| Popis: |
This dissertation, Recreation and Retreat: Garden Casini in Late Sixteenth- and Early Seventeenth-Century Rome, examines the significance of casini, or garden houses, located on villa properties in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Rome and its periphery. It traces the ancient sources of this building type, notably the letters of Pliny the Younger describing his Tuscan and Laurentine villas, as well as precedents found in agricultural estates from antiquity through the Renaissance. It also considers the development of the casino from an outdoor studiolo used for study and the intimate display of collections to a more open garden house intended for entertainment and festivities. Although the architectural forms of casini vary, their construction and decoration were often given priority over the main residence on the property, emphasizing the importance of this building type in villa architecture. The dissertation is composed of case studies of villa properties belonging to specific wealthy and noble families in Rome and its periphery, namely the Medici, Farnese, Borghese, and Ludovisi, and the individual casini on their estates. Prominent structures such as Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi's Casino dell'Aurora, which houses Guercino's Aurora, as well as Scipione Borghese's Casino dell'Aurora, which showcases Guido Reni's famous Aurora, are considered, as well as their extensive decorative programs. I provide an analysis of casino decoration in general and the recurrence of pastoral themes, but most importantly, I consider the figure of Aurora, who appears in many garden casini, and her iconographic significance as a symbol of rebirth and renewal. Through an examination of inventories of furniture, paintings, sculpture and other objects, as well as the iconographic programs of the small buildings, the dissertation illustrates the changing functions of casini that corresponded with their patrons' interests and goals, and also with the evolving nature of the Renaissance villa as it developed from a confined villa property to a garden park. My investigation of the topic is the first to define the casino as an independent building type and to track its prominent role in landscape and villa architecture in Italy. |
