File:Italian villas and their gardens (1904) (14778165832).jpg

Identifier: italianvillasth00whar (find matches)
Title: Italian villas and their gardens
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937 Parrish, Maxfield, 1870-1966
Subjects: Architecture Architecture, Domestic Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : The Century Co.

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e traced. Before it wasdestroyed the three terraces of the Villa Muti must haveformed the most enchanting garden in Frascati, andtheir plan and architectural details are worthy of carefulstudy, for they belong to the rare class of small Italiangardens where grandeur was less sought for than charmand sylvan seclusion, and where the Latin passion forthe monumental was subordinated to a desire for mod-eration and simplicity. The Villa Falconieri, on the hillside below Mondra-gone, is remarkable for the wealth of its garden-archi-tecture. The grounds are entered by two splendidstone gateways, the upper one being on an axis with thevilla. A grass avenue leads from this gate to an archof triumph, a rusticated elevation with niches andstatues, surmounted by the inscription Horatius Fal-conieris, and giving access to the inner grounds.Hence a straight avenue runs between formal ilex-groves to the court before the house. On the right,above the bosco, is a lofty wall of rock, picturesquely I 60
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VILLAS NEAR ROME overgrown by shrubs and creepers, with busts andother fragments of antique sculpture set here and thereon its projecting ledges. This natural cliff sustains anupper plateau, where there is an oblong artificial water(called the lake) enclosed in rock-work and sur-rounded by a grove of mighty cypresses. From thisshady solitude the wooded slopes of the lower park arereached by a double staircase so simple and majestic indesign that it harmonizes perfectly with the sylvan wild-ness which characterizes the landscape. This staircaseshould be studied as an example of the way in whichthe Italian garden-architects could lay aside exuberanceand whimsicality when their work was intended to blendwith some broad or solemn effect of nature. The grounds of the Villa Falconieri were laid out byCardinal Ruffini in the first half of the sixteenth century,but the villa was not built till 1648. It is one of themost charming creations of Borromini, that brilliantartist in whom baroque arc

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