PALLADIO, Andrea

The Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza was commissioned from Palladio by the Accademia Olimpica, of which Palladio was a member. Palladio’s theater was in part inspired by the ruins of the ancient Roman theater in Vicenza and other Roman theaters he had visited, as well as by his study of Vitruvius’s comments on ancient theaters. The inauguration of the theater, in 1585, featured a performance of Oedipus rex by Sophocles, translated into Italian and complete with music composed for the chorus by the organist of San Marco in Venice.

The permanent stage setting was designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi. It is based on the ancient Roman ‘scenae frons’. But Scamozzi’s arrangement of columns, statues, tabernacles, and reliefs follows no exact ancient model. The three central openings lead into radiating streets that seemingly terminate at a vast distance from the stage; this illusion is created by a rising pavement and the rapidly diminishing height of the buildings that line these avenues. But these Renaissance palaces are only a few meters deep, and the streets rise up as the rooftops descend.

View the ground plan of Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza.

The Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza was commissioned from Palladio by the Accademia Olimpica, of which Palladio was a member. Palladio’s theater was in part inspired by the ruins of the ancient Roman theater in Vicenza and other Roman theaters he had visited, as well as by his study of Vitruvius’s comments on ancient theaters. The inauguration of the theater, in 1585, featured a performance of Oedipus rex by Sophocles, translated into Italian and complete with music composed for the chorus by the organist of San Marco in Venice.

The permanent stage setting was designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi. It is based on the ancient Roman ‘scenae frons’. But Scamozzi’s arrangement of columns, statues, tabernacles, and reliefs follows no exact ancient model. The three central openings lead into radiating streets that seemingly terminate at a vast distance from the stage; this illusion is created by a rising pavement and the rapidly diminishing height of the buildings that line these avenues. But these Renaissance palaces are only a few meters deep, and the streets rise up as the rooftops descend.

View the ground plan of Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza.

The Villa Cornaro was commissioned from Palladio by Giorgio Cornaro, a Venetian nobleman. The construction began in 1553, and in the following year the Cornaro family began living in the central portion, although the wings and the second story of the loggia had not yet been built. These were added later, during different periods, one beginning in 1569, and the other in 1588, the latter under the direction of Vincenzo Scamozzi.

The structure of the building’s main section, with its elegant, projecting double pronaos of Ionic and Corinthian columns, has a distinctive appearance, more like a city palazzo than a country residence.

View the ground plan and fa�ade of Villa Cornaro, Piombino Dese.

The Villa Emo at Fanzolo di Vedelago, near Treviso, is regarded as one of Palladio’s most successful villas, celebrating the house both as a centre of agricultural production and as an arcadian retreat for the landlord. The raised central block, similar to that at the Villa Badoer, is joined at the sides by low, elongated arcaded barchesse, which are closed at the ends by dovecotes as at the Villa Barbaro. Each part of the Villa Emo not only serves a practical purpose but also has a clear visual and symbolic role. The pediment of the main house again combines ostentation with a play on architectural forms. The simplicity of the building’s exterior gives way to a sumptuous interior, with frescoes by Giovanni Battista Zelotti.

View the plan and front elevation of Villa Emo.

The Benedictine monastery, located opposite the Doge’s Palace on the island of San Giorgio, was founded in AD 982. The present church, begun by Andrea Palladio in 1566, was the fifth on the site, according to Francesco Sansovino, replacing one consecrated in 1419. When Venice was occupied by Napoleon in 1797, the monastery became a garrison for French, and later Austrian, troops whose tenure damaged the buildings. The library, archive, and most portable works of art were removed from the island and never fully restituted. Restored to the Benedictines, the church was reconsecrated in 1808.

Began by Palladio in 1566, the complex of San Giorgio Maggiore, on a small island of the same name in the basin of San Marco, was completed after his death with some alterations. It includes a church, a little harbour protected by unusual lighthouse towers, an immense monastery, and a tall bell tower, built in the late eighteenth century to a design that imitates the bell tower of San Marco, thus emphasizing the relationship between these two monumental complexes that face each other across the water.

The Benedictine monastery, located opposite the Doge’s Palace on the island of San Giorgio, was founded in AD 982. The present church, begun by Andrea Palladio in 1566, was the fifth on the site, according to Francesco Sansovino, replacing one consecrated in 1419. When Venice was occupied by Napoleon in 1797, the monastery became a garrison for French, and later Austrian, troops whose tenure damaged the buildings. The library, archive, and most portable works of art were removed from the island and never fully restituted. Restored to the Benedictines, the church was reconsecrated in 1808.

Began by Palladio in 1566, the complex of San Giorgio Maggiore, on a small island of the same name in the basin of San Marco, was completed after his death with some alterations. It includes a church, a little harbour protected by unusual lighthouse towers, an immense monastery, and a tall bell tower, built in the late eighteenth century to a design that imitates the bell tower of San Marco, thus emphasizing the relationship between these two monumental complexes that face each other across the water.

The Benedictine monastery, located opposite the Doge’s Palace on the island of San Giorgio, was founded in AD 982. The present church, begun by Andrea Palladio in 1566, was the fifth on the site, according to Francesco Sansovino, replacing one consecrated in 1419. When Venice was occupied by Napoleon in 1797, the monastery became a garrison for French, and later Austrian, troops whose tenure damaged the buildings. The library, archive, and most portable works of art were removed from the island and never fully restituted. Restored to the Benedictines, the church was reconsecrated in 1808.

Began by Palladio in 1566, the complex of San Giorgio Maggiore, on a small island of the same name in the basin of San Marco, was completed after his death with some alterations. It includes a church, a little harbour protected by unusual lighthouse towers, an immense monastery, and a tall bell tower, built in the late eighteenth century to a design that imitates the bell tower of San Marco, thus emphasizing the relationship between these two monumental complexes that face each other across the water.

The bridge is traditionally attributed to Palladio.

The sumptuous residence realised between 1570 and 1575 for the Vicentine noble Montano Barbarano is the only great city palace that Andrea Palladio succeeded in executing in its entirety. At least three different autograph projects survive, preserved in London, which document alternative hypotheses for the building’s plan, all quite different from the actual one and testimony to a complex design process.

In Palladio’s late period, a tendency towards increasing simplicity is evident in his design for the Palazzo Barbaran da Porto. Here, he used the motif of a two-storey palace fa�ade with corresponding bays, the horizontal emphasis of which respects the narrow street setting. A striking feature, also evident in the Loggia del Capitaniato, is the increasing use of decorative elements on the wall surfaces, which, in their horror vacui, display clear characteristics of Mannerism.

The photo shows the fa�ade.

View the ground plan of Palazzo Barbaran da Porto, Vicenza.

The sumptuous residence realised between 1570 and 1575 for the Vicentine noble Montano Barbarano is the only great city palace that Andrea Palladio succeeded in executing in its entirety. At least three different autograph projects survive, preserved in London, which document alternative hypotheses for the building’s plan, all quite different from the actual one and testimony to a complex design process.

