Palladio’s villas - Architectural Inspirations from His Century to Our Own
Villa Almerico Capra Valmarana “La Rotonda”
Few architects have been as influential as Andrea Palladio (1508 -1580) one of the undisputed geniuses of the Italian Renaissance, whose creations are all concentrated in a relatively small territory of the Veneto region. Palladio’s Four Books of Architecture revived the classical Roman and Greek architectural styles, creating an innovative and stunning new form of architecture. Palladio designed magnificent theaters, churches and palaces; but his villas, his country houses are such an important legacy that the majority are listed by the UNESCO as part of the World Heritage Site of the city of Vicenza.
Andrea Palladio
Aristocratic and rich families of the Republic of Venice often had both an urban main house in town known as a palazzo and a country house, a villa. In a period of a few decades of feverish activity, Palladio produced numerous villas, each of them unique and closely matching and expressing the prestige, the wealth and the social standing of their owners. The villas, although diverse from each other, were designed in order to meet the demand of a new type of country residence. The wealthy and the aristocrats now sought a mansion that could be smaller, more rational and efficient and at the same time elegant and harmonious, blending apparent simplicity with refinement and beauty for the enjoyment of the owners and their guests. Before describing one of the most celebrated Palladian villas, let’s see the basic principles applied by the architect to all of his villas. The façades were built to be elegant, but also impressive and imposing, signaling from afar the importance and the power of the estate. Then there where sheltered but open spaces called loggie conceived for banquets, music events and conviviality. The interior of each villa was organized in an economical and rational way. The often massive kitchens, store-rooms, laundry facility and cellars were in the low ground floor; the main living floor was used by the family and their guests: the bigger public rooms were usually located on the central axis. Around them, Palladio designed private rooms, studies and offices. The villas were also often circumscribed by walls creating an enclosure where most of the farming facilities such as barns, ovens, sheds, stables, accommodation for the domestic servants would be protected from brigands and marauders. Each villa was also graced by carefully designed vegetable and herb gardens, fish ponds etc., often placed within the main courtyard of the villa.
One of the most famous and celebrated villas created by Andrea Palladio is Villa Almerico Capra Valmarana, better known as “La Rotonda.” Directly inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, the building is entirely symmetrical: it has a square plan with four identical facades, each of which is graced by a portico. The central hall is circular with a beautiful dome. In order for each area of the villa to have direct sunlight during the day, the design was rotated 45 degrees from each cardinal point of the compass. All principal rooms were on the second floor, also called the piano nobile. The interior of the villa is as stunning and inspiring as its exteriors. Renowned artists such as Alessandro and Giovanni Battista Maganza, and Anselmo Canera were commissioned to paint frescoes in all the main rooms of the villa. Needless to say, Palladio designed the villa to be in harmony with the landscape. Originally commissioned by Paolo Almerico, a priest of the papal court of Pope Pius IV, eager to retire in the area of his native Vicenza, the last owner of the villa was Mario di Valmarana a professor of architecture at the University of Virginia.
Villa Rotonda
The Rotonda became famous worldwide in 1979 when American film director Joseph Losey selected the villa to film Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, thus moving the story from Spain to the Republic of Venice. It was a tribute to the Venetian adventurer Giacomo Casanova who certainly played a role in inspiring the author of Don Giovanni’s libretto, Lorenzo da Ponte, who was a good friend of his. The film, featuring some of the best opera singers of the period (Ruggero Raimondi as Don Giovanni and Tiri te Kanawa as Donna Elvira) beautiful cinematography, impeccable new recording of the entire opera by the orchestra of the Opera of Paris, was a commercial success favorably received by the public and critics alike, and is still today praised as one of the finest cinematic adaptations of opera ever made. A dutiful thanks is owed to the magnificent Palladian villa where Don Giovanni’s intrigues, seductions, banquets, treacheries, and eventual downfall all take place.
