The Gardens and Fountains of Villa Lante (Bagnaia - Lazio) (manortiz

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• published: 24 Sep 2012
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Bagnaia (Viterbo Italy), gardens and fountains of Villa Lante History In the 16th century Cardinal Raffaele Riario, starting with a wall that was built around the entire site, in Bagnaia (near Vittarbo), began the garden. Inside the wall included a garden and an adjacent hunting park, which is now a public park. During the next 100 years the garden took on restorations from Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Gambara, who commissioned Jacopo Barozzi (aka ll Vignola) to work on the villa. Vignola divided the garden into three terraces that formed a long rectangle. Description FOUNTAIN OF PEGASUS: Derived from the statue above the Oval Fountain in the Villa d'Este, this fountain tells the story of the winged horse's hoof striking the earth which sparks the Spring of Hippocrene, which is the symbol of the source of artistic creativity. This is the first fountain a visitor sees for it sits at the entrance of the park. FOUNTAIN OF THE FLOOD: A grotto fountain that sits on the upper terrace is the start of the compositional theme of the path of water that replenishes all the fountains in the garden through gravity and is the culmination of the line of vision from the main gate. The fountain's theme derives from the Biblical flood of the old testament and initiates the story of humanity's evolution. FOUNTAIN OF THE DOLPHINS: Below the fountain of the flood sits an octagonal fountain with four descending basins, which are linked by many sculptures. There are sixteen dolphins, which are arranged in pairs on each corner of the octagon. The fountain is surrounded by benches and a row of boxwoods. FOUNTAIN OF THE CHAIN: Water flowing from the fountain of the dolphins spurts into the jaws of a crayfish, the symbol of Cardinal Gambara. The fountain begins with the crayfish's head and front claws in the middle of the stairs and continues down with linked curves that form the body. It ends with water flowing through the crayfish's back claws, which begins the fountain of the giants. FOUNTAIN OF THE GIANTS: The two statues represents the Tiber and Arno Rivers , which is symbolic of the fertility that water brings to the land. (Villa Lante by Jefferson Davis from http://courses.umass.edu/latour/Italy/2005/JDavis/index.html)