Alessandro Sforza di Santa Fiora and Villa Rufina at Frascati: A Proposal for Giovanni Fontana

Abstract

In the middle of the 16^th century, with the construction of his Tuscolan villa, Alessandro Ruffini inaugurated the long series of ‘delights’ which within a short time made Frascati a famous holiday spot. Villa Rufina – which may have been borne out of an initial project by Nanni di Baccio Bigio – became the object of conspicuous interventions in the following century, which – because of the attribution transmitted by Alessandro Specchi’s well-known incision – were long thought to be the work of Francesco Borromini. Despite numerous studies dedicated to the complex – from the first investigations by Paolo Portoghesi to more recent monographs – the dense architectonic processes that have marked the building remain to this day insufficiently explored: the reconstruction of the first phase of construction is uncertain, and the remaining transformations dating to the 16^th century are unknown. This background has inevitably made the historiographic reconstruction of the operations commissioned by Pietro Francesco Falconieri in the 1660s problematic. The present study reflects on the villa’s history in the 16^th century in light of a hitherto unedited drawing which is here proposed as a possible project redacted by Giovanni Fontana for Cardinal Alessandro Sforza of Santa Fiora. These findings not only suggest new hypotheses in regards the first layout of the palazzo and update the chronology of construction, but shed new light on the complex figure of Giovanni, and redefine assumptions concerning the 16^th century intervention.