THE VILLA ALBANI, ROME 



PLATES 96, 97, 98, 99, 100 



OT far beyond the Porta Salaria is the Villa Albani, the last of the great country 

 pleasure villas built for a Roman cardinal. It was erected in 1746, from 

 the designs of Cardinal Alessandro Albani, assisted by the architect Carlo 

 Marchionne/ In 1834 the villa was sold to the Count of Castelbarco, and in 



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1868 to Prince Torlonia, whose family are the present proprietors. Cardinal 



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Albani was an eminent virtuoso and an enthusiastic collector of ancient 

 sculpture, and the villa was erected almost entirely as a storehouse for the 

 wonderful collections made during his lifetime. It must therefore be considered almost as a 



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museum, as a princely retreat, for the learned cardinal, and a meeting-place for artists and men 

 of letters. The collection of sculpture was largely formed upon the advice of Winckelmann, who 

 had made the acquaintance of the cardinal in 1757, and afterwards became his librarian, devoting 



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himself to the composition of his numerous works on art. 



The collection was ruthlessly spoiled by Napoleon, and it is said that during the occupation 



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of Rome by the French no fewer than 294 of the finest specimens were transported to Paris ; 



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and though most of these were afterwards restored, many of the gems of the collection never 

 returned to the Villa Albani. Nevertheless the collection still retains many priceless pieces of sculp- 

 ture and paintings, and is said to be surpassed only by the museums of the Vatican and the Capitol. 

 The garden was laid out by Antonio Nolli about the same time that the casino was 

 built. It was one of the last gardens to be laid out upon the old Italian method, and although 

 Burckhardt has suggested that it owes much to French influence, and other writers have even gone 



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so far as to attribute the design to Le Notre, it would be difficult to point to any really French 

 motive in the design, and we must look rather to the old classic gardens to which the cardinal 



looked for his model. , 



The garden front of the casino faces almost due south, and consists of a magnificent 

 open portico flanked upon either side by colonnades, all intended for the display of sculpture, and 



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terminating on the west side in the white marble portico shown in Plate 98, behind which is an ilex 

 bosco, guarded by harms, quite in the ancient classic tradition. Upon the east side the colonnade 



There is an interesting collection of this architect's sketches preserved in the Villa Albani, containing many designs for garden architecture. 



( 113 ) 



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