In Palladio’s late period, a tendency towards increasing simplicity is evident in his design for the Palazzo Barbaran da Porto. Here, he used the motif of a two-storey palace fa�ade with corresponding bays, the horizontal emphasis of which respects the narrow street setting. A striking feature, also evident in the Loggia del Capitaniato, is the increasing use of decorative elements on the wall surfaces, which, in their horror vacui, display clear characteristics of Mannerism.

The photo shows the fa�ade.

View the ground plan of Palazzo Barbaran da Porto, Vicenza.

In 1548 Palladio received his first public commission from the town of Vicenza. The reconstruction of the original loggia surrounding the medieval town hall had collapsed in 1496, and after gathering proposals for its replacement from many of the well-known architects of the time, including Jacopo Sansovino, Sebastiano Serlio, Michele Sanmicheli and Giulio Romano, the town council decided in favour of the design by the local architect Palladio, thus firmly establishing his reputation.

Palladio’s solution for the loggia of the Palazzo della Ragione (also known as the Basilica) is brilliantly convincing, not least because of the use of the Serlian motif with which he concealed the irregularities of the inner structure, particularly the different widths of the bays, by varying the side openings while giving the building a harmonious general appearance. The idea of a double skin for the building derives from the structure of ancient Roman theatre walls, the vertical axes of which are articulated by equal-sized openings on the different floors and by engaged columns set in front of the walls. In addition, Palladio projected the Serliana - subsequently also called the Palladian motif - in the third dimension, since its columns are duplicated towards the interior of the loggia. The boundary between the building and the piazza was thus made permeable, as befitted the building’s function as the seat of the town council.

Palladio’s design combines various elements derived from the same historical source, but without producing a sense of monotony. The model for the two-storey casing was the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, which was surrounded by two-storey arcades in the first half of the 15th century. There, however, each arch on the ground floor is matched by two openings with slender marble columns on the upper floor. In the Basilica, instead of differentiating between the two levels, Palladio offered a uniform structure, albeit one that gives a general impression of variety despite its rigorous discipline. This effect results not least from the masons’ virtuoso handling of the many details of the building, which was not completed until 1617.

View the first floor plan of the Basilica, Vicenza.

In 1548 Palladio received his first public commission from the town of Vicenza. The reconstruction of the original loggia surrounding the medieval town hall had collapsed in 1496, and after gathering proposals for its replacement from many of the well-known architects of the time, including Jacopo Sansovino, Sebastiano Serlio, Michele Sanmicheli and Giulio Romano, the town council decided in favour of the design by the local architect Palladio, thus firmly establishing his reputation.

Palladio’s solution for the loggia of the Palazzo della Ragione (also known as the Basilica) is brilliantly convincing, not least because of the use of the Serlian motif with which he concealed the irregularities of the inner structure, particularly the different widths of the bays, by varying the side openings while giving the building a harmonious general appearance. The idea of a double skin for the building derives from the structure of ancient Roman theatre walls, the vertical axes of which are articulated by equal-sized openings on the different floors and by engaged columns set in front of the walls. In addition, Palladio projected the Serliana - subsequently also called the Palladian motif - in the third dimension, since its columns are duplicated towards the interior of the loggia. The boundary between the building and the piazza was thus made permeable, as befitted the building’s function as the seat of the town council.

Palladio’s design combines various elements derived from the same historical source, but without producing a sense of monotony. The model for the two-storey casing was the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, which was surrounded by two-storey arcades in the first half of the 15th century. There, however, each arch on the ground floor is matched by two openings with slender marble columns on the upper floor. In the Basilica, instead of differentiating between the two levels, Palladio offered a uniform structure, albeit one that gives a general impression of variety despite its rigorous discipline. This effect results not least from the masons’ virtuoso handling of the many details of the building, which was not completed until 1617.

View the first floor plan of the Basilica, Vicenza.

In 1549 Palladio commenced a two-storey addition of open loggie wrapped around the fourteenth-century Palazzo della Ragione, a typical example of the public halls built in northern Italian cities at the close of the Middle ages. Palladio himself called it his Basilica, justifying the term by the structure’s use as a law court, the original functions of the Roman basilicas. He used the motif we know today as the “Palladian motif or window” for both stories of the Basilica. It is an arched opening supported by columns and flanked by narrow rectangular openings or compartments. The medieval roof is still visible, but Palladio has deployed his arcades so that the old walls are invisible, and the roof seems moored to his building almost like a tent.

In 1549 Palladio added two-storey open loggias wrapped around the fourteenth-century Palazzo della Ragione. Each bay of the loggias is composed of an arch flanked by lintels supported by columns. The motif of the arch flanked by lintels, although it was first used by Bramante and was popularised in Serlio’s book, has been called in English the Palladian motif since Palladio used it on the Basilica.

In 1549 Palladio added two-storey open loggias wrapped around the fourteenth-century Palazzo della Ragione. Each bay of the loggias is composed of an arch flanked by lintels supported by columns. The motif of the arch flanked by lintels, although it was first used by Bramante and was popularised in Serlio’s book, has been called in English the Palladian motif since Palladio used it on the Basilica.

Although Palladio settled in Venice in 1570, becoming Jacopo Sansovino’s unofficial successor as municipal architect, he continued to build in Vicenza. At the beginning of the 1570s, commissioned by the Venetian government, he built the official seat of the Venetian military, the Loggia del Capitaniato, in the Piazza dei Signori, Vicenza, opposite his earlier Basilica. The design originally comprised a monumental loggia, probably of five bays, with giant engaged columns, although only three of the bays were completed.

Particularly noteworthy in this building is Palladio’s adoption of an unrestrained monumentality, which serves both to emphasize the building’s functional importance and to make the parts appear more clearly as elements of a total design. The side elevation is designed as a triumphal arch to commemorate the Venetian victory over the Turks at Lepanto (1571). Otherwise, a tendency towards increasing simplicity is evident. A striking feature is the increasing use of decorative elements on the wall surfaces, which, in their horror vacui, display clear characteristics of Mannerism.

The Palazzo del Capitaniato, also known as Loggia del Capitanio, was designed by Andrea Palladio in 1565 and built between 1571 and 1572. It is located on the central Piazza dei Signori, facing the Basilica Palladiana which Palladio designed twenty years earlier. While the Basilica was executed in white stone and devoid of decoration (if one ignores the design of architectural elements like the frieze, keystones and statues), the Loggia abounds in rich stucco decorations. Both the use of the giant order and this decorative richness are twin traits peculiar to Palladio’s architectural idiom in the last decade of his life.

The photo shows a side view of the Palazzo del Capitaniato. In the background the Basilica Palladiana can be seen.

The side elevation is designed as a triumphal arch to commemorate the Venetian victory over the Turks at Lepanto (1571).

Up to 1556 Palladio produced three basic palace types. The first, in 1550, was the Palazzo Chiericati, in which he extended his Palazzo Civena forum idea of a block with its axis parallel to the pavement, which it envelops in a loggia, or roofed open gallery. The tripartite division of the colonnaded elevation, which gives the building a definite central focus, was an innovation.

