Rechsteiner Villa and its 17th-century frescoes

Villa Rechsteiner

The park then opens out onto the estate’s Venetian villa, built in the 17th century as a summer residence for Venetian patricians who oversaw agricultural activities in the countryside; historically, it comprised not only the main house but also the rustic outbuildings used for farming and livestock rearing.
Even back then, the villa was a meeting place; a small, self-sufficient and sustainable ecosystem that encompassed a variety of activities.
Over the years, the owners of these villas enriched their estates with works of art and the creation of romantic parks to distinguish theirs from those of other families.
Our 17th-century villa is inspired by the typical Venetian palazzo, featuring the characteristic symmetrical quadrangular layout spread over three storeys. Indeed, if you stand in the centre of the villa with all the windows open, you can see perfectly the exterior of all four sides surrounding the villa.
The ground floor is not open to visitors as it remains the private residence of the estate’s owner and is only opened on special occasions, particularly in summer during the masterclasses.

The side section with the three arches, which once housed the barn and stables for the horses and which flanks the main body of the villa, also dates back to the 17th century; the connecting passages between the two structures, however, were built later in the 19th century.

The frescoes at Villa Rechsteiner

The frescoes at Villa Rechsteiner were unveiled on 25 October 2025 following the intensive and magnificent work carried out by our conservators. These frescoes were rediscovered and brought to light following the restoration of the villa’s south façade.

The façade of Villa Rechsteiner can be read like a veritable book of stories, the creation of which is thought to date back to the mid-17th century.

The main theme of the frescoes on the façades of 17th-century Venetian villas is the celebration of aristocratic life, wealth, culture and the humanist philosophy that characterised the nobility of the time. Through allegories, mythological scenes and historical references, these depictions conveyed the values of the owning family, their relationship with nature and the connection between civilisation and the surrounding environment.

The painted decorations, together with the architecture of Villa Rechsteiner, express the concept of ‘supreme civilisation’, attainable through a perfect balance between humankind and nature, without ever forsaking historical memory and knowledge of the past.

The Villa was also intended to be a place dedicated to study and meditation, in keeping with the classical concept of otium, understood as time devoted to culture, reflection and the personal development of the aristocracy. The frescoes reflect precisely these ideals through the depiction of deities, myths and stories capable of conveying moral and philosophical teachings.

ZEUS AND LATONA: THE BIRTH OF THE TWO DIVINE TWINS
(Central section of the façade)

At the centre of the façade, two large figures can be seen. On the right is a female figure dressed in red, leading a child by the hand as he climbs a staircase. On the left is an elderly man with a white beard, holding a little girl in his arms, as if about to present her to the world.

These are the parents of the two divine twins, Apollo and Artemis: Zeus and Leto.

Zeus, king of the Olympian gods, was the son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea and represented supreme power, justice and cosmic order. Leto (or Latona), daughter of the Titans Ceus and Phoebe, was a deity associated with motherhood, nature and the protection of young people. Her iconography also evokes values such as modesty and feminine virtues.

According to the myth, their union arose from an extramarital affair, one of the many amorous escapades attributed to Zeus. The god, famous for his transformations and deceptions, is said to have united with Leto by taking the form of a quail alongside her.

Later, tormented by the jealousy of Hera, Zeus’s wife, and pursued by the serpent Python – a monster born of the mud following the Great Flood – Leto desperately sought a safe place in which to give birth to her children. Everywhere, however, she was denied shelter for fear of the consequences of Hera’s divine wrath.

Eventually, she found refuge on the island of Asteria, situated in the Cyclades Sea. According to the myth, the island was a floating landmass, not yet anchored to the seabed. Upon the birth of the twins, Zeus anchored it permanently to the seabed, and the island took the name Delos, from the Greek dêlos, ‘the luminous one’.

Artemis was born first and, according to some versions of the myth, helped her mother during the birth of her brother Apollo. At the moment of the Sun God’s birth, the island was enveloped in a warm and splendid light: nature itself seemed to celebrate the arrival of the two new gods. Flowers blossomed spontaneously, whilst the sea took on shades of gold and purple.

Other traditions, however, recount that Leto reached the island of Asteria in the form of a she-wolf, having come from the land of the Hyperboreans, to give birth to the twins.

Apollo and Artemis are among the twelve Olympian gods and are often associated with celestial bodies: Apollo with the Sun and Artemis with the Moon. They represent two complementary forces: light, harmony and knowledge on the one hand; wild nature, night and mystery on the other.

THE MYTH OF NIOBE
(Left-hand side of the façade, as seen by the observer)

Niobe, Queen of Thebes, was an extremely fortunate woman: born of noble stock, immensely wealthy and endowed with great power. What made her prouder than anything else, however, was her large family.

During the celebrations in honour of the goddess Leto, Niobe dared to interrupt the sacred rites by proclaiming herself superior to the deity: she claimed that a mother with fourteen children was worthy of greater veneration than Leto, who had borne only two children, Apollo and Artemis.

Offended by the queen’s arrogance, Leto asked her sons to avenge the insult she had suffered.

Apollo struck Niobe’s seven sons with his arrows whilst they were practising wrestling and horsemanship outside the walls of the city of Thebes. Later, following further offensive remarks from their distraught mother, her seven daughters were also killed by Artemis’s arrows.

Consumed by grief at the loss of her children, Niobe was turned into a rock. According to the myth, a fierce wind carried her back to her homeland, where she continues to shed tears symbolically to this day.

