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Plan of the Garden of Prince Ludovisi

Giovanni Battista Falda

The Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University

The Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University
Atlanta, United States

When his uncle became Pope Gregory XV (1621-1623), Ludovico Ludovisi was made a cardinal and, as befitted a cardinal nephew, began to purchase land for a villa and to acquire antiquities, buying up two celebrated collections that had been put together in the sixteenth century. Since his property, which lay in the valley between the Pincian and Quirinal Hills, was the site of the ancient Gardens of Sallust, he had the good fortune to uncover many buried antique masterpieces on his own land. Several of the statues were displayed in a wooded labyrinth (no. 5 on the plan) opposite the casino at the lower right. Just beyond this labyrinth in an uncultivated field, Falda has depicted an Egyptian obelisk lying on its side, another relic of the ancient gardens which was not re-erected until 1789. Today the cross-shaped casino at the left is the only remnant of the cardinal's gardens. It contains the magnificent ceiling fresco of Aurora that Cardinal Ludovisi commissioned from the Bolognese painter Guercino in 1621.

Details

  • Title: Plan of the Garden of Prince Ludovisi
  • Creator: Giovanni Battista Falda
  • Physical Dimensions: 11 15/16 x 18 11/16 in. (30.3 x 47.5 cm)
  • Provenance: Ex coll. Rudolf Wittkower (1901-1971), Europe and United States. Purchased for MCCM by Emory University Art History Department from Ursus Books Limited, New York, New York.
  • Subject Keywords: Intgalio
  • Rights: © Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Bruce M. White
  • External Link: https://collections.carlos.emory.edu/objects/8024/
  • Medium: Etching
  • Dates: First published 1677, MCCM edition published ca. 1688
  • Classification: Works of Art on Paper

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