Bomarzo
Encyclopedia
Bomarzo is a town and comune
of the province of Viterbo
(Lazio, central Italy
), in the lower valley of the Tiber. It is located 14.5 km ENE of Viterbo
and 68 km NNW of Rome.
It was a historical fiefdom of the Orsini family
, whose castle
is at the edge of the densely-built town, until it was sold to Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rovere
in 1645. Lante was elevated to the title of Duke of Bomarzo.
, usually referred to as the Bosco Sacro (Sacred grove
) or, locally, Bosco dei Mostri ("Monsters' Grove"), named after the many larger-than-life sculptures, some sculpted in the bedrock, which populate this predominantly barren landscape.
It is the work of Pier Francesco Orsini
, called Vicino (1528–1588), a condottiero or mercenary and a patron of the arts, was greatly devoted to his wife Giulia Farnese, daughter of Galeazzo Farnese, Duke of Latera, (not to be confused with Giulia Farnese
) and when she died, he created the gardens. The design has been attributed to Pirro Ligorio
, a well known architect and antiquarian of the time.
The park of Bomarzo was intended not to please, but to astonish, and like many Mannerist
works of art, its symbolism is arcane; for example, one large sculpture is of one of Hannibal's war elephant
s, which mangles a Roman legion
ary, and another is a statue of Ceres lounging on the bare ground, with a vase of "fruits of the earth" perched on her head.
The many monstrous statues appear to be unconnected to any rational plan and appear to have been strewn almost randomly about the area, sol per sfogare il Core ("just to set the heart free") as one inscription on an obelisk says.
Enigmatic verses in Italian by Annibale Caro
, Bitussi and Cristoforo Madruzzo
, some of them now eroded, were inscribed onto stone beside the sculptures.
The reason for the layout and design of the garden is largely unknown: perhaps they were meant as a foil to the perfect symmetry and layout of the great Renaissance
gardens nearby at Villa Farnese
at Caprarola and Villa Lante
at Bagnaia. Next to a formal exedra is a tilting building, the so-called Casa Storta or Twisted House.
A small octagonal temple was added about twenty years later to honor Orsini's wife, Giulia Farnese.
During the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, the garden became overgrown and neglected but in the 1970s a program of restoration was implemented by the Bettini family, and today the garden, which remains private property, is a major tourist attraction. It is unfortunate that in recent years, a number of the stone sculptures have had fences put around them. Whilst this may deter visitors from climbing on them, it has the effect of making them more remote from their natural setting.
The surreal
nature of the Parco dei Mostri appealed to Jean Cocteau
and the great surrealist Salvador Dalí
, who discussed it at great length. The poet André Pieyre de Mandiargues
wrote an essay devoted to Bomarzo. Niki de Saint Phalle
was inspired by Bomarzo when she created her Tarot Garden in Tuscany. The story behind Bomarzo and the life of Pier Francesco Orsini are the subject of a novel by the Argentinian writer Manuel Mujica Láinez
(1910–1984), Bomarzo (1962). Mujica Láinez himself wrote a libretto based on his novel, which was set to music by Alberto Ginastera
(1967). The opera Bomarzo premièred in Washington in 1967 but in Argentina it was banned by the military dictatorship. The Dutch magic-surrealist painter Carel Willink
used several of the park's statue groups in his paintings, e.g. The Eternal Cry and Balance of Forces.
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...
of the province of Viterbo
Province of Viterbo
The Province of Viterbo is a province in the Lazio region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Viterbo. It is bordered to the north by the Province of Grosseto and Siena, by the north-east with the Province of Terni and Rieti, in the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea and south by the Province of Rome.It...
(Lazio, central Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
), in the lower valley of the Tiber. It is located 14.5 km ENE of Viterbo
Viterbo
See also Viterbo, Texas and Viterbo UniversityViterbo is an ancient city and comune in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo. It is approximately 80 driving / 80 walking kilometers north of GRA on the Via Cassia, and it is surrounded by the Monti Cimini and...
and 68 km NNW of Rome.
History
Its current name is a derivation of Polymartium, first mentioned in the Historia Langobardorum by Paulus Diaconus. The etymology "polis martium", city of Mars, suggests a Roman origin. However, archeological evidence for a Roman city has not been found so far.It was a historical fiefdom of the Orsini family
Orsini family
Orsini: the origin of learning.We love Mrs. Orsini forever! ~8F Social Studies 2011The Orsini family is an Italian noble family; it was one of the most influential princely families in medieval Italy and renaissance Rome...
, whose castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
is at the edge of the densely-built town, until it was sold to Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rovere
Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rovere
Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rovere was an Italian nobleman and Duke of Bomarzo.-Biography:Lante was the son of Marcantonio Lante and his wife Lucrezia della Rovere. He was nephew to his father's brother, Cardinal Marcello Lante della Rovere...
in 1645. Lante was elevated to the title of Duke of Bomarzo.
Park of the Monsters
Bomarzo's main attraction is a gardenGarden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...
, usually referred to as the Bosco Sacro (Sacred grove
Sacred grove
A sacred grove is a grove of trees of special religious importance to a particular culture. Sacred groves were most prominent in the Ancient Near East and prehistoric Europe, but feature in various cultures throughout the world...
) or, locally, Bosco dei Mostri ("Monsters' Grove"), named after the many larger-than-life sculptures, some sculpted in the bedrock, which populate this predominantly barren landscape.
It is the work of Pier Francesco Orsini
Pier Francesco Orsini
Pier Francesco Orsini , also called Vicino Orsini, was an Italian condottiero and patron of the arts. He is famous as the commissioner of the Mannerist Park of the Monsters in Bomarzo .-Biography:...
