ARCHITECTURE

The Roman Villa Doria Pamphili bought and greatly enlarged by Pamfilio Pamphili in 1630 was built with the intention of displaying the Pamphili collection of ancient and modern sculptures and other Roman antiquities such as vases, sarcophagi and inscriptions. The family and guests lived in the original Villa Vecchia or ‘old villa’. In 1644, Cardinal Giambattista Pamphili was elected pope and took the name of Innocent X and the sculptor Alessandro Algardi (1595-1654) was commissioned to create a grand villa with elaborate gardens. In the villa grounds, Algardi and his studio executed sculpture-encrusted fountains and other garden features, where some of his free-standing sculpture and bas-reliefs remain. The villa now is the largest landscaped park in Rome. These three engravings are from Giovanni Battista Falda’s Fontana di Roma the earliest record of the fountains of Rome.

View of the Tomb of Cecilia Metella, located at the top of a hill on the Appian Way, which was built between 50BC and 40BC. She was the daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus, who became Consul in 69 BC and was married to Marcus Licinius Crassus the Younger, a legate to Julius Caesar, whose father was the richest man in Rome. The tomb dominates the surrounding landscape and sits atop a quadrangular base seven meters high and with a cylindrical body eleven meters in height and a diameter of 29 meters.

Fontana dell'Acqua Paola Via Garibaldi Rome.

The western suburbs of the city of Romme were still suffering from a chronic lack of water in 1605 and which had only been partially solved a few years earlier, when a limited amount of water from the Aqua Felix had finally crossed the Tiber. The basilica of St.Peter's was still relying on the small volume of water that could be drawn from the nearby hills thanks to the old system of tunnels built by pope Damasus, during the late roman empire.

In selecting suitable springs for the new aqueduct, the choice fell on the Lake of Bracciano, located about 40 km north-west of Rome, from where the old Aqua Traiana had drawn water in roman times

Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati also known as Belvedere for its location overlooking the whole valley up to Rome, it was built on the order of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, Pope Clement VIII's nephew over a pre-existing edifice built by the Vatican prelate Alessandro Rufini in 1550.

From “Vitruvius Britannicus. or the British Architect. Containing The Plans, Elevations, and Sections of the Regular Buildings. both Publick and Private, in Great Britain”. One of the most significant British architectural works, a repertory of designs, especially in the Palladian style. It was an important reference and did much to encourage competitive interest in architecture amongst the aristocracy.