testi Villa Carlotta ingl. 26-04-2012 15:02 Pagina 2

VILLA CARLOTTA Museum, Historical Park, Botanic Garden

EDITED BY SERENA BERTOLUCCI

UMBERTO ALLEMANDI & C. TURIN ˜ LONDON ˜ VENICE ˜ NEW YORK testi Villa Carlotta ingl. 26-04-2012 15:02 Pagina 4

he aim of this book is to take the reader on a journey through Villa Carlotta, the true centre of TTremezzo and the authentic heart of the lake. Originally built three hundred years ago as Villa Clerici, it later became known as Villa Sommariva and then as Villa Carlotta, taking its definitive name from the princess who received it as a wedding gift. It is a residence with many faces, for botany, architecture, and art all appear in countless ways and in the most diverse forms, ranging from magnificent centuries-old trees to tiny flowers, austere flights of stone steps and colourful flower beds, to the white marble of Canova’s sculptures and the warm tones of Francesco Hayez’ painting. They fuse together almost indistinguishably in a single world of excellence and enchantment. For this reason, a visit to Villa Carlotta is a plunge into a world of beauty in all its various forms.

As we see it today, Villa Carlotta is the outcome of the extraordinary intuition of the senator and lawyer Giuseppe Bianchini, who understood its cultural importance and its potential for tourism after the estate was confiscated from its previous owner, Georg Saxe-Meiningen, at the end of the First World War. With the help of fellow members of the Rotary Club in , Bianchini drafted and promoted the constitution of the non-profit institution to which the conservation of the villa and its garden is still entrusted today. His work was both visionary and generous, and once again culture - the highest expression of civilisation and of the love of beauty - won out over everyday concerns when he found the resources and support he needed for his project. Together with a profound respect for harmony, which very gradual changes have led to over the years, the same love still inspires those who are called upon to preserve this treasure for future generations as an expression of a quintessentially European civilisation. This is no small mission, for this unique cultural asset must be preserved and made available to the public, its constantly ageing inheritance of precious trees needs to be renewed, and important works of art need to be restored and delicately preserved, without any of this lessening the pleasure for visitors or affecting the study of researchers. This is a huge commitment and, as such, it is most inspiring. It has been taken up quite disinterestedly by all those who work on the Steering Committee and in the General Assembly of Members, as well as by all members of staff who, with enormous generosity, work to ensure that Villa Carlotta may preserve its splendour intact for the future.

These pages are the work of members, external contributors, and the staff of Villa Carlotta, and here I should like to thank them all, together with the publisher, Allemandi, who has taken on this task with such enthusiasm. Lastly, I should like to offer my gratitude to the memory of all those who are no longer with us, but who worked to keep Villa Carlotta alive for this generation and for the generations to come.

GIACOMO MARIA ELIAS Chairman, Ente Villa Carlotta testi Villa Carlotta ingl. 26-04-2012 15:02 Pagina 6

Contents

GIOVANNI MEDA RIQUIER The Gardens 9 The Tremezzina PAOLO COTTINI 28 The Clerici Family’s Italian Garden History PAOLO COTTINI SERENA BERTOLUCCI 29 Gian Battista Sommariva’s Romantic Garden 12 The Clerici Family PAOLO COTTINI SERENA BERTOLUCCI 30 The Saxe-Meiningens’ Botanical Garden 14 The Sommariva Family PAOLO COTTINI,ERNESTO MISTRANGELO MICHELA GATTI 32 The Botanical Collection 18 The Saxe-Meiningens Family MARA SUGNI MICHELA GATTI 35 The Museum of Agricultural Tools: 21 The Ente Morale Villa Carlotta Recollections of a Lost Agricultural Landscape

LUCA SELVA 36 The Greenhouses The Villa ROBERTO TRAVELLA SERENA BERTOLUCCI 38 Villa Gardeners 22 The Architecture

