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.

Niki de Saint Phalle's Tuscan Tarot Garden

This monumental sculpture of the Tarot “Magician” and “High Priestess” is part fountain, part surreal building. Its open mouths and staring eyes are likely homages to the most famous sculpture in the nearby Mannerist gardens of Parco dei Mostri. At the center of the pool in front of the cascading water is the mechanized Wheel of Fortune by de Saint Phalle’s husband and fellow artist, Jean Tinguely. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Nestled within the gently rolling hills north of the Tuscany-Lazio border sits the last, most complex work of one of the twentieth century’s great artists.

Niki de Saint Phalle (1930–2002) began her Tarot Garden (Il Giardino dei Tarocchi) in the late seventies, opened it to the public in 1998, and continued to work on it until her death in 2002. As the name suggests, the park consists of a series of sculptures based on a deck of Tarot cards.

Typical of large-scale art, the physical objects were designed by de Saint Phalle but made in collaboration with many people, including her husband, Jean Tinguely, as well as local artisans. The final, widely-varied works include static figures-in-the-round, kinetic machines, fountains, and sculptural buildings. One of these—the giant, sphinx-like Empress—comes complete with a bed- and bathroom, which de Saint Phalle actually lived in while working on the Garden.

Even more impressive is the fact that most of the sculptures, including the largest of them, are covered in de Saint Phalle’s signature wonky mosaic. Many of these individual tiles are themselves hand-painted, hand-carved, or molded mini-sculptures. The park thereby engrosses visitors on several levels, its sculptures demanding to be appreciated from a distance, walked around, passed through, and examined up-close. This push-pull of audience engagement is further emphasized through the many mirrored surfaces, which literally make the park’s surroundings and visitors part of the works.

Sources and further reading:

Il Giardino dei Tarocchi official website.

Ariel Levy, “Beautiful Monsters: Art and Obsession in Tuscany,” The New Yorker (April 11, 2016), accessed March 3 and 6, 2020. [Highly recommended for greater insight into the life and mind that led to the massive yet idiosyncratic undertaking of the Tarot Garden.]

Portmobility Civitavecchia, “The Tarot Garden: Masterpiece of Niki de Saint Phalle.”

Death by Niki de Saint Phalle in her park-like Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Mosaic detail in the Tarot Garden of Niki de Saint Phalle. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Detail of the Tree of Life, reimagined by de Saint Phalle as a many-headed snake. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Mosaic detail in the Tarot Garden of Niki de Saint Phalle. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Detail from the back of the Empress, a sculpture so large de Saint Phalle actually lived in it while at work on the rest of the her Tarot Garden in Tuscany, Italy. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Mosaic detail in the Tarot Garden of Niki de Saint Phalle. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

The Hanged Man in Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Mosaic detail in the Tarot Garden of Niki de Saint Phalle. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

The Star in Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Mosaic detail from the exterior of the Empress in Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Detail of the courtyard inside the Emperor of Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Mosaic detail from Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

The hermaphroditic Devil by Niki de Saint Phalle in her Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Mosaic detail from Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Detail of the courtyard inside Niki de Saint Phalle’s Emperor. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Mosaic detail from Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Niki de Saint Phalle’s house-sized Empress, reimagined as a giant sphinx. Behind her appears the similarly giant Tower and Emperor. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Chandelier inside the Empress by Niki de Saint Phalle. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

For the World, a mosaic egg, snake, and woman by Niki de Saint Phalle rotate slowly at the top of a kinetic sculpture by Jean Tinguely. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Mosaic detail in Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

One of several, multi-lingual “no smoking” signs in Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Mosaic detail in Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

The towering figure of Justice in Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Ceiling detail from the interior of the Empress by Niki de Saint Phalle. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

The Hermit in Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. This larger-than-life-size figure contains a space just big enough for one person to walk through. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Mosaic detail in Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

The Hierophant and Sun in Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Mosaic detail in Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Detail of the courtyard inside Niki de Saint Phalle’s Emperor. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Interior of the Empress by Niki de Saint Phalle, with a window looking out to the rest of her Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

The Moon in Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Mosaic detail in Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.