, who often invited her to his Villa Casa Solitaria, the old friend, furistic painter Fortunato Depero. Diaghilev and Gabriele D’Annunzio come to visit her. In Capri Luisa also made new friendships like the one with painter Romaine Brooks, who made a portrait of her, and with Capri’s most notorious exile baron Jacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen who lived in Villa Lysis. The nobleman shared the Villa with his companion, the 15 years old newspaper boy from Rome, Nino Cesarini. More than one source confirms Casati as frequent guest to Fersen’s Chinese room, the opium room.

The Studio

It was the place where Munthe preferred to write. You can see a Medusa’s head in white marble hanging above the writing desk in the studio which Munthe reputedly found on the seabed off Palazzo a Mare even if possibly the mask comes from the Temple of Venus and Roma, built by Hadrian in 307 AD.

The Medusa’s head is the only object, along with the Egyptian sphinx, belonging to San Michele that remained unthouched during Luisa Casati stay because they appealed to her tastes.

How the Studio looked like during Munthe stay. You can see the skull on the table, Munthe was obsessed with vanitas symbols.

The Venetian Salon

It’s so called because most part of the rococo furnitures comes from Venice, like the 18th century mirror made in golden wood. The chandelier, instead, is an eccelent work of Sicilian handicraft, made of wrought iron.

The Gallery

Leaving the Villa one passes under an open gallery which then becomes a pergola and later opens into a series of terraces with splendid panoramic views. The design of the garden still follows Munthe’s intentions. Everywhere pots, amphoras and various “objets d’art” are to be seen like the cosmatesque table. Munthe found it in a small town near Palermo where it was used as a laundry table.

The Pergola

Many different flowers come into bloom and the garden remains fresh and green all year round.

The Sphinx

Actually there are two sphinxes in the Villa. The sphinx has become in some way the symbol of Villa San Michele and object of a lot of legends. The bigger one (above), a granite statue, half lion, half woman, is the Egyptian Sphinx and it’s dated in XIII century b.C. Even if Axel Munthe wrote in the book “The story of Villa San Michele” that he found it out in the country during a morning, after a premonitory dream, we’ll probably never know how he found his sphinx. It probably doesn’t even come from the island, but it does come from Egypt and it has adorned a villa in the Roman Empire. Now the fantasy creature is on the last outpost of Axel Munthe’s villa looking towards the rising sun in the east.

Luisa Casati was particularly fond of the egyptian sphinx as it was reputed to grant the wishes of those who touched its flank with their left hand.

View of the sphinx from the outside in an old picture

the end of the chapel archades

This is the Etruscan sphinx, smaller than the other and once setted where today is the Egyptian one. Now is on the chapel terrace.

The Chapel (entrance)

Inside the chapel today.

Inside the chapel about in 1901 a.C., photographed by Prince Max of Baden and once used as a library.

Another masterpiece from Egypt, the so-called Horus falcon.

The Olivetum

Partly concealed by olive trees and completely in harmony with its surroundings is the garden pavilion known as the Olivetum. The garden pavilion was designed by architect and curator of Villa San Michele 1975-1995 Levente Erdeös who said: “Its function accords with Munthe’s great passion for nature. A permanent exhibition dedicated to Capri’s unique flora and fauna has been set up in the Olivetum.” Here is the shell collection.

The exit.

Villa Rufolo is, together with Villa Cimbrone, the other wonderful Villa located in Ravello. Both the villas were laying in decay and poor condition until two english men took them back to their splendour during the 19th century.

The Villa belonged to the powerful and wealthy Rufolo family since the 13th century. They built the Villa between 1270-80 and became rich thanks to their mercantile business. Boccaccio mentioned the family in the second day of the Decameron, talking about the adventures of Landolfo Rufolo. After Rufolo’s fail, the Villa passed by inheritance to other owners such as the Confalone, Muscettola and d’Afflitto.

