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Villas & Gardens of Northern Italy - Art, landscape, and power around Lake Varese and Verona
Including the architecture, garden design, patronage, landscape politics, and preservation of villas in the area. We will examine the evolution of designed landscapes in northern Italy from the Renaissance to the modern period, focusing on villas and sacred topographies around Lake Varese and Verona. Through close study of terraced gardens, Baroque parterres, agrarian estates, modern curatorial landscapes, and devotional mountain environments, the course attempts to put garden design within the broader systems of power, spirituality, economy, and heritage conservation.
Week 1
The Renaissance Villa Ideal, Humanism, Landscape, and Status
The birth of the Italian villa as a cultural, agricultural, and political statement.
Case study of Villa Cicogna Mozzoni, looking at the Ovid fresco cycles and illusionistic space, nymphaeum and the terraced garden on the hillside.
Week 2
Baroque Grandeur and Theatrical Gardens
Gardens as stage sets, spectacle, geometry, and aristocratic power.
Case study of Villa Arconati, a French style garden in Lombardy. Garden geometry and axial planning, water features and theatricality. The Patronage networks in 17th–18th century Lombardy.
Week 3
Baroque to Neoclassicism,Refinement and Intellectual Retreat
The villa as a place of collecting, intellectual exchange, and aesthetic refinement.
Case study of Villa Arvedi and the transition from Baroque to Neoclassical restraint. It’s fresco schemes and mythological themes, investigating how the garden's evolution moves toward a lighter geometry.
Week 4
Modern Collecting and the Villa as Cultural Institution
Transformation of aristocratic villas into modern art spaces. Villa as museum vs private residence.
A case study of Villa Panza. Looking at Giuseppe Panza and American Minimalism. The discourse between historical architecture and contemporary art. Adaptive reuse and heritage preservation – does modern art transform historical space?
Week 5
Devotional & Cultural Landscapes: Garden, Territory, and Sacred Topography
The garden as terraced, agrarian hillside design. The integration of villa, productive land and mountain terrain within the 18th-century rural Lombard identity.
Case study Villa Della Porta Bozzolo and a comparison with Villa Cicogna Mozzoni, both hillside gardens, but with different rhetorical intensity.
Case study the Sacro Monte di Varese, a sacred landscape and UNESCO World Heritage cultural site. The mountain as designed religious experience – a processional landscape. Is the Sacro Monte a garden?
The course aims to move beyond the villa as private estate to consider landscape as collective memory, spiritual narrative, and protected heritage site.
Information
Price
£135.00
5 WEEK ONLINE COURSE
1 hour 15 mins per week
Our online Zoom course will begin Friday 30th April 6 pm-7.15 pm GMT
All Zoom sessions are recorded and notes are sent out after each class.
Use the discount code VILLAS15 for 15% off until Midnight Monday, 2nd March 2026
PLEASE NOTE:
ONCE YOU HAVE CLICKED ON BOOK NOW AND ADDED IS DISPLAYED PLEASE CLICK ON YOUR CART ICON AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE TO ADD YOUR DETAILS AND CONFIRM YOUR BOOKING.
Including the architecture, garden design, patronage, landscape politics, and preservation of villas in the area. We will examine the evolution of designed landscapes in northern Italy from the Renaissance to the modern period, focusing on villas and sacred topographies around Lake Varese and Verona. Through close study of terraced gardens, Baroque parterres, agrarian estates, modern curatorial landscapes, and devotional mountain environments, the course attempts to put garden design within the broader systems of power, spirituality, economy, and heritage conservation.
Week 1
The Renaissance Villa Ideal, Humanism, Landscape, and Status
The birth of the Italian villa as a cultural, agricultural, and political statement.
Case study of Villa Cicogna Mozzoni, looking at the Ovid fresco cycles and illusionistic space, nymphaeum and the terraced garden on the hillside.
Week 2
Baroque Grandeur and Theatrical Gardens
Gardens as stage sets, spectacle, geometry, and aristocratic power.
Case study of Villa Arconati, a French style garden in Lombardy. Garden geometry and axial planning, water features and theatricality. The Patronage networks in 17th–18th century Lombardy.
Week 3
Baroque to Neoclassicism,Refinement and Intellectual Retreat
The villa as a place of collecting, intellectual exchange, and aesthetic refinement.
Case study of Villa Arvedi and the transition from Baroque to Neoclassical restraint. It’s fresco schemes and mythological themes, investigating how the garden's evolution moves toward a lighter geometry.
Week 4
Modern Collecting and the Villa as Cultural Institution
Transformation of aristocratic villas into modern art spaces. Villa as museum vs private residence.
A case study of Villa Panza. Looking at Giuseppe Panza and American Minimalism. The discourse between historical architecture and contemporary art. Adaptive reuse and heritage preservation – does modern art transform historical space?
Week 5
Devotional & Cultural Landscapes: Garden, Territory, and Sacred Topography
The garden as terraced, agrarian hillside design. The integration of villa, productive land and mountain terrain within the 18th-century rural Lombard identity.
Case study Villa Della Porta Bozzolo and a comparison with Villa Cicogna Mozzoni, both hillside gardens, but with different rhetorical intensity.
Case study the Sacro Monte di Varese, a sacred landscape and UNESCO World Heritage cultural site. The mountain as designed religious experience – a processional landscape. Is the Sacro Monte a garden?
The course aims to move beyond the villa as private estate to consider landscape as collective memory, spiritual narrative, and protected heritage site.
Information
Price
£135.00
5 WEEK ONLINE COURSE
1 hour 15 mins per week
Our online Zoom course will begin Friday 30th April 6 pm-7.15 pm GMT
All Zoom sessions are recorded and notes are sent out after each class.
Use the discount code VILLAS15 for 15% off until Midnight Monday, 2nd March 2026
PLEASE NOTE:
ONCE YOU HAVE CLICKED ON BOOK NOW AND ADDED IS DISPLAYED PLEASE CLICK ON YOUR CART ICON AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE TO ADD YOUR DETAILS AND CONFIRM YOUR BOOKING.