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44-589: In ancient times, the site of the Villa Medici was part of the gardens of Lucullus , which passed into the hands of the Imperial family with Messalina , who was murdered in the villa. In 1564, when the nephews of Cardinal Giovanni Ricci of Montepulciano acquired the property, it had long been abandoned to viticulture . The sole dwelling was the Casina of Cardinale Marcello Crescenzi , who had maintained

88-493: A décor that was a homage to the past and, at the same time, radically contemporary: The mysterious melancholic decor he created for Villa Medici has become, in turn, historic and was undergoing a critical restoration campaign in 2016. Work continued under the direction of the previous director, Richard Peduzzi , and the Villa Medici resumed organizing exhibitions and shows created by its artists in residence. The Academy continues its programme of inviting young artists, who receive

132-455: A Roman, and mere play: For I give no higher name to his sumptuous buildings, porticos and baths, still less to his paintings and sculptures, and all his industry about these curiosities, which he collected with vast expense, lavishly bestowing all the wealth and treasure which he got in the war upon them, insomuch that even now, with all the advance of luxury, the Lucullan gardens are counted

176-504: A competition but by application, and their stays generally vary from six to eighteen months. Between 1961 and 1967, the artist Balthus , then at the head of the Academy, carried out a vast restoration campaign of the palace and its gardens, providing them with modern equipment. Balthus participated “hands-on” in all the phases of the construction. Where the historic décor had disappeared, Balthus proposed personal alternatives. He invented

220-406: A house which would be pleasant in summer, but uninhabitable in winter; whom he answered with a smile, "You think me, then, less provident than cranes and storks, not to change my home with the season." Though a Lucullan feast has passed into proverb, Lucullus was not a mere conspicuous consumer . He formed a fine library and kept it open to scholars, wrote himself and supported writers. His garden

264-701: A son and heir, the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 left the throne to the latter's yet unborn daughter, Maria Theresa . In 1736 Emperor Charles arranged her marriage to Francis of Lorraine who agreed to exchange his hereditary lands for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (as well as the Duchy of Teschen from the Emperor). At Charles's death in 1740 the Habsburg holdings passed to Maria Theresa and Francis, who

308-474: A stipend to spend twelve months in Rome, exhibiting their work. These artists-in-residence are known as pensionnaires. The French word ‘ pension ’ refers to the room & board these, generally young and promising, artists receive. The Villa Medici hosts several guest rooms, and when pensionnaires or other official guests do not use these, they are open to the general public. Several structures base their style on

352-541: A vineyard here and had begun improvements to the villa under the direction of the Florentine Nanni Lippi , who had died however before work had proceeded far. The new proprietors commissioned Annibale Lippi , the late architect's son, to continue work. Interventions by Michelangelo are a tradition. In 1576, the property was acquired by Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici , who finished the structure to designs by Bartolomeo Ammanati . The Villa Medici became

396-551: A virtual open-air museum. A series of grand gardens recalled the botanical gardens created at Pisa and at Florence by the Cardinal's father Cosimo I de' Medici , sheltered in plantations of pines, cypresses and oaks. Ferdinando de' Medici had a studiolo , a retreat for study and contemplation, built to the north east of the garden above the Aurelian wall. Now, these rooms look onto Borghese Gardens but would then have had views over

440-600: The Austro-Hungarian throne) contracted a morganatic marriage with Countess Sophie Chotek . Their descendants, known as the House of Hohenberg , have been excluded from succession to the Austro-Hungarian crown, but not that of Lorraine, where morganatic marriage has never been outlawed. Nevertheless, Otto von Habsburg , the eldest grandson of Franz Ferdinand's younger brother , was universally regarded as

484-458: The Peace of Pressburg Parma : 1847 – Marie Louise died with issue Tuscany : 1859 – Leopold II abdicated due to pressure from Italian nationalists Mexico : 1867 – Maximilian I executed by Liberal republicans. The House of Lorraine (German: Haus Lothringen ) originated as a cadet branch of the House of Metz . It inherited the Duchy of Lorraine in 1473 after

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528-457: The 11th century. Charles II died without male heir, the duchy passing to Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine , consort of Naples by marriage to Duke René of Anjou . The duchy passed to their son John II (r. 1453–1470), whose son Nicholas I (r. 1470–1473) died without heir. The title now went to Nicholas' aunt (sister of John II) Yolande . The House of Lorraine was formed by Yolande's marriage to Frederick II, Count of Vaudémont (1428–1470), who

