Historical commentary

There remains the mystery of who helped Diomede Leoni build this unique garden.  Since he was in Michelangelo’s home at the end of his life, Diomede must have befriended the artist during his final years. There is record of Michelangelo helping people he liked, drawing sketches to help painters who needed inspiration. He could have done the same for Diomede. A likely scenario would be that Daniele da Volterra, Michelangelo’s protégé, asked Diomede to come help the artist to write his letters. Michelangelo complained many times to his nephew and heir, Leonardo Buonarotti, that he was having difficulties with both the politics of the construction of the St. Peter’s and the physical act of letter writing that was required to defend his work there. One can imagine Diomede working diligently for the elderly artist. He was, as an agent at the service of cardinals in Rome, a professional letter-writer.

Perhaps the most convincing aspect of the Horti regarding Michelangelo’s possible influence was the monumental scale and the geometries found in its design. The use of triangles, trapezoids and hexagons were not used in the Renaissance gardens before or during the 1500’s. One needs to remember that Leoni was neither an artist nor an architect. He would have needed help to realize his dream so one can imagine him asking the great artist for his advice. 

Recently, there have been some historians who have spoken or written about the Horti Leonini who contest the idea of Michelangelo’s influence or that the garden that we see today is even original from the 1500’s. They have used two drawings from the 1700’s to make their point (see the illustrations above and below).

Here one sees two views that show a central axial path which connects three distinct spaces: open geometric garden, dark woods and open terrace above. One also sees the formal semi-circular space at the top of the lower garden, proof that this garden had a formal character regardless of whether the paths were lined with Box hedges or not. Even if you were to take away the complex hexagonal design of the box hedges, there still remains an unusual triangular form created by the walls and the central axial path. Not to be forgotten, the pattern of triangles in the pavement of the main entrance is most likely original to the period. 

We know Leoni built the walls, the sloped lower garden, the entire central axis and the paths along the walls, therefore, the overall bold layout of the garden was set in Diomede’s time. It has been suggested that the Chigi’s may have developed the lower formal garden after they purchased it in the 1600's. There is, however, no similar garden in any of their villas. In fact, it is difficult to find a garden anywhere that demonstrates that there might be a different provenance for the design of Leoni's Horti Leonini.  

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