THE VILLA ALDOBRANDINI FRESCOES
These frescoes once decorated the walls of a spectacular pavilion in the gardens of the Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati, near Rome. Built in the early years of the seventeenth century by Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini (1571-1621), nephew of Pope Clement VIII, the villa was a place where the cardinal could retire from the pressures of his political activities in Rome.
In the right wing of the pavilion was the Stanza di Apollo, a room adorned with Domenichino's frescoes and containing an elaborate musical fountain representing Mount Parnassus, the mythical home of the Greek sun god Apollo. There were ten frescoes in all - two remain in situ and eight (now transferred to canvas) are in our collection. With the exception of one, they all show episodes from the story of Apollo, as recounted by Ovid in his Metamorphoses.
The iconographical scheme of the room was probably devised by Giovanni Battista Agucchi, private secretary to Cardinal Aldobrandini. Domenichino seems to have been responsible for the overall design of the frescoes but, by the time they were painted between 1616 and 1618, he was employed on other projects and much of the execution was left to assistants.