When Scotsman Francis Neville Reid bought the Villa, around the middle of the 19th century, it was completly in ruin because it had been abandoned since the end of the 18th century. Reid was a nobleman, botanist and expert in ancient art, who traveled to Italy with his wife, moved by the tradition of Grand Tour. But for Reid, Ravello and Naples will become the residence for the rest of his life: he restored the Villa back to its antique splendour, adding rare plants and also bought a house in Posillipo.

The enchantment of Villa Rufolo reaches its peak in its famous terrace-garden, also called “The Soul Garden”. The German opera composer Richard Wagner visited the villa in May 1880. He was so overcome by the beauty of the location that he imagined the setting as the garden of Klingsor in the second act of Parsifal. Ferdinand Gregorovius wrote in his “Italian Wanderings” that he felt like being in front of a Moorish city that, with its towers and arabesques, offered a completly Arabian view.

source: villarufolo.it

The Moorish cloister

The Big Tower

The Knights Hall

The Well

Belvedere

Soul Garden

view from the garden

a peek into the Dining room

under the Moorish cloister

Ravello seems to be the place where romantic and intellectual english men found the peace long yearned and sought after the wanderings of the Grand Tour. Villa Cimbrone, along with the other Villa Rufolo, it’s one of these places. The Villa belonged to aristocratic families since 14th century and until the first half of the 19th century, when it was abandoned and left in decay.

At the end of the 19th century, the Englishman and rich banker Ernest William Beckett (1856-1917), 2nd Lord Grimthorpe, visited the Villa and fell hopelessly in love with the place and in 1904 he bought part of it. He was visiting Amalfi’s coast in order to recover himself from the deep depression that afflicted him following the loss of his beloved wife Lucy Lee, who passed away at the age of just 28 while giving birth to his only son. Infact this part of Italy had earned an excellent reputation among foreigners for being a place to rediscover one’s soul and to regain the tranquillity for which they yearned.

Lord Grimthorpe decided to revive the Villa and make it : “the most beautiful place in the world”. The garden was partially redesigned, although its form was to a large extent determined by certain pre-existing elements, in particular the central path today called “The Avenue of Immensity” . Characterized by the aesthetic concepts of English architects and landscapers such as Harold Peto, Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll, it was expertly organized, with various “episodes” and trails branching off from the central path that leads from the monumental entrance to the panoramic viewpoint.

Among the rich and varied native and exotic plants, in a delightful union between English landscaping and the tradition of Italian gardens, a large number of splendid decorative elements were added: fountains, nymphaea, small temples, pavilions and stone and bronze statues. They were the result of the strong influence of classical literature and the reinterpretation of the “Roman villa”. Trees and plants for the flowerbeds were chosen by the English botanist Vita Sackville West.

Villa Cimbrone often hosted gatherings of the prestigious Bloomsbury Group and the long central path, in May 1880, provided the backdrop to the famous horse ride by Cosima and Richard Wagner: “the view from there, for me, is the most beautiful of all”.

source: villacimbrone.com

The sixteenth century doorway

The cloister, a graceful little courtyard in an Arabian – Sicilian – Norman style.

The Villa is decorated by quotations on the walls like this one, by Terenzio.

Camelia tree

The Avenue of Immensity, thickly covered initially by climbing of unusual length, which was created in the early decades of the XVIIth century.

wisteria pergola

The Temple of Ceres, goddess of the Harvests, marks the end of the avenue and the entrance to the Terrace of Infinity.

The Terrace of Infinity, an incomparable natural balcony adorned with eighteenth century marble busts.

The Seat of Mercury, a XVIIIth century bronze copy of “Hermes at rest”, a statue from the school of Lisippo. To one side, as an invitation to pause,  an inscription in English erroneously attributed to the writer and poet D.H.Lawrence who found such inspiration here for his works, while we know today that the quotation is from Catullus: “Lost to the world of which I desire no part, I sit alone and speak to my heart, satisfied with my little corner of the world, content to feel no more sadness for death.”

