Raffaele De Vico (Penne 1881 – Rome 1969) was a renowned landscape architect and architecture educator, acclaimed for his park and garden designs in Rome. After completing his studies in land surveying at the technical institute in Chieti in 1901, De Vico worked as an agrarian expert in Penne and Castellamare Adriatico (Pescara). Moving to Rome, he pursued further education at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts, obtaining his diploma in architectural drawing in 1907. Between 1908 and 1914, he worked in Pompeo Passerini’s studio, where he developed a taste for Neo-Baroque decoration, known as barocchetto. In 1914, he began teaching architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in the capital city. One of his early major projects was the water reservoir at Villa Borghese in Rome, completed between 1922 and 1925. It features eight Latin inscriptions by Raffaello Santarelli and one by De Vico himself (Nastasi 2019: 395–98). From 1923 to 1935, De Vico served as consultant for Rome’s municipal gardens, creating numerous distinctive green spaces. Among his notable projects are the Parco della Rimembranza at Villa Glori (1923–1924) and the Monte Mario park (1925). Between 1926 and 1932, De Vico designed gardens surrounding the Trajan Baths at Colle Oppio, characteristically incorporating the site’s archaeological elements. In 1927, he created one of his most renowned works: the large octagonal fountain in Piazza Mazzini, surrounded by greenery. He was probably involved in selecting the text of the Latin inscriptions featured there (Nastasi 2019: 558). De Vico played a key role in the landscape planning for the E42 exposition, designing the distinctive Cascade Garden and other green areas. After the war, in 1951, he was tasked with supervising the restoration and maintenance of the area’s green spaces (Casciato 1991; Cremona, Crescentini, and Santolini 2020; De Vico Fallani 1985; Gawlik 2017).

Bibliography

Casciato, Maristella. 1991. ‘De Vico, Raffaele’. In Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 39:555–56. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.

Cremona, Alessandro, Claudio Crescentini, and Sandro Santolini, eds. 2020. Raffaele de Vico, architetto e paesaggista: un ‘consulente artistico’ per Roma. Rome: Palombi.

De Vico Fallani, Massimo. 1985. Raffaele De Vico e i giardini di Roma. Florence: Sansoni.

Gawlik, Ulrike. 2017. Raffaele de Vico: I giardini e le architetture romane dal 1908 al 1962. Translated by Marco Mataloni. Giardini e paesaggio 49. Florence: Leo S. Olschki.

Nastasi, Antonino. 2019. Le iscrizioni in latino di Roma Capitale (1870–2018). Rome: Edizioni Quasar.

Han Lamers