Beyond the Yalla Dog

Katie Campbell with outsize lemon in Garden of Villa Medici

We all thought that That’s Life was breaking new ground showing rude shaped vegetables on TV – but there is nothing new under the sun and the family Medici used to cultivate “funny/rude shaped” fruit to amuse and titivate their friends and neighbours and some over-size specimens can still be found in the Villa Medici Garden today.

The Villa Medici was the first purpose built humanist dwelling – Renaissance Architect Michelozzi was  commissioned by Cosimo il Vecchio  to create a dwelling purely for artistic and intellectual activities – but God was not entirely left out of the picture as the building is just below the Hermitage of St Jerome – and the two buildings juxtaposed on the hillside were clearly featured in the background of Ghirlandiao’s painting ‘The Death and Assumption of the Virgin’ .

In 1911 the property was rented by Iris Origo’s mother Sybil Cutting who later bought and renovated the Villa and the garden with the support of Cecil Pinsent. Iris (Ne Cutting) and Pinsent became close friends so he was a natural choice for her to also develop the house and gardens at La Foce.

The image below shows the Villa and the Hermitage still juxtaposed on the Hillside in Fiesole and not looking too dissimilar to the image above in the mid-15th Century.

Villa Medici with Hermitage of St Jerome behind it