# Exterior view [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [ARCHITECT, Italian]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Photo ## Commentary A fortified building had been standing on the site in Castello in the hills near Florence since at least 1427, and was purchased in 1477 by Lorenzo and Giovanni di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, who reconstructed the old building, adding a courtyard, a loggia, kitchens and stables. In the 1540s Cosimo I de' Medici commissioned the engineer Piero da San Casciano to construct a system of aqueducts to bring water to the villa and its gardens, the sculptor Niccolò Tribolo to create fountains, statues and a garden, and the architect Giorgio Vasari to restore and enlarge the villa. The gardens, filled with fountains, statuary, and a grotto, became famous throughout Europe. The gardens of the villa had a profound influence upon the design of the Italian Renaissance garden and the later French formal garden. The photo shows the garden front of the villa. ## Related artworks - [Aerial view]() - [Aerial view]() - [Apse of a basilica]() - [Arsenale Gateway]() - [Arsenale Gateway]() - [Basilica di Sant'Antonio: Chiostro del Noviziato]() - [Basilica Santi Nereo e Achilleo]() - [Ca' Foscari: Façade]() - [Chamber of the millers]() - [Chiesa dell'Incoronata: Interior of the dome]() - [Cloister gallery]() - [Detail of the façade]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()