The second, in 1552, was seen in the Palazzo Iseppo Porto, Vicenza, in which he stated in its clearest form his reconstruction of a Roman house. The fa�ade was closely based on the Roman Renaissance palace type, such as Bramante’s House of Raphael (c. 1514), which Palladio had drawn in Rome. But it was planned in what Palladio believed to be the ancient Roman style. Two tetrastyle halls with four columns each were placed on opposite sides of a court surrounded by a giant colonnade of Corinthian columns.

The third, in 1556, was in the Palazzo Antonini in Udine, which has a square plan with a central four-column tetrastyle hall and the service quarters asymmetrically to one side. The fa�ade has six columns, which are attached to the wall rather than freestanding and which are centrally placed on each of the two floors, surmounted by a pediment or a low-pitched gable - a device normally used in his villas.

The Palazzo Iseppo Porto (also called Palazzo da Porto Festa) was commissioned by the noble Iseppo da Porto (d. 1580), a patron of Palladio and Veronese. The building had a rather long designing stage and a longer and troublesome realization, partially unfinished.

The Palazzo Iseppo Porto, which exists today as a fragment of a larger and more imposing plan, was designed by Palladio as an urban residence to introduce into Venetian architecture a new synthesis of contemporary Roman style, ancient classical tradition, and Venetian building customs. The result, which shows Palladio’s fully matured style and imaginative fantasy, carries the imprint of his Roman archaeological studies and his knowledge of the style of Bramante.

The palace was originally planned as a double site reconstructing the antique Roman house as conceived by Palladio, with two residential blocks linked by a peristyle court with colossal columns, although only the front portion was completed. The fa�ade combines various motifs to demonstrate Palladio’s mastery of both traditional and innovative forms. He derived the fa�ade from house-types developed by Raphael and Bramante; it comprises two floors and an attic. On the piano nobile engaged columns alternate with tall, balconied windows, which in turn are crowned alternately by segmental and triangular pediments; the fa�ades of all Palladio’s urban palaces subsequently used variations on this type, which emphasizes the horizontal articulation.

The photo shows the fa�ade of Palazzo Iseppo Porto.

Up to 1556 Palladio produced three basic palace types. The first, in 1550, was the Palazzo Chiericati, in which he extended his Palazzo Civena forum idea of a block with its axis parallel to the pavement, which it envelops in a loggia, or roofed open gallery. The tripartite division of the colonnaded elevation, which gives the building a definite central focus, was an innovation.

The second, in 1552, was seen in the Palazzo Iseppo Porto, Vicenza, in which he stated in its clearest form his reconstruction of a Roman house. The fa�ade was closely based on the Roman Renaissance palace type, such as Bramante’s House of Raphael (c. 1514), which Palladio had drawn in Rome. But it was planned in what Palladio believed to be the ancient Roman style. Two tetrastyle halls with four columns each were placed on opposite sides of a court surrounded by a giant colonnade of Corinthian columns.

The third, in 1556, was in the Palazzo Antonini in Udine, which has a square plan with a central four-column tetrastyle hall and the service quarters asymmetrically to one side. The fa�ade has six columns, which are attached to the wall rather than freestanding and which are centrally placed on each of the two floors, surmounted by a pediment or a low-pitched gable - a device normally used in his villas.

The Palazzo Iseppo Porto (also called Palazzo da Porto Festa) was commissioned by the noble Iseppo da Porto (d. 1580), a patron of Palladio and Veronese. The building had a rather long designing stage and a longer and troublesome realization, partially unfinished.

The Palazzo Iseppo Porto, which exists today as a fragment of a larger and more imposing plan, was designed by Palladio as an urban residence to introduce into Venetian architecture a new synthesis of contemporary Roman style, ancient classical tradition, and Venetian building customs. The result, which shows Palladio’s fully matured style and imaginative fantasy, carries the imprint of his Roman archaeological studies and his knowledge of the style of Bramante.

The palace was originally planned as a double site reconstructing the antique Roman house as conceived by Palladio, with two residential blocks linked by a peristyle court with colossal columns, although only the front portion was completed. The fa�ade combines various motifs to demonstrate Palladio’s mastery of both traditional and innovative forms. He derived the fa�ade from house-types developed by Raphael and Bramante; it comprises two floors and an attic. On the piano nobile engaged columns alternate with tall, balconied windows, which in turn are crowned alternately by segmental and triangular pediments; the fa�ades of all Palladio’s urban palaces subsequently used variations on this type, which emphasizes the horizontal articulation.

The photo shows the fa�ade of Palazzo Iseppo Porto.

The photo shows a detail of the fa�ade of Palazzo Iseppo Porto.

Also begun by Palladio c. 1550 was the Palazzo Chiericati, Vicenza (completed c. 1680), which has motifs echoing villa architecture. Its main axis runs parallel to the street, incorporating the surrounding space by means of a loggia. The tripartite division of the two-storey fa�ade, with the solid middle section of the upper floor (accommodating a large sala built over the colonnade) surrounded by loggias, exemplifies the increasing emphasis in Palladio’s work on the centre of a building, further expressed in the groups of four columns placed at the corners of the slightly projecting middle section. The ground-floor order is Tuscan and the upper floor Ionic, a combination that Palladio used in other buildings of this period, and the rhythm of the colonnade is repeated in the wall of the solid middle section with the use of engaged columns. The special feature of this fa�ade is the use of the loggia, which was unusual in an urban palace.

The site of the Palazzo Chiericati, on a large open piazza on the River Bacchiglione, may have led Palladio to treat the structure not as a house set into a confined urban environment but as an isolated building in the manner of one of his villas. In the Palazzo Chiericati the fa�ade alludes subtly to the idea of an urban piazza.

The plan of the Palazzo Chiericati is strictly symmetrical about a rectangular court at the rear, parallel to the street. The transverse vestibule in the centre of the ground floor is not matched on the upper floor; there the large sala reflected the importance of the piano nobile and the role of the sala as the site of public functions. The vestibule gives access to living-quarters at the sides; opposite the entrance a four-column arcade flanked by two staircases leads to the garden loggia. On this side, too, the size of the rooms in terms of floor area diminishes along the central axis.

This principle of dividing up the space of a house was methodically developed and followed by Palladio in his work. It is the use of rational building principles that gives Palladio’s plans just that quality that makes the proportional relationship between man and building so successful.

View the ground plan of Palazzo Chiericati, Vicenza.

The Palazzo Chiericati is probably the most original of Palladio’s private residences. The loggie look out on a large open piazza. The ground story is a Bramantesque loggia, but the paired columns and jutting entablature in the centre divide this into three units. The second story is a loftier Ionic loggia, the central area is filled in by a wall so that a solid block of masonry appears suspended among columns. On the top of the building, the lower divisions are emphasized by the alternation of clustered statues with large, fantastic urns.

The construction of the building began in 1551, it was completed in the seventeenth century after Palladio’s design.

View the ground plan of Palazzo Chiericati, Vicenza.

