DOI chapter:
III. Roman villas
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61216#0125
ITALIAN VILLAS
good fortune to pass into the hands of the French gov-
ernment, and its “facciata incrusted with antique and
rare basso-relievos and statues ” still looks out over the
statued arcade, the terrace “ balustraded with white
marble” and planted with “perennial greens,” and the
“mount planted with cypresses,” which Evelyn so justly
admired.
The villa, built in the middle of the sixteenth century
by Annibale Lippi, was begun for one cardinal and
completed for another. It stands in true Italian fashion
against the hillside above the Spanish Steps, its airy
upper stories planted on one of the mighty bastion-like
basements so characteristic of the Roman villa. A
villa above, a fortress below, it shows that, even in the
polished cinque-cento, life in the Papal States needed
the protection of stout walls and heavily barred win-
dows. The garden-fagade, raised a story above the
entrance, has all the smiling openness of the Renaissance
pleasure-house, and is interesting as being probably the
earliest example of the systematic use of fragments of
antique sculpture in an architectural elevation. But this
fagade, with its charming central loggia, is sufficiently
well known to make a detailed description superfluous,
and it need be studied here only in relation to its sur-
roundings.
Falda's plan of the grounds, and that of Percier and
Fontaine, made over a hundred and fifty years later,
show how little succeeding fashions have been allowed
90
good fortune to pass into the hands of the French gov-
ernment, and its “facciata incrusted with antique and
rare basso-relievos and statues ” still looks out over the
statued arcade, the terrace “ balustraded with white
marble” and planted with “perennial greens,” and the
“mount planted with cypresses,” which Evelyn so justly
admired.
The villa, built in the middle of the sixteenth century
by Annibale Lippi, was begun for one cardinal and
completed for another. It stands in true Italian fashion
against the hillside above the Spanish Steps, its airy
upper stories planted on one of the mighty bastion-like
basements so characteristic of the Roman villa. A
villa above, a fortress below, it shows that, even in the
polished cinque-cento, life in the Papal States needed
the protection of stout walls and heavily barred win-
dows. The garden-fagade, raised a story above the
entrance, has all the smiling openness of the Renaissance
pleasure-house, and is interesting as being probably the
earliest example of the systematic use of fragments of
antique sculpture in an architectural elevation. But this
fagade, with its charming central loggia, is sufficiently
well known to make a detailed description superfluous,
and it need be studied here only in relation to its sur-
roundings.
Falda's plan of the grounds, and that of Percier and
Fontaine, made over a hundred and fifty years later,
show how little succeeding fashions have been allowed
90