Villa Medici reenchanted!

Home to the Académie de France in Rome, the Villa was built in 1564 on Mount Pincio, near the Villa Borghese, before being acquired by Cardinal Ferdinand de’ Medici in 1576. Here, he carried out an ambitious pictorial program, of which some evidence still remains, and imagined a sculpture park with pine, cypress and oak trees (today, only casts of these sculptures remain, the originals having been transferred to museums). In 1737, when the Florentine Medici line died out, the Villa reverted to a distant cousin of the Hasbourg-Lorraine family, the new Grand Duke of Tuscany and future Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1803, after the creation of the Kingdom of Etruria, Napoleon I decided to move the French Academy in Rome to the Villa Medici. The Villa and its gardens, then in a state of disrepair, were completely restored and became home to the winners of the prestigious Grand Prix de Rome, whose stays range from a few weeks to several months. Since 2020, the Villa Médicis has taken a new turn with the appointment of Sam Stourdzé as its director, who is transforming the premises and making the Villa part of the contemporary cultural landscape, transforming this showcase of French diplomacy into “a laboratory of creation and turbulence”. Beaux Arts Éditions takes a look back at the history of the Villa, its new interior refurbishments and its new artistic program.