Adjacent to the walls of Rome on the city's legendary seven hills, the patricians and aristocrats of the imperial capital built a city of gardens. Nero's extravagant Domus Aurea (golden house) on the Palatine Hill, modeled on the residences of ancient Greek sovereigns, was covered in precious materials and featured a colossal statue of the emperor. Other magnificent villas, built by such notable Romans as the politician Maecenas, the military leader Lucullus, and the historian Sallust, were known for their water features--baths, cisterns, and fountains architec- tural elements, and engineering works.

  Adjacent to the walls of Rome on the city's legendary seven hills, the patricians and aristocrats of the imperial capital built a city of gardens. Nero's extravagant Domus Aurea (golden house) on the Palatine Hill, modeled on the residences of ancient Greek sovereigns, was covered in precious materials and featured a colossal statue of the emperor. Other magnificent villas, built by such notable Romans as the politician Maecenas, the military leader Lucullus, and the historian Sallust, were known for their water features--baths, cisterns, and fountains architec- tural elements, and engineering works.

More than a thousand years later, the villas of these ancient Romans documented by the writers Varro and Pliny the Younger, among others--inspired the villa all'antica. The study and contemplation of antiquity was essentia~ to spectacular buildings and gardens designed by architects such as Bramante, Raphael,Giacomo da Vignola, and Pirro Ligorio. Roman Gardens:Villas of the City brings together twelve of these remarkable sites, from the ruins of the imperial palaces on the Palatine of the first century cg to Renaissance and baroque designs to villas modified as recently as the early twentieth century.

Several structures at the Vatican were among the first to emulate antiquity, especially Bramante's Belvedere Court the first attempt to integrate garden and architecture and Pirro Ligorio's Casino of Pope Pius IV.The sixteenth-century Farnese Gardens constitute both a real and an imaginary revival of the ancient world with twin aviaries that refer to the mythical founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. The baroque period saw the construction of villas based on a new ideal of the classical landscape; the Borghese and Doria Pamphili villas.for instance, entered into a dialogue with both the natural panorama of the woods and valleys and the built landscape of Rome. In the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, neoclassicism and romanticism were important themes, as were eclecticism and individualism.

As important as the villas and the gardens were the decorative programs and features both inside and out: the Loggia di Psiche and the Loggia di Galatea at the Villa Chigi Farnesina, with frescoes by Raphael and others: Bartolomeo Ammannati's nymphaeum at the Villa Giulia; the unusual and inventive fountains in Vatican City, including one in the form of an enormous galleon;and the striking cycle of wall-paintings in the Sala della Tebaide at the Villa Chigi. The rich and complex union of art. architecture, and landscape shown in this exceptional vohume is not only a portrait of Rome's most Important historic sites but a testament to the Still vibrant Italian tradition of villa and garden.

THE VILLAS AND GARDENS OF ROME

THE IMPERIAL PALACES ON THE PALATINE

VILLA CHIGI FARNESINA

VILLA MADAMA

VILLA LANTE ON THE JANICULUM

VILLA GIULIA

CASINO OF POPE PIUS IV IN VATICAN CITY

FOUNTAINS OF VATICAN CITY

VILLA MEDICI

VILLA LUDOVISI

VILLA DORIA PAMPHILI

VILLA CHIGI · SALA DELLA TEBMDE

VILLA BORGHESE