Bomarzo

Bomarzo is also a film by Michelangelo Antonioni

Related Topics:
Bomarzo - Michelangelo Antonioni

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Bomarzo is a town and comune of Viterbo province (Lazio, central Italy), in the lower valley of the Tiber at 42°29N 12°15E, 263 m (863 ft) above sea‑level, with 1609 inhabitants according to the 2003 census.

Related Topics:
Comune - Viterbo province - Lazio - Italy - Tiber

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It is a historical fief of the Orsini family, whose castle is at the edge of the densely-built town; but Bomarzo's chief claim to fame is a garden usually referred to as the Bosco Sacro (Sacred Grove) or, locally, Bosco dei Mostri (Monsters' Grove), named for 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, Duke of Bomarzo (1528‑1588), a patron of the arts and greatly devoted to his wife Julia Farnese; when she died, he created the gardens. The design that has been attributed to Pirro Ligorio, a well known architect of his day who was working 60 km (35 miles) away in Rome, on the complex around the Villa Giulia is likely to have been limited largely to the small domed temple behind a pedimented porch, which is the reward of the garden's sequences of bizarre and private imagery. In fact Bomarzo is more the product of a philosopher than an architect, and it is constructed as a journey, rather than a setting for social life, a journey to be undertaken perhaps alone, but certainly in silence, as the inscription on the plinth of a sphinx near the starting point enjoins.

Related Topics:
Fief - Orsini family - Castle - Garden - Pier Francesco Orsini, Duke of Bomarzo - 1528 - 1588 - Art - Julia Farnese - Pirro Ligorio - Rome - Villa Giulia - Sphinx

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The park of Bomarzo contains no pretty flower beds or sweeping lawns. A truly Mannerist work of art, it seeks, not to please, but to astonish, and like many Mannerist works of art, its symbolism is arcane: instead, one of Hannibal's elephants, larger than life, mangles a Roman soldier, a giant mermaid lounges incongruously on the bare ground — a vase of verdure perched on her head. Shelter from the blazing sun can be had by climbing a flight of steps into the mouth of a grotesque Giant's head carved from the living rock.

Related Topics:
Mannerist - Hannibal - Roman - Soldier - Mermaid - Verdure - Sun

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The many monstrous statues appear to be unconnected to any rational plan and appear to have been strewn almost randomly about the area. 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 and Villa Lante. Next to a formal exedra a watchtowerlike casina tilts irrationally, the Casa Storta.

Related Topics:
Renaissance - Villa Farnese - Villa Lante

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During the 19th century and deep into the 20th century the garden became overgrown and neglected, but in the 1970s a program of restoration was implemented, and today the garden, which remains private property, is a major tourist attraction.

Related Topics:
19th century - 20th century

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The surreal nature of the Parco dei Mostri greatly 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. Whatever the reason for its conception it is one of the most amazing sights, offering simultaneously the thrill of the startling with the unexplainable.

Related Topics:
Surreal - Jean Cocteau - Salvador Dalí

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