…Viewing the desolation of the Roman Forum or the Athenian Agora, it is easy to wonder why , of all the architectural splendor which once adorned these important centers, thee is actually so little to see. What happened to so many building and why have so many vanished entirely. The familiar concept of medieval Rome as a vast field of ruins after its successive devastations at the hands of Vandals, Goths and Lombards, the barbaric hordes deserves serious reconsideration: despite the plundering, great numbers of imperial buildings must have continued to stand long after the political collapse of pagan Rome. In addition, the damage Christian zealots could have accomplished is also over estimated.
—The temple of Fortuna Virilis, only restored in the early 1960’s, is handsome example of Roman republican architecture. Piranesi depicted the structure when it served as a Christian church. click image for source…
Excavations and considered archaeological reflection points to a pattern of economic re-use that is typical of the whole Mediterranean world. There is a thrift instinct involved here where columns have lent themselves to all manner of re-use where objects like relief panels and medallions are thriftily removed from older monuments, like Constantine did with his arch, where the embellishments in bronzes were re-worked. A bit of a case of splendid temples and office buildings, even ornaments of past generations representing a source of fat with which to satisfy the needs of the present. Ultimately, the key to the attrition of the ancient buildings lies in the fact people are thrifty and are pleased to find a new use for something old…
—Most of the large original sculpture that was displayed in the garden has since been taken to Florence and can be seen in the Boboli Garden or The Loggia di Lanzi in Piazza Signoria.
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The garden is typical of the Renaissance with compartments created from Box hedging; a part of the original garden had displays of exotic plants (which no longer exist) a ‘Ragnaria’ where wild birds were netted and a mount built on top of two ancient temples representing Mount Parnassus, this was topped by a Pegasus thereby inferring that Ferdinand di Medici was the patron inspiring the muses.—click image for source…
Above: the Villa Medici, now the French Academy in Rome was built in 1580 by Annibale Lippi, an architect of evident genius, as well as thrift. He decorated the rear facade with assorted antiquities, some of which had originally come from the famous Roman monuments. The reliefs on the second story are mostly clever patchworks- an arm from here and a head from there. The bust of Jove in the niche at top left is a Roman copy of a Hellenistic work; and his duplicate on the opposite tower is a 16th-century work.
—This etching published by Giuseppe Vasi in 1761 is one of the last views of Villa Medici showing the casino and the gardens with almost all its original decoration of ancient statues and reliefs. In 1780 Grand Duke Leopold I of Tuscany, after having hosted his brother Emperor Joseph II of Austria in Villa Medici, decided to move to Florence most of the statues and the obelisk.—click image for source…
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