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Il Cardinal Ippolito d'Este was born in Ferrara in 1509: his father
Alfonso I d'Este, duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio had married Lucrezia
Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza Cattanei; as he was a
cadet he followed the steps of his uncle Ippolito who had been appointed
cardinal at the age of 14. The nephew was appointed cardinal (so he is
more properly called Cardinal Ippolito II) in 1539 and in 1550 he became
governor of Tivoli. In more than one conclave he entṛ papa, usć
cardinale: he was supported by the
King of France, but the Spanish Emperor vetoed his election.
Cardinal
Ippolito had been appointed governor of Tivoli by Pope Julius III, the
pope of Villa Giulia,
so it is not strange that he thought it proper for the governor of Tivoli
to live in a residence comparable to that of the pope. He lived in his
villa until his death in 1572.
Fountain in the courtyard and
inscription detailing the efforts made to build Villa
d'Este
A fountain in the large courtyard which leads to
the casino is a sort of manifesto of the villa. It is framed by an arch of
classical design. A Roman sarcophagus and a statue of Venus establish a
link between the villa and the ancient world. The eagles are a heraldic
symbol of the Este. Branches of trees with apples mean that the visitor is
about to enter the orchard of the Hesperides, the nymphs who guarded the
golden apple-tree, the wedding gift of Mother Earth to Hera. According to
the myth that garden lay on the slopes of Mount Atlas. Similarly Villa
d'Este occupies the slope of a hill. The relief above the statue of Venus
is a metaphor of the works done to control the flow of water and to
terrace the hill. An inscription in the gardens describes the amplitude of
this effort. The image used as background for this page shows a column
decorated with branches of golden apples.
Detail of the casino inner
decoration
The decoration of the casino is generally light
and of a profane nature with many coats of arms of Cardinal Ippolito.
There are several fountains inside the building in a sort of anticipation
of those in the gardens.
Villa d'Este seen in an etching by G.
B. Piranesi and today; a view of the Gran Loggia
Villa
d'Este was designed by Pirro Ligorio, an architect who had a reputation
for his knowledge of the ancient world and who later on designed Casino di Papa Pio IV. A
perspectively arranged series of alleys and fountains frame the view of
the casino. Villa d'Este is not oriented towards Rome, so a large loggia
on its western side provides a sort of balcony on the plain and the
Eternal City.
Examples of the grotto decoration:
far right Perseus and Andromeda in Grotta di Diana
The
gardens have several grottoes, artificial caves which provided a fresh
haven on the hottest days. The decoration of the grotto is called tartar
because it resembles the incrustations formed by acid potassium tartrate
on the sides of casks after the fermentation of wine. A famous example of
this kind of decoration can be seen in the Boboli gardens
in Florence. The grottoes were not aimed at recreating a real cave and
they were decorated with paintings and mosaics.
Walking in the alleys of Villa
d'Este
For sure both Cardinal Ippolito and Pirro Ligorio
had in mind the Villa the Emperor Hadrian had built on the plains some 3
miles from Tivoli when they designed Villa d'Este. Although the works of
art the Cardinal took from Hadrian's Villa to adorn his own villa are now
scattered in museums and galleries, columns and discs of columns coming
from Hadrian's Villa still embellish the alleys of Villa d'Este.
The
image above shows also a bizarre detail at the end of a small fountain.
Fontana del Bicchierone, Fontana
rustica and Meta sudante
Many fountains have the
appearance of natural rocks, but they often hide a more complex design or
meaning. Villa d'Este was completed or modified by the heirs of Cardinal
Ippolito and Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the first fountain shown above
where the upper part seems to be just a rock and only when the viewer
looks at the volute below, he understands he is looking at a Baroque
fountain.
The last fountain shown above again at first seems to be a
natural rock, while it was designed having in mind the "sweating" Roman
fountains, where water flowed on the surface as sweat does on the skin.
The cypress shown behind the fountain is one of the two surviving
cypresses of the initial plantation. You may wish to read what Henry James wrote about
these mighty cypresses.
Fontana dell'Ovato
Nymphs and gods populate most of the fountains
of Villa d'Este and this large fountain has the oval shape of a Roman
nymphaeum. It was possible to walk behind the waterfall in a
corridor linking a series of caves. Another fountain, Rometta,
recreated Ancient Rome including a riproduzione dell'Isola Tiberina.
Fontana delle Cento Cannelle and
Fontana dei Draghi
The fountains show the engineering
skills of the technicians who assisted Pirro Ligorio and Cardinal
Ippolito. They were able to perfectly control the pressure of the various
jets, without the machinery we are accustomed to using today. In addition
to pleasing the eye, the fountains had a musical sound and to this purpose
fountains like Fontana delle Cento Cannelle (the hundred fountains) gave
better results than Fontana dell''Ovato. Franz Liszt lived for many years
in Villa d'Este, then a possession of the Austrian Emperor, and he wrote
one of his most popular pieces on the different sounds of the fountains
(Les Jeux d'Eau à la Villa d'Este).
Fontana dei Draghi was
dedicated after the death of Cardinal Ippolito to Pope Gregorius XIII who
had visited Villa d'Este. In origin the fountain should have been
dedicated to Heracles and more specifically to his second labour: the
destruction of Hydra, a monster which had eight or nine snaky heads: the
fountain was to be completed with a statue of Heracles, but in the last
decades of the XVIth century the passion for the pagan gods which had
characterized the previous one hundred years was starting to be
challenged: so the heads of Hydra were rearranged to look like the
heraldic dragoni
of the pope and the niche which should have hosted a statue of Hercules
remained empty.
Fontana dell'Organo and statue of the
Ephesian Diana
Fontana dell'Organo is named after an
elaborate water-operated organ hidden behind its complex architecture. We
understand that music was the theme of this fountain by looking at the two
upper reliefs portraying Apollo and Orpheus playing the lyre (Apollo) and
... surprise, surprise the violin (Orpheus). The fountain was modified in
the XVIIth century when the statue of the Ephesian Diana (a symbol of
Mother Earth), which stood in the central niche was felt to be excessively
pagan and it was replaced by a sort of chapel and relocated in a rather
hidden part of the gardens.
Particolari della Fontana dell'Organo: il mito di Orfeo e l'aquila araldica degli
Este
Fontana di Plutone e Fontana della Civetta
When one sees the giant columns of Fontana di
Plutone he is led to think that it was designed by Bernini, but the
assumption is wrong and maybe it was Bernini who was struck by this
fountain which gave such evidence to the spiral columns which decorated
the old Basilica di S. Pietro.
Fontana della Civetta (owl) was perhaps
the most celebrated jeu d'eau of Villa d'Este: the fountain is
partly lost and some painted wood panels help in understanding how it
worked. The pressure of water was used to activate an organ which played
tunes similar to the songs of birds (there were birds on the two trees).
At fixed intervals a mechanism introduced in the scene an owl and while
the birds disappeared behind the trees, the organ played the doleful tunes
of the owl.
This complex mechanism was not aimed at entertaining
children: maybe Cardinal Ippolito had in mind a few rhymes by Hadrian and
he had come to the conclusion that these innocent jokes are what our soul
will miss more.
Animula vagula blandula,
hospes comesque
corporis,
quae nunc abibis in loca
pallidula rigida
nudula
nec ut soles dabis iocos.
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