Neptune Fountain

Upon arriving to Tivoli, Ippolito II d’Este decided to turn an old monastery into his own luxury villa. Building would be stalled for the majority of the decade due to changes in Ippolito’s duties, but fully resumed in 1560. Giovanni Alberto Galvani served as the main architect, but Pirro Ligorio took charge of the villa’s extensive and intricate gardens. These gardens included many waterworks and fountains (utilizing Ligorio’s knowledge of aqueduct engineering), as well as a collection of ancient sculpture. Ligorio designed both a larger public garden and a smaller private garden. The latter can be accessed directly from the palace, and utilizes shaded walls to maintain a private retreat.

Ligorio employed three major themes in these gardens. First and foremost was a focus on the relationship between nature and art: many of Ligorio’s waterworks and sculptures incorporated flora and fauna, marrying the natural aspects of the garden with the man-made artistic elements. The second theme was geographic; Ligorio designed the fountains to represent the three rivers flowing into the Fountain of Rome in an ode to the cardinal’s appreciation of the arts. Finally, Ligorio’s use of mythological iconography, specifically the influence of the Garden of the Hesperides, was executed with special attentiveness.