Product Description

This text presents a description and interpretation of the great Villa built by Emperor Hadrian near Tivoli, as it existed in Roman times, together with a description of how the Villa has influenced artists and architects in history, from the Renaissance through to the present day.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1933491 in Books
• Published on: 1995-06-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 508 pages

From Library Journal
This 1975 title collects McBride's art writings from the New York Sun, the Dial, and Art News. The text is buttressed with more than 30 illustrations of works under discussion and a new introduction. Essential for art collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

The ancient Romans created a provocative architecture.
MacDonald/Pinto assert that Hadrian forged a new and innovative architectural system which integrated buildings with nature and human use. Hadrian's goal was to create an arrangement of buildings which were functional and yet challenged the intellect to contemplate the unseen world. They also make a very strong case for the pervasive influence which this complex villa has had on archtecture from ancient times to the present. This book makes one realize that Roman architecture is indeed relevant to the present.

About timeless beauty
First of all, it is a beautiful book. For anyone who already has visited the Villa, just the cover is truly moving, with the line of trees next the palestra, as moving is the Piranesi graffiti photo. The reader must also understand the book is about a ruin and accept some degree of frustration with descriptions and the current outlook of monuments, but MacDonald and Pinto are very sucessful in freeing our imagination to wander among the profound design and intentions of Hadria's Villa. A collection of monuments that is too the empire, the memories of a life and a message to the future. Even the authors seemed amazed, for instance, by the Maritime Theater plan or the use of landscape. It is a book to be read again and again.

A wonderful site and a book that does it justice
We visited Hadian's Villa several years ago, and although I've thought about the visit several times since, 100 Great Journeys brought the villa alive again.

The photographs are very effective both in memory and in certain measure to show me sections of the ruins I didn't see or don't remember. The view of the pool and the artificial grotto named Canopus and Serapeum is particularly beautiful. (Poor Apollodorus of Damascus: "Go away and draw your pumpkins. You know nothing about architectural matters." Mocking Hardrian's dome eventually proved fatal.)

I was struck by the size of the horse stables; they seemed to go on forever and there is an interesting view here that shows their magnitude.

Our guides told us that Hadrian suffered from severe headaches near the end of his life. He reportedly spent much time alone in the Maritime Theater, a round portico with a barrel vault supported by pillars. Inside is a ring-shaped pool with a central island. There were two drawbridges and a small Roman house with an atrium, a library, a triclinium and small baths.

This book is well produced with excellent pictures, drawings and plans, and with careful, accurate descriptions of the small parts of the villa that have been excavated. There is an excellent bibliography. Altogether, an excellent guide on the ground or at home remembering.

Robert C. Ross 2008