Everything about Villa Caprarola totally explained
The
Villa Farnese, also known as
Palazzo Farnese or
Villa Caprarola, is a
mansion in the town of
Caprarola in the
province of Viterbo, Northern
Latium,
Italy approximately 50 kilometres (35 miles) north-west of
Rome. It shouldn't be confused with the
Palazzo Farnese and the
Villa Farnesina, both in Rome.
The Villa Farnese is a massive
Renaissance construction built circa 1550, opening to the
Monte Cimini, a range of densely wooded
volcanic hills. It has a five-sided plant, and is built in reddish gold
stone;
buttress support the
piano nobile above, with two floors above again housing an almost complete two storey villa in itself. As a power house at the center of vast Farnese holdings, it has always been more than a
villa in the ordinary agricultural or pleasure senses.
The shape of the villa was predetermined by the
rocca, the pentagonal
fortress foundations it sits upon, which were constructed in the
1520s by
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and
Baldassare Peruzzi. Each face of the pentagon is canted inwards towards its center, to permit raking fire upon a would-be scaling force, both from the center and from the projecting
bastions that advance from each corner angle of the fortress. It is thought that the circular central courtyard was also determined by the necessities of the pentagonal plan.
History
The Villa Farnese was commissioned in 1559 by
Cardinal Alessandro Farnese a grandson of
Pope Paul III who was known for advancing the ambitions of his relations. He selected for his architect
Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, who worked on the villa at Caprarola until his death in 1573. Farnese was a courteous man of letters, however the
Farnese family as a whole became unpopular with the following pope,
Julius III. Alessandro Farnese decided it would be politic to retire from
the Vatican for a period. He therefore selected Caprarola on the family holding of
Ronciglione, being both near and yet far enough from Rome as the ideal place to build a country house.
Design
The Villa is one of the finest examples of
Renaissance architecture. Ornament is used sparingly to achieve proportion and harmony. Thus while the villa dominates the surroundings, its severe design also complements the site. This particular style, known today as
Mannerism, was a reaction to the ornate earlier High Renaissance designs of twenty years earlier.
In
1559 Vignola, the
architect chosen for this difficult and inhospitable site had recently proved his mettle in designing
Villa Giulia on the outskirts of Rome for the preceding pope,
Julius III. Vignola in his youth had been heavily influenced by
Michelangelo. His plans as built were for a pentagon constructed around a circular
colonnaded
courtyard. In the galleried court, paired
Ionic columns flank niches containing busts of the Roman
Emperors, above a rusticated arcade, a reworking of
Bramante's scheme for the "House of Raphael", in
Via Giulia, Rome. A further Bramantesque detail is the entablature that breaks forward over the columns, linking them above, while they stand on separate bases. The interior loggia formed by the arcade is frescoed with Raphaelesque
grotesques, in the manner of the Vatican
Logge. The
gallery and upper floors were reached by five
spiral staircases around the courtyard: the most important of these is the
Scala Regia ("Royal Stairs") rising through the principal floors.
Outside, the Villa Farnese is approached by steps from the
village piazza, a series of
terraces beginning with the
basement subterraneans excavated from the
tuff, surrounded by steep curving steps leading to the terrace above. This basement floor in the foundations appears as a series of buttresses and retaining walls, large heavily grilled doors in the rusticated walls appear to lead into the guardrooms of a fortress, while above them a curved
balustraded external
double stairway leads to the terrace above. This in turn has a formal double staircase to the principal entrance on the 'Piano dei Prelati' floor. This
bastion-like floor, which appears as a second ground floor is rusticated, the main door a severe
arch flanked by three windows each side. The
facade at this level is terminated by massive solid projections.
Above this is the double-height
piano nobile, where five huge arched windows incongruously dominate the facade over the front door; above this sit a further two floors, the numerous windows divided by rusticated pilasters in dressed stone.
Interiors
The principal staircase or
Scala Regia is a graceful spiral of steps supported by pairs of
Ionic columns rising up through the three floors,
frescoed by
Antonio Tempesta.
On the piano nobile a series of 12
state rooms are famed for their
Mannerist frescoes by the brothers
Taddeo and
Federico Zuccari. The frescoes portray the exploits of
Alexander the Great,
Hercules and of course the Farnese family themselves: in the
Hall of the Farnese Annals, decorated by the Zuccari brothers, the Farnese are depicted at all their most glorious moments, from floor to coffered ceiling. Another notable room is the Summer Dining Hall, also frescoed, but with
grotto like
sculpture too. Other artists employed in fresco decoration include
Giacomo Zanguidi (il Bertoia),
Raffaellino da Reggio,
Antonio Tempesta,
Giacomo del Duca, and
Giovanni De Vecchi.
Gardens
The gardens of the Villa are as impressive as the building itself. The Villa's fortress theme is carried out in a
moat and three
drawbridges. because of the pentagonal plan, two facades face the gardens, each with its
parterre beyond the moat. The lower garden is reached from a drawbridge from the terrace of the piano nobile. This is a patrerre garden of
box topiary, and
fountains. A grotto-like
theatre was once here. A walk through the
woods from here leads to the well known
Casino, a small habitable
summerhouse. A 'catena d'acqua' (a
cascaded rill leading to a stone basin) flows from the
loggia of the casino to the fountains below. The ornate and frescoed casino has its own parterres, rather like a villa in miniature.
Today
Alessandro Farnese died in
1589 bequeathing his
estates to relations - the Farnese
dukes of Parma. The lights were already dimming in the Villa, the Cardinal's fabulous collection was transferred eventually to family properties in
Naples. In the
19th century the villa became for a while the residence of the
heir to the
throne of the newly united
Italy, but by now the lights were barely a flicker.
Today the Casino, and its gardens are one of the homes of the
President of the Italian
Republic. The empty main Villa, owned by the State, is open to the public. The numerous rooms, salons and halls all with their marbles and frescoes, and the architecture of the great palazzo-like villa are still as impressive and daunting as they were first intended to be.
Further Information
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