Fontana di Belvedere á Frascati (...), from 'La Fontane di Roma nelle Piazze e Luoghi Publici (...)', part 2, 'Le fontane delle ville di Frascati' (plate 5)

Fontana di Belvedere á Frascati (...), from 'La Fontane di Roma nelle Piazze e Luoghi Publici (...)', part 2, 'Le fontane delle ville di Frascati' (plate 5)

Giovanni Battista Falda

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Villa Aldobrandini belonged to the grandest of Roman Baroque estates, enjoying from its perfect position, high above a set of oval terraces built inside the slope of the Tusculum Hill, a wide view of Frascati and the countryside toward Rome. Begun for Ippolito Aldobrandini (Pope Clement VII) in 1598 and extended by his nephew, Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, the villa and gardens, with their astonishing water displays, were created by a team of well-known architects, including Giacomo della Porta, Carlo Maderno, and Domenico Fontana. Of all the magnificent fountains that once graced the gardens, two delightfully sculpted barchetta fountains in the form of a small boat, one of which is illustrated in this print, survive today. They stand on either end of the retaining wall of the oval ramp that embraces the front of the villa complex. The fountains are decorated with playful figures of putti spewing water jets from a central rock and from sconces on either side. The element of water informs the whole Aldobrandini estate, from the semicircular water theater directly behind the house to the dramatic cascade from the steep hill above. See 1991.1073.145(34-51) for more information.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fontana di Belvedere á Frascati (...), from 'La Fontane di Roma nelle Piazze e Luoghi Publici (...)', part 2, 'Le fontane delle ville di Frascati' (plate 5)Fontana di Belvedere á Frascati (...), from 'La Fontane di Roma nelle Piazze e Luoghi Publici (...)', part 2, 'Le fontane delle ville di Frascati' (plate 5)Fontana di Belvedere á Frascati (...), from 'La Fontane di Roma nelle Piazze e Luoghi Publici (...)', part 2, 'Le fontane delle ville di Frascati' (plate 5)Fontana di Belvedere á Frascati (...), from 'La Fontane di Roma nelle Piazze e Luoghi Publici (...)', part 2, 'Le fontane delle ville di Frascati' (plate 5)Fontana di Belvedere á Frascati (...), from 'La Fontane di Roma nelle Piazze e Luoghi Publici (...)', part 2, 'Le fontane delle ville di Frascati' (plate 5)

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.