This is the third in a series of articles about about nude statues in the formal gardens of Europe.
In my previous article, I pointed out that the statues in ancient Roman gardens were usually either Greek antiques or copies of Greek antiques. While the Romans were not great patrons of original art, they were more creative about how they displayed these statues in their gardens.
The gardens of Imperial Rome were inspired by the gardens of the Hellenistic kingdoms, but peristyle gardens, which became the typical Roman gardens, seem to have been developed in southern Italy. The eruption of Vesuvius on August 24, 79CE has preserved many gardens as they existed on that day. Some of these gardens reflect the latest fashions, while layout of other gardens hadn't changed much in over a century; so we can get some idea of how peristyle gardens developed.
The peristyle gardens of Imperial Rome were usually formal gardens, but this seems to have been a fairly late development. , which was constructed during the reign of Augustus, allowed the lavish use of water in gardens, but earlier peristyle gardens seem to have been informally planted with trees and grapevines; precious water from cisterns was used to water vegetables, rather than flower beds. It was only after the construction of the aqueduct that formal gardens with fountains and pools became fashionable in Pompeii.
The Villa of the Papryi, near Herculaneum, seems to have had its own source of water, since its lavish water displays almost certainly date from the late Republic. It is believed that this villa belonged to Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, who was the father of Calpurnia, the last wife of Julius Caesar. The villa has never been thoroughly explored, but the largest water feature to have been discovered is a pool 7 by 66 meters, this dominates a formal garden which is 37 meters wide and 100 meters long. This garden was surrounded by a peristyle whose roof was supported by 64 columns.
The Villa of the Papryi has never been excavated, it was just explored by tunnels in the 1750's; but we know the plan of the villa from a map of the tunnels. This map is especially valuable because it shows where the statues in this villa were found. Even though the villa has never been excavated and the tunnels were sealed off in the eighteenth century, we can experience this villa and its gardens because the Getty Museum in Malibu, California is based upon the plan of the Villa of the Papryi. The photo at the top of this page shows the large peristyle of the Getty Museum, which is filled with copies of the sculptures which were found in the villa. A total of 90 sculptures were found in the villa, including thirteen large bronzes, seven large marble statues, eighteen bronzes of medium and small size, 15 marble busts and thirty-two bronze busts.
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