DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0260
The Italian Renaissance and Baroque
231
They staked their all on the duration of their kinsman's life, and the short time had to be
used to the best advantage. Their haste enriched Rome with numerous works of art, but
many beautiful and lordly places were either never finished or soon left to fall into decay,
and nothing could suffer more severely than garden sites.
Leo X.'s nephew, Giulio de' Medici, was m the forefront of it all. He brought with
him a passion for villa life that he had inherited from his family. In front of the Ponte
Molle stretched the long range of
hills, rich in water, of Monte Mario,
which half-way up has a moderately
large flat terrace with a lovely view;
on one side stands the town, far
enough off to give the feeling of
open country and yet easily reached
by the well-kept Via Flaminia. On
the other side the river with its
bridge winds through the green plain
stocked with vines, and behind is
the encircling Sabine Range. The
cardinal was enchanted, and resolved
to build a castle in the grand style.
He summoned the best artists of that
day, and no less a man than Raphael
undertook to plan and construct.
If fate had allowed the building
to proceed, a jewel comparable with
anything the Renaissance can offer
would be now before our eyes, but
changes of fortune have left only
the ruins of a fragment. Scarcely
was it built than it was destroyed
in a savage attack; for when Giulio
became Pope as Clement VII., the
villa was scarcely half made, and two
years later it was the first victim
of the revolt headed by Cardinal nG villa madama, rome—the elephant alcove
Pompeo Colonna, who tried to show
his revenge in a flaring light by burning the Pope's darling villa on Monte Mario
while its master was a prisoner at the Engelsburg. Such part as was burned was
afterwards rebuilt; but the whole villa was never completed. It has its present name,
Villa Madama, from Margaret of Parma, who when travelling by used to stay there.
To-day it is a melancholy picture of decay, yet in it one can trace the features of
ineffaceable beauty.
A set of original plans, some by Raphael, some by San Gallo, have been found in
quite recent years, and they help one to understand the complicated architecture of the
place. Though much must be simply guesswork, one can mentally reconstruct Raphael's
231
They staked their all on the duration of their kinsman's life, and the short time had to be
used to the best advantage. Their haste enriched Rome with numerous works of art, but
many beautiful and lordly places were either never finished or soon left to fall into decay,
and nothing could suffer more severely than garden sites.
Leo X.'s nephew, Giulio de' Medici, was m the forefront of it all. He brought with
him a passion for villa life that he had inherited from his family. In front of the Ponte
Molle stretched the long range of
hills, rich in water, of Monte Mario,
which half-way up has a moderately
large flat terrace with a lovely view;
on one side stands the town, far
enough off to give the feeling of
open country and yet easily reached
by the well-kept Via Flaminia. On
the other side the river with its
bridge winds through the green plain
stocked with vines, and behind is
the encircling Sabine Range. The
cardinal was enchanted, and resolved
to build a castle in the grand style.
He summoned the best artists of that
day, and no less a man than Raphael
undertook to plan and construct.
If fate had allowed the building
to proceed, a jewel comparable with
anything the Renaissance can offer
would be now before our eyes, but
changes of fortune have left only
the ruins of a fragment. Scarcely
was it built than it was destroyed
in a savage attack; for when Giulio
became Pope as Clement VII., the
villa was scarcely half made, and two
years later it was the first victim
of the revolt headed by Cardinal nG villa madama, rome—the elephant alcove
Pompeo Colonna, who tried to show
his revenge in a flaring light by burning the Pope's darling villa on Monte Mario
while its master was a prisoner at the Engelsburg. Such part as was burned was
afterwards rebuilt; but the whole villa was never completed. It has its present name,
Villa Madama, from Margaret of Parma, who when travelling by used to stay there.
To-day it is a melancholy picture of decay, yet in it one can trace the features of
ineffaceable beauty.
A set of original plans, some by Raphael, some by San Gallo, have been found in
quite recent years, and they help one to understand the complicated architecture of the
place. Though much must be simply guesswork, one can mentally reconstruct Raphael's