Adriano e la sua villa: fuori dall’agiografia, nella Storia dell’Architettura

There is a huge difference between today’s perception of Villa Adriana and its consistency at the time of its construction. Unfinished, shapeless and monochromatic ruins were, instead, an extremely refined architecture, with a high degree of polychromy; even the relation between sky and mirroring surfaces of the water basins is today unbalanced in favour of the former, originally confined by the porches. A general reconstruction of the Villa, provided for decades by Gismondi’s model, may now be mastered and detailed by graphic means (Golvin) or in 3D: yet such hyperrealistic output highlights the great quantity of details that still remain unsolved, although rendering the architecture with the fascination of materials and atmosphere. Anyhow, such reconstructive efforts lead to the listing of Villa Adriana among the great architectural masterpieces, as a refined example of ars topiaria that not only recreates renowned places, either mythical or true, but also transforms anonymous places into sceneries of an inimitable life. In the conception of the Villa, the idea of grandeur corresponds to innovative formal and structural solutions and to a similar free composition, which will instill with impressive speed in the architecture of the entire Roman Empire.