Photo Essay: Villa D'Este Italy by Christian Evren Gimotea Lozañes

Photo-journalist Christian Evren Gimotea Lozañes shoots the Villa d’Este in Tivoli. The garden's green shady walks, pools of reflective water and splashing fountains have drawn Romans away from the city for centuries, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento

ONE of the most famous and influential Renaissance gardens in Europe, the dramatic, axial design has been copied and re-interpreted since it was begun in the mid-sixteenth century. Less than 30 minutes drive from Rome in Tivoli, the Villa d'Este is close to the Roman Emperor Hadrian’s great complex of villa and gardens. Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este built his new country house when he was appointed governor of Tivoli by Pope Julius III in 1550. For more than 20 years, the villa was slowly constructed and the spectacular terraced garden created on the steeply sloping site. 

Painter and architect Pirro Ligorio designed the villa and planned the garden with it’s long axial views down sloping paths lined with statues and fountains. Bringing water to the difficult site was a feat of brilliant engineering - remarkably the same system is still in use today for the garden’s cascades, troughs, pools and water jets. Hadrian’s villa was a source not only of marble to build the new villa but of study and inspiration. Roman techniques of hydraulic engineering were revived to supply the water and create Cardinal d’Este’s garden. Many of the statues were taken from Hadrian's villa to decorate the new fountains and grottoes.

As one of the most skilled hydraulic engineers of the 16th century, Tommasso Chiruchi was employed to help layout the gardens. He worked with Claude Venard, a French manufacturer of organs, to create the enormous musical fountain that is the centrepiece of the garden's design. The next major program of new designs for the garden was carried out in 1605 by Cardinal Alessandro d'Este. He restored and repaired the waterworks and established an innovative new layout of the garden and decoration of the fountains.

Today the Mannerist design of the garden is much as it was in the late16th century. The main axis of the garden falls away in a series of terraces, starting from Pirro Ligorio's Grand Loggia dominating the villa’s garden front with soaring triumphal arches. The central axis of stone paths and box-hedges has more then 500 jets of water shooting up from fountains and pools. Water is supplied by the local Aniene River and from a spring supplying a cistern under the villa’s courtyard.

A balustraded balcony on the villa's uppermost terrace has sweeping views out across the plains to Rome. Double flights of stairs flank the central axis and lead down to the next garden terrace designed with a Grotto of Diana decorated with frescoes and mosaics. The Fountain of the Great Cup - said to be by Bernini - has water flowing from natural-looking rocks into a scrolling, shell-like cup.

The terrace below has an elaborate fountain called the Rometta or Little Rome. From here it's possible to see the Hundred Fountains, made up of dozens of water jets. Ligorio’s nymphaeum, the Fontana dell’Ovato, has cascades of water and marble nymphs created by Giambattista della Porta. Paths lead through the garden to a wooded slope and three quiet, reflective fishponds and to the dramatic water organ and Fountain of Neptune.

By the 18^th century, the gardens were abandoned and left to decay, including the waterworks and statues that began to fall into ruin.  Cardinal Gustav von Hohelohe took over the villa from the Dukes of Modena in 1851 and began restoring the villa and gardens between 1867 and 1882 . He created a cultural epicentre at the villa and invited poets and musicians such as Franz Liszt who composed the Giochi d’Acqua for piano.

By the early 20th century, the Villa d'Este was taken over by the Italian state after World War I and was restored and opened to the public in the 1920s. Another substantial phase of restoration was completed after the villa was bombed during the Second World War. The restoration continues today with the giant Fountain of Neptune and the Organ Fountain recently brought back to their 16th century glory.

Click on photographs for full-screen slideshow

One of the three reflective pools that offer a cooling place to sit in the gardens during the heat of summer

Looking up towards Pirro Ligorio's Great Loggia and the garden front of Villa d'Este

The Fountain of Neptune with it's 16th century French organ that plays music with jets of water following the score.

Looking out across the town Tivoli from Villa d'Este to the surrounding hills

The Grand Loggia overlooking the gardens by Pirro Ligorio designed for Cardinal d'Este

The Neptune and Organ fountains with dramatic plays of water jets and cascades

One of the jets spouting water from the Hundred Fountains

The Rometta or Little Rome Fountain with it's fountain representing the Isola Tiburina and the symbol of the city: the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus

The symbol of Rome: Romulus and Remus and the she-wolf

Looking up to the Grand Loggia where Cardinal d'Este dined with his guests in summer overlooking the Little Rome Fountain ~ created because there were no views to the city.