The Rose Terrace. Here, within an arabesque balustrade, mindful of an old and absolutely English badminton court, in geometric flowerbeds, from May to October, ancient varieties of beautiful, scented French and English roses flower.

In the middle stands a light stone meridian; on the outer edges, four ornamental statues: Flora, goddess of Flowers and Spring, Leda with Swan, and two wrestlers, Damosseno and Greucante.

Flora, goddess of Flowers and Spring

David, a bronze statue produced by the Neapolitan sculptor Gioacchino Varlese, in imitation of the one by Verrocchio kept at the national museum in Florence.

Near the statue of Greucante, a poetic inscription by the Persian Omar Khayyam: “Oh moon of my delight which knows no decline, the moon in the sky is rising once more, thus, as it rises again in future, peeping through this very garden, it shall seek us in vain.”

The end of the visit will lead you to an open pavilion, called Tea-room. The esoteric connotations, much in vogue at the beginning of the last century, are clear, particularly in the choice and layout of the architectural elements. This is another place, conceived as a space to be lived in close harmony with the surrounding nature, which often saw representatives of the Bloomsbury Group of rebellious intellectuals reunited.

The Tea room is preceded by a splendid Italian garden, with rich flowerbeds of ancient roses and, in the centre, a fine marble fountain with cupids and various figures in relief.

In the area before the pavillion we can see an old stone well, four beautiful columns from roman times, carved in the middle ages with multiple figures in relief and two elegant bronze deer.

A representation of David by Donatello, beside the Tea room.

“Tu ch’entri qua pon mente parte a parte

et dimmi poi se tante meraviglie sien fatte

per inganno o pur per arte”

My visit to Bomarzo was revealing. A deceitful place where everything seems anything else and the Illusion makes you confused and hallucinated. Here I summarize its story and I tried to compare some sculptures to Hypnerotomachia Poliphili‘s illustrations just to have an idea of how this poem influenced the construction of the garden. It’s like fantasy had become stone.

The Garden

Like a romantic and sad story, once upon a time there was a Prince who, after the death of his beloved wife, was so doleful and anguished that decided to built a garden in her remembrance in order to vent his heart.

This prince was the italian nobleman and Duke of Bomarzo Pier Francesco Orsini (1523-1585), called Vicino, and his wife was Giulia Farnese who died in 1560. He called the garden Bosco Sacro or Bosco dei Mostri (Sacred Grove or Monsters’ grove) and the Duke will be concerned in landscaping his garden during all his life .

Like many others Italian Renaissance gardens, Vicino’s park was anything but ornamental, but it has nothing in common with others gardens. It can be considered the anthitesis of the typical Italian garden, such as the nearby Villa Lante in Bagnaia or Villa Farnese in Caprarola, which featured strictly geometrical patterns, vistas, circulation systems and a stringent symbolic logic. The Bomarzo gardens are unique as they do not follow any previously known typology and there will be nothing else like them afterwards.

The Sacred Grove is one of the most astounding creation of the sixteenth century mannerism culture, a precious unicum born to be the only one of his kind in the world, like one of the inscriptions says “sol se stesso e null’altro somiglia”.

The Melancholy Duke

Vicino, eccentric figure of prince -soldier, condottiero and patron of the arts, was very close to Farnese family and friend of the most famous literary men of his time like Bernardo Tasso and Annibal Caro.

The enchenting garden of the Duke is structured in a different levels walk, from the lowest to the highest. Constructed rather with images and ideas, the garden and its statues can be read by the enlightened visitor like a book, providing a philosophical journey through themes such as love, death, memory and truth. Vicino’s garden-book is, however, obscure and ambiguous, and requires a knowledge of poets such as Dante and Petrarch to unravel. It’s possible to see references to chivalric romance poems such as “Amadigi” by Bernardo Tasso and the more famous “Gerusalemme liberata” by his son Torquato as well as “Orlando Furioso” by Ludovico Ariosto and “Orlando Innamorato” by Matteo Maria Boiardo therefore every reading produces a different set of ideas that reflect the complex personality of Vicino himself.