SERENA BERTOLUCCI 24 Art Collections and Masterpieces 41 Plates

MICHELA GATTI 105 Illustrious Visitors and Literary Anthology

108 Selected Bibliography testi Villa Carlotta ingl. 26-04-2012 15:02 Pagina 8

The Tremezzina GIOVANNI MEDA RIQUIER

here are houses and palaces scattered all round. No other place enjoys a friendlier sun in “Tthe winters than on the Lario, and there the season is kindly to the citrus orchards, nor does the night or early morning air dare nip the citron groves.” This is how in 1817 in his Journey on Lake Giovanni Battista Giovio described the Tremezzina, the part of the shore on the west branch of the Lario in the section between and . Its name comes from the fishing village once called Tramezzo or Framezzo, grown up between the old military road of the imperial era, the Roman Via Regia (subsequently Regina road), and the slopes of Mount Crocione. With its morainic hills directly overlooking the water, its olive groves, great villas and historic parks, the Tremezzina is one of the most scenic areas in the Lario region, whether you come via the lake with the continuous sight of small landings and tiny ports, lakeside gardens, glimpses as unexpected as they are picturesque, or by land with suggestive viewpoints like the nearby peninsula of Balbianello or the small towns on the opposite shore: Bellagio with Punta Sparavento splitting the lake into its two famous branches or huddled around its church. Not a frequent destination until the

G. Mazzola and L. Cherbuin, Lac de Como, circa 1840, aquatint.

9 testi Villa Carlotta ingl. 26-04-2012 15:02 Pagina 10

late eighteenth century, this region became very popular in the nineteenth century. Political and social transformations, the rise of a middle-class contributing new attitudes and convictions in culture as well, a new way of travelling and not last the creation of new commercial routes brought to the lake a middle-class tourism on a certainly greater scale, select presences - the Lario finally and RITOCCARE LA PIEGA permanently was declared Milan’s Riviera - and a “very musical and very amorous” society, to quote Stendhal who chose Tremezzina as his favourite place. For foreigners as well, mostly from Switzerland and Germany, this portion of a region became the epitome of the “Italian vision” with its colours, scents and tastes suggesting a typically Mediterranean atmosphere, an atmosphere the traveller could find all along the peninsula, an atmosphere perceptible even chromatically as the muted tonalities of the North suddenly gave way to the effervescence of the warm colours, sweet fragrances and mild temperatures of the South. We have countless quotations from famous foreigners (including Stendhal and Shelley) who praised the beauties of these shores, occasionally choosing them as the background for literary works, like so many Italian Romantic writers, they as well, like Alessandro Manzoni, frequent visitors here. A distinctive feature of the Tremezzina was then not only its mild climate, lush vegetation and lakeside towns, but the wonderful succession of noble villas being built: the rustic harmony of the terraced vineyards, olive groves and citrus orchards was first replaced by the severe beauty of Italian-style gardens and then the romantic charm of English- style parks. Even today there are still compelling traces of this procession of buildings. On the threshold of the short section of the Tremezzina the rise of Balbianello stretches down to the lake with its homonymous villa, formerly Arconati Visconti. Its original sixteenth-century core was extended in the eighteenth century by Angelo Maria Durini, a cardinal fond of music and Letters; at Campo di Lenno the Villa del Balbiano is spread like a stage set between the lake and Via Regina;

M. A. Dal Re, Antonio Giorgio Clerici, 1743, etching.

on arriving at Tremezzo, in the hamlet of Bolvedro, you have the monumental Villa La Quiete, once Serbelloni then Sola Cabiati, with its French-style garden which has preserved its variously decorated parterres with lawns, flowerbeds and rock arches. Next to it you reach Villa Albertoni by climbing a monumental stairway; not far beyond lies Villa Kramer, a famous Risorgimento salon. In nearby Griante you can discover Villa Margherita built by the famous music publisher Tito Ricordi and where Giuseppe Verdi resided at length. Across on the other shore Villa Melzi d’Eril with its gardens on the lake harmoniously accents the outline of the coast, a bit further on Villa Serbelloni encompasses the Bellagio promontory overlooking both branches of the lake.

G. Mazzola and L. Cherbuin, La Cadenabbia, circa 1840, aquatint.

10 11