13 September 2019
Villa Ottolenghi Wedekind
One of the most extraordinary modern gardens in Italy presently open to the public was built in 1955 in the rolling Monferrato hills amongst the woods and vineyards near Acqui Terme. It was designed by Pietro Porcinai around the villa by Marcello Piacentini and other rationalist architects.
The garden, directly related to the architecture, was commissioned by Astolfo, son of the first owner Arturo Ottolenghi who constructed the villa and the nearby building, destined to be a residence for artists and separated from the villa by a lawn, with his artist wife Herta von Wedekind zu Horst. The development of villa Ottolenghi was influenced by art as its reason for existence due to the Ottolenghi's search for excellence from the 1920s which involved protagonists of the contemporary artistic scene: Marcello Piacentini, Vincenzo Vaccaro, Venanzo Crocetti and Arturo Martini. The latter created his sculpture Tobiolo on the spot, as centrepiece of the great fountain in the extensive lawn.
After the interlude of the war work began again and in 1955 Astolfo invited Porcinai to design the garden which had never been given a specific layout. Porcinai worked on the Ottolenghi garden in several phases from then until the 70s. His project manages to coordinate a system of previously disconnected spaces extending around the two buildings, the villa and the artists' studios. Beside the artists' house the vast lawn containing an undulating dune was bordered by a rock garden next to the entrance with a splendid floral motif, whilst a very long flowerbed alongside the pergola leads the eye towards the metaphysical arched wing of the artists' house. The project of the garden integrates the square grid of the courtyard with the larger reticular grid of the great garden terrace which opens onto the view of Acqui Terme, seen from a sinuous balustrade. The squares of the lattice are filled with grass, flowers and roses creating a harmonious chess-board, while the smaller squares in the courtyard alternate plants with pebble designs influenced by the surrounding vineyards and reminding us that villa Ottolenghi was, and still is, a place where excellent wines are produced.
The garden, directly related to the architecture, was commissioned by Astolfo, son of the first owner Arturo Ottolenghi who constructed the villa and the nearby building, destined to be a residence for artists and separated from the villa by a lawn, with his artist wife Herta von Wedekind zu Horst. The development of villa Ottolenghi was influenced by art as its reason for existence due to the Ottolenghi's search for excellence from the 1920s which involved protagonists of the contemporary artistic scene: Marcello Piacentini, Vincenzo Vaccaro, Venanzo Crocetti and Arturo Martini. The latter created his sculpture Tobiolo on the spot, as centrepiece of the great fountain in the extensive lawn.
After the interlude of the war work began again and in 1955 Astolfo invited Porcinai to design the garden which had never been given a specific layout. Porcinai worked on the Ottolenghi garden in several phases from then until the 70s. His project manages to coordinate a system of previously disconnected spaces extending around the two buildings, the villa and the artists' studios. Beside the artists' house the vast lawn containing an undulating dune was bordered by a rock garden next to the entrance with a splendid floral motif, whilst a very long flowerbed alongside the pergola leads the eye towards the metaphysical arched wing of the artists' house. The project of the garden integrates the square grid of the courtyard with the larger reticular grid of the great garden terrace which opens onto the view of Acqui Terme, seen from a sinuous balustrade. The squares of the lattice are filled with grass, flowers and roses creating a harmonious chess-board, while the smaller squares in the courtyard alternate plants with pebble designs influenced by the surrounding vineyards and reminding us that villa Ottolenghi was, and still is, a place where excellent wines are produced.
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Memory is the fourth dimension to any landscape- Janet Fitch - |
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