At least some sculpture of the garden have been certainly inspired by Francesco Colonna’s ”Hypnerotomachia Poliphili” published in 1499, a long allegory apparently popular with humanists and scholars of the day. It tells of a man, who, in search of his ideal lover, Polia, begins in a trackless and frightening wood, emerges from it parched with thirst, falls asleep, passes through two successive layers or states of dreaming, and awakens in an ideal garden landscape, strewn with odd monuments and the ruins of antique temples, culminating in a blissfull union with Polia.

Some have found alchemical symbols and philosophical connections as walking in the garden from stop to stop, from stage to stage, each element is a component of an immense, neoplatonic poem to Vicino’s lost love. Along with all these possibily interpretations, there’s not a unique and definite explanation so that a sinister appearance, a sense of mystery, and a feeling of terror are constant companions of the visitor to these gardens.

Architects

It’s not really clear the name of the architect who built the garden and there are different theories about the identity of the author: il Vignola, who maybe redesign the Orsini castle; Jacopo del Duca, who eventually would had been inspirated by Villa Palagonia in Sicily; Raffaele di Montelupo sculptor of the huge archangel of Castle Sant’Angelo and Vicino’s friend; Bartolomeo Ammannati to whom are attributed some sculptures in particulary the Tempietto and Pirro Ligorio who is commonly thought to have built Bomarzo garden even though the attribution is not assured (Ligorio designed the Villa d’Este in Tivoli and was later called upon to finish St. Peter’s Cathedral after the death of Michaelangelo).

Actually the park’s project and first constructions was began before Giulia’s death, probably in 1552 as one of the inscriptions says. Maybe the garden was begun by Giulia herself and, after her death, Vicino extended the project in order to include monuments for her remembrance like the Tempietto, designed to be Giulia’s tomb.

What Vicino wanted to say?

Since the rediscovery of the garden, many and different interpretations had been given to explain the meaning of the Sacred Grove. The mystery of the garden has intrigued a lot of art historians like Hans Bredekamp, Maurizio Calvesi, Mario Praz, Bruno Zevi and now there are several theories historians have come up with.

One possibility, suggested by author Christopher McIntosh, is that making this melancholy garden was a form of self-therapy for Orsini to get him out of his depression after the loss of his wife (as we can read in one of the inscription scattered along the park “sol per sfogare il core” that means “just to set the heart free”). McIntosh likens it to a person who is depressed and finds that reading gloomy poetry creates a counter-reaction that cheers him up.

More interesting are the studies of Hans Bredekamp and Maurizio Calvesi (who also studied the Poliphilo and alchemy culture). While Bredekamp tries to focus on each sculpture, inscription or architecture of the park, reading them as an allergoric representation of the known world and others symbols that represent Vicino’s ideas about Life, Death and Afterlife, Calvesi analyzes the garden in relation to poems like “Orlando Innamorato” by Boiardo and “Orlando Furioso” by Ariosto.

Fall and Rebirth

After the Prince’s death, the park was abandoned and lay in overgrown oblivion for centuries until the restoration in 1954 of Giancarlo e Tina Severi Bettini, now buried in the Tempietto. The neglected grove was rediscovered in the 20th century and provided inspiration to a new generation of artists, writers and musicians.

