Three works that arrived at the Villa Medici under Cardinal Fernando, ranked with the most famous in the city: the Niobe Group and the Wrestlers, both discovered in 1583 and immediately purchased by Cardinal Ferdinando, and the Arrotino. An engraving detailing the arrangement of statues prior to 1562 was documented by Galassi Alghisi. The villa's Loggia dei leoni, including copies of the original Medici lionsĪmong the striking assemblage of Roman sculptures in the villa were some one hundred seventy pieces bought from two Roman collections that had come together through marriage, the Capranica and the della Valle collections. These two rooms were only uncovered in 1985 by the restorer Geraldine Albers: the concealing whitewash had protected and conserved the superb fresco decoration carried out by Jacopo Zucchi 15. Now these rooms look onto Borghese gardens but would then have had views over the Roman countryside. Ferdinando de' Medici had a studiolo, a retreat for study and contemplation, built to the north east of the garden above the Aurelian wall. A series of grand gardens recalled the botanical gardens created at Pisa and at Florence by the Cardinal's father Cosimo I de' Medici, sheltered in plantations of pines, cypresses and oaks. Under the Cardinal's insistence, Ammanati incorporated into the design Roman bas-reliefs and statues that were coming to sight with almost every spadeful of earth, with the result that the facades of the Villa Medici, as it now was, became a virtual open-air museum. The Villa Medici became at once the first among Medici properties in Rome, intended to give concrete expression to the ascendancy of the Medici among Italian princes and assert their permanent presence in Rome. In 1576, the property was acquired by Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, who finished the structure to designs by Bartolomeo Ammanati. Interventions by Michelangelo are a tradition. The new proprietors commissioned Annibale Lippi, the late architect's son, to continue work. The sole dwelling was the Casina of Cardinale Marcello Crescenzi, who had maintained a vineyard here and had begun improvements to the villa under the direction of the Florentine Nanni Lippi, who had died however, before work had proceeded far. In 1564, when the nephews of Cardinal Giovanni Ricci of Montepulciano acquired the property, it had long been abandoned to viticulture. 1299.In ancient times, the site of the Villa Medici was part of the gardens of Lucullus, which passed into the hands of the Imperial family with Messalina, who was murdered in the villa. I: Ceremonies, Costumes, Portraits and Genre, 3 vols, Royal Collection Trust 2017, part of The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo: A Catalogue Raisonné, cat. It was dismantled later in the nineteenth century and its prints incorporated into the series of Engraved Royal Portraits (organised dynastically).įor more information see Mark McDonald, The Print Collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo. The album was arranged chronologically, with kings and their consorts together, while the latter part of the album was devoted to the female aristocracy of France. This print formed part of an album of French royal portrait prints assembled by Cassiano dal Pozzo in Rome and described in an early nineteenth-century inventory of prints in George III's library as Kings of France, Queens and other illustrious Personages. This print is part of a group of portraits of French queens and noblewomen by Crispijn de Passe I in the Cassiano collection, where the sitter is shown bust-length in a lettered roundel, beneath which are lines of verse. Crispin van de Passe fecit // et excudit Coloniæ." at the lower right: " m. ANNO MDCI" along the bottom: " Dum tibi parta quies post tot tantósque labores … / Vnus amor nobis, eadem domus, vna voluptas. This print is lettered around the portrait: " MARIA MEDICEA, DEI GRATIA, PRINCIPISSA FLORENTINA, HENRICI BORBONII GALLORVM REGIS VXOR. Within a circular border bearing Latin inscription, with further Latin verses inscribed below. Bust length with closed ruff, pearl earrings, embroidered gown, and pearl ropes. An engraving of Marie de Medici, Queen of France.
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