DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19775#0089
VILLA MEDICI,
ROME.
THERE is no building in Rome more familiar
than the great cream-coloured villa, with
its two small square towers, which rises
on the Pincian hill against the rich green
background of ilex and stone pine, and looks out
over the city, across the close-cut grove, under
which the fountain splashes into its wide, brown
basin, and where St. Peter's is framed in that
famous sunset view, the purple dome against the
flaming sky.
Twice a week the heavy gate turns on its
hinges to admit visitors ; the surly old guard, a
French ex-soldier, passes you in. You are on
French territory, and you pass up the shadowy
way, dark even on a summer's day, the guest of the
French Academy. To approach the villa, a broad
walk runs along a terrace, bounded by a low wall,
which in spring and summer is a mass of pink
monthly roses. Part of it is now shut in by over-
grown trees, but part is kept, as no doubt it all
was originally, as a sort of quarter-deck from
which to enjoy the prospect to the full. The
view from the Villa Medici is not more magni-
ficent to the eye than it is suggestive to the
mind. It is the centre of a panorama of
Rome, and from it almost every point of
interest may be discerned—monuments, palaces,
and churches, the Colosseum in the distance,
even the far-off aqueducts and the horizon line of
mountains. The seven hills may be counted, the
columns marked, and Hadrian's mausoleum ; and,
above all, your attention is claimed by the dome,
which seems to be of the city, yet always to rise
above every other building. The most beautiful
position in Rome was well chosen by Lucullus, by
Domitian, by Sallust, tor their pleasure gardens.
A votive^tablet discovered in 1868 proves that the
site of the villa formed part of the gardens of the
Acilii Glabriones, a family conspicuous in Roman
history from the time of the battle of Thermopylae,
and of whom two, Maximus Acilius and Priscilla,
embraced Christianity about a.d. 152, and were
buried in the Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via
Salaria. In the gardens of Lucullus, avenues of
carefully-cut ilexes, bay, and cypress over-shadowed
fountains, and were grouped round temples, shrines,
and porticoes garlanded with roses and jasmine.
There stood that marvellous Hall of Apollo,
wherein Lucullus once feasted Cicero and Pompey
at a cost of 50,000 drachma?. Near by, it was,
that Messalina took desperate refuge, and heard
the garden gates behind her being broken down
by the centurion Euodus, who came to make an
end of her. On the site of the gardens of
Sallust, the millionaire historian, the statue of the
dying Gaul was found.
On the eastern side, the villa garden is built
upon the very walls of Rome, those walls of
Aurelian which were stormed at this point by the
Goths, and a gate opened by traitors, when the
villa of Sallust was given over to fire and sword,
and when its flaming towers gave the light to
guide the conquerors to the first sack of Rome.
On the south, the ground slopes down by gentle
degrees in gardens and terraces, and adjoins that to
which long ages ago the old senator, Pincius, gave
his name, and which is still the favourite promenade
of the Romans. From the height of the eastern
wall we look down on those slopes where Alaric
marshalled his army of Goths, and where on a later
day was pitched the camp of Belisarius and the
Byzantine host. Procopius says, " The greater part
of these buildings remain hall-burnt, even now in
my time." The beauty of those famous gardens
perished in 410.
In the fifteenth century the ground on which
the villa now stands was partly in the possession of
Catherine de Medici and partly in that of Cardinal
Ricci of Montepulciano, and the deed by which
Catherine made it entirely hers is still in the
possession of the Ricci family in Rome. In 1540
Ricci had laid the first stone of the new building,
but its accomplishment was left to Ferdinand de
Medici, one of those ecclesiastical princes of the
Renaissance whose dearest occupation it was to
collect the precious remains of antiquity to adorn
those delicious villas which remain among the chief
charms of Italy. Ferdinand finished it, adorned it
with antiques, with paintings and sculpture, planted
groups of ilex and myrtle, added fountains, and
finally gave it his name.
This prince, who afterwards succeeded his
brother as Grand Duke of Tuscany, was one of
the most remarkable persons of his age. fie
( »j )
ROME.