Also begun by Palladio c. 1550 was the Palazzo Chiericati, Vicenza (completed c. 1680), which has motifs echoing villa architecture. Its main axis runs parallel to the street, incorporating the surrounding space by means of a loggia. The tripartite division of the two-storey fa�ade, with the solid middle section of the upper floor (accommodating a large sala built over the colonnade) surrounded by loggias, exemplifies the increasing emphasis in Palladio’s work on the centre of a building, further expressed in the groups of four columns placed at the corners of the slightly projecting middle section. The ground-floor order is Tuscan and the upper floor Ionic, a combination that Palladio used in other buildings of this period, and the rhythm of the colonnade is repeated in the wall of the solid middle section with the use of engaged columns. The special feature of this fa�ade is the use of the loggia, which was unusual in an urban palace.

The site of the Palazzo Chiericati, on a large open piazza on the River Bacchiglione, may have led Palladio to treat the structure not as a house set into a confined urban environment but as an isolated building in the manner of one of his villas. In the Palazzo Chiericati the fa�ade alludes subtly to the idea of an urban piazza.

The plan of the Palazzo Chiericati is strictly symmetrical about a rectangular court at the rear, parallel to the street. The transverse vestibule in the centre of the ground floor is not matched on the upper floor; there the large sala reflected the importance of the piano nobile and the role of the sala as the site of public functions. The vestibule gives access to living-quarters at the sides; opposite the entrance a four-column arcade flanked by two staircases leads to the garden loggia. On this side, too, the size of the rooms in terms of floor area diminishes along the central axis.

This principle of dividing up the space of a house was methodically developed and followed by Palladio in his work. It is the use of rational building principles that gives Palladio’s plans just that quality that makes the proportional relationship between man and building so successful.

View the ground plan of Palazzo Chiericati, Vicenza.

In 1565 Palladio was commissioned by the Valmarana family to design the Palazzo Valmarana (now Palazzo Braga) in Vicenza; it was built in several phases and completed in 1571, although only a part of Palladio’s planned project was executed.

Its street fa�ade in particular makes it one of Palladio’s most interesting buildings. The giant order of its pilasters gives the palace a monumentality that must have had an oppressive effect in the narrow street setting. Inscribed within it is a smaller order extending the full width of the fa�ade at the lower level, a device possibly derived from Michelangelo’s plan for St Peter’s, Rome. The rhythmical articulation of the fa�ade nevertheless results from Palladio’s ingenious idea of marking the end bays not with giant pilasters but with statues placed above the interpolated order, thus providing a sense of compression towards the centre of the fa�ade, which in turn gives additional emphasis to the entrance. As a result, the building has something of a contrapuntal effect that runs counter to the tectonic laws of the classical orders, and it is thus an impressive example of Palladio’s increasingly independent manipulation of traditional idiom.

The photo shows the fa�ade of the palace.

View the ground plan and fa�ade of Palazzo Valmarana, Vicenza.

Palladio, who traveled to Rome several times between 1541 and 1551, took his inspiration for the Palazzo Valmarana from Michelangelo’s plans for the Roman Capitol - though the result is entirely individual. The palace had little in common with contemporary palaces in Venice.

According to a commemorative coin, the building was commissioned by the widow of Giovanni Alvise Valmarana. Palladio published the whole plan in his treatise, but only the front part of it was completed as envisaged. This was the first time that Palladio used a Colossal order of pilasters in a secular building.

The photo shows the fa�ade of the palace.

In 1565 Palladio was commissioned by the Valmarana family to design the Palazzo Valmarana (now Palazzo Braga) in Vicenza; it was built in several phases and completed in 1571, although only a part of Palladio’s planned project was executed. Its street fa�ade in particular makes it one of Palladio’s most interesting buildings. The giant order of its pilasters gives the palace a monumentality that must have had an oppressive effect in the narrow street setting. Inscribed within it is a smaller order extending the full width of the fa�ade at the lower level, a device possibly derived from Michelangelo’s plan for St Peter’s, Rome. The rhythmical articulation of the fa�ade nevertheless results from Palladio’s ingenious idea of marking the end bays not with giant pilasters but with statues placed above the interpolated order, thus providing a sense of compression towards the centre of the fa�ade, which in turn gives additional emphasis to the entrance. As a result, the building has something of a contrapuntal effect that runs counter to the tectonic laws of the classical orders, and it is thus an impressive example of Palladio’s increasingly independent manipulation of traditional idiom.

The photo shows the fa�ade of the palace.

View the ground plan and fa�ade of Palazzo Valmarana, Vicenza.

Around 1556 Palladio was commissioned by Francesco Badoer to build his villa in Fratta Polesine, south-west of Rovigo. Palladio, who was skilled at adapting his designs to client and location, was flexible in his approach to the Villa Badoer, the plan of which incorporates three longitudinal axes. The apparent single-storey configuration identifies the building clearly as a country villa, and the barchesse - incorporating the only curved loggias in Palladio’s built works - not only define the entry court but also set off the elevated central pavilion. The difference in height between these utility wings and the main house is accentuated by the high podium and staircase in several flights leading to the front portico. Its pediment, acting as a symbol of prestige, emphasizes the whole structure, not, as in the Villa Cornaro, the arrangement of rooms behind it.

In the cohesiveness of its design, the Villa Badoer must be considered one of Palladio’s most successful attempts to harmonize room layout, architectural function and residential qualities.

View the plan and elevation of Villa Badoer, Fratta Polesine.

This building is the result of one of Palladio’s early projects. Its construction began in 1542, at the behest of Losco Caldogno, an aristocrat and silk merchant from Vicenza, who had inherited an agricultural complex and fields in Caldogno the year before. Construction of the building and the decoration of the interiors extended over a long period of time, brought to completion only in 1570. Subjects chosen for the decoration of the loggia and the Central Hall suggest that the house was intended to be a vacation site for the family.

The central portion of the principal fa�ade, marked by three large openings surrounded by rustication, projects outward slightly from the wings and is accentuated by a triangular pediment.

The fresco decoration was completed by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo and Giovanni Battista Zelotti by 1570.

The photo shows the fa�ade.

This building is the result of one of Palladio’s early projects. Its construction began in 1542, at the behest of Losco Caldogno, an aristocrat and silk merchant from Vicenza, who had inherited an agricultural complex and fields in Caldogno the year before. Construction of the building and the decoration of the interiors extended over a long period of time, brought to completion only in 1570.

The central portion of the principal fa�ade, marked by three large openings surrounded by rustication, projects outward slightly from the wings and is accentuated by a triangular pediment. The rear fa�ade, similar in layout, was substantially reworked during the eighteenth century when two side turrets containing the staircases, a wide terrace, and a broad flight of steps leading to the terrace, were built.

The fresco decoration of the loggia, the Central Hall, and two other rooms (Room of Scipio and Room of Sofonisba) was completed by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo and Giovanni Battista Zelotti by 1570. In 1646, the interior distribution of the space was modified and a new small room (camerino), connecting the Room of Scipio and the Room of Sofonisba, was frescoed by the young Venetian painter Giulio Carpioni.

The photo shows the rear fa�ade.

The Villa Cornaro was commissioned from Palladio by Giorgio Cornaro, a Venetian nobleman. The construction began in 1553, and in the following year the Cornaro family began living in the central portion, although the wings and the second story of the loggia had not yet been built. These were added later, during different periods, one beginning in 1569, and the other in 1588, the latter under the direction of Vincenzo Scamozzi.

