In Villa d’Este, “l’acqua” is shaped and directed in a theatrical and symbolic narrative that heralds man’s power and control over water. As one strolls through the garden, he or she directly experiences this narrative in an impressive display of hundreds of fountains that transforms the atmosphere. Made possible with the development of more advanced aqueduct and gravity-flow technology, the fountains were fed by two aqueducts that brought water from the Anniene River. Water has been shaped by man’s hand into a dynamic, living art piece. Playful sculptures spit and eat water. Water sweats, trickles, and mists. Stone dragons are harnessed to shoot out roaring jets of water. Geysers of water dance to the music of an organ in the Fontana dell’Organo and create a musical quality themselves with their splashing rhythms. The entire garden triumphantly proclaims man’s achievement in harnessing water to serve the needs of the people.
The garden also tells the story of the glory of Rome’s water infrastructure that successfully overcame the topographical hurdle of the seven hills and delivered clean water to all who lived in the city. In Rinne’s paper on the hydraulic infrastructure of Rome, she discusses how the fountains of Rome, which provided for public access to water, transformed the city and spurred on urban development in the city that had been debilitated during the Medieval period (197). With Villa d’Este, Cardinal d’Este celebrates the church’s taking control of the water supply and revitalization of the city. We experience this narrative as we follow the fountains and walk down the many flights of stairs and switchbacks, as though we are going down a hillside. The paths, along with the sight and sound of water connects fountain to fountain, which hints at the water infrastructure below, which diagonally flows below the path that we walk upon. The nature of the fountains change as we walk down to the lower garden, as some splash down as waterfalls, some shoot upwards toward the sky like geysers, and some trickle down and accumulate into pools of tranquil water.
Citation:
Rinne, Katherine Wentworth. “Fluid precision: Giacomo della Porta and the Acqua Vergine fountains of Rome.” Landscapes of Memory and Experience. Ed. Jan Birksted.