The place

A Florentine villa in Rome

A summer resort from cardinale Ferdinando de’ Medici to the 16th century, Villa Medici is an example of a fully preserved Renaissance villa. Surrounded by a 7-hectare garden, bordered on one side by the Aurelian walls and on the other by a belvedere overlooking the city, Villa Medici presents a characteristic silhouette in the Roman landscape, with its two symmetrical turrets.

Jacopo Zucchi’s sets

The coffered ceilings and friezes of the cardinal’s apartment above the loggia, created by Florentine painter Jacopo Zucchi around 1584-1585, are among Villa Medici ‘s key decorative works. Conceived by the poet and humanist Pietro Angeli da Barga, the apartment’s cosmological and mythological decor evokes Ferdinand de Medici’s glorious destiny. In the Chambre des Amours, the painted canvases on the ceiling were burnt at the beginning of the 18th century by decision of Cosimo III de’ Medici, who considered them too licentious. In their place since 2015 are seven large panels commissioned by Villa Medici from the painter Claudio Parmiggiani (1943-), revealing the evanescent silhouettes of hundreds of butterflies. At the far end of the gardens, above the Aurelian Wall, two adjoining rooms frescoed in 1576-1577 by Jacopo Zucchi make up what is commonly known as the Studiolo. The first contains a fabulous fresco of plants, earning it the nickname “The Bird Room”: dozens of species of birds and animals populate a pergola surrounded by an abundance of flora. This intimate décor was concealed beneath a whitewash probably applied in the early 19th century: it was spectacularly uncovered in 1985 by restorer fellow Géraldine Albers, and underwent a complete restoration in 2010-2011, led by Luigi De Cesaris. A small room adjoining the Chambre des Oiseaux, the Chambre de l’Aurore features grotesque decoration on the walls and ceiling, in reference to the paintings found in Emperor Nero’s Domus Aurea . Such variety in decor would not be seen again until long afterwards, when the artist Horace Vernet, director of the Academy from 1829 to 1834, adorned one of the turrets of Villa Medici with a neo-Moorish décor in the so-called “Turkish” room, lined with colored earthenware and woodwork, as well as a painted ceiling, expressing the Orientalist dream of his time. A century later, this decor would inspire Balthus, among others, for one of his famous paintings(La Chambre turque, 1965-1966, Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI).

A walk in the gardens

The historic gardens of Villa Medici cover almost 7 hectares and boast a rich plant heritage, including the last remaining examples of the majestic umbrella pines planted by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres in the early 19th century. In 1564, Cardinal Giovanni Ricci purchased the estate, then a modest vineyard, and undertook major development work. In particular, he was responsible for the irrigation network supplying the numerous fountains, the work of Milanese mathematical engineer Camillo Agrippa. In 1576, when Cardinale Ferdinando de’ Medici purchased the estate from the Ricci heirs, he continued the work of his predecessor and enlarged the property. The gardens at Villa Medici, inspired by Tuscan designs, are divided into three zones: the piazzale with adjacent quadrati (1), the bosco (2) and the braccheria (3). In front of the loggia, the piazzale (esplanade) extends the central axis of Villa Medici. The quadrati (squares) are made up of sixteen green spaces delimited by hedges at the ends of which are placed hermes statues, giving the gardens a labyrinthine appearance. The bosco (wood), planted with holm oaks, is the most mysterious part of the gardens, where Ferdinand de’ Medici liked to hunt birds. The braccheria is an area historically reserved for horticultural production, and today houses the gardens’ greenhouse, as well as part of the living quarters of Villa Medici fellows. This cleverly designed layout is full of surprises and wonders, such as the many copies of Ferdinand’s antiques, the monumental Cleopatra loggia and the Niobides, a sculptural ensemble evoking the Greek myth of Niobe. A silent presence in the gardens, the hermes placed at the corners of the squares are busts and heads surmounting a vertical block of marble which, in ancient Greece and among the Romans, marked the limits of thresholds, properties, crossroads and roads. Ferdinand de Medici’s collection included 72 of these, most of whose antique heads were replaced by plaster casts in the 1990s.

Preserving historic gardens in their natural state

For over fifteen years, the gardens at Villa Medici have been maintained in an eco-responsible manner. To combat disease and pests, Villa Medici has implemented ecological solutions, replacing chemicals with natural products and using beneficial insect releases. Several historic garden species such as boxwood, laurel, pistachio, acanthus and myrtle have been reintroduced, along with Mediterranean plants that require little water. Citrus fruit also occupies a special place in the gardens of Villa Medici: as far back as the 16th century, orange, lemon, sour orange and citron trees were cultivated and supplied Ferdinand de Medici’s table, while their flowers and peels could be candied, pickled or distilled on site. In particular, the citron or mala medica was cultivated for its pharmacological virtues against fevers and poisons. Today, the 7-hectare gardens at Villa Medici boast over 300 citrus trees, including bigaradiers, lemons and citron trees.

Find out more about responsible garden management