Boboli Gardens

History and layout

The Gardens, directly behind the Pitti Palace, the main seat of the Medici grand dukes of Tuscany at Florence, are some of the first and most familiar formal 16th-century Italian gardens. The mid-16th-century garden style, as it was developed here, incorporated longer axial developments, wide gravel avenues, a considerable "built" element of stone, the lavish employment of statuary and fountains, and a proliferation of detail, coordinated in semi-private and public spaces that were informed by classical accents: grottos, nympheums, garden temples and the like. The openness of the gardens, with their expansive view of the city, was unconventional for its time. The gardens were very lavish, considering that no access was allowed to anyone outside the immediate Medici family, and no entertainment or parties are ever known to have taken place in them.

The Boboli Gardens were laid out for Eleonora di Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I de' Medici. The name may be a corruption of "Bogoli" or "Borgolo", possibly the name of a family who had previously owned the land. The first stage had scarcely been begun by Niccolò Tribolo when he died in 1550, after which the construction was continued by Bartolomeo Ammanati. Giorgio Vasari contributed to the planning, and Bernardo Buontalenti contributed sculptures, as well as the elaborate architecture of the grotto in the courtyard that separates the palace from its gardens.

Water was supplied by an aqueduct that brought water from a spring in the hills near the Boboli Gardens. Cosimo I de' Medici funded its construction in the late 1550s. The aqueduct extended across the Arno River to supply the Palazzo Vecchio, newly transformed into the ducal residence, and other fountains of the city. A second aqueduct from the Ginevra Spring was built in 1565. The Fountain of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria and the Fountain of Neptune in the Boboli Gardens symbolized Cosimo's gift to the city.

The primary axis, centered on the rear façade of the palace, rises on Boboli Hill from a deep amphitheater; its shape resembles half of a classical hippodrome or racecourse. At the center of the amphitheater and rather dwarfed by its position is the Ancient Egyptian Boboli obelisk brought from the Villa Medici at Rome. This primary axis terminates in a fountain of Neptune which is visible against the sky from below. …

Fountain of Neptune

In the hillside above the amphitheatre is a double ramp leading to the Fountain of Neptune (Fontana del Nettuno), nicknamed the Fountain of the Pitchfork (Fontana del Forcone) for the trident. It consists of a large, curvilinear basin with a central bronze statue of Neptune.

The original fountain was created by Stoldo Lorenzi some time between 1565 and 1568, around the same time as the more famous Fountain of Neptune by Ammannati in the Piazza della Signoria nearby. In the sixteenth century, the basin served as the reservoir for the aqueduct that flowed down the hillside and brought spring water to the city. The crouching tritons and nereids beneath Neptune were designed by Niccolò Tribolo who laid out the first axial development of the gardens. The great rocky base that currently supports Neptune was added in the eighteenth century.

Neptune, together with the statue of Abundance (Dovizia) located higher up on the hillside, seems to allude to an ancient Greek legend in which the gods Athena and Neptune compete for the role of the patron of Athens. Neptune strikes the ground with his trident, causing seawater to spring forth.

Fontana del Bacchino

The Fontana del Bacchino is a 1560 sculptural work by Valerio Cioli (1529–1599) featuring a statue in the likeness of the famed dwarf buffoon from the court of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Nano Morgante modeled after Bacchus and riding a tortoise. In 1572 the statue was turned into a fountain.

The Isolotto

The Isolotto is an oval-shaped island in a tree-enclosed pond, and is nearly at the end of the alternative Viottolone axis. In the centre of the island is the Fountain of the Ocean, and in the surrounding moat, there are statues of Perseus and Andromeda (school of Giambologna). The Isolotto was laid out by Giulio and Alfonso Parigi, circa 1618.