DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68272#0143
VILLA ALBANI, ROME.
12A
The Cardinal from his youth showed a wish to revive the love of art in Rome and to turn
back the thoughts of men to the beauties of a classic past. He treated professional buyers and
excavators with the greatest esteem, and paid for everything really beautiful that was brought
to his notice with regal munificence. In 1757 he met with Winckelmann, and was soon
attracted by his critical faculty and artistic knowledge ; the following year he offered him a salary
and lodgings in his palace in Rome. He gave him fine rooms with beautiful views. His only
duties were to be a companion to the Cardinal and to look after his library. He passed his
time going with the Cardinal to examine ruins and to consider the positions to be given to his
statues, and soon became so intimate with him that he often went to chat at his bedside.
He threw himself so enthusiastically into his patron’s favourite pursuit that it seemed as if he
built and bought for himself alone.
Winckelmann in his letters gives us continual accounts of the rise and progress of this
splendid collection, and speaks affectionately of the goodness and loyalty of heart of its owner.
134. —VILLA ALBANI : ROMAN RELIEFS.
“ What manner of man is he ? do you ask,” he writes to a friend. “ He is a man who to great
talents joins the most amiable of characters. He is sixty-three, but does not look forty, and
he builds as if he were sure of living for another twenty-five years. His villa surpasses every-
thing of modern times, except St. Peter’s itself. He has erected the background he needed,
and has been himself the sole architect.” “ This cardinal is the greatest antiquary in the
world, He brings to light what has been buried in darkness, and pays for it with a generosity
worthy of a king.” In February, 1758, he writes : “ The palace is adorned with such a quantity of
columns of porphyry, granite, and oriental alabaster that before they were put in their appointed
(1) Principal entrance.
(2) Porch.
(3) Servants’ quarters.
(4) Great open gallery.
(5) Closed galleries with sculpture.
(6) Temple poitico with caryatid figures.
(7) Temple with Ionic columns.
(8) Small room with bronzes.
(9) Pergola.
(to) Billiard-room.
(11) Fountains.
(12) Great stairway to lower level.
(13) Pond with statue.
(14) Temple ruins.
(See plan on page 124.)
(15) Pavilion.
(16-17) Lower gardens, part enlarged in corner
of plan.
(18) Kitchen garden.
(19) Grand parterre : grass and flowers.
(20) Terrace at level of main villa—limited area
well disposed and levels made the most of.
12A
The Cardinal from his youth showed a wish to revive the love of art in Rome and to turn
back the thoughts of men to the beauties of a classic past. He treated professional buyers and
excavators with the greatest esteem, and paid for everything really beautiful that was brought
to his notice with regal munificence. In 1757 he met with Winckelmann, and was soon
attracted by his critical faculty and artistic knowledge ; the following year he offered him a salary
and lodgings in his palace in Rome. He gave him fine rooms with beautiful views. His only
duties were to be a companion to the Cardinal and to look after his library. He passed his
time going with the Cardinal to examine ruins and to consider the positions to be given to his
statues, and soon became so intimate with him that he often went to chat at his bedside.
He threw himself so enthusiastically into his patron’s favourite pursuit that it seemed as if he
built and bought for himself alone.
Winckelmann in his letters gives us continual accounts of the rise and progress of this
splendid collection, and speaks affectionately of the goodness and loyalty of heart of its owner.
134. —VILLA ALBANI : ROMAN RELIEFS.
“ What manner of man is he ? do you ask,” he writes to a friend. “ He is a man who to great
talents joins the most amiable of characters. He is sixty-three, but does not look forty, and
he builds as if he were sure of living for another twenty-five years. His villa surpasses every-
thing of modern times, except St. Peter’s itself. He has erected the background he needed,
and has been himself the sole architect.” “ This cardinal is the greatest antiquary in the
world, He brings to light what has been buried in darkness, and pays for it with a generosity
worthy of a king.” In February, 1758, he writes : “ The palace is adorned with such a quantity of
columns of porphyry, granite, and oriental alabaster that before they were put in their appointed
(1) Principal entrance.
(2) Porch.
(3) Servants’ quarters.
(4) Great open gallery.
(5) Closed galleries with sculpture.
(6) Temple poitico with caryatid figures.
(7) Temple with Ionic columns.
(8) Small room with bronzes.
(9) Pergola.
(to) Billiard-room.
(11) Fountains.
(12) Great stairway to lower level.
(13) Pond with statue.
(14) Temple ruins.
(See plan on page 124.)
(15) Pavilion.
(16-17) Lower gardens, part enlarged in corner
of plan.
(18) Kitchen garden.
(19) Grand parterre : grass and flowers.
(20) Terrace at level of main villa—limited area
well disposed and levels made the most of.