Francesca Alberti and Ariane Varela Braga, editors of Pierres, matières, surfaces à la Villa Médicis, define the critical and methodological aims of the volume by noting that ‘stones, materials, and architectural surfaces are never neutral’ but ‘encapsulate the essence of a place and reflect in their chemical composition the geology and geography of their origins’ (15), drawing the reader’s attention to materiality in their ambitious, multidisciplinary reinterpretation of the Villa Medici (Figure 1). Labeling this work a monograph on the villa, however, would be reductive, as the contributions provide a diachronic analysis of the Pincian Hill, one of the ancient Seven Hills of Rome and the site of Villa Medici and its gardens. Taking the materiality of stones into account, the contributors interpret the site as a historical palimpsest of cultures and meanings, in a manner analogous to Foucault’s archaeology of knowledge, revealing how layers of historical traces contribute to the formation of meaning over time.

Figure 1: Cover of Pierres, matières, surfaces à la Villa Médicis. Académie de France Villa Médicis.

Pierres, matières, surfaces à la Villa Médicis builds upon the exhibition Histoire de pierres (13 October 2023–14 January 2024) that brought together 200 works of art that narrate the relationship between people and minerals and emphasize the extent to which stones have been a source of inspiration for artists and a meaning-bearing tool for viewers. Capitalizing upon research seminars dedicated to the world of stones that were held in conjunction with the exhibition, the book fosters interdisciplinary dialogues focused on the relationship between human beings, the environment, and time in the Anthropocene.

The volume is divided into three sections and consists of eleven contributions written in French by art historians, archaeologists, architects, geologists, artists, and novelists. The first section, ‘Matières d’un monde antique’, is devoted to an examination of the Pincian Hill from the establishment of the ancient Gardens of Lucullus (Horti Luculliani) to the construction of the Villa Medici since 1576. In the second part ‘Pierres d’une partition monumentale’, geologists, art historians, and architectural historians discuss the abundance of minerals in the architecture of the villa and its surroundings.

The last part, ‘Surfaces en métamorphose’, describes the artistic experiences of the pensionnaires, the artists and academic fellows who have lived on the grounds since 1803. The Académie de France à Rome was founded by Louis XIV in 1666 as a base for French artists who wanted to study the classical antiquities of Rome, but it was not until the 19th century that the remarkable Renaissance palace and gardens of the Medici became its home. The book focuses on the academy in the period from 1961 to 1977, one of the most famous periods in the history of Villa Medici, when French artist Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, better known as Balthus, served as its director. In charge of enhancing the villa, Balthus sought to make it more modern and used it as a case study for his artistic research rather than trying to properly restore it. This part of the book documents the layered architectural history of the villa and the more recent life of the French academy, drawing on both archival sources and the experiences of those who lived in the complex.

The volume’s scholarly rigor is enhanced by an extraordinary iconographic apparatus printed in full colour consisting of archival images and works of art, including new photographic documentation by Daniele Molajoli and Gilles Raynaldy, that in concert with the texts transports readers into the poetic world of Villa Medici (Figure 2). The elegance of the images reveals the splendor of the marbles in a multicolored rainbow and opens this sophisticated scientific volume up to a non-specialist audience. For the specialist reader, the iconographic apparatus provides a fresh research tool by offering exclusive images of hidden details of the villa that have never been seen before. They inspire new insights and hypotheses, even for those unable to visit the building in person, and spark an eagerness to experience the site firsthand.

Figure 2: Trophy of antique fragments. Photo by Daniele Molajoli, Académie de France Villa Médicis.

The volume offers an overview of the millennial history of the Pincian Hill, which is important for understanding the transformation of the city of Rome from ancient times to the modern era. Accounts of interventions by the military tribune Lucullus (2nd-1st century BCE) and General Belisarius (6th century CE) enter into a dialogue with later histories describing the construction of the villa in 1540s after it was commissioned by Marcello Crescenzi, modifications implemented by Cardinal Giovanni Ricci in 1564, and the changes made by Ferdinando de’ Medici in 1576. The book also provides accounts of episodes of fascinating cultural history, such as the French academy’s role in managing artistic relations between Italy and France under the leadership of figures like neoclassical painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (director, 1835–1841) and Balthus (director, 1961–1977).

The volume also develops an interpretation of the building and the site through materiality, emphasizing that a visual experience of the villa is critical to appreciating how it is ‘a condensed natural geography’ (157) that tangibly reflects on the territory from which it originates. The historiographical frame is novel and allows contributors to the volume to demonstrate how the building bears witness to history but also signals material and immaterial heritage, which has been progressively transformed by demolitions, reconstructions, restorations, spoliations, and reintegration.

The book employs a selective approach that uses materiality as a tool to reconstruct various historical and material fragments of the villa. Such fragments from the façade, emphasize the continuity across time, as in the 19th-century arrangement of the loggia that enhances the presentation of the sculptures and the recent works created by the current pensionnaires, whose artistic designs take the villa as its subject and site (Figure 3).

Figure 3: View of the loggia. Photo by Daniele Molajoli, Académie de France Villa Médicis.

Not coincidentally, Aby Warburg and Albert Kahn included a picture of the villa’s façade overlooking the garden in their groundbreaking projects, the former in Bilderatlas Mnemosyne, his last project in which he mounted large display arrangements of images that included photographs, postage stamps, and other printed material, and the latter in Archives de la Planète, a vast undertaking documenting human activity in its various aspects.

Effecting dialogues between past and present that spur reflection on continuity and transformation and duration and rupture, the volume reveals hidden histories and artistic, cultural, and political relationships that have unfolded on the Pincian Hill. Combining scholarly investigations with an original diachronic and thematic approach, the book constitutes a model for future research on the Eternal City: the use of materiality as an interpretative approach – the most innovative aspect of this work – demonstrates that a new theoretical framework can shed new light on well-established research topics and contribute actively to historical scholarship.