Frescoed interiors of Villa Lante's garden palazzine

Frescoes inside the loggia of Villa Lante’s Palazzina Gambara. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Two box-like palazzine—a term which can usually be translated as small buildings, but in this case really means small palaces or villas—rise from the southern corners of Villa Lante’s lowest gardens. From their exteriors, the structures appear as twins with the same (or roughly the same) dimensions, materials, and stark features. However, the two were actually built about thirty years apart under different owners, a fact their stylistically and thematically divergent interior decoration makes readily apparent.

Palazzine Montalto (left) and Gambara (right) rise over Villa Lante’s Fountain of the Square and surrounding manicured garden. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

The late Renaissance frescoes filling the loggia of Palazzina Gambara (c. 1568–78) are structured much like the gardens themselves, with imagery divided into discreet compartments and filled with personal and political symbols (like Cardinal Gambara’s emblematic shrimp), grotesques, and nods to classical mythology. These elements surround large depictions of central Italy’s great Renaissance villas and gardens, including Villa d’Este, Palazzo Farnese, and Villa Lante itself.

Conversely, a far more integrated and less overtly political Baroque design envelopes the loggia of Palazzina Monalto (1590–1612). Here, the ceiling is covered with trompe l’oeil depictions of skylights and birds. This illusion even carries into the room’s two narrow walls, which are painted to suggest the continuation of the loggia far beyond its actual ends. Grotesques and mythological figures appear as well, but take a more limited role and are painted in broader, looser brushwork than found in the older palazzina.

Only the loggia of each building is open to the public. For more information on the surrounding gardens and their history, see my previous photo-essay on Villa Lante. You can also find more about the buildings themselves from these useful links:

Traveling in Tuscany, “Gardens in Italy: Villa Lante”

Villa Lante, “Palazzina Montalto” and “Palazzina Gambara”

Palazzina Gambara

Frescoes inside the loggia of Villa Lante’s Palazzina Gambara including a depiction of Villa Lante itself. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Detail of the frescoes inside Villa Lante’s Palazzina Gambara. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Frescoes on the ceiling of Villa Lante’s Palazzina Gambara. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Frescoes inside the loggia of Villa Lante’s Palazzina Gambara. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Detail of frescoes inside the loggia of Villa Lante’s Palazzina Gambara. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Frescoes on the ceiling of Villa Lante’s Palazzina Gambara. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Detail of frescoes inside the loggia of Villa Lante’s Palazzina Gambara. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Detail of frescoes inside the loggia of Villa Lante’s Palazzina Gambara. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Frescoes inside the loggia of Villa Lante’s Palazzina Gambara. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Palazzina Montalto

After Cardinal Gambara’s death in 1587, the 17-year-old nephew of Pope Sixtus V, Alessandro Damasceni Peretti Montalto, took over the position of Apostolic Administrator of Viterbo and owner of Villa Lante. Montalto commissioned the building of the second palazzina, following Gambara’s original plans.

Frescoes inside the loggia of Villa Lante’s Palazzina Montalto. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Frescoes inside the loggia of Villa Lante’s Palazzina Montalto. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Detail of frescoes inside the loggia of Villa Lante’s Palazzina Montalto. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Detail of frescoes inside the loggia of Villa Lante’s Palazzina Montalto. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Frescoes inside the loggia of Villa Lante’s Palazzina Montalto. Bagnaia, Viterbo, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Unicorns of Ferrara

“Allegory of Life” or “Apologist of the Unicorn” panel in the Cathedral Museum of Ferrara. Mid-13th century. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Symbolic animals—particularly those representing religious figures, places, powerful families, or moral qualities—are common decorative motifs in medieval and Renaissance art and architecture throughout Italy. Unicorns, however, remain rare in even this extensive bestiary. So when they kept popping up in Ferrara, I (and the 12 year old still inside me) took note.

The Estes, who held power in the region from the 13th to 16th centuries, seem to have adopted the unicorn—particularly the unicorn with its horn pointed downward in a pose of purification—as one of their family symbols to highlight both their land reclamation projects (occurring primarily in the 14th–16th centuries) and their ability to bring peace and prosperity to the region. The sumptuous Renaissance Bible of Borso d’Este (1455–61), for instance, includes images of a unicorn using its horn to purify water. Borso commissioned the book a few years after succeeding his half-brother as Duke of Modena, probably as a particularly beautiful piece of propaganda to secure and expand his political role. Significantly, he brought the bible with him to Rome in 1471, where Pope Paul II bestowed upon him the additional title of Duke of Ferrara.

However, at least one of the examples we came across (see 8th century relief, below) pre-dates the Este family’s rise to power in the region. This suggests the Estes didn’t bring the image of the unicorn with them so much as grafted their familial mythology onto a symbol that was already established and well-understood in the region. In so doing, they both increased the prevalence of unicorn imagery in their home city and co-opted the unicorn’s attributes as their own.

Painting in the Palazzina Marfisa d’Este, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Podium or wall fragment made between the late 8th–early 9th centuries in Ravenna and currently in Ferrara’s Cathedral Museum. The animals at the bottom appear to be a unicorn (left) and a lion (right). Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Ceiling and wall decoration in Este Castle featuring a unicorn. Ferrara, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Keystone with the “Este unicorn,” representing purification and, more specifically, the Este’s land reclamation projects in the region. Museum of Casa Romei, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Banner with the Este unicorn on display at Casa Romei, Ferrara. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.