Cultivating masculinity: self-fashioning and the expression of a masculine identity in Cardinal Ippolito II’s Renaissance Garden at Villa d’Este, 1550-72

Abstract

In 1550, Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este (one of the wealthiest men in Early Modern Rome) was appointed governor of Tivoli. Here, he commissioned the famous humanist Pirro Ligorio to design a magnificent Renaissance Garden for his new official residence: Villa d’Este. Though widely considered to be one of the most influential gardens in Europe, the profoundly formative influence of elite male power upon the site has been consistently overlooked. Villa d’Este was codified by carefully selected references to its patron’s wealth, education, and dynastic position, functioning as a living testament to his self-fashioning as a Princely Cardinal. This article situates Villa d’Este’s gardens within the complex nexus of masculine values and codes from which it arose, demonstrating how formal landscaping was irrevocably bound to its patron’s masculine self-fashioning and the semantics of elite male power. It emphasises the dissonance between the emerging vision of Counter-Reformation curial masculinity and the decadence of the formerly hegemonic High Renaissance Princely Cardinal, framing this friction as a generative force. Drawing upon hegemonic masculinity theory and masculinity crisis theory, it explores the multiple and often conflicting cultural and political work this garden performed, identifying specific masculine traits Ippolito sought to promote and glorify at Tivoli.