Name of Monument:

Villa Mondragone, Water Theatre

Location:

Monte Porzio Catone, Rome, Latium, Italy

Date:

1618–1619

Artists:

Carlo Maderno (1556, Capolago, Bissone – 1629, Rome), architect documented in Rome from 1576; Giovanni Fontana (1540, Melide – 1614, Rome), hydraulic engineer, brother of the better known Domenico, architect to Pope Sixtus V; Flemish architect: Jan van Santen (also known as Giovanni Vasanzio; c. 1550, Utrecht – died in Rome 1621)

Denomination / Type of monument:

Secular architecture, villa with water theatre (nymphaeum)

Patron(s):

Scipione Caffarelli Borghese (1576, Rome – 1633, Rome), nephew of Paul V (1605–21)

History:

The estate was acquired in 1567 by Cardinal Marco Sittico Altemps (1533–95), who intended to build a new structure above the existing villa Tuscolana to host Pope Gregory XIII Boncompagni (1572–85), which acquired the name Mondragone (Mons Draconis) after the dragon on the Boncompagni coat of arms. In 1613 it was purchased by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, possibly because of the coincidence of the heraldic dragon symbol (which is accompanied by an eagle on the Borghese coat of arms), and he combined the existing buildings into a single complex. The most significant architectural work carried out to achieve this involved the gardens, which—along with the long wing of the building (manica)—make up a single group comprising different structures, including a water theatre or nymphaeum opposite the portico of the secret garden built alongside the new Borghese wings.

Description:

The nymphaeum, of which only the architectural structure is visible today, resembles the front of a theatre stage that closely mimics an ancient cavea, and stands behind two flights of stairs with a central niche whose triangular walls are decorated with coloured mosaics of Borghese dragons. Above it, on a semi-circular mosaic-floored platform decorated with the Borghese eagle with a central pool from which a powerful fountain once sprayed water for several metres around, there is an exedra in which pilaster strips, with accentuated rounded ashlar-work and ionic capitals supporting a continuous cornice originally surmounted by statues, alternate with seven niches in perspective with stuccowork, statues and blue and white mosaics, which are now empty. The semi-circular exedra highlights the containment function of the natural slope.
The original effect can be imagined from 17th-century prints (Falda, c. 1675) that reproduce its appearance or, similarly, by comparison with the nymphaeum at the nearby Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati. All of the plastic and pictorial elements that highlighted both the intentional links with ancient architectural works and the skilled technical and scenic inventiveness of the fanciful and amazing water devices, as described by Deseine in 1713, are now lost: "in the hollows of the niches stand beautiful statues, jets of water spring from every corner and in the middle is a fountain that fills the ears with the frightful sound of thunder, rain and hailstones." Of the rest, Cardinal Scipione Borghese wrote in a letter of 1618 that "the water ... makes a fine show, and stands out like an eye in the land of the blind." Early 19th-century descriptions reveal that these playful devices, with the fountain in the middle, were still in operation at that time.

The water theatre, known as a nymphaeum, resembles the front of a theatre stage and stands behind two flights of stairs and a central niche. Above it, on a semi-circular platform with a central pool from which a powerful fountain once sprayed water for several meters around, there is a semi-circular exedra that highlights the containment function of the natural slope.

How Monument was dated:

Tantillo, A. M., “Villa Mondragone”, I principi della chiesa, Milan 1998, pp. 96–98.

Selected bibliography:

Tantillo, A. M., "Villa Mondragone", I principi della chiesa, Milan 1998, pp. 96–98.
De Angelis d'Ossat, M., Tra Villa Mondragone e Palazzo Altemps: le residenze di un cardinale, Rome 2003.

Citation of this web page:

Laura Indrio "Villa Mondragone, Water Theatre" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;BAR;it;Mon13;10;en

Prepared by: Laura Indrio
Translation by: Laurence Nunny
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: IT1 10