, called Vicino (1528–1588), a condottiero or mercenary and a patron of the arts, was greatly devoted to his wife Giulia Farnese, daughter of Galeazzo Farnese, Duke of Latera, (not to be confused with Giulia Farnese
Giulia Farnese
Giulia Farnese was mistress to Pope Alexander VI. She was known as Giulia la bella, meaning "Julia the beautiful", in Italian. Lorenzo Pucci described her as "most lovely to behold"...
) and when she died, he created the gardens. The design has been attributed to Pirro Ligorio
Pirro Ligorio
Pirro Ligorio was an Italian architect, painter, antiquarian and garden designer.-Biography:Ligorio was born in Naples. In 1534 he moved to Rome, where he developed his interest in antiquities, and was named superintendent to the ancient monuments by the Popes Pius IV and Paul IV...
, a well known architect and antiquarian of the time.
The park of Bomarzo was intended not to please, but to astonish, and like many Mannerist
Mannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
works of art, its symbolism is arcane; for example, one large sculpture is of one of Hannibal's war elephant
War elephant
A war elephant was an elephant trained and guided by humans for combat. Their main use was to charge the enemy, trampling them and breaking their ranks. A division of war elephants is known as elephantry....
s, which mangles a Roman legion
Roman legion
A Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...
ary, and another is a statue of Ceres lounging on the bare ground, with a vase of "fruits of the earth" perched on her head.
The many monstrous statues appear to be unconnected to any rational plan and appear to have been strewn almost randomly about the area, sol per sfogare il Core ("just to set the heart free") as one inscription on an obelisk says.
Enigmatic verses in Italian by Annibale Caro
Annibale Caro
Annibale Caro was an Italian poet.-Biography:Born in Civitanova Marche, province of Macerata, he became tutor to the wealthy family of Lodovico Gaddi in Florence, and then secretary to Lodovico's brother Giovanni...
, Bitussi and Cristoforo Madruzzo
Cristoforo Madruzzo
thumb|200px|Portrait of Cristoforo Madruzzo by [[Titian]] .[[Museu de Arte de São Paulo]], [[São Paulo]].Cristoforo Madruzzo was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal and statesman. His brother Eriprando was a mercenary captain who fought in the Italian Wars.-Biography:Madruzzo was born on July 5,...
, some of them now eroded, were inscribed onto stone beside the sculptures.
The reason for the layout and design of the garden is largely unknown: perhaps they were meant as a foil to the perfect symmetry and layout of the great Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
gardens nearby at Villa Farnese
Villa Farnese
The Villa Farnese, also known as Villa Caprarola, is a mansion in the town of Caprarola in the province of Viterbo, Northern Lazio, Italy, approximately 50 kilometres north-west of Rome...
at Caprarola and Villa Lante
Villa Lante
Villa Lante at Bagnaia is a Mannerist garden of surprise near Viterbo, central Italy, attributed to Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola).The villa is known as the "Villa Lante"...
at Bagnaia. Next to a formal exedra is a tilting building, the so-called Casa Storta or Twisted House.
A small octagonal temple was added about twenty years later to honor Orsini's wife, Giulia Farnese.
During the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, the garden became overgrown and neglected but in the 1970s a program of restoration was implemented by the Bettini family, and today the garden, which remains private property, is a major tourist attraction. It is unfortunate that in recent years, a number of the stone sculptures have had fences put around them. Whilst this may deter visitors from climbing on them, it has the effect of making them more remote from their natural setting.
The surreal
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
nature of the Parco dei Mostri appealed to Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
and the great surrealist Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
, who discussed it at great length. The poet André Pieyre de Mandiargues
André Pieyre de Mandiargues
André Pieyre de Mandiargues was a French writer born in Paris. He became an associate of the Surrealists and married the Italian painter Bona Tibertelli de Pisis...
wrote an essay devoted to Bomarzo. Niki de Saint Phalle
Niki de Saint Phalle
Niki de Saint Phalle, born Catherine-Marie-Agnès-Brandon Fal de Saint Phalle was a French sculptor, painter, and film maker.-The early years:...
was inspired by Bomarzo when she created her Tarot Garden in Tuscany. The story behind Bomarzo and the life of Pier Francesco Orsini are the subject of a novel by the Argentinian writer Manuel Mujica Láinez
Manuel Mujica Laínez
Manuel Mujica Láinez was an Argentine novelist, essayist and art critic.-Biography:...
(1910–1984), Bomarzo (1962). Mujica Láinez himself wrote a libretto based on his novel, which was set to music by Alberto Ginastera
Alberto Ginastera
Alberto Evaristo Ginastera was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most important Latin American classical composers.- Biography :...
(1967). The opera Bomarzo premièred in Washington in 1967 but in Argentina it was banned by the military dictatorship. The Dutch magic-surrealist painter Carel Willink
Carel Willink
Albert Carel Willink was a well known Dutch painter who called his style of Magic realism "imaginary realism".Willink was born in Amsterdam, the eldest son of the mechanic Jan Willink and Wilhelmina Altes...
used several of the park's statue groups in his paintings, e.g. The Eternal Cry and Balance of Forces.
External links
- Pictures of the Monster Park from Culture Discovery Vacations
- The Park of the Monsters
- Gaither Stewart, "The eighth wonder of the world: Bomarzo"
- Il parco dei Mostri di Bomarzo: Pegaso group article
- Thayer's Gazetteer of the Lazio
- J.E. Berger Foundation: Bomarzo
- Bomarzo gallery
- Gorgeous Grotesques, by Paula de la Cruz, GARDEN DESIGN, Nov/Dec 2009