The surrealists Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dalì visited the park. Salvador Dali visited Bomarzo in 1938, shooted a short film there and the park provided inspiration for his 1946 painting “The Temptation of Saint Anthony”. The poet André Pieyre de Mandiargues wrote an essay devoted to Bomarzo. The Dutch magic-surrealist painter Carel Willink used several of the park’s statue groups in his paintings like The Eternal Cry and Balance of Forces. Niki de Saint Phalle was inspired by Bomarzo for her “Tarot Garden” and Tommaso Buzzi was certanly influenced by the Sacred Grove for his villa “La Scarzuola”.

source: beniculturalipatrimoni.it; canino.info; artandarchitecture.org.uk; madamepickwickartblog.com; wikipedia.com

if you want to know more about Bomarzo gardens here’s a interesting study by J.-E. Berger Foundation about Renassaince Gardens in english and french and here a very exhaustive studio by BTA (italian only).

The entrance

At the entry we found two sphinxes and series of heads depicting some of the antique Gods like Saturn, Gianus, Faun, Evandrus and the triple head of Ecatus. The sphinxes introduce you with two riddles. Whoever enters here must prove that he can enter. To gain the right to pass, the riddle of the sphinxes must be solved. Their plinths bear the following inscription:

(this is not where the entrance originally was, it was moved here during the restoration in 1952)

CHI CON CIGLIA INARCATE/ET LABBRA STRETTE/NON VA PER QUESTO LOCO/MANCO AMMIRA/LE FAMOSE DEL MONDO/ MOLI SETTE

(He who does not go there with eyes wide open and lips sealed will not be able to admire the most wonderful marvels)

TU CH’ENTRI QUA PON MENTE/PARTE A PARTE/ET DIMMI POI SE TANTE/MERAVIGLIE/SIEN FATTE PER INGANNO O PUR PER ARTE

(Oh ye who enter here and use thy Wit to try to understand what thou shalt see from beginning to end, tell me if so many marvels were created to make the Err or for Art)

Proteus or Glaucus or Mask of Madness

This mask can represent Proteus or Glaucus, the fisherman who became a Marine God after eating a magical herb. A sphere bears the Orsini’s coat of arm and it’s topped by a castle, maybe the Bomarzo’s one.

The Mausoleum

The ruin mausoleum, probably inspired by the Tomba della Sirena of Sovana, is intentionally represented fallen over and half destroyed. It could be referred to the “tempio destructo” a destroyed temple which contained the lovers tombs in the “Poliphilo”.

Hercules slaughters Cacus or The Fighting Colossi

There are two inscription nearby this sculpture and one of them says …TIER GIGANTE….O SCEMPIO…ANGLANTE… It’s easy to recognize the hero of Ariosto’s poem Orlando (Signore d’Anglante), who, during a particularly frenzied stage of his adventures, as he is wandering through a forest, driven mad at the loss of his beloved Angelica to another man, comes across two woodsman, one of whom he slaughters by exactly the method depicted by Vicino’s giants – he catches him by the legs and tears him in two.

The scene could also be referred to the iracund and lustful Giant who slaughters a woman in the Bernardo Tasso’s “Amadigi”.

SE RODI ALTIER GIA FU DEL SUO COLOSSO / PUR DI QUESTO IL MIO BOSCO ANCHO SI GLORIA / E PER PIU NON POTER FO QUANT IO POSSO

(If Rhodes previously took pride from its Collossus so by this one my wood is glorified and further I can do no more than I have done)

the stream in front of Hercules and Cacus

Pegasus

This mythological figure is very common in renaissance art, but here seems referred to Francesco Colonna’s Poliphilo where Pegasus is illustrated and described as “uno alato caballo che, volando in uno fastigio di monte, una mysteriosa fontana cum il calce faceva surgente”.

illustration from Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

The Turtle

The Turtle and the Fairy upon it stare in the same direction of Pegasus, which is near them. The Fairy could represent the winged Fame.

illustration from Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (a woman with a turtle an a pair of wing)

The Whale near the Turtle

The nymphaeum

The nymphaeum can be referred to the fount described in the Hypnerotomachia where Polifilo spent a little time with five nymphs, maybe the ones still visible in the niches. In the backround wall we can read part of an inscription:

L’ANTRO, LA FONTE IL LI…….ET…..D’OGNI OSCURO PENSIERO ME GL……

The Three Graces in the Nympheum are mentioned in the Poliphilo too.

illustration from Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Dolphins fountain

The Fountain in front of the Nympheum probably represent the ship used by Poliphilo and Polia to go to Kithira, island of Love and Venus.