The Sweating Fountain in the background was based on ruins from a fountain built by the Emperor Domitian

Receive latest stories from La Vita del Design with Bloglovin

Spectacular Greek island retreat mixes traditional Cycladic architecture with contemporary design

Clinging to a volcanic hilltop in Oia, the Katikies hotel on the island of Santorini is a maze of white washed cubist buildings like a small, self-contained Grecian town, reports Jeanne-Marie Cilento

THE design mixes traditional Cycladic architecture with a modernist aesthetic of clean-lined spaces free of decoration. Hewn from the rock face, some of the rooms are created from original 18^th Century cave houses and others have been recreated with high arched ceilings. The simple, white interiors are a low-key backdrop to the spectacular views across the phosphorescent blue of the Aegean and Caldera.

Open a nondescript doorway on the cliff-top in Oia and you see the hotel unfolding beneath you in a series of terraces down to the toy-like boats sailing on the sea 300 metres below.

Against the buildings’ white walls, bursts of color like the magenta of cascading bougainvillea or the vivid green of a tree are like pieces of natural art standing out in a contemporary gallery.

The terraces of the ship-like decks that overlook the sea lead to airy rooms designed with a mix of contemporary furniture, island antiques and floating muslins. The only contrast in colour and texture are the pale marble bathrooms and wood of the parquet floors.

The architecture of the interconnected caves and small domed buildings provides the theatrical set to present the main actors of the show in their best light: the vast horizon and the luminous Mediteranean sea and sky. 

For more information visit: http://www.katikieshotelsantorini.com/

Spectacular Greek island retreat mixes traditional Cycladic architecture with contemporary design

Clinging to a volcanic hilltop in Oia, the Katikies hotel on the island of Santorini is a maze of white washed cubist buildings like a small, self-contained Grecian town, reports Jeanne-Marie Cilento.

THE design mixes traditional Cycladic architecture with a modernist aesthetic of clean-lined spaces free of decoration. Hewn from the rock face, some of the rooms are created from original 18^th Century cave houses and others have been recreated with high arched ceilings. The simple, white interiors are a low-key backdrop to the spectacular views across the phosphorescent blue of the Aegean and Caldera.

Open a nondescript doorway on the cliff-top in Oia and you see the hotel unfolding beneath you in a series of terraces down to the toy-like boats sailing on the sea 300 metres below.

Against the buildings’ white walls, bursts of color like the magenta of cascading bougainvillea or the vivid green of a tree are like pieces of natural art standing out in a contemporary gallery.

The terraces of the ship-like decks that overlook the sea lead to airy rooms designed with a mix of contemporary furniture, island antiques and floating muslins. The only contrast in colour and texture are the pale marble bathrooms and wood of the parquet floors.

The architecture of the interconnected caves and small domed buildings provides the theatrical set to present the main actors of the show in their best light: the vast horizon and the luminous Mediteranean sea and sky. 

For more information visit: http://www.katikieshotelsantorini.com/

New Design: The Yoko lamp by Anderssen and Voll for Foscarini

The ethereal Yoko lamps designed by Anderssen & Voll for Foscarini and exhibited for the first time in Milan

The Northern light was the inspiration for Norwegian designers Anderssen&Voll’s new lamp called Yoko launched in Milan this year by Italian company Foscarini, reports Jeanne-Marie Cilento

THE design has a Scandinavian simplicity enhanced by the pale yet lucid hues of violet, orange and green. The lamp looks like a fragile bubble about to burst with it’s transparent outer skin resting lightly on a cylindrical light source below.

The designers Torbjørn Anderssen and Espen Voll are based in Oslo and are known for their lean and modernist design. “The Yoko lamp is conceptual and ethereal, simple but at the same time sophisticated," says Anderssen. "We wanted to create spontaneous and immediate emotion. The design has a well-balanced, transparent form and fills the environment with a northern white light, creating a suffused yet vibrant atmosphere. "

The Yoko lamp’s design was based on a lengthy research of materials to form the curvature of the lamp’s silhouette. The complicated technology involved in making the lamp is disguised by its overall simplicity. The design was made based on the blow-moulding technique - not using glass but polymethilmethacrylate.

"In working with the Yoko we’re breaking with the archetypal form of a traditional lamp,'' says Voll. "Instead of a light source and shade held up by a structure, the transparent piece rests on the illuminated base. The lamp is made up of two intersecting shapes, balancing beauty and technology. Both the blow moulding technique and the use of polymethilmethacrylate have made it possible to create the lamp."

The lamp’s name Yoko was created through the assonance of two syllables: "We like the name because it reflects the dialogue between the two intersecting volumes that form the lamp," says Anderssen.

