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It's gentle scary stuff. The park of Monsters of Bomarzo was devised by the architect Pirro Ligorio, who completed the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Rome after the death of Michelangelo and built Villa d'Este in Tivoli. He was on commission of Prince Pier Francesco Orsini but died heart-broken after the death of his wife Giulia Farnese in the mid-sixteenth century.
Few sites are more representative of the time when they were built than Bomarzo's Parco dei Mostri, in the province of Viterbo. Vinicio Orsini asked the architects to place "impossible" constructions, monsters, and mythological beasts within the park. This was the sixteenth century when influences from alchemy were quite strong, and it was during the rich, creative era of the Renaissance. A variety of inscriptions aim to astound and confuse visitors, rather than guide them. The symbols mix and overlap. Over time, many scholars have attempted, with no little frustration, to understand their logic. Enigmas are hidden everywhere. There's a tilted house. There are highly mysterious statues.
Quotations may be from works by Ariosto and Petrarch. Technique and virtuosity dominate the entire monumental complex in a Mannerism brilliantly summarized by the inscription on a pillar that reads: Sol per sfogare il core ("just to set the heart free").
Unsurprisingly, the park has been an inspiration to artists of many differing sensitivities – and to Salvador Dalí above all. |
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