DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68272#0266
248
THE GARDENS OE ITALY.
As years passed the magnificence of Cardinals became less liable to reproof, and no one
thought of objecting when Cardinal Montalto, succeeding to the bishopric at length carried out
Vignola’s plan and added the second villa. This, uniform outwardly with the first, consists
inside mainly of reception and guest chambers ; the original villa being reserved for the owner’s
own use. Neither is of more than one storey in height, and the chief part of the second villa is
occupied by a fine hall, which has a very beautiful ceiling by Zuccaro, in stucco, gilding and
fresco. It is in perfect preservation and recalls the famous one by the Carracci in the Farnese
palace in Rome. The framework is composed of large female figures in high relief, white and
gold, with outstretched arms, joining hands, between which are set mythological scenes. The
frieze introduces the armorial bearings of Montalto ; a lion, together with the pear tree of his
maternal house of the name of Peretti.
The delightful formal garden below the twin villas had already been laid out by Cardinal
Gambara, but it was reserved for Montalto to erect its crowning ornament in the magnificent
258.—TWO WAYS TO THE FIRST TERRACE, VILLA LANTE, BAGNAIA.
central fountain which for beauty and originality of design and setting has hardly its equal in
Italy (Fig. 246). Four huge tanks are enclosed by stone parapets on which stand vases, and in
the middle rises a group of splendid young athletes, who hold aloft the high mount, the“ Monte
Alto,” of the Cardinal. Against the blue distance the powerful figures are grandly relieved,
black and gleaming. “ Bronze,” you say at once, but they are not bronze at all, but the finest,
hardest travertine, which the sun and the water have transmuted into a material as hard as iron,
so that it is difficult to believe that it is not really metal. Already in Canova’s day the group
had taken its present colour, and the sculptor marvelled at it, saying, as he tapped it with his
hammer, “ It will outlast marble.” At the Villa Lante one Prince of the Church succeeded
another and the ilexes grew taller and richer, till in 1656 Duke Ippolito of Lante laid a request
before Pope Urban VIII that he would grant him its use for three generations to compensate
him for the loss of Villa Lante on the Janiculum, which the Pope had confiscated in order to
build fortifications on the site. Neither Urban nor his successor, Innocent X, would agree,
THE GARDENS OE ITALY.
As years passed the magnificence of Cardinals became less liable to reproof, and no one
thought of objecting when Cardinal Montalto, succeeding to the bishopric at length carried out
Vignola’s plan and added the second villa. This, uniform outwardly with the first, consists
inside mainly of reception and guest chambers ; the original villa being reserved for the owner’s
own use. Neither is of more than one storey in height, and the chief part of the second villa is
occupied by a fine hall, which has a very beautiful ceiling by Zuccaro, in stucco, gilding and
fresco. It is in perfect preservation and recalls the famous one by the Carracci in the Farnese
palace in Rome. The framework is composed of large female figures in high relief, white and
gold, with outstretched arms, joining hands, between which are set mythological scenes. The
frieze introduces the armorial bearings of Montalto ; a lion, together with the pear tree of his
maternal house of the name of Peretti.
The delightful formal garden below the twin villas had already been laid out by Cardinal
Gambara, but it was reserved for Montalto to erect its crowning ornament in the magnificent
258.—TWO WAYS TO THE FIRST TERRACE, VILLA LANTE, BAGNAIA.
central fountain which for beauty and originality of design and setting has hardly its equal in
Italy (Fig. 246). Four huge tanks are enclosed by stone parapets on which stand vases, and in
the middle rises a group of splendid young athletes, who hold aloft the high mount, the“ Monte
Alto,” of the Cardinal. Against the blue distance the powerful figures are grandly relieved,
black and gleaming. “ Bronze,” you say at once, but they are not bronze at all, but the finest,
hardest travertine, which the sun and the water have transmuted into a material as hard as iron,
so that it is difficult to believe that it is not really metal. Already in Canova’s day the group
had taken its present colour, and the sculptor marvelled at it, saying, as he tapped it with his
hammer, “ It will outlast marble.” At the Villa Lante one Prince of the Church succeeded
another and the ilexes grew taller and richer, till in 1656 Duke Ippolito of Lante laid a request
before Pope Urban VIII that he would grant him its use for three generations to compensate
him for the loss of Villa Lante on the Janiculum, which the Pope had confiscated in order to
build fortifications on the site. Neither Urban nor his successor, Innocent X, would agree,