The structure of the building’s main section, with its elegant, projecting double pronaos of Ionic and Corinthian columns, has a distinctive appearance, more like a city palazzo than a country residence. Palladio’s design is notable for the creation of a central hall, a large space with four free-standing Ionic columns, preceded by a narrow vestibule.

During the 1588 work phase, Scamozzi had Camillo Mariani create stucco statues for the central hall, depicting two renowned members of the Cornaro family, Caterina, queen of Cyprus, and her husband James II Lusignan. It was not until the early eighteenth century that Andrea Cornaro decided to provide the villa interiors with pictorial decoration. In 1716, he engaged Mattia Bortoloni to paint six rooms on the first floor and two small rooms on the second.

View the ground plan and fa�ade of Villa Cornaro, Piombino Dese.

Built between 1554 and 1561, the residential complex of the Emo family in Fanzolo is characterized by a square central corpus, elevated above the extended side wings. The building is refined by a faux pronaos supported by four Tuscan-order columns and projecting out slightly from the smooth and plain fa�ade. In front of it, a monumental staircase, unique of its kind, is ramped instead of stepped.

The decoration of the interior, seven rooms and the central hall, was commissioned by Leonardo Emo, a Venetian patrician, from Giovanni Battista Zelotti.

The photo shows the fa�ade.

The Villa Foscari at Malcontenta di Mira, close to Venice, is another of Palladio’s villas with strongly scenographic qualities. The building is raised on an unusually high base, giving it an urban character, while the rustication running all round it contributes to its rural character. The portico of the fa�ade facing the river, crowned by a massive pediment, is balanced on the rear fa�ade facing the surrounding countryside by a large thermal window inscribed in a broken-bed pediment, a device that occurs in other buildings by Palladio and indicates both his study of antiquity and his independent treatment of the idiom derived from it.

The photo shows the front elevation.

View the ground plan and front elevation of Villa Foscari, Malcontenta di Mira.

About the middle of the 15th century, a new style of living came into fashion among the gentry of central Italy. It began with the Medici. Members of that family took to spending part of the year in the country. At first they stayed at the old fortified farm-houses that had protected their estates in the later Middle Ages. However, they soon began to require something more refined, little country palaces where they could relax, entertain friends, read and hear music. Palladio’s villas on the Venetian mainland - part working farms, part country retreats - mark the apogee of the form.

The Villa Foscari received its nickname “La Malcontenta” when the spouse of one of the Foscaris was locked up in the house because she allegedly did not live up to her conjugal duty.

The photo shows the front elevation.

View the ground plan and front elevation of Villa Foscari, Malcontenta di Mira.

The villa, executed for the brothers Nicola and Alvise Foscari about the end of the 1550s, is located in an isolated block on the edge of the lagoon and the banks of the river Brenta. It rises on a high basement, which separates the piano nobile from the damp terrain and confers magnificence upon the whole building, raised up on a podium like an ancient temple.

The Villa Foscari at Malcontenta di Mira, close to Venice, is another of Palladio’s villas with strongly scenographic qualities. The building is raised on an unusually high base, giving it an urban character, while the rustication running all round it contributes to its rural character. The portico of the fa�ade facing the river, crowned by a massive pediment, is balanced on the rear fa�ade facing the surrounding countryside by a large thermal window inscribed in a broken-bed pediment, a device that occurs in other buildings by Palladio and indicates both his study of antiquity and his independent treatment of the idiom derived from it.

The photo shows the rear elevation.

View the ground plan of Villa Foscari, Malcontenta di Mira.

About the middle of the 15th century, a new style of living came into fashion among the gentry of central Italy. It began with the Medici. Members of that family took to spending part of the year in the country. At first they stayed at the old fortified farm-houses that had protected their estates in the later Middle Ages. However, they soon began to require something more refined, little country palaces where they could relax, entertain friends, read and hear music. Palladio’s villas on the Venetian mainland - part working farms, part country retreats - mark the apogee of the form.

The Villa Foscari received its nickname “La Malcontenta” when the spouse of one of the Foscaris was locked up in the house because she allegedly did not live up to her conjugal duty.

View the ground plan of Villa Foscari, Malcontenta di Mira.

Located at a hill with a beautiful view, this villa was created by Palladio for the Vicenzan nobleman Girolamo Godi. It is the first villa designed by Palladio. It consists of a massive main body, with the middle portion of the fa�ade set back considerably to make room for a monumental staircase that leads to a loggia with three arches. This fa�ade does not yet have what will become the typical Palladian canon - a colonnade surmounted by a tympanum.

The interior was decorated with frescoes by Gualtiero Padovano, Battista Zelotti and Battista del Moro.

This building was commissioned by Daniele and Marcantonio Barbaro as a rebuilding of a family estate, some of the foundations of which were incorporated into Palladio’s design. Palladio seems to have become a member of the Barbaro household staff.

The Villa Barbaro was the modest main building for a small working farm, and the manner in which the flanking wings extend into the landscape has a practical rather than a theoretical basis. The main fa�ade is based on an ancient temple fa�ade; the arcaded wings to either side culminate in large sundials and structures that suggest dovecotes.

The interior was decorated by Veronese.

This building was commissioned by Daniele and Marcantonio Barbaro as a rebuilding of a family estate, some of the foundations of which were incorporated into Palladio’s design. Palladio seems to have become a member of the Barbaro household staff.

The Villa Barbaro was the modest main building for a small working farm, and the manner in which the flanking wings extend into the landscape has a practical rather than a theoretical basis. The main fa�ade is based on an ancient temple fa�ade; the arcaded wings to either side culminate in large sundials and structures that suggest dovecotes.

The interior was decorated by Veronese.

This building was commissioned by Daniele and Marcantonio Barbaro as a rebuilding of a family estate, some of the foundations of which were incorporated into Palladio’s design. Palladio seems to have become a member of the Barbaro household staff.

The Villa Barbaro was the modest main building for a small working farm, and the manner in which the flanking wings extend into the landscape has a practical rather than a theoretical basis. The main fa�ade is based on an ancient temple fa�ade; the arcaded wings to either side culminate in large sundials and structures that suggest dovecotes.

The interior was decorated by Veronese.

The Villa Pisani was designed by Palladio about 1552, for Cardinal Francesco Pisani. Unlike more typical Palladian villas - and their imitations in Britain, Germany and the United States - the Villa Pisani at Montagnana combines an urban front, facing a piazza of the comune, and, on the other side, a rural frontage extending into gardens, with an agricultural setting beyond.

Unlike many of Palladio’s villas in purely rural settings, it has an upper storey, set apart from more public reception rooms on the main floor; twin suites of apartments are accessed by twin oval staircases that flank the central recess on the garden side. On the exterior, little differentiation between floors is made: there is no obviously visible piano nobile. On the garden front, access to the park is from the central recessed portico only; a balustrade above a deep ditch keeps out informal wanderers.

The doubling of the piano nobile, apparent from the superimposition of storeys in the porticos, is seen in Palladio’s design for the Villa Pisani. Here he made use of an atrium with four columns, a main theme of his understanding of Vitruvius.