Jupiter

Venus

Poliphilo journey ended in Kithyra, the island of Love, where he found Venus’ Sanctuary and a theatre, just like in Bomarzo’s garden.

The Theatre

On the base of the theatre can be hardly read an inscription saying PER SIMIL VANITA’ MI SON AC…….PARMI CORTO which probably was  Per simil vanità mi sono accorto/ che il tempo fugge e il viver parmi corto. Maybe the seven niches today empty were once covered with mirrors, symbols of vanitas.

Near the theatre were found in 1962 two pillars were we can read VICINO ORSINI NEL MDLLII (Vicino Orsini in 1552) and SOL PER SFOGARE IL CORE (just to set the art free) maybe to remember the year were the garden works began and the reason .

The Hanging House

It’s one of the first constructions of the garden, probably wanted by Giulia Farnese in 1555 when Vicino was prisoner. It could represent metaphorically the danger, then avoided, of the family ruin because of Vicino’s captivity.

Near the house there are two inscriptions: CRIST MADRUTIO PRINCIPI TRIDENTINI DICATUM dedicated to Mandruzzo, bishop of Trento since 1539 who probably helped Vicino and set him free; ANIMUS FIT QUIESCENDO PRUDENTIOR ERGO.

The Hanging House could also be identified in the “Torre pericolosa” of  Bernardo Tasso’s Amadigi.

Ceres

Neptune or Pluto

This big figure is identified as Neptune, God of the seas because of the dolphin in his right hand but seems more realistic the identification with Pluto, God of the underworld, because of the cornucopia and the proximity of the Mouth Hell, Cerberus the Underworld guardian and his wife Proserpina. This part of the garden is inspired by the Gerusalemme Liberata in which we find Pluto who claims his fellow men to fight against christians, the witch Armida here as the sleeping woman,  the entry of Hell as the Orc, Cerberus, lions, mermaids, dragons and harpies.

a dolphin near Pluto/Neptune

NOTTE ET GIORNO NOI SIAM QUI VIGILI ET PRONTE/ A GUARDAR D’OGNI INGIURIA QUESTA FONTE

FONTE NON FU TRA…./A GUARDIA SIA DELLE PIU’ STRANE BELVE

The Nymph called the Sleeping Beauty (Ariadne or Armida)

illustration from Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

The Dragon

The Dragon is fighting against a dog, a lion and a wolf. In can be a symbol of the Far East that fascinated Vicino but dragons are always been present in christian traditions (ex St. George and the Dragon). The Dragon fighting with lion can represent the struggle between virtue and vice.

illustration by Lucantonio degli Uberti from a precedent Leonardo drawing of the same subject, in which the Dragon and Lion are labelled with their respective virtues.

illustrations from Hynerotomachia Poliphili

The Elephant

Elephants carrying castles were popular symbols in Mediaeval and Renaissance art. They stood for both strength and restraint, and often referred to ancient history, in particular Hannibal’s famous use of Elephants to invade the Italian peninsular. The Bomarzo elephant is a curious instance of this tradition, especially so since it holds a presumably wounded or dead Roman soldier in its trunk, who in turn holds an unidentified object loosely in his right hand.

illustration from Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

The Orc or The Mouth of Hell

The inscription sourrinding the lips of the monster says OGNI PENSIERO VOLA but originally was LASCIATE OGNI PENSIERO VOI CH’ENTRATE (abandon all reason, you who here enter) as we know from a Giovanni Guerra’s drawing dated 1598. The reference to Dante’s inscription above the mouth of hell is clear, although Dante’s damned are told to abandon hope - speranza – rather than reason. Inside Vicino’s hell there is a picnic table, formed by hell’s tongue, and seating space for a small party.

