[MR] History Blog: Farnese Gardens

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends, Especially Italian Rennies,

Today the History Blog is reporting on the return of a stolen piece of
Roman statuary, the Head of Pan. This piece was nicked from the Farnese
Gardens in Rome over 50 years ago, and was recently spotted by Italian art
detectives on auction in the US. Normally, I don't comment on Roman stuff,
or on modern art thefts (unless the item is medieval), but the History Blog
post introduced me to the Farnese Gardens, which are definitely in our
period: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/56833 .

The gardens were built on the orders of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese in
1550, and were the first private botanical garden in Europe. The Gardens
happen to sit right on top of the Palatine Hill, hard by the Roman Forum,
and were excavated by Farnese (not personally, of course), coughing up a
whole mess of Roman statuary and other stuff that was used to artfully
decorate the site. Later the gardens were opened to the public, but
eventually fell into ruins. Today they are once again restored and may be
visited.

Wikipedia offers a brief page on the Farnese Gardens:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farnese_Gardens .

You can see more interesting photos on Google Maps (slow to load, as these
are large files) at
https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x132f61b5aa94ee39%3A0xc8eaa8d681c3df1e!3m1!7e115!4s%2Fmaps%2Fplace%2Ffarnese%2Bgardens%2F%4041.8894708%2C12.4864019%2C3a%2C75y%2C21.57h%2C90t%2Fdata%3D*213m4*211e1*213m2*211s_DyYqgesEkJEsBkW2mw7rQ*212e0*214m2*213m1*211s0x132f61b5aa94ee39%3A0xc8eaa8d681c3df1e%3Fsa%3DX!5sfarnese%20gardens%20-%20Google%20Search!15sCAQ&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipMcAvjpwNSl04flspEdwRGANy8EoZaq8d3Vh50v&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiw97PPy7nlAhWvrFkKHXNuD4IQpx8wGHoECA0QCw
.
Yeah, I know that's a huge URL, but it worked for me. The sidebar shows the
various photo selections, and clicking on them eventually opens the photo
in a full frame. Some of the photos are actually of the Forum and other
adjacent monuments, as viewed from the Farnese Gardens.

Cardinal Farnese began his meteoric rise in the church at the age of 14
when he was appointed Cardinal Deacon by his grandfather, Pope Paul III.
Nice to have relatives in high places. As a cardinal, Farnese was near the
top of Church administration, and exercised a tremendous amount of power. A
lengthy Wikpedia bio about Cardinal Alessandro Farnese is found at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Farnese_(cardinal) .

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