DOI chapter:
VI. Lombard villas
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61216#0277
ITALIAN VILLAS
walls of the court are frescoed in charming cinque-cento
designs, and the vaulted ceiling of the loggia is painted
in delicate trellis-work, somewhat in the manner of the
semicircular arcade at the Villa di Papa Giulio. Sev-
eral of the rooms also preserve their wall-frescoes and
much of their Renaissance furniture, while a series of
smaller apartments on the ground floor are exquisitely
decorated with stucco ornament in the light style of the
eighteenth century; so that the Villa Cicogna still gives
a vivid idea of what an old Italian country house must
have been in its original state.
From the hill-villas of the lakes to the country places
of the Milanese rice-fields the descent is somewhat ab-
rupt; but the student of garden-architecture may mitigate
the transition by carrying on his researches from the
southern end of Como through the smiling landscape of
the Brianza. Here there are many old villas, in a lovely
setting of vineyard and woodland, with distant views of
the Alps and of the sunny Lombard plain; but of old
gardens few are to be found. There is one of great beauty,
belonging to the Villa Crivelli, near the village of Inve-
rigo ; but as it is inaccessible to visitors, only tantalizing
glimpses may be obtained of its statues and terraces, its
cypress-walks and towering “ Gigante.” Not far from
Inverigo is the Rotonda Cagnola, now the property of
the Marchese d’ Adda, and built in 1813 by the Marchese
Luigi Cagnola in imitation of the Propylaea of the
Acropolis. The house is beautifully placed on a hilltop,
218
walls of the court are frescoed in charming cinque-cento
designs, and the vaulted ceiling of the loggia is painted
in delicate trellis-work, somewhat in the manner of the
semicircular arcade at the Villa di Papa Giulio. Sev-
eral of the rooms also preserve their wall-frescoes and
much of their Renaissance furniture, while a series of
smaller apartments on the ground floor are exquisitely
decorated with stucco ornament in the light style of the
eighteenth century; so that the Villa Cicogna still gives
a vivid idea of what an old Italian country house must
have been in its original state.
From the hill-villas of the lakes to the country places
of the Milanese rice-fields the descent is somewhat ab-
rupt; but the student of garden-architecture may mitigate
the transition by carrying on his researches from the
southern end of Como through the smiling landscape of
the Brianza. Here there are many old villas, in a lovely
setting of vineyard and woodland, with distant views of
the Alps and of the sunny Lombard plain; but of old
gardens few are to be found. There is one of great beauty,
belonging to the Villa Crivelli, near the village of Inve-
rigo ; but as it is inaccessible to visitors, only tantalizing
glimpses may be obtained of its statues and terraces, its
cypress-walks and towering “ Gigante.” Not far from
Inverigo is the Rotonda Cagnola, now the property of
the Marchese d’ Adda, and built in 1813 by the Marchese
Luigi Cagnola in imitation of the Propylaea of the
Acropolis. The house is beautifully placed on a hilltop,
218