OGNI PENSIERO VOLA (all thought flyes)

The Cantaro or Big Jar

The Etruscan Bench

There are a number of shaded and hidden seats in the garden, notably in the Nymphaeum, inviting lovers to linger. This covered bench has a well preserved inscription that dwells on the type of worldly visitor that the garden required, for all its nuanced meanings to unfold:

VOI CHE PEL MONDO GITE ERRANDO / VAGHI DI VEDER MARAVIGLIE ALTE ET / STUPENDE, VENITE QVA, DOVE SON / FACCIE HORRENDE, ELEFANTI, LEONI, / ORSI, ORCHI ET DRAGHI

(You who have travelled the world wishing to see great and stupendous marvels, come here, where there are horrendous faces, elephants, lions, bears, orcs and dragons)

The Hippodrome garden with pinecones and acorns

Echidna and Lions

Many of the features of Vicino’s garden were based, through archaelogical and literary investigation, on ancient Roman models. This was certainly the case with the Hippodrome garden – a large, race-track shaped garden that Vicino based on those common in Roman villas. Those entering the garden, if sufficiently iconographically trained, are warned of a potential threat by the presence of large pinecones and acorns decorating the perimeter. Acorns emblematise the Golden Age, pinecones death, making the Hippodrome a false paradise for unprepared visitors.

Such a threat becomes more pressing in the form of three female figures who roam the Hippodrome; one with bifurcated fish-tails, one with a dragon’s tail, claws and wings, the other surmounting a bench on which only the most foolhardy would sit. These Harpies, according to Darnall and Weil (1984), make another connection with Orlando Furioso, the episode where the King of Ethiopa, Prester John, is rescued from harpies by the hero Astolfo, who drives the harpies into the mouth of hell using magic. Bury (1985) contests the identification of the fish-tailed figure as a Harpy, pointing out, rather sensibly, that she is more likely to be a Mermaid.

Also in the Hippodrome can be found part (the socle) of a copy (according to Darnall and Weil) of the Meta Sudans, an ancient fountain that once stood in Rome between the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine. The inscripition carried on this base reinforces the idea that the Hippodrome represents a terrestrial paradise.

The Fury

The Rotonda (Meta Sudans ?)

It’s a circle fountain placed at the end of the staircase leading to the Tempietto. On his base the insctription says:

CEDAN ET MENPHI E OGNI ALTRA MARAVIGLIA/CH HEBBE GIA L MONDO IN PREGIO AL SACRO BOSCHO/CHE SOL SE STESSO E NULL ALTRO SOMIGLIA

(Memphis and every other marvel that the world has held in praise yield to the Sacro Bosco that resembles itself and nothing else)

The Cerberes

The Tempietto

The philosophical journey through the sacred grove ends at a strangely constructed temple. This was the last costruction of the garden and was built by Vicino as the culmination of his memorials to Giulia, and as a symbol of her constancy.

We know this latter detail from a book published in 1556, Le Imagine del tempio della signaro Giovanna Aragona, by Giuseppe Betussi, in which Giulia Farnese Orsini is referred to as amongst the most virtuous ladies of Italy, on account of her constancy, having remained faithful to Vicino during the long periods when he was absent at war.

The ceiling is decorated with lilies, symbol of Farnese family and roses, symbol of Orsini family. Drawings by Giovanni Guerra show that the temple, now quite bare, was once adorned with a number of symbols including the zodiacal signs, crucifixion and resurrection scenes, and a sun that looked out from the east overlooking the Sacro Bosco. Solar light symbolises the revelation at the end of the philosophical journey through Vicino’s Sacro Bosco, the visitor emerging out of the wood, with its fantastical and cautionary bestiary, to the idea of divine love, emanating from the purity of Giulia, and embodied in the architecture of the Tempietto.

