Name of Monument:

Villa Sora, fresco decoration of the main hall

Location:

Frascati, Rome, Latium, Italy

Date:

First decade of the 17th century

Artists:

School of Giuseppe Cesari (1568, Arpino, Frosinone – 1640, Rome) known as Cavalier d’Arpino

Denomination / Type of monument:

Secular architecture, villa, summer residence

Patron(s):

Cardinal Giovanni Moroni; Giacomo Boncompagni (1548–1612), Duke of Sora

History:

The villa, located on Via Tuscolana just before the town, was built in the mid-16th century by Cardinal Giovanni Moroni who was an influential prelate of the Council of Trent. Built in a style of a city villa, it has a central courtyard, a covered roof-terrace and arched belvedere tower. In 1600 it was bought by Giacomo Boncompagni, natural son of Gregory XIII (1572–85), who commissioned Giuseppe Cesari (also known as Cavalier d’Arpino) and his studio to decorate the “main hall” with frescos, which was carried out in the first decade of the 17th century. At the end of the 19th century, the villa passed to Tommaso Saulini, who sold it to the Salesiana family, who are the current owners.

Description:

The decoration is split into two registers: the lower register showing the standing Liberal Arts and Intellectual Activities (arithmetic, comedy, tragedy, heroic poetry, lyrical poetry, philosophy, geometry, rhetoric, astrology and dance) as if supporting the entire decoration, between windows decorated with grotesques; the upper register, Landscapes, designed as mock tapestries possibly by Vespasiano Strada, which alternate with seated allegorical figures representing the Nine Muses (Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Erato, Terpsichore, Urania and Calliope) and Mnemosyne (Memory) Mother of the Muses, in accordance with the dictates of Cesar Ripa's Iconologia. Between the two parts, garlands of flowers and fruit with heraldic animals (lion and dragon) held up by putti link together a series of monochrome medallions with busts of Illustrious Men from antiquity. In the centre of the long sides of the hall stand two prominent coats of arms, combining the heraldic symbols of the Boncompagni (dragon) and Sforza di Santa Fiora (lion rampant) families, to which the wife of Giacomo Boncompagni, Costanza, belonged. The hall is completed by a contemporary painted ceiling.
This is an interesting example of a secular decorative theme following the Counter-Reformation: it is dominated by moral, allegorical subjects through the use of illustrious men and the essential protective role of the intellectual activities exercised by a noble family linked to the papacy, which is naturally, albeit indirectly, celebrated thus. The rich and complex decoration, which lends itself to different levels of interpretation, combines mythological, historical and naturalistic references—all alluding to different commemorative intentions nonetheless harmoniously combined by a single plan—and represents well the moment of transition from the austere spirit at the height of the Counter-Reformation to the more animated, albeit still strictly divided, spirit of early 17th-century Rome; a moment of transition recorded in numerous decorative works undertaken by the school of Cavalier d'Arpino, a genuine artistic entrepreneur in Rome during those years, who was able to call upon a considerable group of pupils from different backgrounds to help him carry out his work.

The decoration is split into two registers: the lower register, showing the standing Liberal Arts and Intellectual Activities as if supporting the entire decoration, in between windows decorated with grotesques; the upper register, Landscapes, designed as mock tapestries, which alternate with seated allegorical figures representing the Nine Muses and Mnemosyne (Memory) Mother of the Muses.

How Monument was dated:

Guerrieri Borsoi, M. B., Villa Sora a Frascati, Rome 2000.

Selected bibliography:

Tantillo, A. M., "Villa Sora", I principi della chiesa, Milan 1998, p. 101.
Guerrieri Borsoi, M. B., Villa Sora a Frascati, Rome 2000.

Citation of this web page:

Laura Indrio "Villa Sora, fresco decoration of the main hall" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;BAR;it;Mon13;3;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 03