The photo shows the fa�ade facing the piazza.

View the original plan of Villa Pisani, Montagnana (partially executed).

The Villa Pisani was designed by Palladio about 1552, for Cardinal Francesco Pisani. Unlike more typical Palladian villas - and their imitations in Britain, Germany and the United States - the Villa Pisani at Montagnana combines an urban front, facing a piazza of the comune, and, on the other side, a rural frontage extending into gardens, with an agricultural setting beyond.

Unlike many of Palladio’s villas in purely rural settings, it has an upper storey, set apart from more public reception rooms on the main floor; twin suites of apartments are accessed by twin oval staircases that flank the central recess on the garden side. On the exterior, little differentiation between floors is made: there is no obviously visible piano nobile. On the garden front, access to the park is from the central recessed portico only; a balustrade above a deep ditch keeps out informal wanderers.

The doubling of the piano nobile, apparent from the superimposition of storeys in the porticos, is seen in Palladio’s design for the Villa Pisani. Here he made use of an atrium with four columns, a main theme of his understanding of Vitruvius.

The photo shows the garden fa�ade.

View the original plan of Villa Pisani, Montagnana (partially executed).

The Villa Almerico Capra Valmarana, known as La Rotonda, differs from other countryside residences in that it was built primarily as a suburban retreat rather than as a working farm. As was the case with all of Palladio’s villas, the exterior is rather plain. The setting made it grand and inspired Palladio to give each side of the house, built on a centralized plan, a pedimented loggia. Each portico is approached by a broad staircase. The extremely sensitive deployment of simple forms - square, rectangle, and triangle - combined with Palladio’s unerring sense of proportion culminates in a shallow dome which forms a surrogate crest to the hill, uniting the building and the land upon which it rests.

View the ground plan of the Villa Rotonda.

Palladio’s most influential building for the history of domestic architecture is the Villa Almerico Capra Valmarana, known as La Rotonda, sited on a low hill near Vicenza. It was built for the church dignitary and humanist Paolo Almerico as a suburban retreat. The exterior is rather plain. The setting made it grand and inspired Palladio to give each side of the house, built on a centralised plan, a pedimented loggia, so as to enjoy the views on every side. Each portico is approached by a broad staircase, the steps are flanked by projecting walls. On the corners of these walls and on each pediment, statues extend the axis of the villa.

View the ground plan of the Villa Rotonda.

Palladio’s most influential building for the history of domestic architecture is the Villa Almerico Capra Valmarana, known as La Rotonda, sited on a low hill near Vicenza. It was built for the church dignitary and humanist Paolo Almerico as a suburban retreat. The exterior is rather plain. The setting made it grand and inspired Palladio to give each side of the house, built on a centralised plan, a pedimented loggia, so as to enjoy the views on every side. Each portico is approached by a broad staircase, the steps are flanked by projecting walls. On the corners of these walls and on each pediment, statues extend the axis of the villa.

View the ground plan and section of the Villa Rotonda.

Palladio’s most influential building for the history of domestic architecture is the Villa Rotonda, sited on a low hill near Vicenza. It was built for the church dignitary and humanist Paolo Almerico as a suburban retreat.

The architectural elements of the villa were borrowed from sacral architecture. Its geometric shape was planned according to precise mathematical proportions. It is not just the four identical temple fronts, in the style of classical podium temples and placed against each of the four sides of the square building, that are sacral elements; the very shape of a residence as a centrally-planned building with a rotunda and dome derives from ideal notions of church architecture. Finally, the entire building, including the porticos, is in the shape of a Greek cross.

The pronounced sacral motif of the Rotunda is surely connected to its function as the status symbol of a rich cleric.

View the ground plan of the Villa Rotonda.

The Villa Almerico Capra Valmarana, known as La Rotonda, differs from other countryside residences in that it was built primarily as a suburban retreat rather than as a working farm. As was the case with all of Palladio’s villas, the exterior is rather plain. The setting made it grand and inspired Palladio to give each side of the house, built on a centralized plan, a pedimented loggia. Each portico is approached by a broad staircase. The extremely sensitive deployment of simple forms - square, rectangle, and triangle - combined with Palladio’s unerring sense of proportion culminates in a shallow dome which forms a surrogate crest to the hill, uniting the building and the land upon which it rests.

View the ground plan of the Villa Rotonda.

Villa Trissino is an incomplete aristocratic villa designed by Andrea Palladio, situated in the hamlet of Meledo in the comune of Sarego in the Veneto, north-eastern Italy. It was intended for the brothers Ludovico and Francesco Trissino.

Palladio included the project in book two of the Quattro libri dell’architettura, published in Venice in 1570. In the Quattro libri, Palladio affirms that he had begun the construction of a villa at Meledo for the brothers Ludovico and Francesco Trissino, ranking figures in the aristocracy of Vicenza and Palladio’s patrons not only at Meledo but also at their city palace in the Contra’ Riale (1558) and at a small suburban casino. Palladio refers to the building as having been begun, and praises the site which includes a small hill. However, it is debatable how much of the multi-level design illustrated in the book was constructed - probably only a small part of the design was ever attempted. This did not prevent the plan from being influential.

The photo shows the incomplete villa.

View the project of Villa Trissino, Meledo di Sarego.

Up to 1556 Palladio produced three basic palace types. The first, in 1550, was the Palazzo Chiericati, in which he extended his Palazzo Civena forum idea of a block with its axis parallel to the pavement, which it envelops in a loggia, or roofed open gallery. The tripartite division of the colonnaded elevation, which gives the building a definite central focus, was an innovation.

The second, in 1552, was seen in the Palazzo Iseppo Porto, Vicenza, in which he stated in its clearest form his reconstruction of a Roman house. The fa�ade was closely based on the Roman Renaissance palace type, such as Bramante’s House of Raphael (c. 1514), which Palladio had drawn in Rome. But it was planned in what Palladio believed to be the ancient Roman style. Two tetrastyle halls with four columns each were placed on opposite sides of a court surrounded by a giant colonnade of Corinthian columns.

The third, in 1556, was in the Palazzo Antonini in Udine, which has a square plan with a central four-column tetrastyle hall and the service quarters asymmetrically to one side. The fa�ade has six columns, which are attached to the wall rather than freestanding and which are centrally placed on each of the two floors, surmounted by a pediment or a low-pitched gable - a device normally used in his villas.

The beginning of construction on the Palazzo Antonini dates to 1556. The patron was Floriano Antonini, a young and ambitious member of one of the most high-profile families of Udine aristocracy. In 1559 the palace was already partially inhabitable, but in 1563 building works were still in progress.

Palladio’s project opens the section in the Quattro Libri dell’Architettura (1570) dedicated to city palaces although the Palazzo Antonini was actually a rather ambivalent building: it is truly an urban palace which assumes the typology of a suburban villa. In this respect, one must bear in mind that the palace rose on the borders of the urban centre, in an open area with gardens, just like the Palazzo Chiericati or the Palazzo Civena.