572-444: The 16th century they were owned by Felice della Rovere , daughter of Pope Julius II . The Villa Borghese portion was a vineyard in 160–5, when it was returned to be a grand garden. 41°54′29″N 12°29′02″E  /  41.908°N 12.484°E  / 41.908; 12.484 House of Lorraine Holy Roman Empire, Luxembourg, Brabant, and Flanders : 1805 – Francis II & I ceded titles in accordance with

616-795: The Capranica and the della Valle collections. An engraving detailing the arrangement of statues before 1562 was documented by Galassi Alghisi . Three works that arrived at the Villa Medici under Cardinal Fernando, ranked with the most famous in the city: the Niobe Group and the Wrestlers , both discovered in 1583 and immediately purchased by Cardinal Ferdinando, and the Arrotino . When the Cardinal succeeded as Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1587, his elder brother having died, he satisfied himself with plaster copies of his Niobe Group, in full knowledge of

660-638: The Gerardide-Matfriding theory are: Eduard Hlawitschka, George Poull and partially the Europäische Stammtafeln (which however does not take into account the kinship with the Girardides). The Renaissance dukes of Lorraine tended to arrogate to themselves claims to Carolingian ancestry, as illustrated by Alexandre Dumas, père in the novel La Dame de Monsoreau (1846); in fact, so little documentation survives on

704-1014: The Prix de Rome were abolished in 1968 by André Malraux , the French Minister of Culture . The Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Institut de France then lost their guardianship of the Villa Medici to the Ministry of Culture and the French State. From that time on, the borders no longer belonged solely to the traditional disciplines (painting, sculpture, architecture, metal engraving, precious-stone engraving, musical composition, etc.) but also to new or previously neglected artistic fields (art history, archaeology, literature, stagecraft, photography, movies, video, art restoration , writing and even cooking.) Artists are no longer recruited by

748-458: The Roman countryside. These two rooms were only uncovered in 1985 by the restorer Geraldine Albers: the concealing whitewash had protected and conserved the superb fresco decoration carried out by Jacopo Zucchi in 1576 and 1577. Among the striking assemblage of Roman sculptures in the villa were some one hundred seventy pieces bought from two Roman collections that had come together through marriage,

792-707: The Tigris, took and burnt the royal palaces of Asia in the sight of the kings, Tigranocerta , Cabira, Sinope, and Nisibis, seizing and overwhelming the northern parts as far as the Phasis, the east as far as Media , and making the South and Red Sea his own through the kings of the Arabians." These comments indicate that it was well understood in Rome that this new luxury of gardening originated in Persia. Lucullus's rural villas in

836-584: The Villa Medici formed the nucleus of the collection of antiquities in the Uffizi , and Florence began to figure on the European Grand Tour . The fountain in front of the Villa Medici is formed from a red granite vase from ancient Rome. It was designed by Annibale Lippi in 1589. The view from the Villa looking over the fountain towards St Peter's in the distance has been much painted, but the trees in

880-572: The channel that had been cut through the isthmus at Mount Athos by the Persian king. Because of the massive piles which he built in the sea at his villa in Naples, Pompey mockingly nicknamed Lucullus "the Roman Xerxes ", and Tubero called him "Xerxes in a toga ". Plutarch, like most of Lucullus's Roman contemporaries, thought these occupations of Lucullus's retirement unbecoming to

924-553: The core Habsburg dominions, including the triple crowns of Austria , Hungary and Bohemia , several junior branches of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine reigned in the Italian duchies of Tuscany (until 1737-1796, 1814-1860), Parma (1814-1847) and Modena (1814-1859). Another member of the house, Archduke Maximilian of Austria , was Emperor of Mexico (1863–67). In 1900, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (then heir presumptive to

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968-533: The death without a male heir of Nicholas I, Duke of Lorraine . By the marriage of Francis of Lorraine to Maria Theresa of Austria in 1736, and with the success in the ensuing War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), the House of Lorraine was joined to the House of Habsburg and became known as the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (German: Haus Habsburg-Lothringen ). Francis, his sons Joseph II and Leopold II , and his grandson Francis II were

