At the Bottom of the Garden: The Caffeaus of Villa Albani

Abstract

This essay addresses the history and design of a pavilion at the Villa Albani in Rome. Built in 1764 by the architect Carlo Marchionni, possibly to a design by the client, the antiquarian Cardinal Alessandro Albani, this is a caffeaus (or coffee house, to offer a rough translation) featuring an eleven-bay semi-circular portico of Doric order. The taking of coffee after dinner had become a popular pastime and some, who could afford it, built special pavilions in their gardens for this purpose. Pope Benedict XIV, for instance, had a caffeaus built in his garden at the Quirinal Palace some twenty years earlier where he could withdraw from the formalities of courtly life. For Cardinal Albani, the caffeaus also served as an extension to his Casino, where his vast collection of sculptures, busts and basins was displayed. With the aid of his librarian, the German scholar and writer Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Albani displayed his immense and unique collection of art and antiquities in a way that served to underline his own scholarship, wealth and position of affinity with Rome. The Villa and its splendours were not to be missed by the Grand Tourists. This essay situates this exceptional pavilion in the wider context of his Villa, whose gardens and buildings today lie in various stages of disrepair and are closed to the public, except by