Villa Lante in Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Just over 15 km from Parco dei Mostri, near the city of Viterbo in central Italy, lie the late Renaissance gardens of Villa Lante. Like the Park of Monsters, the gardens’ general design and primary sculptural elements date to the later half of the 16th century. However, in contrast to its neighbor’s mannerist figures and seemingly haphazard layout, Villa Lante embraces the Renaissance ideas of geometric harmony and intellectual unity. Built to complement the grounds’ natural slope, the entirety of the tiered, expansive gardens share an integrated symbolic design—encompassing mythological, biblical, and heraldic sources—that culminates in a visual celebration of the triumph of human intelligence over wild nature. Although the result needs to be moved through to be fully appreciated, the gardens’ individual elements also invite closer inspection, compelling contemporary visitors like ourselves to attempt to capture them through the static, segmented, anachronistic, and ultimately inadequate medium of photography.
Fountain of the Deluge: The gardens’ uppermost fountain represents the first stage in their symbolic story. The naturalistic grotto decorated with waterfalls, ferns, and stone dolphins symbolizes both the element of water and the flood. Villa Lante, Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
The better preserved of the Deluge’s two dolphins, looking inexplicably grumpy. Villa Lante, Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Villa Lante’s gardens owe much of their current appearance to Cardinal Gianfrancesco Gambara, Bishop of Viterbo, who owned the estate from 1568–87. The Bishop’s identity was built into the site through the many depictions of shrimp, symbol of the Gambara family. Nowhere is this motif more dramatically incorporated than in the “Water Chain,” aka, the Cordonata of the Shrimp. Connecting the Fountain of the Dolphins (not pictured) with the Fountain of the Giants (below), the cordon begins with water bubbling out of the “gills” of a giant shrimp and ends with water pouring between another set of pinchers into the Fountain of the Giants. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Looking down the Cordonata of the Shrimp towards the Fountain of the Square. Villa Lante, Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Fountain of the Giants: Despite restoration work going on around it, the centrally located Fountain of the Giants is still one of the Villa’s most dramatic sights. The two “giants” are likely personifications of the rivers Arno and Tiber, themselves symbols of the Tuscia region. Between them, water pours out from between the pinchers of a giant shrimp. Villa Lante, Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Personification of the Tiber River (?) with its outsized Mannerist hands and cornucopia of abundance. Villa Lante, Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Table of the Cardinal: Stretching out before the Fountain of the Giants lies a long table of peperino stone. Although also an active water feature, the table was used for eating outdoors. Its attractive placement in the gardens would have pulled the guests’ eyes either up to the Giants or down to the Fountain of the Square. Villa Lante, Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Looking out over the Fountain of the Lights (right, foreground), possibly symbolizing the element of fire, and Fountain of the Square (right, background). Villa Lante, Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Fountain of the Square: Surrounded by radial, geometric designs in the Villa’s most perfectly manicured garden, the lowermost fountain represents the triumph of reason over nature. Its open, spacious plan, which contrasts dramatically with the tighter, tree- or wall-lined fountains before it, may also symbolize the element of air. Villa Lante, Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
The sculptural group of four boys that serves as the focal point for the Fountain of the Square is a later addition. They lift a hill and star, symbols of Cardinal Montalto, who owned the Villa from 1590–1623, while the surrounding balustrades end in depictions of the shrimp that represented the Villa’s previous owner, Cardinal Gambara. Villa Lante, Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
The Gambara shrimp and mythological themes continue in the imagery covering the first of the two small palaces beside the Fountain of the Square. Villa Lante, Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
The trompe-l’œil frescoes of the other palace seem to carry on the theme of human mastery over nature celebrated in the garden just outside its doors. Villa Lante, Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Despite the love of reason, control, and hyper-realism suggested by the geometric lower gardens and use of trompe-l’œil inside the second palace, surreal elements still creep in. Stuck in a corner and painted in pale, passive hues, the naturalistic, playful female bust of this pseudo-caryatid appears alive even as it melds into an abstract, decorative swirl. Villa Lante, Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Bonus:
This fountain of Pegasus surrounded by round-winged nymphs and the spitting busts of Muses sits between the site’s ticketing area and entrance to the formal gardens. Villa Lante, Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.