Caprarola: archetipo del “Cinquecento” nella critica e nell’iconografia fra Settecento e primo Ottocento

The fame of the palace of Caprarola and its gardens in critics and iconography was great from the time of its construction and has continued unabated to the present day. In the mid-18th century, however, after a period of material decadence, the new status of the palace following the passage from the Farnese to the Bourbons of Naples and Spain offered a juncture of itality and renewed splendour, witnessed by the monumental, printed book Illustri fatti Farnesiani by Georg Caspar von Prenner and Giuseppe Vasi. Although ephemeral, followed by a new phase of abandonment after the departure of Charles of Bourbon for Madrid, the moment is highly significant for the reaffirmed centrality of the 16th century in the themes of architectural research already promoted by Clement XII Corsini, at the end of the very long season of Roman Baroque. The brief revival of Caprarola and the celebratory printed work also seem to contribute to the extraordinary European fortune of 16th-century villas and Vignola in general, especially in France at the turn of the 19th century.