Rocznik Historii Sztuki (34.2009)

AROUND THE HISTORKXiRAPHY OF ITALIAN GARDENS: GEORGINA MASSON'S CONTRIBUTION

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8. Villa Garzoni at Collodi

In the late 1950s Masson began to study historie Italian villas and gardens on a professional level.
However, lier first article on the subject, "Four Palladian Villas", was actually published in Country Life in
1950 and two years later the magazine published another one, "Villa Barbaro, Maser". For The Architectural
Review, to which she began to contribute regularly in 1951, she wrote an article entitled "Venetian Gardens"
and reviewed the exhibition about Veneto villas curated by Mazzotti and later shown at the Royal Institute
of British Architects in London; both articles were published in 1954. In 1955, she also published "Palla-
dian Villas as Rural Centres" in the journal. This article marked the first investigation of a topic - that of
the villa as the central complex of a farming estate - that Fausto Franco had merely mentioned in passing
in 1936. Franco would return to this subject in 1956, and it would later be developed extensively, above ail
by agricultural and économie historians24. Furthermore, she also studied flowers in Italy's historie gardens,
a subject in which, as already noted, she took a keen interest and to which she would return repeatedly,
as we will see.

scholar and the 20 years she lived there (С. В e n о с с i, Villa Doria Pamphilj, Rome 1996). Forced to leave her beloved cottage in
1971, Masson initially moved to Tuscany but then spent about eight years in the neighbourhood of the American Academy, back in
"her" Gianicolo, one of her favourite haunts. In the area she would meet numerous friends who still remember her fondly, from
Paola Lanzara to John van Sickle.

24 F. Franco, Classicismo e funzionalità delia villa palladiana, 'città piccola', [in:] Atti del Г Congresso nazionale di
storia dell'architettura (1936), Rome 1938, pp. 6 ff ; F. Franco, Piccola urbanistica delia casa di villa palladiana, [in:] Venezia
e Г Europa, proceedings from the I8th International Congress of Art History, Venice 1956, pp. 595-98; see also the récent works
by D. С o 11 r o, La terra e l'uomo. Cultura materiale del mondo agricolo veneto, Sommacampagna (Verona) 2006, and R. Dero-
s a s (éd.), Villa. Siti e contesti, Treviso 2006. Villas and gardens were unquestionably the main thème of Masson's works and she
also discussed the gardens of Dumbarton Oaks, where she studied in 1966 (G. M a s s о n, Dumbarton Oaks. A Guide to the Gardens,
Washington 1968). Masson also wrote several successful biographies: Frederick II of Hohenstaufen: A Life (1957), Queen Chris-
tina (1968), Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance (1976) and The Borgias (1981). Some of her works were about the history of
ancient Rome {A Concise History ofRepublican Rome, London 1973; Ancient Rome: From Romulus toAugustus, New York 1973).
Her book titled The Companion Guide to Rome (London 1965 and later éditions) was particularly successful. She also wrote Fodor's
Rome: A Companion Guide, New York 1971. For a list of Masson's most important publications, their éditions and translations into
other languages, see Capodiferro, Lauf (eds.), Georgina Masson..., pp. 78-79, a catalogue for the exhibition held at the
American Academy in Roma, to which Masson bequeathed her rich photo archives with thousands of photographs.