THERE is no building in Rome more familiar
than the great cream-coloured villa, with
its two small square towers, which rises
on the Pincian hill against the rich green
background of ilex and stone pine, and looks out
over the city, across the close-cut grove, under
which the fountain splashes into its wide, brown
basin, and where St. Peter's is framed in that
famous sunset view, the purple dome against the
flaming sky.
Twice a week the heavy gate turns on its
hinges to admit visitors ; the surly old guard, a
French ex-soldier, passes you in. You are on
French territory, and you pass up the shadowy
way, dark even on a summer's day, the guest of the
French Academy. To approach the villa, a broad
walk runs along a terrace, bounded by a low wall,
which in spring and summer is a mass of pink
monthly roses. Part of it is now shut in by over-
grown trees, but part is kept, as no doubt it all
was originally, as a sort of quarter-deck from
which to enjoy the prospect to the full. The
view from the Villa Medici is not more magni-
ficent to the eye than it is suggestive to the
mind. It is the centre of a panorama of
Rome, and from it almost every point of
interest may be discerned—monuments, palaces,
and churches, the Colosseum in the distance,
even the far-off aqueducts and the horizon line of
mountains. The seven hills may be counted, the
columns marked, and Hadrian's mausoleum ; and,
above all, your attention is claimed by the dome,
which seems to be of the city, yet always to rise
above every other building. The most beautiful
position in Rome was well chosen by Lucullus, by
Domitian, by Sallust, tor their pleasure gardens.
A votive^tablet discovered in 1868 proves that the
site of the villa formed part of the gardens of the
Acilii Glabriones, a family conspicuous in Roman
history from the time of the battle of Thermopylae,
and of whom two, Maximus Acilius and Priscilla,
embraced Christianity about a.d. 152, and were
buried in the Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via
Salaria. In the gardens of Lucullus, avenues of
carefully-cut ilexes, bay, and cypress over-shadowed
fountains, and were grouped round temples, shrines,
and porticoes garlanded with roses and jasmine.
There stood that marvellous Hall of Apollo,
wherein Lucullus once feasted Cicero and Pompey
at a cost of 50,000 drachma?. Near by, it was,
that Messalina took desperate refuge, and heard
the garden gates behind her being broken down
by the centurion Euodus, who came to make an
end of her. On the site of the gardens of
Sallust, the millionaire historian, the statue of the
dying Gaul was found.
On the eastern side, the villa garden is built
upon the very walls of Rome, those walls of
Aurelian which were stormed at this point by the
Goths, and a gate opened by traitors, when the
villa of Sallust was given over to fire and sword,
and when its flaming towers gave the light to
guide the conquerors to the first sack of Rome.
On the south, the ground slopes down by gentle
degrees in gardens and terraces, and adjoins that to
which long ages ago the old senator, Pincius, gave
his name, and which is still the favourite promenade
of the Romans. From the height of the eastern
wall we look down on those slopes where Alaric
marshalled his army of Goths, and where on a later
day was pitched the camp of Belisarius and the
Byzantine host. Procopius says, " The greater part
of these buildings remain hall-burnt, even now in
my time." The beauty of those famous gardens
perished in 410.
In the fifteenth century the ground on which
the villa now stands was partly in the possession of
Catherine de Medici and partly in that of Cardinal
Ricci of Montepulciano, and the deed by which
Catherine made it entirely hers is still in the
possession of the Ricci family in Rome. In 1540
Ricci had laid the first stone of the new building,
but its accomplishment was left to Ferdinand de
Medici, one of those ecclesiastical princes of the
Renaissance whose dearest occupation it was to
collect the precious remains of antiquity to adorn
those delicious villas which remain among the chief
charms of Italy. Ferdinand finished it, adorned it
with antiques, with paintings and sculpture, planted
groups of ilex and myrtle, added fountains, and
finally gave it his name.
This prince, who afterwards succeeded his
brother as Grand Duke of Tuscany, was one of
the most remarkable persons of his age. fie
( »j )