This temple could also represent the place where Polia met Poliphilo.

illustration from Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Giancarlo and Tina Bettini restored the garden in 1952 and now are buried in the Tempietto

Little Bear

Two little bears holding the Orsini coat of arm are setted at the end of the Hippodrome garden. They represent Vicino himself via a pun as in italian “orsino” means little bear.

Orsini Castle from the garden

Poliphilo sleeping in the wood

Poliphilo lost in the wood

]]> http://larocaille.altervista.org/blog/2011/08/15/the-sacred-grove-of-bomarzo/feed/ 0 http://larocaille.altervista.org/blog/2011/08/14/ogni-pensiero-vola/ http://larocaille.altervista.org/blog/2011/08/14/ogni-pensiero-vola/#comments Sun, 14 Aug 2011 15:16:31 +0000 Lisa http://larocaille.altervista.org/blog/?p=3103

I took these pictures when I’ve been to Bomarzo (here the post about the Sacred Grove) . This enchanting place makes you fell like in a fairy tale, full of monsters and illusions. The inscription around the lips of the big monster says “Ogni pensiero vola” that means “All thought flyes”.

Villa Torlonia is a Noble House located in Rome which became famous for being Mussolini’s residence during Fascism. Actually, Mussolini’s period is only the last one of the many changes the Villa had gone through. It includes a park and three houses: The Nobile Casino (or Palace), The House of the Princes and The House of the owls, which deserves a special attention.  Here is shorty the story of the Villa.

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Villa Torlonia was purchesed by Giovanni Torlonia after he inherited the title of Marchese in 1797.

He commissioned Giuseppe Valadier to renovate the property to raise it to the standard of the other villas belonging to noble families in Rome.  So between 1802 and 1806 Valadier turned the main building into an elegant palace, transformed the small Casino Abbati into a very gracious palazzina (today the Casino dei Principi). He also laid out the park with symmetrical, perpendicular avenues around the palace, and the view to the north from the building.

Following the death of Giovanni, in 1832 his son Alessandro commissioned the painter and architect Giovan Battisti Caretti to enhance and increase the size of the property. In addition to enlarging the size of the buildings, Caretti constructed several features in the park to suit the eclectic taste of the Prince: these were the False Ruins, the Temple of Saturn, the Tribuna con Fontana, an Amphitheatre, the Coffee-house, and the Chapel of Sant’Alessandro (the last three no longer exist).

Alessandro employed two other architects: Quintiliano Raimondi for the Theatre and Orangery (today known as the Lemon-house), and Giuseppe Jappelli, who was in charge of the entire south section of the Villa. This area was completely transformed with winding avenues, small lakes, exotic plants and decorated with buildings and outdoor furniture of unusual taste: the Swiss Hut (later transformed into the Casina delle Civette), the Conservatory, the Tower and Moorish Grotto, and the Tournament Field. The huge self-celebratory project culminated in 1842 with the erection of two pink granite Obelisks that commemorated Alessandro’s parents, Giovanni and Anna Maria Torlonia.

In an attempt to relaunch the splendour of the family name, his heir, another Giovanni, built the Medieval House, another enclosure wall, the Red House, and the Watchman’s House at the entrance on Via Spallanzani, and he radically transformed the Swiss Hut to turn it into the current Casina delle Civette.

In 1919 a large underground Jewish cemetery was discovered in the north-west area of the grounds.
In 1925 the Villa was bestowed upon Mussolini as a residence, where he remained until 1943. The presence of the Duce did not bring substantial modifications.

In June 1944 the entire property was occupied by the Allied High Command which remained there until 1947.
The Villa was bought by the Municipality of Rome in 1977 and a year later it was opened to the public. A series of restoration projects was initiated in the 1990s in both the park and buildings.

source: museivillatorlonia.it

THE PALACE (INSIDE):

The Palace from outside

The House of Princes (entrance)

Mirko’s exhibition

THE PARK: