The Boboli Gardens (Italian: Giardino di Boboli) is a historical park of the city of Florence that was opened to the public in 1766. Originally designed for the Medici, it represents one of the first and most important examples of the Italian garden, which later served as inspiration for many European courts. The large green area is a real open-air museum with statues of various styles and periods, ancient and Renaissance that are distributed throughout the garden. It also has large fountains and caves, among them the splendid Buontalenti grotto built by the artist, architect, and sculptor Bernardo Buontalenti between 1536 and 1608.
Boboli Gardens Amphitheatre, viewed from the Palazzo PittiBathing Venus by Giambologna as seen in the third chamber of the Buontalenti Grotto
The Gardens, directly behind the Pitti Palace, the main seat of the Medici grand dukes of Tuscany at Florence, are some of the first and most familiar formal 16th-century Italian gardens. The mid-16th-century garden style, as it was developed here, incorporated longer axial developments, wide gravel avenues, a considerable "built" element of stone, the lavish employment of statuary and fountains, and a proliferation of detail, coordinated in semi-private and public spaces that were informed by classical accents: grottos, nympheums, garden temples and the like. The openness of the garden, with an expansive view of the city, was unconventional for its time. The gardens were very lavish, considering no access was allowed to anyone outside the immediate Medici family, and no entertainment or parties are ever known to have taken place in the gardens.
The Boboli Gardens were laid out for Eleonora di Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I de' Medici.[1] The name may be a corruption of "Bogoli"[2] or "Borgoli",[3] possibly the name of a family who had previously owned the land.[4] The first stage had scarcely been begun by Niccolò Tribolo[1] when he died in 1550, after which the construction was continued by Bartolomeo Ammanati. Giorgio Vasari contributed to the planning, and Bernardo Buontalenti contributed sculptures,[5] as well as the elaborate architecture of the grotto in the courtyard that separates the palace from its garden.
The garden lacks a natural water source. To water its plants, a conduit was built to feed water from the nearby Arno River into an elaborate irrigation system.[1]
The primary axis, centered on the rear façade of the palace, rises on Boboli Hill from a deep amphitheater;[5] its shape resembles half of a classical hippodrome or racecourse. At the center of the amphitheater and rather dwarfed by its position is the Ancient EgyptianBoboli obelisk[1] brought from the Villa Medici at Rome. This primary axis terminates in a fountain of Neptune (known to the irreverent Florentines as the "Fountain of the Fork" for Neptune's trident); the sculpture of Neptune, by Stoldo Lorenzi, is visible against the skyline as a visitor climbs the slope.
Giulio Parigi laid out the long secondary axis, the Viottolone or Cyprus Road at a right angle to the primary axis. This road led up through a series of terraces and water features, the main one being the Isolotto complex, with the bosquets on either side, and then allowed for exit from the gardens almost at Porta Romana, which was one of the main gates of the walled city. In 1617, Parigi constructed the Grotto of Vulcan (Grotticina di Vulcano) along this axis.
The gardens have passed through several stages of enlargement and restructuring work. They were enlarged in the 17th century to their present extent of 45,000meters² (111acres).[5] The Boboli Gardens have come to form an outdoor museum of garden sculpture that includes Roman antiquities as well as 16th and 17th century works.
In the first phase of building, the amphitheatre was excavated in the hillside behind the palace. Initially formed by clipped edges and greens, it was later formalized by rebuilding in stone decorated with statues based on Roman myths such as the Fountain of the Ocean (sculpted by Giambologna, later transferred to another location within the same garden). The small Grotto of Madama and the Large Grotto were begun by Vasari and completed by Ammannati and Buontalenti between 1583 and 1593.[5]
Even while undergoing restoration work in 2015, the Large Grotto's statues were still on display; they are defining examples of Mannerist sculpture and architecture. Decorated internally and externally with stalactites and originally equipped with waterworks and luxuriant vegetation, the grotto is divided into three main sections. The first one was frescoed to create the illusion of a natural grotto, a refuge that allows shepherds to protect themselves from wild animals; it originally housed The Prisoners of Michelangelo (now replaced by copies), statues that were first intended for the tomb of the Pope Julius II. Other rooms in the Grotto contain Giambologna's famous Bathing Venus and an 18th-century group of Paris and Helen by Vincenzo de' Rossi.
The Fountain of Neptune
In the hillside above the amphitheatre is a double ramp, leading to the Fountain of Neptune. Its main feature is a large basin with a central bronze statue of Neptune, made by Stoldo Lorenzi some time between 1565 and 1568. The fountain was constructed contemporaneously with its more famous counterpart, Ammannati'sFountain of Neptune, which is at the corner of the Palazzo Vecchio at the Piazza della Signoria in the center of Florence. Higher up on the hillside is a statue of Abundance (Dovizia). Collectively, these works seem to allude to a legend in which the gods Athena and Neptune are competing for the role of the patron of Athens. In that legend, Neptune strikes the ground with his trident, causing water to spring forth from it.[6]
The Isolotto is an oval-shaped island in a tree-enclosed pond, and is nearly at the end of the alternative Viottolone axis. In the centre of the island is the Fountain of the Ocean, and in the surrounding moat, there are statues of Perseus and Andromeda (school of Giambologna). The Isolotto was laid out by Giulio and Alfonso Parigi, circa 1618.
1 2 3 4 Zucconi, Guido (1995). Florence: An Architectural Guide (2001 Reprinted.). San Giovanni Lupatoto (Vr): Arsenale Editrice.
↑ The Italian Garden: Art, Design and Culture, article: Hard times in Baroque Florence: The Boboli Garden and the grand ducal public works administration, by Malcolm Campbell, editor: John Dixon Hunt, page 178.
