View of the northwest room in the foresteria

Toward the end of the seventeenth century, Cesare Alessandri, a wealthy Venetian merchant had a wing erected to the side of his villa, to be used as foresteria (guest quarters). Decorations embellish three rooms on the second floor; the paintings in the central hall and in the northwest room are attributed to Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini. The fresco cycles in these two rooms constitute the first private fresco commission given to Pellegrini after his return to Venice from Rome. His stay in Rome had been beneficial to his development, enabling him to incorporate into his own visual repertory the language of Luca Giordano and Baciccio.

The frescoes that adorn the northwest room, with the scene Hannibal Swearing his Hatred of the Romans, one can detect a certain stiffening of the figures compared to the rendering of those in the central hall. This may be the fault of the faux architecture, which is rather cumbersome, out of proportion.