The design of its fa�ades facing the street incorporates engaged Ionic half-columns, fashioned from blocks of stone. A thick web of openings transforms the loggia onto the street into a sort of diaphragm transparent to the light. The entire edifice seems to be strapped by continuous bands of stone, from the plinth of engaged columns to the entablature, right up to the band corresponding to the upper frieze, where the small unframed windows of the granary open.

View the ground plan of Palazzo Antonini.

The design of the fa�ade facing the street incorporates engaged Ionic half-columns, fashioned from blocks of stone. A thick web of openings transforms the loggia onto the street into a sort of diaphragm transparent to the light. The entire edifice seems to be strapped by continuous bands of stone, from the plinth of engaged columns to the entablature, right up to the band corresponding to the upper frieze, where the small unframed windows of the granary open.

View the ground plan of Palazzo Antonini.

The Villa Emo at Fanzolo di Vedelago, near Treviso, is regarded as one of Palladio’s most successful villas, celebrating the house both as a centre of agricultural production and as an arcadian retreat for the landlord. The raised central block, similar to that at the Villa Badoer, is joined at the sides by low, elongated arcaded barchesse, which are closed at the ends by dovecotes as at the Villa Barbaro. Each part of the Villa Emo not only serves a practical purpose but also has a clear visual and symbolic role. The pediment of the main house again combines ostentation with a play on architectural forms. The simplicity of the building’s exterior gives way to a sumptuous interior, with frescoes by Giovanni Battista Zelotti.

View the plan and front elevation of Villa Emo.

The end of a particularly virulent outbreak of the plague in the summer of 1576 resulted in Palladio’s receiving a commission for another church in Venice, this one built on the adjacent island of the Giudecca. During the plague the doge had vowed that when it ended the city would erect a church to Christ the Redeemer in gratitude. Work began on the church almost immediately, and the following year, on the feast of the Redeemer (the third Sunday in July), the Venetian government established the custom - still observed - of a civic procession over a bridge of boats to a service of thanksgiving in the church.

Palladio’s design for the Redentore gives great prominence to the fa�ade. Raised on a podium and approached by a broad stairway, well suited to the frontal approach dictated by the annual ceremony, the fa�ade employs a subtle arrangement of interlocking triangles, pilasters, and attached columns. Palladio’s design provided an ingenious solution to the problem of adapting a Roman temple front to the high nave and lower side aisles of the church. He combined two temple fronts: a tall, narrow one for the centre unit fronting the nave with pilasters at either side and attached columns emphasizing the entrance, and a broad, lower one recessed behind the first. For all its complexity, the design manages to convey an impression of serene simplicity. The attic story over the main pediment evokes associations with the Pantheon in Rome, while, rising triumphantly above these classical forms, the bulbous Venetian dome flanked by turrets proudly proclaims the city’s Byzantine heritage.

View the ground plan of Il Redentore, Venice.

The fa�ade of Il Redentore is determinedly classical: the motif of two classical temple fronts placed one before the other, with the foremost one marking the nave is a device which Palladio borrowed from the classical era. The function of the fa�ade as the setting of the liturgical end of the procession is strengthened by the raised position, along the lines of ancient podium temples, and by the triumphal-arch motifs of the portal and central section.

When designing the ground plan, Palladio had to take into account the triple function of the church: (i) it is a votive church, built to express gratitude for the mercy shown by the Redeemer; (ii) it is a processional church, as the Senate vowed to hold an annual procession (on 21 July) to the church; (iii) it has to fulfil the requirements of a monastery church, because it was under the control of Capuchin monks.

Palladio’s solution was to create three separate and structurally different spaces, placed one behind the other, which open out in turn as one walks through the church. The barrel-vaulted nave, flanked by evenly spaced columns, marks the last part of the processional path and the destination of those taking part. Connected to it is the centrally planned presbytery, covered by a tambour and dome, and closed off at either side by almost semi-circular tribunes. Finally, the monks’ choir is placed behind the presbytery and is optically separated from the first two sections by means of an exedra. All elements fit in with the longitudinal scheme without losing their independent characters. Palladio used sketches of the ancient Diocletian and Titus baths as authorities for his structuring of the nave.

View the section of Il Redentore, Venice.

The interior of the church of Il Redentore expresses Palladio’s stylistic force and coherence. The building is traversed rhythmically by slender columns which support a sturdy architrave. The bright interior is illuminated by a series of great arched windows. Of great interest is the ambulatory, which runs round the apse between the high altar and an open exedra. In contrast to the richly articulated architectural details of the walls of the church, the great vaulted ceiling is plain white.

The inside of the church has the appearance of a great hall since it lacks a real transept. As in San Giorgio Maggiore, a majestic altar divides the large nave from the choir.

View the section of Il Redentore, Venice.

The interior of the church of Il Redentore expresses Palladio’s stylistic force and coherence. The building is traversed rhythmically by slender columns which support a sturdy architrave. The bright interior is illuminated by a series of great arched windows. Of great interest is the ambulatory, which runs round the apse between the high altar and an open exedra. In contrast to the richly articulated architectural details of the walls of the church, the great vaulted ceiling is plain white.

The inside of the church has the appearance of a great hall since it lacks a real transept. As in San Giorgio Maggiore, a majestic altar divides the large nave from the choir.

View the ground plan and section of Il Redentore, Venice.

The photo shows the interior courtyard.

The photo shows the interior courtyard.

View the ground plan of Palazzo Barbaran da Porto, Vicenza.

The photo shows the rear fa�ade of the building, with loggia on the ground floor, viewed from the courtyard.

View the ground plan of Palazzo Valmarana, Vicenza.

The photo shows the main hall.

The photo shows the main hall.

The main house has an almost square plan focused on a large central atrium or sala, also square; this has four columns supporting the structure of the upper level.

The photo shows the central hall.

View the ground plan of the building.

The main house has an almost square plan focused on a large central atrium or sala, also square; this has four columns supporting the structure of the upper level.

The photo shows the central hall.

View the ground plan of the building.

The Palazzo Iseppo Porto was originally planned as a double site reconstructing the antique Roman house as conceived by Palladio, with two residential blocks linked by a peristyle court with colossal columns, although only the front portion was completed.

In the original plan for the palazzo, the owner’s quarters were intended to occupy the part of the site towards the street, while the guest-rooms were to be in the rear block, in the manner of the ancient Roman residence as reconstructed by Vitruvius. The main house was to have been emphasized by two blocks projecting out each side of the central range, although in plan their rooms were not connected to those of the palace. The rooms of the palace, of progressively smaller volume, are grouped at right angles to one another around two staircases, giving rise to two virtually self-contained residential suites facing each other on either side of the central entrance atrium and reflecting Palladio’s preference for an axially symmetrical plan.

The drawing is from Palladio’s Palladio’s I Quattro libri dell’architettura, published in 1570. It shows the plan and section of the palazzo.

The Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) spanning the River Brenta is a covered wooden pontoon bridge designed by Andrea Palladio in 1569. It was destroyed many times, the last time in World War II.

The design of the bridge is included in Palladio’s Quattro libri dell’architettura, Book III (first edition 1570).

