The Renaissance in Italy: Villa Gamberaia

1
The Renaissance in Italy Villa Gamberaia

• Electronic Tutorials were created by Jack
  Sullivan, Assistant Professor, for the History of
  Landscape Architecture (LARC 263), a survey
  course in the Department of Natural Resource
  Sciences and Landscape Architecture, College of
  Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of
  Maryland.
• This presentation was made possible with
  Instructional Improvement Grants in 1995 and 1996
  from the Center for Teaching Excellence. The
  following knowledgeable, patient and generous
  team of players were invaluable to the making of
  these digital compilations. Thank you all for the
  hard work and technical lessons.
• Tamela D. Michaels, Graduate Student, Technical
  Support, Colleague
  
• Fernando Urrea, Technical Support
• David Jones, Technical Support
• The images used in these tutorials are from
  personal collections and from the collections of
  the School of Architecture at the University of
  Maryland. The numbers on each image correspond
  with those in the database housed at the
  Architecture Slide Library.

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Villa Gamberaia, Settignano (1610)
783
784

• The Villa Gamberaia is located on the outskirts
  of the hillside town of Settignano, about five
  kilometers from Fiesole, the setting for some of
  the earliest villas of the Italian Renaissance.
  The villa is located in a region of working
  farms, mostly olive orchards in this particular
  setting. The winding road through the town and up
  to the villa is the beginning segment of a
  spatial sequence that characterizes this unique
  late style. As it approaches the Villa Gamberaia,
  the narrow road opens up to the right just before
  the tunnel straight-ahead.

3
Plan of Gamberaia

• The plan of the Villa Gamberaia is logically and
  clearly ordered. Within its simple structure is a
  diverse collection of garden spaces of both
  architectural and horticultural merit. The garden
  is essentially laid out on two flat planes,
  terraced on the side of a hill, supported by tall
  retaining walls and overlooking the Tuscan
  landscape of farms, orchards and hilltowns. The
  long allée runs north-south and is the datum by
  which the upper and lower terraces, the house and
  service quarters and the formal parterre garden
  are connected. An annotated plan drawing can be
  found at the end of the tutorial.

Drawing by Eileen Kemp
4
Arrival
785

• The gated entrance drive is a narrow shaft of
  space that leads directly to the villa residence.
  The arrival court is a modest space that directs
  the view toward the interior gardens and to the
  buildings rather than to the distant view to
  Fiesole and Florence. The experience at this
  point is one of controlled movement and enclosed
  space.

5
Progression

• Passing through the double archway at the
  entrance court and confronted with a 12 foot high
  wall about 25 feet ahead, the visitor turns to
  the right and is treated to an enchanting vista
  of the garden and the spectacular view beyond.
  The long allée, at one time in the gardens
  history more enclosed along the parterre garden
  edge, has an open terminus framed by the topiary
  cypress exedra and the Stone Pine opposite the
  end of the high wall.

786
787
6
Focal Interest

• Another double archway projects from the
  southwest corner of the house, extending the line
  of the facade along the allée and into the
  parterre garden on the south side. This line was
  once picked up by a series of potted plants,
  probably brought down from the orangerie and
  placed on pedestal platforms.
• The north end of the cypress allée terminates in
  a stone niche in a fully enclosed space. The road
  tunnel that we saw just after the entrance drive
  runs perpendicular to this allée directly below.
  To the right is a shade garden to the left is
  the gate to the olive orchards across the road
  from the villa garden.

788
789
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Walls as Frames
791
790

• The double archway extends the line of the
  building façade and frames the views on either
  side of it. The wall that encloses the allée is a
  retaining wall at the north end, holding back the
  earth that supports the orangerie garden above.
  Here at the south end it is freestanding with a
  small opening and a hint of the more rustic
  landscape within. The stucco-surfaced wall,
  topped with sculptural urns, has the faded
  evidence of painted images of pilasters and
  niches that brought visual relief from the mass
  and weight of such a formidable structure.

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Il Giardino Segreto
792

• Inside the freestanding wall is the surprisingly
  intimate landscape of a rustic garden referred to
  as the giardino segreto -- the secret garden.
  The setting, as a transitional ground between the
  formal parterre garden and the olive groves on
  the rolling hillsides of Settignano, harbors a
  protected atmosphere where notions of both refuge
  and prospect, basic instinctual human needs, come
  together.

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The Grotto
793

• The Grotto Garden is ingeniously sited between
  the upper orangerie garden and the lower
  naturalized rustic garden to the south. The rock
  walls and multiple levels surround a quiet space
  set aside for meditation and reflection, very
  much like a small chapel for moments of prayer

10
The Orangerie

• The orangerie is a structure that housed fruiting
  citrus trees in terra-cotta pots during the
  winter months when frost was likely to damage the
  plants. The orangerie garden at the Villa
  Gamberaia is located on an upper terrace,
  accessible from the Grotto Garden stairways and
  from the winding country road that tunnels under
  the allée and up the hillside against which the
  villa rests. The small potted trees are displayed
  in the orangerie garden. Workmen cart them to the
  lower parterre garden and placed them in line
  with the double arch..

794
795
11
The Terrace

• On the formal lawn terrace directly in front of
  the house and facing toward the west, the
  sculptural balustrade frames the views to the
  town of Settignano and the more cosmopolitan city
  of Florence far beyond. The tall hedges that
  enclose the parterre garden begin at the southern
  limit of this terrace and completely close off
  the garden to (and from) the views. The result is
  a secluded and serene inwardly focused paradise,
  expressively and uniquely inscribed with
  reflecting pools and low box hedges and topiary.

796
797
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The Exedra
798

• The beautifully sculpted cypress and boxwood
  hedges outline each of the four pools in this
  quadripartite garden design. The far southern end
  of the garden is closed off with a cypress hedge,
  clipped to resemble an architectural wall of
  arched openings in a semi-circular form. The
  Stone Pine at the exedra is a modern accident
  that artfully brings a balance to the otherwise
  rigidly formal layout.

13
The Amphitheater at the Exedra
799
800

• The exedra holds an amphitheater-like arrangement
  of stepped hedges surrounding the semi-circular
  pool. References to garden motifs used throughout
  classical antiquity include the Canopus at
  Hadrians Villa and the recollection of the
  luxuriant terrace gardens at the Generalife in
  Granada. These precedents firmly root this garden
  in the traditions of the past yet advance the
  concepts of spatial design and establish a
  prominent place for itself in Renaissance history

14
The Villa in Time and Space
800a

• This garden relies not only on its rational
  structure and the beauty of its crafted objects
  for its charm. Its appeal is also in the rich
  variety of spaces and the intimate connections
  between the garden, the surrounding hillsides and
  the active participant.

800b
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Plan and Key
1.
3.
2.
4.

• Villa Gamberaia, Settignano (1610)
• 1. Country road from Settignano
• 2. Entrance drive
• 3. Tunnel under the allée
• 4. The Cypress Allée
• 5. The Orangerie
• 6. The Grotto Garden
• 7. The Lawn Allée
• 8. The Parterre Garden
• 9. The Exedra

5.
6.
8.
7.
9.
Drawing by Eileen Kemp
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Resources

• Jellicoe, Geoffrey and Susan. The Landscape of
  Man Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to
  the Present Day. The Viking Press New York,
  1975.
• Newton, Norman T. Design on the Land The
  Development of Landscape Architecture. Harvard
  University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts,
  1971.
• Moore, Charles W., William J. Mitchell, and
  William Turnbull, Jr. The Poetics of Gardens. The
  MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1988.