DOI chapter:
III. Roman villas
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61216#0147
ITALIAN VILLAS
nues, lake and amphitheatre,
buildings scattered on irregular grassy knolls, has the
appearance of a jardin anglais laid out at the end of the
eighteenth century. Herr Tuckermann, persuaded that
this park is the work of Giovanni Fontana, sees in him
the originator of the “sentimental” English and Ger-
man landscape-gardens, with their hermitages, mauso-
leums and temples of Friendship ; but Percier and Fon-
taine, from whose plan of the park his inference is
avowedly drawn, state that the grounds were much
modified in 1789 by Jacob Moore, an English landscape-
gardener, and by Pietro Camporesi of Rome. Herr
Gurlitt, who seems to have overlooked this statement,
larger scale they would be oppressive; but as mere
garden-houses, with their leafy background, and the
picturesque adjuncts of high walls, wrought-iron gates,
vases and statues, they have an undeniable charm.
The plan of the Borghese park has been the subject
of much discussion. Falda’s print shows only the
vicinity of the villa, and
it has never been decid-
ed when the outlying
grounds were laid out
and how much they have
been modified. At pres-
ent the park, with its
romantic groves of um-
brella-pine, its ilex ave-
its sham ruins and little
108
nues, lake and amphitheatre,
buildings scattered on irregular grassy knolls, has the
appearance of a jardin anglais laid out at the end of the
eighteenth century. Herr Tuckermann, persuaded that
this park is the work of Giovanni Fontana, sees in him
the originator of the “sentimental” English and Ger-
man landscape-gardens, with their hermitages, mauso-
leums and temples of Friendship ; but Percier and Fon-
taine, from whose plan of the park his inference is
avowedly drawn, state that the grounds were much
modified in 1789 by Jacob Moore, an English landscape-
gardener, and by Pietro Camporesi of Rome. Herr
Gurlitt, who seems to have overlooked this statement,
larger scale they would be oppressive; but as mere
garden-houses, with their leafy background, and the
picturesque adjuncts of high walls, wrought-iron gates,
vases and statues, they have an undeniable charm.
The plan of the Borghese park has been the subject
of much discussion. Falda’s print shows only the
vicinity of the villa, and
it has never been decid-
ed when the outlying
grounds were laid out
and how much they have
been modified. At pres-
ent the park, with its
romantic groves of um-
brella-pine, its ilex ave-
its sham ruins and little
108