The Giardino Barbarigo at Valsanzibio

• Autores: Lionello Puppi
• Localización: Studies in the history of gardens and designed landscape, ISSN 1460-1176, Vol. 3, Nº 4, 1983, págs. 281-300
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • There is unanimous agreement among scholars - an agreement which is amply justified and to which I fully subscribe - that in its outstanding formal qualities the garden of the Villa Barbarigo (now Pizzoni Ardemani) at Valsanzibio, in the Euganean Hills near Padua, marks a high point in the development of the art in the Veneto during the Baroque age. In spite of many alterations and losses - we are not, however, concerned with its history as an object, since it has survived in an exemplary state of preservation - we know from numerous visual and written records that it was of exceptional richness and significance. Nevertheless, the frequent, almost obligatory, references citing the "fabbriche e giardini dell'eccellentissima casa Barbarigo a Valsanzibio" ("the buildings and gardens of the most noble family of Barbarigo at Valsanzibio") do not seem to me to be supported by any thorough research or fully developed and pertinent critical conclusions. Thus only recently has it been possible to take into consideration two scholarly contributions: by C. Semenzato, who is concerned with identifying the author of the overall design and the executor of the sculptural decoration; and by B. Aikema, whose aim is to interpret the meaning of the garden in the context of others laid out at the same time in the Veneto. The purpose of this study, which is to be related above all to Aikema's excellent and stimulating contribution, is to furnish the essentials of some new items of evidence concerning the commissioning of the garden and the history of its construction, together with the outlines of a theory for interpreting it.