The Villa Ludovisi was a suburban villa in Rome, built in the 17th century on the area once occupied by the Gardens of Sallust (Horti Sallustiani) near the Porta Salaria.[1] On an assemblage of vineyards purchased from Giovanni Antonio Orsini, Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte and others, Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi erected in the 1620s the main villa building to designs by Domenichino; it was completed within thirty months, in part to house his collection of Roman antiquities,[2] additions to which were unearthed during construction at the site, which had figured among the great patrician pleasure grounds of Roman times. Modern works, most famously Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Pluto and Persephone, were also represented. The engraving of the grounds by Giovanni Battista Falda (1683)[3] shows a short access avenue from a tree-lined exedra in via di Porta Pinciana and cypress-lined avenues centered on each of the facades of the main villa, laid out through open fields, the main approaches to both the villa and the Casino dell'Aurora[4] converging on gates in the Aurelian Walls, which formed the northern bounds of the park; symmetrical parterres of conventional form including bosquets peopled with statuary[5] flanked the main avenue of the Casina, and there was an isolated sunken parterre, though these features were not integrated in a unified overall plan.[6] The overgrown avenues contrasting with the dramatic Roman walls inspired Stendhal to declare in 1828 that the Villa Ludovisi's gardens were among the most beautiful in the world.[7]
Frescoes in the villa were carried out by Domenichino, Guercino, Giovambattista Viola, and others. A casina was added, largely to house the Cardinal's growing collection of Roman sculptures and inscriptions, which Alessandro Algardi treated to sometimes extensive restoration.
The villa passed to the ownership of the Boncompagni Ludovisi family, which in 1872 rented it to King Victor Emmanuel II. The King used the villa as residence for his lover, Rosa Vercellana.[8]
İn 1885, despite great protests among the intellectuals, its last owner, Don Rodolfo Boncompagni Ludovisi, the Prince of Piombino, faced serious financial troubles and decided to sell the property to the Società Generale Immobiliare. The Villa was divided into building lots.[9] The sculptures[10] were dispersed, and most of the buildings destroyed, the only one to remain being the Casino dell'Aurora.[11]
The Via Veneto was driven through the former grounds, part of which are occupied by the American Embassy in Palazzo Margherita, and the Rione Ludovisi took shape, borrowing its name from the cardinal and his villa.
The gardens of the Villa and the Aurelian Walls in the early 1880s, in a painting of Ettore Roesler Franz
The Villa gardens, by Luise Begas-Parmentier
Fashionable Via Veneto was driven through the heart of Villa Ludovisi's park
^A. Schiavo, Villa Ludovisi e Palazzo Margherita, Rome 1981; I. Belli Barsale, Ville di Roma, Milan 1970, vol. III.1; D.R. Coffin, Gardens and Gardening in Papal Rome, Princeton 1991;
^Inventories of Villa Ludovisi have been partly published: paintings inventory of 1623 (C.H. Wood, "The Ludovisi Collection of Paintings in 1623" The Burlington Magazine, 1992) and of 1633 (K. Garas, "The Ludovisi Collection of Pictures in 1633" The Burlington Magazine, pt. I, ; pt. II, 1967).
^The engraving is illustrated in Eva-Bettina Krems, "Die 'magnifica modestia' der Ludovisi auf dem Monte Pincio in Rom." Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft29 (2002:105-163) p. 107, fig. 2.
^Named for Guercino's ceiling fresco of Aurora
^M.P. fritz, "Der statuenhain in den Gärten der Villa Ludovisi", Daidalos65 (1997:42-51).
^The name of the French garden designer André Le Nôtre became optimistically associated with Villa Ludovisi in the 19th century (as in Th. Schreiber, Die antiken Bildwerke der Villa Ludovisi, Rome 1880, p. 5).
^Stendhal, Promenades dans Rome (18 April 1828), in Voyages en Italie.
^Her temporary absence permitted Henry James to inspect the villa and its grounds and indulge in some snobbish daydreams: on-line text.
^The Boncompagni Ludovisi financial crisis of 1893-96 is analysed in S. Palermo, Terra, città, finanza. I Boncompagni Ludovisi di Roma (1841-1896), 2008.