Attlee, Helena (2006). Italian Gardens - A Cultural History. London: Frances Lincoln. ISBN978-0-7112-3392-8.
Gurrieri, F.; J. Chatfield (1972). Boboli Gardens (Florence).
Bernardo Buontalenti and the Grotta Grande of Boboli, ed. Sergio Risaliti, Maschietto Editore, Florence, 2012. ISBN978-88-6394-041-1
Marco VichiIn the Boboli Garden, art book for children, illustrated by Francesco Chiacchio, photo by Yari Marcelli, transl. Stephen Sartarelli, Maschietto Editore, Florence, 2015. ISBN978-88-6394-094-7
Bartolomeo Ammannati was an Italian architect and sculptor, born at Settignano, near Florence, Italy. He studied under Baccio Bandinelli and Jacopo Sansovino and closely imitated the style of Michelangelo.
Giambologna, also known as Jean de Boulogne (French), Jehan Boulongne (Flemish) and Giovanni da Bologna (Italian), was the last significant Italian Renaissance sculptor, with a large workshop producing large and small works in bronze and marble in a late Mannerist style.
The Forte di Belvedere or Fortezza di Santa Maria in San Giorgio del Belvedere is a fortification in Florence, Italy.
The Palazzo Pitti, in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the town residence of Luca Pitti, an ambitious Florentine banker.
Bernardo Timante Buonacorsi, known as Bernardo Buontalenti and sometimes by the nickname "Bernardo delle Girandole", was an Italian stage designer, architect, theatrical designer, military engineer, artist, and the purported inventor of Italian ice cream.
The Fonte della Fata Morgana, locally also called '"Casina delle Fate", at Grassina, is a small garden building located not far from Florence, Italy, in the comune of Bagno a Ripoli. It was built in 1573–74 as a garden feature in the extensive grounds of the Villa il Riposo of Bernardo Vecchietti on the slope of the hill called Fattucchia.
Piazza della Signoria is a w-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. It was named after the Palazzo della Signoria, also called Palazzo Vecchio. It is the main point of the origin and history of the Florentine Republic and still maintains its reputation as the political focus of the city. It is the meeting place of Florentines as well as the numerous tourists, located near Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza del Duomo and gateway to Uffizi Gallery.
Niccolò di Raffaello di Niccolò dei Pericoli, called "Il Tribolo" was an Italian Mannerist artist in the service of Cosimo I de' Medici in his natal city of Florence.
Pierre Francqueville, generally called Pietro Francavilla, was a Franco-Flemish sculptor trained in Florence, who provided sculpture for Italian and French patrons in the elegant Late Mannerist tradition established by Giambologna.
Giulio Parigi was an Italian architect and designer.
Alfonso Parigi the Younger (1606–1656) was an Italian architect and scenographer, the son of Giulio Parigi, and grandson of Alfonso Parigi the Elder.
The Villa di Pratolino was a Renaissance patrician villa in Vaglia, Tuscany, Italy. It was mostly demolished in 1822. Its remains are now part of the Villa Demidoff, 12 km north of Florence, reached from the main road to Bologna.
Stoldo Lorenzi was an Italian Mannerist sculptor active in Florence and Pisa.
The Villa di Castello, near the hills bordering Florence, Tuscany, central Italy, was the country residence of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1519-1574). The gardens, filled with fountains, statuary, and a grotto, became famous throughout Europe. The villa also housed some of the great art treasures of Florence, including Sandro Botticelli's Renaissance masterpieces The Birth of Venus and Primavera. The gardens of the Villa had a profound influence upon the design of the Italian Renaissance garden and the later French formal garden.
Valerio Cioli (1529–1599) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor.
The Italian Renaissance garden was a new style of garden which emerged in the late 15th century at villas in Rome and Florence, inspired by classical ideals of order and beauty, and intended for the pleasure of the view of the garden and the landscape beyond, for contemplation, and for the enjoyment of the sights, sounds and smells of the garden itself.
Italian garden typically refers to a style of gardens, wherever located, reflecting a number of large Italian Renaissance gardens which have survived in something like their original form. In the history of gardening, during the Renaissance, Italy had the most advanced and admired gardens in Europe, which greatly influenced other countries, especially the French formal garden and Dutch gardens and, mostly through these, gardens in Britain.
The Fountain of Neptune in Florence, Italy, is situated in the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The fountain was commissioned by Cosimo I de' Medici in 1559 to celebrate the marriage of Francesco de' Medici I to Grand Duchess Joanna of Austria. Cosimo I de' Medici was the Duke of Florence from 1537-1569 and responsible for a vast number of architectural and artistic elements in Florence that still exist today.
Nano Morgante was an Italian dwarf who was a famed buffoon and court jester in the court of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Morgante was ironically nicknamed after the giant from the poem of the same name by Luigi Pulci. He was the most celebrated of the five dwarves of the Medici court at the Palazzo Pitti.
Portrait of the Dwarf Nano Morgante is a 1552 double-sided painting offering front and back views on either side of the canvas by Bronzino of Nano Morgante the famed court dwarf of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany who is also immortalized in Valerio Cioli's Fontana del Bacchino at the Boboli Gardens in Florence. The work was commissioned from Bronzino by Cosimo. It portrays Morgante on both sides as a bird-catcher, as he was not permitted to hunt bigger game, this being a pursuit reserved for persons of greater echelon. Morgante is depicted respectively from the front and back at two subsequent moments of the action: at the front he is depicted before the hunt, holding an owl in a snare to be used as a bait to capture a jay that is flying in the air. A duo of rare swallowtail butterflies cover his genitals; these were discovered recently, when the painting was last restored. From behind, he is seen just about to turn towards the viewer with a weapon in his left hand and his quarry in his right, anxious to visually boast of his take.
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