The Boboli Gardens ( /ˈbo.bo.li/) is a large park in Florence, originally designed as the garden of the Medici family's Pitti Palace in the mid-16th century. It is an important early Italian garden which influenced aristocratic gardens across Europe. It houses statues of various styles and periods, large fountains, and artificial grottoes.

History and layout

thumb|Boboli Gardens Amphitheatre, viewed from the Palazzo Pitti

thumb|Bathing Venus by [[Giambologna as seen in the third chamber of the Buontalenti Grotto]]

The Gardens, directly behind the Pitti Palace, the main seat of the Medici grand dukes of Tuscany at Florence, are some of the first and most familiar formal 16th-century Italian gardens. The mid-16th-century garden style, as it was developed here, incorporated longer axial developments, wide gravel avenues, a considerable "built" element of stone, the lavish employment of statuary and fountains, and a proliferation of detail, coordinated in semi-private and public spaces that were informed by classical accents: grottos, nympheums, garden temples and the like. The openness of the gardens, with their expansive view of the city, was unconventional for its time. The gardens were very lavish, considering that no access was allowed to anyone outside the immediate Medici family, and no entertainment or parties are ever known to have taken place in them.

The Boboli Gardens were laid out for Eleonora di Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I de' Medici. The name may be a corruption of "Bogoli" or "Borgolo", possibly the name of a family who had previously owned the land. The first stage had scarcely been begun by Niccolò Tribolo as well as the elaborate architecture of the grotto in the courtyard that separates the palace from its gardens.

The gardens lack a natural water source. To water its plants, a conduit was built to feed water from the nearby Arno River into an elaborate irrigation system.

Fontana del Bacchino

The Fontana del Bacchino is a 1560 sculptural work by Valerio Cioli (1529–1599) featuring a statue in the likeness of the famed dwarf buffoon from the court of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Nano Morgante modeled after Bacchus and riding a tortoise. In 1572 the statue was turned into a fountain.

The Isolotto

The Isolotto is an oval-shaped island in a tree-enclosed pond, and is nearly at the end of the alternative Viottolone axis. In the centre of the island is the Fountain of the Ocean, and in the surrounding moat, there are statues of Perseus and Andromeda (school of Giambologna). The Isolotto was laid out by Giulio and Alfonso Parigi, circa 1618.

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Jardín de Bóboli, Florencia, Italia, 2022-09-19, DD 35.jpg|Amphitheatre

Jardín de Bóboli, Florencia, Italia, 2022-09-19, DD 25.jpg|Isolotto

File:Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot 004.jpg|Florence. View from the Boboli Gardens, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, after 1834.

File:Grotta_del_buontalenti,_Vincenzo_de'_Rossi,_Paride_che_rapisce_Elena_03.JPG|Group of Paris and Helen by Vincenzo de' Rossi as seen in the Buontalenti Grotto

File:Grotta del buontalenti, prima sala 05.JPG|Mannerist high reliefs in the Buontalenti Grotto

Jardín de Bóboli, Florencia, Italia, 2022-09-19, DD 25.jpg|Neptune's fountain

File:Fontana del Bacchino (Boboli) valerio cioli 03.JPG|Fontana del Bacchino

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Notes

Further reading

  • Bernardo Buontalenti and the Grotta Grande of Boboli, ed. Sergio Risaliti, Maschietto Editore, Florence, 2012.
  • Marco Vichi In the Boboli Garden, art book for children, illustrated by Francesco Chiacchio, photo by Yari Marcelli, transl. Stephen Sartarelli, Maschietto Editore, Florence, 2015.
  • Giardino di Boboli - a Gardens Guide review
  • 360 degree virtual tour of Boboli Gardens
  • Article about Boboli Gardens
  • Florence's Boboli Gardens
  • Boboli Gardens, Tuscany official tourism site
  • Museums in Florence-Boboli Gardens