EXCEPTIONAL SCULPTURES ROCK CARVINGS HORRIBLES MONSTERS GROTESQUES GARDENS ITALIAN SUBJECT MATTER!
PLEASE SEE MY ADDITIONAL LISTINGS FOR MORE EXCEPTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS.
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY!
ALL NON-USA RESIDENTS: SHIPPING IS $18.00 BY STANDARD INTERNATIONAL MAIL FOR FLAT ENVELOPES ONLY. PACKAGE POSTAL FEES ARE DETERMINED BY THE PACKAGE'S SIZE AND WEIGHT. PLEASE KNOW A CUSTOMS DECLARATION IS REQUIRED ON ALL INTERNATIONAL PACKAGES. INSURED PACKAGES MUST BE SENT PARCEL POST AND THE FEE IS $50.00 PLUS THE INSURANCE FEE. WINNING BIDDERS ACCEPT ALL SHIPPING RISKS FOR UNINSURED INTERNATIONAL PACKAGES. WINNING BIDDERS WILL RECEIVE AN EBAY INVOICE OR PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME AFTER THE AUCTION CLOSES REGARDING PAYMENT AND SHIPPING DETAILS. PLEASE NOTE THAT I AM OBLIGATED UNDER U. S. LAW TO DECLARE THE FULL VALUE OF A PACKAGE SHIPPED OUT OF THE UNITED STATES. PLEASE DO NOT ASK ME TO BREAK THE LAW AND DO OTHERWISE.
ALL USA RESIDENTS: PAYMENT MUST BE MADE WITHIN THREE DAYS BY PAYPAL. ANY OTHER ARRANGEMENTS MUST BE MADE WITH ME WELL IN ADVANCE! NO EXCEPTIONS! CONNECTICUT RESIDENTS ARE SUBJECT TO 6.35% SALES TAX. UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED SHIPPING IS $ 9.00 IN THE UNITED STATES BY PRIORITY MAIL WITH DELIVERY CONFIRMATION. I CAN COMBINE SHIPPING ON MULTIPLE PURCHASES CLOSING THE SAME WEEK.
FOR COMBINED SHIPPING, YOU MUST WAIT FOR MY INVOICE!!!
Gardens of Bomarzo | |
---|---|
Sacred Grove | |
Sacro Bosco | |
![]() Orcus mouth | |
Location | Bomarzo, Italy |
Coordinates | 42°29′29.88″N 12°14′51.27″ECoordinates: 42°29′29.88″N 12°14′51.27″E |
Created | 16th century |
Designer | Pirro Ligorio |
The Sacro Bosco ("Sacred Grove"),[1] colloquially called Park of the Monsters (Parco dei Mostri in Italian), also named Garden of Bomarzo, is a Mannerist monumental complex located in Bomarzo, in the province of Viterbo, in northern Lazio, Italy.[2]
The garden was created during the 16th century.[3] The design is attributed to Pirro Ligorio, and the sculptures to Simone Moschino. Situated in a wooded valley bottom beneath the castle of Orsini, it is populated by grotesque sculptures and small buildings located among the natural vegetation.
The park's name stems from the many larger-than-life sculptures, some sculpted in the bedrock, which populate this predominantly barren landscape. It was commissioned by Pier Francesco Orsini, called Vicino, a 16th-century condottiero, and patron of the arts, greatly devoted to his wife Giulia Farnese (not to be confused with her maternal great-aunt Giulia Farnese, the mistress of Pope Alexander VI). When Orsini's wife died, he created the gardens to cope with his grief.
During the 19th century, and deep into the 20th, the garden became overgrown and neglected, but after the Spanish painter Salvador Dalí made a short movie about the park and completed a painting actually based on the park in the 1950s, the Bettini family implemented a restoration program which lasted throughout the 1970s. Today, the garden, which remains private property, is a major tourist attraction.
The park of Bomarzo was intended not to please, but to astonish, and like many Mannerist works of art, its symbolism is arcane: examples are a large sculpture of one of Hannibal's war elephants, which mangles a Roman legionary, or the statue of Ceres lounging on the bare ground, with a vase of verdure perched on her head.
The many monstrous statues appear to be unconnected to any rational plan, and appear to have been strewn almost randomly about the area, sol per sfogare il Core ("just to set the heart free") as one inscription in the obelisks says.
Allusive verses in Italian by Annibal Caro (the first one is of him, in 1564), Bitussi, and Cristoforo Madruzzo, some of them now eroded, were inscribed beside the sculptures.
The reason for the layout and design of the garden is largely unknown; Liane Lefaivre thinks they are illustrations of the romance novel Hypnertomachia Poliphili.[4] Perhaps they were meant as a foil to the perfect symmetry and layout of the great Renaissance gardens nearby at Villa Farnese, and Villa Lante. Next to a formal exit gate is a tilting watchtower-like casina, the so-called Casa Pendente("Leaning House").