The scene depicted in the frescoes shows precisely the moment when Niobe’s fourteen children were slain.

THE MYTH OF PHETON
(Right-hand side of the façade, as seen by the observer)

Pheton was the son of Apollo, the Sun God, and the mortal Clymene. From a young age, he longed to prove his divine origins and, for this reason, asked his father if he might drive his sun chariot across the sky for a single day.

Apollo, aware of the difficulty of the task and the dangers his son would face, initially tried to dissuade him. The Sun Chariot, in fact, was not merely a vehicle, but represented the cosmic order: its daily path governed the rhythm of light, the seasons and life on Earth.

Despite his father’s warnings, Phaeton persisted until he was granted permission. Once he had climbed onto the chariot, however, he was unable to control the divine horses, which were accustomed to Apollo’s steady hand. The animals strayed from their set course: in some parts of the Earth, the Sun’s heat became so intense that it scorched everything, whilst in other regions a bitter frost set in.

To prevent the destruction of the world, Zeus was forced to intervene by hurling a thunderbolt at Phaeton. The young man plummeted from the sky and drowned in the River Eridanus, which ancient tradition identifies with the River Po. (In the scene depicted in the frescoes, Phaeton’s body can be seen falling from the chariot and heading towards the Earth).

According to the poet Ovid, Phaeton’s sisters, the Heliades, wept so bitterly over his death that they were transformed into poplar trees, whilst their tears turned to amber.

A legendary tradition also links Phaeton’s fall specifically to the Po Valley: according to some interpretations, the site of his death is said to have been the area of present-day Turin, which was built on the banks of the river where the young man fell. Another tradition, however, places the fall in the Euganean Hills, linking it to the thermal waters and the cult of the god Aponus.

According to this account, Phaeton’s divine body, burning beneath the earth, is said to have endowed the thermal waters with their beneficial and therapeutic properties.

THE SYMBOLIC MEANING OF THE MYTH OF PHAETON

The story of Phaeton is not merely a mythological tale, but contains a profound moral lesson.

Phaeton represents the man who, driven by pride and the desire to prove his worth, presumes to transcend the limits imposed by nature and the divine order.

He does not seek confirmation of his origins through wisdom or knowledge, but through a concrete and tangible test: he wishes to prove that he is the son of a god by driving the Sun Chariot.

It is precisely this quest for personal affirmation, this inability to recognise his own limits, that leads to his downfall.

Before setting off, Apollo explains to his son the difficult route the chariot must take: a steep ascent to the highest point in the sky, followed by an equally dangerous descent towards the sea. Only those who possess balance, experience and control can master those forces.

His father’s most important piece of advice is not to use the whip to dominate the horses, but to guide them by the reins. This image becomes a powerful metaphor: instinct and passions must not be repressed by force, as they risk becoming even more uncontrollable, but must be governed by reason.

When Phaeton loses control of the chariot, the four horses realise that Apollo’s expert hand is no longer guiding them and begin to move in different directions. The young man is no longer able to guide them and becomes a victim of his own passions, just like a man who allows himself to be dominated by his ego.

The myth therefore invites us to reflect on the importance of moderation, humility and an awareness of one’s own limitations.

According to legend, the heat radiated by the sun chariot during Phaeton’s mad dash is also said to have altered the colour of the Ethiopians’ skin and transformed some fertile lands into deserts, such as that of Libya.

THE WINGED CHILDREN, THE POMEGRANATES AND THE SNAILS

Along the upper cornice of the façade are numerous winged children, depicted as small children with curly, tousled hair, intent on playing.

These figures, typical of the Renaissance and Baroque artistic traditions, symbolically represent love, beauty and innocence. At the same time, they evoke the most joyful and vital aspect of human existence: that playful and spontaneous dimension which is part of every person’s life and which allows us to approach knowledge with wonder and curiosity.

The cherubs hold and play with various pomegranates, fruits of great symbolic significance in ancient culture.

In Greek tradition, the pomegranate was associated with fertility, femininity and motherhood. It was considered a sacred fruit to female deities such as Hera and Aphrodite, and also features in the myth of Persephone, daughter of Demeter.

According to the mythological account, Persephone was abducted by the god Hades and forced to live in the underworld for several months of the year. During her absence, Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, caused the earth to wither; when Persephone returned to the surface, nature blossomed once more and a new season of abundance began.

The pomegranate was also featured in wedding rituals as a symbol of union, prosperity and the continuity of family life.

An ancient folk belief held that breaking a ripe pomegranate on the ground during certain ceremonies could reveal the future: the number of seeds scattered would symbolically indicate the number of children a woman would have.

Furthermore, according to some artistic and religious interpretations, the forbidden fruit of Eden was not an apple, as is often depicted in Western art, but a pomegranate.

Alongside the cherubs, snails also appear, with some winged figures seeming to play on or ride them.

This element, too, carries symbolic meaning: the spiral of the shell evokes the cycle of the Moon and thus the rhythm of the seasons, the rains and the growth of vegetation. The snail, with its slow movement, also becomes a symbol of the natural passage of time, of patience and of the continuous renewal of life.

Interpretative conclusion

Taken as a whole, the façade of Villa Rechsteiner is therefore not merely a decorative feature, but a veritable narrative in images. Through deities, myths and symbols of nature, the frescoes celebrate the relationship between humankind and the environment, between culture and life, recalling the fundamental values of seventeenth-century culture: balance, knowledge, moderation and harmony with the surrounding world.