DOI chapter:
IV. Villas near Rome
DOI chapter:III. Frascati
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61216#0205
VILLAS NEAR ROME
many other devices for wetting the unwary spectators.
... In one of these theatres of water is an Atlas
spouting, . . . and another monster makes a terrible
roaring with a horn; but, above all, the representation
of a storm is most natural, with such fury of rain, wind
and thunder as one would imagine oneself in some
extreme tempest.”
Atlas and the monster are silent, and the tempest has
ceased to roar; but the architecture of the great water-
theatre remains intact. It has been much extolled by so
good a critic as Herr Gurlitt, yet compared with Vi-
gnola’s loggia at Mondragone or the terrace of the Orti
Farnesiani, it is a heavy and uninspired production. It
suffers also from too great proximity to the villa, and
from being out of scale with the latter’s modest eleva-
tion : there is a distinct lack of harmony between the
two faqades. But even Evelyn could not say too much
in praise of the glorious descent of the cascade from the
hilltop. It was in the guidance of rushing water that
the Roman garden-architects of the seventeenth century
showed their poetic feeling and endless versatility; and
the architecture of the upper garden at the Aldobrandini
merits all the admiration which has been wasted on its
pompous theatre.
Another example of a theatre d'eau, less showy but
far more beautiful, is to be seen at the neighbouring Villa
Conti (now Torlonia). Of the formal gardens of this
villa there remain only the vast terraced stairways which
155
many other devices for wetting the unwary spectators.
... In one of these theatres of water is an Atlas
spouting, . . . and another monster makes a terrible
roaring with a horn; but, above all, the representation
of a storm is most natural, with such fury of rain, wind
and thunder as one would imagine oneself in some
extreme tempest.”
Atlas and the monster are silent, and the tempest has
ceased to roar; but the architecture of the great water-
theatre remains intact. It has been much extolled by so
good a critic as Herr Gurlitt, yet compared with Vi-
gnola’s loggia at Mondragone or the terrace of the Orti
Farnesiani, it is a heavy and uninspired production. It
suffers also from too great proximity to the villa, and
from being out of scale with the latter’s modest eleva-
tion : there is a distinct lack of harmony between the
two faqades. But even Evelyn could not say too much
in praise of the glorious descent of the cascade from the
hilltop. It was in the guidance of rushing water that
the Roman garden-architects of the seventeenth century
showed their poetic feeling and endless versatility; and
the architecture of the upper garden at the Aldobrandini
merits all the admiration which has been wasted on its
pompous theatre.
Another example of a theatre d'eau, less showy but
far more beautiful, is to be seen at the neighbouring Villa
Conti (now Torlonia). Of the formal gardens of this
villa there remain only the vast terraced stairways which
155