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The Villa Farnese at Caprarola is massive. That phrase is probably one of the most accurate descriptions of every aspect of this Renaissance masterpiece built circa 1550 in the Monte Cimini . The Monte Cimini are a range of densely wooded volcanic hills approximately 35 miles north-west of Rome. The journey from Rome to the Villa, even today, heightens the sense of anticipation and drama of a visit: one drives over empty roads, past the Lake of Vigo , through a great gorge with tremendously loud torrents of water, then on the hillside appears the grey stone village of Caprarola, and there towering on the summit of the hill, is the five sided Villa Farnese, its reddish gold stone glinting menacingly at the landscape, its buttress like lower floors supporting the piano nobile above, and above again on two floors sits an almost complete two storey villa in itself. If the Villa Capra "La Rotunda" was designed to sit harmoniously in its landscape, then the Villa Farnese was designed to dominate and master all it surveyed, trees, gorge, cowering peasants and the approaching traveller.
The Villa Farnese was commissioned by CardinalA cardinal is an official of the second-highest rank of the Roman Catholic Church, inferior in rank only to the Pope. The cardinals serve a number of functions: they advise the Pope, they run the Vatican administration and the Roman Curia (the government Alessandro FarneseAlessandro Farnese (pope) ( 1468 1549) better known as Pope Paul III Alessandro Farnese (cardinal) ( 1520 1589) Paul's Grandson Alessandro Farnese (duke) ( 1545 1592) Paul's Great Grandson. a grandson of Pope Paul IIITitian (Tiziano Vecelli), Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples Paul III ne Alessandro Farnese ( February 29, 1468 November 10, 1549) was pope from 1534 to 1549. He also called the Council of Trent in 1545. Born Alessandro Farnese in Carino, in Tuscany, who was known for advancing the ambitions of his relations. Farnese was a courteous man of letters, however the Farnese family as a whole became unpopular with the following pope, Julius III. Alessandro Farnese decided it would be politic to retire from The Vatican for a period. He therefore selected Caprarola on the family holding of Ronciglione , being both near and far from Rome as the ideal place to build a country house. The wilderness of the site would have also made any attack difficult, an old fortress or rocca had been built there many years before for this very reason. The five-sided foundations of this fortress were able to be in part re-used for the new villa.
Architecturally the Villa is one of the finest examples of Renaissance architectureRenaissance Architecture The cultural movement called the Renaissance (which literally means re-birth) was just that in architecture, a rebirth of the Roman traditions of design. It was expressed in a new emphasis on rational clarity and regularity of par. Ornament is used sparingly to achieve proportion and harmony. Thus while the house stands out in its landscape, the severity of the design is also a complement to it. This particular style, known today as mannerismMannerism is the usual English term for an approach to all the arts, particularly painting but not exclusive to it, a reaction to the High Renaissance, emerging after the Sack of Rome in 1527 shook Renaissance confidence, humanism and rationality to their, was a reaction to the ornate earlier high renaissance designs of twenty years earlier.
In 1550 the architect chosen for this difficult and inhospitable site was the Bolognese Giacomo Barozzi_da_Vignola. Vignola in his youth had been heavily influenced by Michelangelo. His plans as built were for a pentagon constructed around a circular colonnaded courtyard: a unique plan. In the galleried court, paired Ionic columns flank niches containing busts of the Roman Emperors. The gallery and upper floors were reached by five spiral staircases around the courtyard: the most important of these is the Scala Regia ("Royal Stairs") rising through the principal floors.
Outside, the Villa Farnese is approached by steps from the village Piazza. a series of terraces begin with the basement sotteranei excavated from the tufa. surrounded by steep curving steps leading to the terrace above. This basement floor in the foundations appears as a series of buttresses and retaining walls, large heavily grilled doors in the rusticated walls appear to lead into the bowels of the house, while above them a curved balustraded external double stairway leads to the terrace above. Which in turn has a formal double staircase to the principal entrance on the 'Piano dei Prelati' floor. This bastion like floor (appears as a 2nd ground floor) is rusticated, the main door a severe arch flanked by three windows each side, the facade at this level is terminated my massive solid projections.
Above this is the double height piano nobile, five huge arched windows incongruously dominate the facade over the front door, above this sit a further two floors, the numerous windows divided by rusticated pilasters in dressed stone.