^The sculptures had been described by Th. Schreiber, Die antiken Bildwerke der Villa Ludovisi, Rome 1880.
^"Villa Aurora, Rome's best kept secret?". Minor Sights. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
The VillaLudovisi was a suburban villa in Rome, built in the 17th century on the area once occupied by the Gardens of Sallust (Horti Sallustiani) near...
di Villa Boncompagni Ludovisi is a historical building in Rione Ludovisi, Rome, Italy. The building is located in the former domain VillaLudovisi. The...
The Ludovisi Gaul (sometimes called "The Galatian Suicide") is an ancient Roman statue depicting a Gallic man plunging a sword into his breast as he holds...
housed at the VillaLudovisi in Rome. Ludovico Ludovisi was born in Bologna, then part of the Papal States, the son of Orazio Ludovisi and Lavinia Albergati...
The Ludovisi Ares is an Antonine Roman marble sculpture of Ares, a fine 2nd-century copy of a late 4th-century BCE Greek original, associated with Scopas...
San Patrizio a VillaLudovisi is a Catholic parish, titular church, and national church of the United States in Rome. It was one of the national churches...
the VillaLudovisi, Rome, where the ancient gardens of Sallust had been located. It was moved into the VillaLudovisi, whence the name. The Ludovisi are...
Doria Pamphili (1650); the Villa Giulia of Pope Julius III (1550), designed by Vignola. The Roman villasVillaLudovisi and Villa Montalto, were destroyed...
Ludovisi can refer to: Ludovisi (family), a noble Italian family Ludovisi papacy of Pope Gregory XV Cardinals Ludovisi Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, later...
Though the VillaLudovisi was built over at the turn of the 20th century, several villas and their gardens still occupy the hill, including the Villa Borghese...
the Boncompagni-Ludovisi family chose to sell their ancestral family home in response to a severe financial crisis. The VillaLudovisi and most of its...
purchased for the Ludovisi collection, where it was first displayed in front of the Palazzo Grande, the main structure of the VillaLudovisi, and by 1641 in...
century during excavations for the building of the VillaLudovisi (commissioned by Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, nephew of Pope Gregory XV), on the site of the...
productive. From this period are his frescoes Aurora at the casino of the VillaLudovisi, the ceiling in San Crisogono (1622) of San Chrysogonus in Glory, the...
The Juno Ludovisi (also called Hera Ludovisi) is a colossal Roman marble head of the 1st century CE from an acrolithic statue of an idealized and youthful...
after the ones of the Villa Doria Pamphili and Villa Ada. The gardens were developed for the Villa Borghese Pinciana ("Borghese villa on the Pincian Hill")...
century when Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, nephew of Pope Gregory XV, purchased the site and constructed the VillaLudovisi, many important sculptures were...
17th century Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, nephew of Pope Gregory XV, purchased the site and constructed the VillaLudovisi, in the course of which several...
Sant'Anastasia al Palatino United States of America: San Patrizio a VillaLudovisi Santa Susanna alle Terme di Diocleziano (former) Venezuela: Nostra Signora...
resource, the Archivio Digitale Boncompagni Ludovisi. To settle an inheritance dispute, an Italian judge ordered Villa Aurora to be offered at auction in January...
H Grimm Rudolf Steiner Archive website, The Worldview of Herman Grimm ABE Books website, Herman Grimm VillaLudovisi website, The Destruction of Rome...
Durazzo-Pallavicini Villa Gamberaia Villa Lancellotti Villa Lante VillaLudovisiVilla Marlia Villa Massei Villa Medici at Cafaggiolo Villa Medici at Careggi Villa Medici...
arts, costume and fashion, Boncompagni Ludovisi Museum is located in the Villino Boncompagni, an Art Nouveau villa, built in the early years of the twentieth...
Global Information
The gardens of the Villa and the Aurelian Walls in the early 1880s, in a painting of Ettore Roesler Franz
The Villa gardens, by Luise Begas-Parmentier
Fashionable Via Veneto was driven through the heart of Villa Ludovisi's park
