Villa di Corliano

A Lord’s Palace, with an outer staircase, a landing in front of the main door, including a fountain and the surrounding land. The most beautiful Palace around Pisa. Thus, in 1616, the Florentine Vincenzo Pitti describes Corliano villa, one of the many villas that the rich Pisan merchants built during the centuries, as their summer house, along the fertile west slopes of Mount Pisano. On both sides of the villa, which has been decorated with typical Florentine Mannerism Sixteenth Century graffiti (harpy eagles, fruit crowns and flowers, birds and other symbols, representing the virtues of Fortress, Abundance and Fortune), there are the farm and the oil mill, that were built at the end of XVIII Century. In 1755, on the occasion of the aristocratic wedding of Maria Teresa Scolastica Ottavia della Seta Gaetani Bocca (1736-1816), with Count Cosimo Baldassarre Agostini Fantini Venerosi (1722- 1793), the villa was restored by the Veronese architect Ignazio Pellegrini (1715-1790).

At the beginning of the Nineties in the Sixteenth Century, della Seta Gaetani Bocca family, represented by Pietro di Nicolao and Laura Lanfranchi, commission to the well-known Florentine artist Andrea Boscoli, who was a Santi di Tito’s pupil, the decoration of the family suburban villa. In the vestibule there are some Eighteenth Century marble busts representing some Roman Emperors, while the vault which is painted with a mythological scene representing Paris awarding Venus the fruit, under the watchful June and Minerva’s stare. In the lateral ovals there are the Duomo Square of Pisa, the original view of the villa, Piana della Croce Mount (Apuan Alps), the Gulf of Lerici, two unknown castles and the commissioners’ portraits. In the central hall there is a beautiful vault, with a fresco representing “Il convivio degli dei” (The gods’ banquet) and Andrea Boscoli’s months and zodiacal signs allegorical representations, who signs and dates: Andreas Boscolus Pictor Fiorentinus fecit anno 1592. On the walls there are the Eighteenth Century fresco paintings with the “Quattro stagioni” (four seasons), attributed to Natili and Matraini as well as the ones in the little church.

The garden has been changed many times in the centuries, changes which have been executed during also the following palace refurbishments, according to the different periods “trends”. The actual garden layout can be dated back to the Nineteenth Century: in occasion of Alfredo Agostini and Teresa Marcello’s wedding in 1882, the park was refurbished according to the most recent trendy details. Leaving the previous axial disposition, the front villa lawn was put together and raised in the centre in order to create a little slope. Two pincer paths were traced to reach the villa, which did not lead to the palace front but to the back of it: in the new complex lay-out it has indeed become the grand courtyard during the Eighteenth Century.

The Stuart family, claimant to the English throne, stayed in Corliano Villa during the Eighteenth Century. Such an important presence has to be connected to Pietro Leopoldo di Lorena’s initiatives who, considering the tourist potentiality of this geographic area, revived San Giuliano ancient baths, that became a trendy place, thus attracting that period high society. It can be read about the visits of Gustavus III of Sweden, Christian II of Denmark, the King and Queen of England, Benedict Stuart, the Cardinal of York, general Murat, Louis Bonaparte, Pauline Borghese, Charles Albert of Savoy, the romantic poets Byron and Shelley and many other personalities of our other personalities of our history books. The villas along the promenade, which were already places where to relax in the nature and industrial structures for agricultural products processing and storage, acquired those characteristics typical of the holiday resorts whose memory had been handed down by Carlo Goldoni in occasion of his stay in Pisa.

References

A.Baldassari, E.Forconi, A.Panajia, M.Zalum Cardon, a cura di A.Panajia, Villa di Corliano "Il più bel Palazzo che sia intorno Pisa", Felici Editore, Pisa, 2007
A.Addobbati, S.Renzoni, C.Balbarini, Estate in villa - Il Lungomonte sangiulianese luogo di villeggiatura della nobiltà pisana, ETS, Pisa, 2007.
M.Marchetti, "Il giardino di villa Agostini a Corliano: restauro e valorizzazione", tesi di laurea, Pisa: Università degli Studi, anno accademico 2006-07
Toscana Esclusiva X edizione, Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane, 2005.
Mary J. Cryan, Travels to Tuscany, Davide Ghaleb Editore, Vetralla, 2005.
C. M. Sicca, a cura di R. P. Ciardi, Settecento Pisano, Pacini, Pisa, 1990, pag. 230.