Plan and Elevation of the Belvedere Garden of the Vatican Palace

DateFirst published 1677, MCCM edition published ca. 1688

Credit LineArt History Department Fund

DimensionsImage: 11 15/16 × 11 15/16 in. (30.3 × 30.3 cm) Sheet: 13 11/16 × 11 15/16 in. (34.8 × 30.3 cm) Mat: 22 × 28 in. (55.9 × 71.1 cm)

Object number1996.002 D

Label TextThe lower third of Falda's plan shows the Belvedere Court designed in 1505 by Donato Bramante for Pope Julius II (1503-1513) to link the palace with a fifteenth-century villa on the grounds. The small courtyard (no. 9 on the plan) at the lower right housed the incomparable collection of ancient sculpture begun by Pope Julius which included such works as the Laocoon. The view of the garden seems to be from the vantage point of the gallery which frames the court, looking straight across parterres of herbs to the Casino of Pius IV built by the antiquarian architect Pirro Ligorio in the 1560s. The casino was a place of retreat for the pope where he and his companions could contemplate the numerous reliefs and inscriptions that encrusted the walls facing onto the inner courtyard. At the lower left is the Fountain of the Mirrors with its giochi d'acqua or water games. Tricks with fountains that would suddenly drench unsuspecting visitors were a very popular feature in Italian Renaissance gardens.
Exhibition HistoryThe Art of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Michael C. Carlos Museum, November 8, 1997 - January 4, 1998
Gardens of Rome, Michael C. Calros Museum, February 14 - May 17, 1998
Discovering Rome: Maps and Monuments of the Eternal City, Michael C. Carlos Museum, September 16, 2006 - January 14, 2007
Antichità, Teatro, Magnificenza: Renaissance and Baroque Images of Rome, Michael C. Carlos Museum, August 24 - November 17, 2013
Published ReferencesAntichita, Teatro, Magnificenza: Renaissance & Baroque Images of Rome (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2013), 58 (checklist only).
Mark K. Erdmann and Elaine Roux, "Recent Research on the Azuchi Screens," Journal of Asian Humanities at Kyushu University 9 (Spring 2024), 6, Figure 2 (detail).

ProvenanceEx coll. Rudolf Wittkower (1901-1971), Europe and United States. Purchased for MCCM by Emory University Art History Department from Peter Kraus [Ursus Books Limited], New York, New York.

InscribedUL in cartouche: TAVOLA DELLE COSE NOTABILI / l. Palazzo Potificio . . . ; UR in cartouche: PIANTA ET ALZATA DEL GIARDINO DI BEL / VEDERE DEL PALAZZO PONTIFICO IN VATICANO . . . followed by Falda's name and G.G. De Rossi's adddress

Status

Not on view

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