1012-450: The duchy until the death of Charles the Bold in 1431. After a brief interlude of 1453–1473, when the duchy passed in right of Charles's daughter to her husband John of Calabria , a Capetian , Lorraine reverted to the House of Vaudémont, a junior branch of House of Lorraine, in the person of René II who later added to his titles that of Duke of Bar . The French Wars of Religion saw

1056-454: The early generations that the reconstruction of a family tree for progenitors of the House of Alsace involves a good deal of guesswork. What is more securely demonstrated is that in 1048 Emperor Henry III gave the Duchy of Upper Lorraine first to Adalbert of Metz and then to his brother Gerard whose successors (collectively known as the House of Alsace or the House of Châtenois) retained

1100-471: The first among Medici properties in Rome, intended to give concrete expression to the ascendancy of the Medici among Italian princes and assert their permanent presence in Rome. Under the Cardinal's insistence, Ammanati incorporated into the design Roman bas-reliefs and statues that were coming to sight with almost every spadeful of earth, with the result that the facades of the Villa Medici, as it now was, became

1144-596: The foreground have now obscured the view. Like the Villa Borghese that adjoins them, the villa's gardens were far more accessible than the formal palaces such as Palazzo Farnese in the heart of the city. For a century and a half the Villa Medici was one of the most elegant and worldly settings in Rome, the seat of the Grand Dukes' embassy to the Holy See. When the male line of the Medici died out in 1737,

1188-413: The head of the house until his death in 2011. It was at Nancy , the former capital of the House of Vaudémont, that the former crown prince married Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen in 1951. The following is a list of ruling heads (after 1918 pretenders) of the house of Ardennes-Metz and its successor houses of Lorraine and Habsburg-Lorraine, from the start of securely documented genealogical history in

1232-508: The highest ranks of French aristocracy, while the senior branch of the House of Vaudémont continued to rule the independent duchies of Lorraine and Bar. Louis XIV 's imperialist ambitions (which involved the occupation of Lorraine in 1669–97) forced the dukes into a permanent alliance with his archenemies, the Holy Roman Emperors from the House of Habsburg . After Emperor Joseph I and Emperor Charles VI failed to produce

1276-415: The hills at Tusculum , near modern Frascati , and at Naples were also set in lavish garden settings. Plutarch, in 'Lucullus' ch. 37, mentions "the chambers and galleries, with their sea-views, built at Naples by Lucullus, out of the spoils of the barbarians.", and Pliny writes of Lucullus cutting a channel through a mountain on his Naples estate to allow seawater to circulate in his fishpond, which recalled

1320-551: The last emperor Charles I . The main two theories of the House's origin are: The Etichonid origin was unanimously recognized from the 18th until the 20th century. For this reason, the marriage between Maria Theresa of Austria and Francis of Lorraine was seen at the time as the reunion of the two branches of the dynasty. The main proponents of this theory have been: Dom Calmet (1672 † 1757), Nicolas Viton de Saint-Allais (1773 † 1842) and more recently Michel Dugast Rouillé (1919 † 1987) and Henry Bogdan. The main proponents of

1364-529: The last four Holy Roman emperors from 1745 until the dissolution of the empire in 1806. The House of Habsburg-Lorraine inherited the Habsburg Empire , ruling the Austrian Empire and then Austria-Hungary until the dissolution of the monarchy in 1918. Although its senior agnates are the dukes of Hohenberg , the house is currently headed by Karl von Habsburg (born 1961), grandson of

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1408-500: The noblest the emperor has. Tubero , the stoic , when he saw his buildings at Naples , where he suspended the hills upon vast tunnels, brought in the sea for moats and fish-ponds round his house, and pleasure-houses in the waters, called him Xerxes in a toga. He had also fine seats in Tusculum, belvederes , and large open balconies for men's apartments, and porticos to walk in, where Pompey coming to see him, blamed him for making

1452-581: The prestige that accrued to the Medici by keeping such a magnificent collection in the European city whose significance far surpassed that of their capital. The Medici lions was completed in 1598, and the Medici Vase entered the collection at the Villa, followed by the Venus de' Medici by the 1630s; the Medici sculptures were not removed to Florence until the eighteenth century. Then, the antiquities from

