DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0331
302 History of Garden Art
the villa was converted by Napoleon into the home of the French Academy of Art,
and has remained so to the present day. At a later date an attempt was made, by setting
up a few casts there, to charm back to the place some trace of its former beauty.
Those who founded the Villa Medici enjoyed the great advantage of a fine water
supply, for the Acqua Vergine was restored by a long succession of Popes to its former
efficiency as a conduit, and watered the Hill of Gardens {Collis Hortorum). According to the
first drawing, the fountain on the hill of cypresses leapt to a height of twenty-five ells from
the pressure of this conduit, and Evelyn mentions with astonishment that the fountain at
the entrance to the palace throws its waters to a height of fifteen ells.
On the east side, towards the Esquiline and Viminal, there was a very scanty supply,
FIG. 232. VILLA MONTALTO, ROME. WITH GARDENS
and it was just here that another cardinal, Montalto, elected to build a villa m the grand
style. This cardinal made a victorious exit from the Conclave in 1585 as Pope Sixtus V.
To no other Pope have so many legends been attached as to this one, originally Felice
Peretti, who worked his way up from the lowly estate of a shepherd boy to the highest
position in Christendom, always believing in his luck, which he thought his father
had bestowed on him with the name Felice that he liked so much to hear. This Pope is
described by Ranke as a man of frugal life, who quickly remedied the ruinous condition
of Church finance.
In spite of his economy, however, he indulged his fancy for building. The villa he started
as cardinal he brought to completion as Pope, and in the handsomest way. It was adorned
with choice works of ancient art, although at one time he had scornfully opposed the cult
of antiquity. There is an anecdote that relates how the cardinal suddenly was compelled
to give up building his villa, when Gregory XIII., himself a great lover of building, was
the villa was converted by Napoleon into the home of the French Academy of Art,
and has remained so to the present day. At a later date an attempt was made, by setting
up a few casts there, to charm back to the place some trace of its former beauty.
Those who founded the Villa Medici enjoyed the great advantage of a fine water
supply, for the Acqua Vergine was restored by a long succession of Popes to its former
efficiency as a conduit, and watered the Hill of Gardens {Collis Hortorum). According to the
first drawing, the fountain on the hill of cypresses leapt to a height of twenty-five ells from
the pressure of this conduit, and Evelyn mentions with astonishment that the fountain at
the entrance to the palace throws its waters to a height of fifteen ells.
On the east side, towards the Esquiline and Viminal, there was a very scanty supply,
FIG. 232. VILLA MONTALTO, ROME. WITH GARDENS
and it was just here that another cardinal, Montalto, elected to build a villa m the grand
style. This cardinal made a victorious exit from the Conclave in 1585 as Pope Sixtus V.
To no other Pope have so many legends been attached as to this one, originally Felice
Peretti, who worked his way up from the lowly estate of a shepherd boy to the highest
position in Christendom, always believing in his luck, which he thought his father
had bestowed on him with the name Felice that he liked so much to hear. This Pope is
described by Ranke as a man of frugal life, who quickly remedied the ruinous condition
of Church finance.
In spite of his economy, however, he indulged his fancy for building. The villa he started
as cardinal he brought to completion as Pope, and in the handsomest way. It was adorned
with choice works of ancient art, although at one time he had scornfully opposed the cult
of antiquity. There is an anecdote that relates how the cardinal suddenly was compelled
to give up building his villa, when Gregory XIII., himself a great lover of building, was