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拍品專文
For generations of Romans, and visitors alike, Frascati has held an enchanting appeal. Overlooking Rome from the Alban Hills, at a distance of some twenty kilometres from the Italian capital, Frascati was built up around the ancient site of Tusculum, famously home to Cicero. The town and its environs grew slowly during the middle ages, before being transformed in the 16th and 17th centuries, when it became a destination of choice for Rome’s wealthiest and most powerful families. The clean air, bucolic surroundings and convenient access from Rome made it the ideal retreat from the breathless and oppressive heat of the Roman summer. Where other parts of present-day Lazio, such as the swampy, mosquito-ridden Agro Romano, provided little relief, the climate of Frascati offered the perfect antidote, where time could be idled away in enviably verdant surroundings.
From the early 1500s onwards, the landscape in and around Frascati was dramatically altered as Rome’s leading families embarked on an extraordinary building programme, creating a series of splendid villas that would revive, and indeed reinvent, the ancient culture of villeggiatura in the Roman countryside. As time moved on, Frascati became not only a place of escape but also a destination for high society. The villas reflected the ambitions of their owners: decorated with frescoes, pictures and sculpture, and fitted with luxurious spaces, they became increasingly important status symbols in public life. (For a thorough analysis of the development and meaning behind the culture of villeggiatura in Frascati, see T.L. Ehrlich, Landscape and identity in early modern Rome. Villa culture at Frascati in the Borghese era, Cambridge, 1995).
In this splendid, newly discovered view of Frascati, all of the grandest and most renowned villas are shown. Vanvitelli is known to have made frequent visits to the area over a broad period of time, confirmed by the existence of numerous drawings, dating from 1685 until 1709. One such sketch, dated 1685, taken from a viewpoint near Grottaferrata (Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale; see G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel, Milan, 1996, pp. 401-2, D326), provided the basis for four finished, panoramic views of Frascati (Briganti, pp. 203-4, nos. 198-201). The present picture, however, is taken from a different vantage point, further to the north and west, and seemingly very close to the via Tuscolana, the old Roman road linking Rome directly to Frascati. The composition had been known through another preparatory drawing (fig 1; Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale; Briganti, D323), but this is the first picture by Vanvitelli to come to light showing this precise prospect.
The change in perspective from the aforementioned views, though comparatively slight, has the significant advantage of bringing into sight each of the great villas that redefined the area. Two of them are worth highlighting in particular: to the left of the picture, on higher ground, is the Villa Mondragone. From this distance, its impressive size can be readily appreciated, and its terrace, facing towards Rome and the Vatican, offered spectacular views of the countryside; on clear days, the dome of St Peter’s was visible. There, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the driving force behind Mondragone, ‘encouraged visitors to engage with and participate in this landscape not with their bodies but with their minds’ (see Ehrlich, op. cit., p. 242). To the right of the picture, beyond the rooftops of Frascati itself, is the unmistakable façade of the Villa Aldobrandini, with its magnificent gardens, frescoes and the teatro dell’acqua. These were both villas whose design would leave a lasting impression on succeeding generations. Lord Burlington, for example, was deeply influenced by the gardens and fountains of the Aldobrandini and Mondragone when laying out the plans for Chiswick House in west London. It is also worth noting a personal connection between Vanvitelli and the landscape of Frascati: it was Gaspar’s son, Luigi, an architect, who renewed the façade of the Villa Tuscolana (or Villa Rufinella as it is also known), also visible in this picture.
In Vanvitelli’s lifetime, and beyond, the splendour of Frascati and its nearby campagna, continued to be praised by artists, writers, and tourists. To quote but two, Richard Lassels said, in his Voyage of Italy, ‘This is absolutely one of the sweetest places in Europe. […] In a word, here Cato was borne, here Lucullus delighted himself, and Cicero wrote his Tusculan Questions’ (R. Lassels, The Voyage of Italy, Paris, II, 1670, pp. 307-8). And a final word can be left to Goethe who, on his journey through Italy in 1787, wrote, quite simply, ‘Frascati is a paradise’ (J.W. Goethe, Italian Journey 1786-1788, 1968, p. 384).
We are grateful to Ludovica Trezzani and Laura Laureati for their assistance in cataloguing the present lot.
From the early 1500s onwards, the landscape in and around Frascati was dramatically altered as Rome’s leading families embarked on an extraordinary building programme, creating a series of splendid villas that would revive, and indeed reinvent, the ancient culture of villeggiatura in the Roman countryside. As time moved on, Frascati became not only a place of escape but also a destination for high society. The villas reflected the ambitions of their owners: decorated with frescoes, pictures and sculpture, and fitted with luxurious spaces, they became increasingly important status symbols in public life. (For a thorough analysis of the development and meaning behind the culture of villeggiatura in Frascati, see T.L. Ehrlich, Landscape and identity in early modern Rome. Villa culture at Frascati in the Borghese era, Cambridge, 1995).
In this splendid, newly discovered view of Frascati, all of the grandest and most renowned villas are shown. Vanvitelli is known to have made frequent visits to the area over a broad period of time, confirmed by the existence of numerous drawings, dating from 1685 until 1709. One such sketch, dated 1685, taken from a viewpoint near Grottaferrata (Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale; see G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel, Milan, 1996, pp. 401-2, D326), provided the basis for four finished, panoramic views of Frascati (Briganti, pp. 203-4, nos. 198-201). The present picture, however, is taken from a different vantage point, further to the north and west, and seemingly very close to the via Tuscolana, the old Roman road linking Rome directly to Frascati. The composition had been known through another preparatory drawing (fig 1; Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale; Briganti, D323), but this is the first picture by Vanvitelli to come to light showing this precise prospect.
The change in perspective from the aforementioned views, though comparatively slight, has the significant advantage of bringing into sight each of the great villas that redefined the area. Two of them are worth highlighting in particular: to the left of the picture, on higher ground, is the Villa Mondragone. From this distance, its impressive size can be readily appreciated, and its terrace, facing towards Rome and the Vatican, offered spectacular views of the countryside; on clear days, the dome of St Peter’s was visible. There, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the driving force behind Mondragone, ‘encouraged visitors to engage with and participate in this landscape not with their bodies but with their minds’ (see Ehrlich, op. cit., p. 242). To the right of the picture, beyond the rooftops of Frascati itself, is the unmistakable façade of the Villa Aldobrandini, with its magnificent gardens, frescoes and the teatro dell’acqua. These were both villas whose design would leave a lasting impression on succeeding generations. Lord Burlington, for example, was deeply influenced by the gardens and fountains of the Aldobrandini and Mondragone when laying out the plans for Chiswick House in west London. It is also worth noting a personal connection between Vanvitelli and the landscape of Frascati: it was Gaspar’s son, Luigi, an architect, who renewed the façade of the Villa Tuscolana (or Villa Rufinella as it is also known), also visible in this picture.
In Vanvitelli’s lifetime, and beyond, the splendour of Frascati and its nearby campagna, continued to be praised by artists, writers, and tourists. To quote but two, Richard Lassels said, in his Voyage of Italy, ‘This is absolutely one of the sweetest places in Europe. […] In a word, here Cato was borne, here Lucullus delighted himself, and Cicero wrote his Tusculan Questions’ (R. Lassels, The Voyage of Italy, Paris, II, 1670, pp. 307-8). And a final word can be left to Goethe who, on his journey through Italy in 1787, wrote, quite simply, ‘Frascati is a paradise’ (J.W. Goethe, Italian Journey 1786-1788, 1968, p. 384).
We are grateful to Ludovica Trezzani and Laura Laureati for their assistance in cataloguing the present lot.