1496-595: The rise of a junior branch of the Lorraine family, the House of Guise , which became a dominant force in French politics and, during the later years of Henry III 's reign, was on the verge of succeeding to the throne of France. Mary of Guise , mother of Mary, Queen of Scots , also came from this family. Under the Bourbon monarchy the remaining branch of the House of Guise, headed by the duc d'Elbeuf , remained part of

1540-600: The site, now in the heart of Rome, above the Spanish Steps . The fabled gardens of Lucullus were among the most influential in the history of gardening . Lucullus had first-hand experience of the Persian gardening style, in the satraps ' gardens of Anatolia ( "Asia" to the Romans ) and in Mesopotamia and Persia itself. As Plutarch pointed out, "Lucullus [was] the first Roman who carried an army over Taurus, passed

1584-730: The stairs to the courtyard inspired Bernard Foucquet 's bronze lions at the Lejonbacken (lion slope) on the northern side of the Royal Palace in Stockholm from 1700 to 1704. Gardens of Lucullus The Gardens of Lucullus ( Latin : Horti Lucullani ) were the setting for an ancient villa on the Pincian Hill on the edge of Rome ; they were laid out by Lucius Licinius Lucullus about 60 BC. The Villa Borghese gardens still cover 17 acres (6.9 ha) of green on

1628-496: The then owner, Valerius Asiaticus , to commit suicide – Tac. Annals XI.1 ), and was the site of her murder in 48 AD on the orders of the Emperor Claudius, her husband. From shortly afterwards, in around 55 AD, mosaics excavated in the gardens have provided the earliest known use of tesserae made with the technique of gold sandwich glass , which was to remain an essential component of Byzantine and Western mosaics. In

1672-630: The villa passed to the house of Lorraine and, briefly in Napoleonic times, to the Kingdom of Etruria . In this manner, Napoleon Bonaparte came into possession of the Villa Medici, which he transferred to the French Academy at Rome . Subsequently, it housed the winners of the prestigious Prix de Rome , under distinguished directors including Ingres and Balthus , until the prize was withdrawn in 1968. In 1656, Christina, Queen of Sweden

1716-706: The villa. Architect Edward Lippincott Tilton designed the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs, Colorado in 1893. Philanthropist James H. Dooley had a mansion called Swannanoa built on Rockfish Gap, Virginia in 1912. The NYC architectural firm Schultze and Weaver modeled the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida after the Villa for the hotel's second reconstruction, which took place between 1925 and 1926. The marble Medici lions by

1760-698: The winners of the Prix de Rome . In this way, he hoped to retain for young French artists the opportunity to see and copy the masterpieces of antiquity and the Renaissance . The young architect Auguste-Henri-Victor Grandjean de Montigny undertook the renovation. The competition was interrupted during the First World War, and Benito Mussolini confiscated the villa in 1941, forcing the Academy of France in Rome to withdraw until 1945. The competition and

1804-475: Was descended from John I (Yolande's great-grandfather) via his younger son Frederick I, Count of Vaudémont (1346–1390), Antoine, Count of Vaudémont (c. 1395–1431) and Frederick II, Count of Vaudémont (1417–1470). René inherited the title of Duke of Lorraine upon his marriage in 1473. The heir of Franz Joseph, Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria , committed suicide in 1889. Franz Joseph was succeeded by his grandnephew, Charles I , son of Archduke Otto Francis ,

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1848-521: Was filled with works of art, particularly Greek sculpture, both originals and copies of “old masters”, and has thus been a rich archaeological source of ancient sculpture: for example, the statue of the Scythian knife sharpener (now thought to depict the executioner getting ready to flay Marsyas ) which the Medici removed to Florence was found in this garden. The gardens became the favourite playground of Claudius 's Empress Messalina (after she forced

1892-466: Was later elected (in 1745) Holy Roman Emperor as Francis I. The Habsburg-Lorraine nuptials and dynastic union precipitated, and survived, the War of the Austrian Succession . Francis and Maria Theresa's daughters Marie Antoinette and Maria Carolina of Austria became Queens of France and Naples-Sicily , respectively, while their sons Joseph II and Leopold II succeeded to the imperial title. Apart from

1936-627: Was said to have fired one of the cannons on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo without aiming it first. The wayward ball hit the villa, destroying one of the Florentine lilies that decorated the facade. In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte moved the French Academy in Rome to the Villa Medici to preserve an institution once threatened by the French Revolution . At first, the villa and its gardens were sad, and they had to be renovated to house

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