The idea of rebuilding the wooden bridge in stone was first proposed in 1503. Several projects were considered over the following decades. In 1551, the authorities requested proposals for the renewal of the Rialto Bridge. Plans were offered by famous architects, such as Jacopo Sansovino, Palladio and Vignola, but all involved a Classical approach with several arches, which was judged inappropriate to the situation. The commission of surveyors selected the single-arched structure proposed by Antonio da Ponte.

Villa Trissino is an incomplete aristocratic villa designed by Andrea Palladio, situated in the hamlet of Meledo in the comune of Sarego in the Veneto, north-eastern Italy. It was intended for the brothers Ludovico and Francesco Trissino.

Palladio included the project in book two of the Quattro libri dell’architettura, published in Venice in 1570. In the Quattro libri, Palladio affirms that he had begun the construction of a villa at Meledo for the brothers Ludovico and Francesco Trissino, ranking figures in the aristocracy of Vicenza and Palladio’s patrons not only at Meledo but also at their city palace in the Contra’ Riale (1558) and at a small suburban casino. Palladio refers to the building as having been begun, and praises the site which includes a small hill. However, it is debatable how much of the multi-level design illustrated in the book was constructed - probably only a small part of the design was ever attempted. This did not prevent the plan from being influential.

The woodcut is from I Quattro libri dell’architettura.

Rebuilding of the church San Francesco della Vigna was Sansovino’s first ecclesiastical commission in Venice. It was a contradictory one. On the one hand, this was a project with direct ducal involvement, for Doge Andrea Gritti, whose family palace lay just in front of the church, promoted the scheme and bought the right to use the chancel as his family burial chapel, while the side chapels were purchased by the richest and most powerful noble families in the city. On the other hand, this church belonged to the austere Observant Franciscans, who wanted a design appropriate to their ascetic ideals. Sansovino turned to his native Florence, and his design is closely modeled on that of the sister church in Florence, San Salvatore al Monte, begun for the Observant Franciscans by Cronaca in 1499. From Cronaca’s church Sansovino borrowed the fluted Doric capitals and plain frieze, the arched side chapels and aiseless plan, and the two-storey pilastered nave with clerestory windows.

Palladio was commissioned in the early 1560s by Andrea Grimani to build a fa�ade for the church. The display of grandiose classicism, with its gigantic columns raised far above head height, seems ill-fitting in this peripheral zone of the city, set between the lucid simplicity of Sansovino’s church and the austerity of Gritti’s palace in front.

The use of corresponding pediments over the nave and aisles allowed Palladio not only to resolve their difference in scale but also to make visible the hierarchy of the different parts with one architectural motif. This invention was to play a decisive part in the later church fa�ades of San Giorgio Maggiore and Il Redentore.

Palladio’s few churches are milestones in architectural history. San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice was commenced in 1566, but Palladio did not live to see the fa�ade, which was erected from his designs by Simone Sorella. Here Palladio presented a solution to the dilemma of the architect confronted with devising a classical fa�ade for the difficult shape of the Christian basilica.

View the ground plan of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

Palladio’s few churches are milestones in architectural history. San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice was commenced in 1566, but Palladio did not live to see the fa�ade, which was erected from his designs by Simone Sorella. Here Palladio presented a solution to the dilemma of the architect confronted with devising a classical fa�ade for the difficult shape of the Christian basilica.

View the ground plan and section of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

Palladio’s few churches are milestones in architectural history. San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice was commenced in 1566, but Palladio did not live to see the fa�ade, which was erected from his designs by Simone Sorella. Here Palladio presented a solution to the dilemma of the architect confronted with devising a classical fa�ade for the difficult shape of the Christian basilica.

In 1565 Palladio made a wood model (untraced) for a new church. The cruciform plan incorporates a spacious barrel-vaulted nave with a domical crossing, an enlarged transept (to accommodate the participants in the rituals for the feast of St Stephen, co-titular saint of the church), and an elongated apsidal choir behind the presbytery. The interior elevation consists of a monumental Composite order of engaged columns and pilasters raised on pedestals, carrying an imposing entablature, applied to a brick fabric covered in white stucco and illuminated by thermal windows. The church, including the quadrangular space of the presbytery but not the apsidal choir, was completed under Palladio’s supervision in 1575.

A year after Palladio’s death in 1580, the church was in use. Construction on the apsidal choir was in progress by 1583 and completed by 1589. It has been proposed that the elongated apse, separating the choir entirely from the presbytery, was the result of a new plan by Palladio for the church and monastery, coinciding with the 1579 initiation of the cloister of the Cypresses. The relation of the executed fa�ade to Palladio’s designs has been the source of much discussion. Istrian stone was first collected for the fa�ade in 1597, and work was begun in 1599 but was not completed until 1610. A monumental Composite order on high pedestals supports a pediment crowning the nave; this is interlocked with a lower, horizontal temple front, which coincides with the aisles. Below this, single-storey Corinthian pilasters frame triangular pedimented aedicules containing sculptural decoration celebrating the history of the church.

View the ground plan of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

Palladio’s few churches are milestones in architectural history. San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice was commenced in 1566, but Palladio did not live to see the fa�ade, which was erected from his designs by Simone Sorella. Here Palladio presented a solution to the dilemma of the architect confronted with devising a classical fa�ade for the difficult shape of the Christian basilica.

View the ground plan and section of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

The form and grandeur of this church depend directly on its location, highly visible from the representational and celebratory centre of the city at San Marco. Every year on the day after Christmas the doge and senators made a solemn visit to the church. In his “Four Books”, Palladio advocated a central plan as the most suitable for a church. Here, however, he respected the preference of ecclesiastical and civil authorities for a long nave and ample transepts - in this case to accommodate the annual procession of the doge - devising a Latin cross plan crowned with a dome at its crossing. Palladio’s nave, with its rhythmic interplay of attached columns and pilasters, is impressive and yet welcoming.

The inside of the church clearly follows the dictates of the Council of Trent (1545-63) with respect to liturgical concerns. The depth of the transept and choir in proportion to the nave is innovative. The imposing high altar, decorated with bronzes by Girolamo Campagna, divides the presbytery from the choir.

A monumental Composite order on high pedestals supports a pediment crowning the nave; this is interlocked with a lower, horizontal temple front, which coincides with the aisles. Below this, single-storey Corinthian pilasters frame triangular pedimented aedicules containing sculptural decoration celebrating the history of the church.

View the ground plan and section of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

Palladio’s grandest interior is that of San Giorgio Maggiore. The design is conceived in terms of a single giant order flanking arches supported by a smaller order. The sculptural quality of the interior contrasts engaged columns and pilasters. The effect of the interior is based on combinations of flat and rounded forms, and decoration is almost totally eliminated.

View the ground plan and section of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

The church Santa Maria della Presentazione is more commonly known as Le Zitelle (The Spinsters), since the convent here ran a hospice (founded by a group of Venetian noblewomen in 1559) for ‘beautiful girls’ from poor families whose beauty was thought to put them in danger of falling into prostitution.

The church was designed by Palladio around 1576 for a different site and built by Jacopo Bozzetto from 1581-88. Palladio’s work included the fa�ade between the two wings of the hospice. Roman influence is apparent in the design of the hemispheric cupola and the large lunette.