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PALLADIO AND THE VENETO | Villa Valmarana - Vigardolo di Monticello Conte Otto - (1542) | ||||||||||||||||
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In the early 1540s Palladio designed a small villa for the cousins Giuseppe and Antonio Valmarana, at their commonly inherited estate in Vigardolo, a few kilometres north of Vicenza. The necessity of lodging two familial groups within the building may explain the layout of the rooms here, which are organised into two autonomous and symmetrical apartments, accessible from the posterior salone rather than the front loggia which the two cousins held in common. The extremely precocious date of the Villa Valmarana places this project amongst the architect’s first autonomous trials, and is documented by a rich group of autograph drawings. One of these (RIBA XVII/2r) is quite evidently the preparatory project for the actual building. The differences between the drawing and the executed building may be explained by the difficulties which arose in the construction phase: the high podium for housing the semi-basement service quarters is missing in the realised building (it was impractical because of the presence of numerous water courses), as is the broken pediment, and a mezzanine was added in construction. Likewise, the loggia ceiling is actually flat rather than vaulted. Fragments of wall decorations demonstrate that originally the villa was completely frescoed. This building is a transitional project, but one in which we find the characteristic traits of Palladio’s architectural language completely formulated for the first time. In fact, elements proper to the local Vicentine building tradition are noticeable in this villa, like the room disposition — which reproduces that of the Villa Trissino at Cricoli — and particularly the linking of the lateral rooms by precise proportional consonances (2:3:5, and precisely 12.18 and 30 Vicentine feet). Co-existing with these are formal motifs derived from the great, antique, thermal structures which Palladio had experienced directly on his first journey to Rome in 1541. These are quite evident in the loggia, in the vaulted structures of the rooms and in the serliana which if used to filter the external environment. |
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