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Hydraulic Valves for the Teatro Delle Acque of Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati

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Hydraulic Valves for the Teatro Delle Acque of Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati Maria Grazia D’Amelio and Lorenzo Grieco Gunshots, wind, melodies, water jets and bubbling: hydraulic valves for the Teatro delle Acque of Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati Maria Grazia D’Amelio1 and Lorenzo Grieco2 1. Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, Rome; 2. Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, Rome Despite the size of the BiBliography on the iconology of nymphaea and water theatres in the Italian villas Built between the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, studies on the hydraulic systems of giochi di acqua (the hydraulic systems used to make water games and Jokes) are still scarce. The complexity in the design of giochi di acqua is suggested By the increases in technical treatises on the suBject in the period, such as those of Giovan Battista Aleotti (1605-19, also translator of Gli Artificiosi e curiosi moti spiritali d’Herrone Alessandrino) and Francesco Fontana (1696) [1]. Architectural and hydraulic proJects were indeed inextricaBly connected, not only technically, as we would expect, But also compositionally, since water, in all its several shapes (tuBes, nozzles, blades, weir terminals, etc.), changed the optical, auditory and even olfactory perception of the sites. While it normally consisted of sculptures, vegetation and fountains, accompanied By an incessant dripping, on great occasions water theatres sprang to life to amaze, terrify, amuse the guests. They became the scenography of spirited plays comBining mythological tales, melodies, mechanical chirping Birds, suBstances dissolved in the water, Jets, BuBBles and pinwheels (girandole) of water, sudden frightening noises, fire and smoke, wind and impertinent jokes of water, according to a fixed repertoire that was recurrent in the villas Built in that period [2]. Nowadays such fountains, often deprived of water (which, although vital, is also a cause of degradation), are a pale image of their original magnificence. The exuberant effects animating the fountains, and the few iconographical sources, were recorded in detail in the descriptions made By travellers Between the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries (such as that of Lawson, dating to 1915-20) and in precious archival documents [3]. In the Brief caption commenting on the etching (1675) of the Gran Teatro dell’Acque of Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati, Giovan Battista Falda descriBed the water features and the acoustic devices of the nymphaeum. In the middle of the hemicycle forming the ‘theatre’, the imposing statue of the titan Atlas held up the celestial sphere, represented By a perforated bronze sphere from which water spurted out, emitting “impetuously swirling water with thunder [4] (Fig.1)”. Incidentally, a few decades Before the construction of the fountain, in 1546 a roman marBle of the second century AD, portraying Atlas, had been unearthed in the Baths of Caracalla. Known as the ‘Farnese Atlas’, it was evidently a main inspiration for the iconography of the statue in the nymphaeum. To the left of Atlas, in the last niche of the hemicycle, stood the cyclops Polyphemus “playing the flute whose sound is due to the wind pushed by the water”. On the right, in front of Polyphemus, a centaur played a buccina, an ancient wind instrument used for military signals, making a noise which was said to Be audiBle from four miles away. The instrument is now missing But it was still present in the 1960s, as testified By some photographs. The engraving even shows the "Stairway, and cascade of water, which falls into the theatre going down with various games" and "other sources and different water games, which suddenly wet the viewers", entertaining the guests. 287 Gunshots, wind, melodies, water jets and bubbling: hydraulic valves for the Teatro delle Acque of Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati Fig. 1 G. B. Falda, Gran Teatro dell’Acque di Villa Aldobrandini di Belvedere a Frascati, etching, 1675. A few decades earlier, in 1647, Dominique Barrière had puBlished a volume with all the fountains and water features of Villa AldoBrandini [5]. The work descriBed the existence of crossed spurts of water (spilli), Both above the steps of the South-East entrance to the villa, and near the Basin of the so called ‘fountain of the Shepherds’, as well as the wonders in the room of the Muses, also said ‘room of the Winds [6]’. The complex iconography of the theatre, the descriptions made By the European visitors who stopped in Frascati and, aBove all, the current dry status of the fountains only give a hint of the complex narrative and of the advanced technology of the hydraulic system. Commissioned By Cardinal Pietro AldoBrandini and Built Between 1603 and 1621, the nymphaeum was designed By Carlo