Originally founders of the design group Norway Says, Anderssen and Voll are now among the most prominent and successful Norwegian designers. Both have been named Norwegian and Scandinavian designers of the year in Norway and received international awards and recognition for their work with furniture, lighting and home accessories.

Click on video to see the two designers talking about the Yoko lamp in Norway:

Preparatory sketch for the Yoko lamp showing the idea of two intersecting spheres

The transparent lamps are imbued with subtle hues of violet, orange and green.

Award-winning Norwegian designers Torbjørn Anderssen and Espen Voll who were inspired by a floating bubble to create the new Yoko lamps

"In working with the Yoko we’re breaking with the archetypal form of a traditional lamp,'' says Voll. "Instead of a light source and shade held up by a structure, the transparent piece rests on the illuminated base."

Emerging Artists Column: Painter Ginevra Marini in Rome

Italian artist Ginevra Marini with two new paintings at her studio in Rome

Ginevra Marini works fast with strong movements and her brushes seem to attack the canvas when she paints. Andreas Romagnoli & Jeanne-Marie Cilento ask the young artist about her life and work in Rome

WHEN she was a child Marini already had a passion for art. She began studying painting at eleven years old, attending artist Alberto Parres' courses at the La Porta Blu art school in Rome between 2002 and 2012. She went on to study painting at Milan’s renowned Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. Perhaps because Marini started painting so early, her style is already mature and very much her own.

Ginevra Marini paints figures, mostly the female form and they have an expressive power reminiscent of Matisse’s early work. She likes to create a balance between primary colours and wide monotone spaces. The ambiguous, dream-like faces that fill her work resonate on a deep level. Her black and white oil sketches are endowed with a primal energy and embody the emotional paths she is exploring in the quest for identity.

Mirrors are often found in Marini’s paintings of women and represent a projection of both the soul and the senses. She uses a limited palette of blue, red and yellow that contrast with looming dark shadowy figures in grey and black. 

Today, Marini lives and works in Rome and is preparing her first solo exhibition.

1.What are you currently working on?

My creative process begins with photos I take myself or find in books or on the Internet. Usually I work on the female body and it's reflection in mirrors or water. I then elaborate the photos into sketches and/or paintings. I use different media ~ in the past I have concentrated on acrylics which I make myself to achieve the texture I need, such as raw pigments mixed with primal. Now I'm now approaching oil bars which are like thick crayons. I use both materials to create my womanly figures whether by painting with brushes using acrylic or using my fingers with the oil bar.

I've been obsessed with the theme of women and mirrors for quite a while now and I'm currently immersing myself in all that is "woman". My creative process, apart from the subjects, is very instinctive. I work incessantly until I find that the work makes sense to me. I try not to over think the process and let my hand lead me.

2. What inspires you for your creative work now?

There are many artists who inspire me. For the use of space and composition I look to photographers such as Nan Goldin and Francesca Woodman. For the use of colour, I attentively study the paintings of Helen Frankenthaler, William de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly and Gerhard Richter. I admire both Motherwell and Franz Kline too.

3. Can you describe the experience, person or training that has had the greatest impact on your painting career?

I owe everything I know about painting to Alberto Parres. He is not only a pretty darn good painter but also an amazing teacher. I used to go painting at his art school twice a week from the age of eleven. Alberto made me not only the artist but the person that I am now. He is the harshest critic of my work and he is the only critic I listen to. I can rely on what he tells me about my work no matter what.

4. What do you find the most challenging aspect of your work technically? 

I find myself wanting to try many different mediums other than painting such as engraving, photography and more but I am often not keen on the whole slow process of printing or the subtle changes of light while I take a photo. I'd love to master more and more techniques. I'm often stubborn when approaching new ways to make my art but I'd like to expand my capabilities. Also, I know that sometimes my drawing skills are weak and I have to constantly exercise them.

            

5. Where do you see yourself in 10 years as an artist? 

I would like to give painting my full attention and exhibit my work. But foremost I feel that I still don't grasp fully what I want to say or what I am doing with my work, so I'd be pleased if in 10 years I will be able to understand more of what my art is all about. I'd like to meet more and more artists that share my interests and create a space in which to have a dialogue with them to work and develop our ideas together.

Click on photographs for full-screen slideshow

Untitled 2013 oil bar 21x30cm

Untitled 2012 acrylic 150x120cm

Untitled 2013 oil bar 21x30cm

Untitled 2013 acrylic 150x120cm

Untitled 2013 oil bar 21x30cm

Untitled 2012 acrylic 150x120cm

Untitled 2012 acrylic 150x120cm

Untitled 2013 acrylic 150x120cm

 Untitled 2013 oil stick 21x30cm

Untitled 2013 oil stick 21x30cm