Maderno, Giovanni Fontana and Orazio Olivieri. The latter also designed the hydraulic systems of Villa d'Este in Tivoli, where he realized the first automata (1566-69), inspired by the hidraulos and the machines descriBed By Hero of Alexandria. The fountains of the Teatro delle Acque of villa AldoBrandini were haBitually wet By water falling By gravity and were regulated By a series of hydraulic valves. Located in the area, the system could operate in a regular service or in a “special” mode, opening Jets and sudden jokes and activating sound machines, according to a script which changed depending on the occasion. An evidence of such practice is the narration of the English Roman Catholic priest Richard Lassels, who described how, during his visit to the villa (in the 1650s), the gardener actioned the stopcocks of the “sounding fountains”, using a definition of Aleotti [7]. The AldoBrandini Archive in Frascati preserves an eighteenth-century copy of a document drawn up after the construction of the Teatro delle Acque. It consists of a detailed Descrizione antica delli chiusini e chiavi che regolavano i giuochi d’acqua e le fontane di Villa Belvedere (from here on: Descrizione) [8]. The document testified the original status of the hydraulic system, hardly retraceable to-day, which was regulated through 72 hydraulic valves distributed in 22 manholes (Fig.2). The term chiavi (keys) stood for valves placed inside 288 Maria Grazia D’Amelio and Lorenzo Grieco manholes (chiusini), opened through iron levers with forked ends, like the more recent tools still in use in Frascati (Fig.3). The Descrizione was to Be used By the fontanieri (fountainiers, the role still exists) and their assistants, who promptly turned the valves on as a guest wandered through the garden. Fig. 2 D. Barrière, Plan of villa Aldobrandini, from Fig. 3 Iron levers with forked ends currently in use in Villa Aldobrandina tvscvlana siue uarij illius villa Aldobrandini, photo L. Grieco, 2020. hortorum et fontium prospectus, Roma, 1647, f. 22. The description can Be compared to a similar inventory, dated 1757 But a copy of a previous sixteenth-century document, entitled Nota delle chiavi, e bronzine d’ottone (from here on Nota) to power the caves, fountains, water Jokes and automata of the Medici villa of Pratolino. The Nota proves the diffusion of the practice of drawing up a list of the chiavi, necessary to operate with the hydraulic system. The Nota, which was accompanied by a plan, listed 172 hydraulic stopcocks and 23 bushings (valves for bleeding the pipes). The valves powered the games or the complex automatisms: for instance, in front of the Grotto of the Stove, there were two stopcocks, “one is used to give water to the trabocchetto […] under the window, and the other is used to wet who touches the Bronze figure on the top of said window [9].” The figure portrayed a “gracious copper-made putto who invites people to come closer; but if, while approaching, someone unexpectedly touches with the feet a certain device [it was the so-called trabocchetto, a moveaBle stone which activated a Jet], he will suddenly get wet, the same will happen if somebody curious lifts the putto [10].” In the case of villa AldoBrandini, the Descrizione has proved an invaluaBle technical aid in enaBling the location of the position of the controls in the area and, by interlacing it with other sources, to reconstruct the original functioning of the nymphaeum. Without it the operation would Be hard, given the destructions of the original hydraulic system and of a consistent part of the sculptures, the incongruous restorations and the Allied BomBing on the 8th of September 1943. 289 Gunshots, wind, melodies, water jets and bubbling: hydraulic valves for the Teatro delle Acque of Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati The theatre required the construction of a dedicated aqueduct to Bring the waters, from the source of Acqua Algida, six miles away on the Monte Fiora alla Molara (currently in the territory of Rocca Priora), 580 meters above sea level, till the villa, at an altitude of 428 meters above sea level [11]. The flow rate of the aqueduct was 60 ounces (about 1800 litres of water per minute) in the dry season and 300 ounces in winter and spring. Part of the water, once it arrived in the villa, descended into three fountains at different altitudes aBove the nymphaeum, another part was conveyed into a surviving Roman cistern, consisting of two vaulted chamBers 40 m in length [12]. The reading of the document confirms that on a normal day many of the fountains functioned partially. Only on special occasions where the fountains were fully opened to show the splendour of their effects. Proceeding from the top to the bottom of the park, the first water feature was the ‘Rustic fountain’, set immediately after the outcrop of the water. Near the fountain, there were two copper manholes, each with two valves to open the nozzles of the side niches and of the masks, now disappeared but visible in the engraving by Barrière [13] (Fig.4). Fig.
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