User:Hryck/Villa La Rotonda

Inspiration[edit]

In 1565 a priest, Paolo Almerico, on his retirement from the Vatican (as referendario apostolico of Pope Pius IV and afterwards Pius V), returned to his home town of Vicenza in the Venetian countryside and built a country house. This house, later known as 'La Rotonda', was to be one of Palladio's best-known legacies to the architectural world. Villa Capra may have inspired a thousand subsequent buildings, but the villa was itself inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. In addition, the early work of Palladio had a significant influence on the creation and design of Villa La Rotonda. Villa Emo was a predecessor for the Villa Rotonda in the sense that it allowed Palladio to more fully flesh out his design of villas and their specific purpose. This building made strides in Villa design including changing the use of porticos for architectural purposes. These additions were no longer for agricultural needs, but more so for ornamentation. They retain the shape and stylistic reference of traditional porticos but lack the utility of previous versions.

Design[edit]

The site selected was a hilltop just outside the city of Vicenza. Unlike some other Palladian villas of the Veneto, the building was not designed from the start to accommodate a working farm. This sophisticated building was designed for a site which was, in modern terminology, "suburban". Palladio classed the building as a "palazzo" rather than a villa.

The overall form of the structure is based around geometric shapes and the meanings that Palladio and his culture placed on the use of geometry in architecture and design. Circles were seen as representing things of the heavenly realm, where squares are representative of Earth, the elements, and the cardinal directions. The Latin Cross layout is also heavily connected to the Vitruvian Man by Da Vinci and the human proportions to geometric shapes.

Palladio's design was inspired by original designs of Venetian Terraferma villa architecture, which is marked by three main characteristics: porticos, dovecot towers, and a ramp to the main entrance. Porticos were originally used as storage and protection against the elements. Dovecots were originally markers that a villa was self sufficient and acted as spaces for birds to be protected from the elements as well.

The design is for a completely symmetrical building having a square plan with four facades, each of which has a projecting portico. The whole is contained within an imaginary circle which touches each corner of the building and centres of the porticos (illustration, left). Though the Villa is symmetrical on all sides, there is evidence that the northeast and southeast facades were slightly favored as actual entrances to the building. This is evident in their ascents to the building and the pattern of use in the grass surrounding the building.

The name La Rotonda refers to the central circular hall with its dome. To describe the villa, as a whole, as a rotunda is technically incorrect, as the building is not circular but rather the intersection of a square with a cross. Each portico has steps leading up to it, and opens via a small cabinet or corridor to the circular domed central hall. This and all other rooms were proportioned with mathematical precision according to Palladio's rules of architecture which he published in I quattro libri dell'architettura. Work spaces for the villa's servants are hidden underneath the first floor, which is accessed via staircases hidden inside the walls of the central hall.

The design reflected the humanist values of Renaissance architecture. In order for each room to have some sun, the design was rotated 45 degrees from each cardinal point of the compass. Each of the four porticos has pediments graced by statues of classical deities. The pediments were each supported by six Ionic columns. Each portico was flanked by a single window. All principal rooms were on the second floor or piano nobile.

Building began in 1567. Neither Palladio nor the owner, Paolo Almerico, were to see the completion of the villa. Palladio died in 1580 and a second architect, Vincenzo Scamozzi, was employed by the new owners to oversee the completion. One of the major changes he made to the original plan was to modify the two-storey central hall.

Palladio had intended it to be covered by a high semi-circular dome but Scamozzi designed a lower dome with an oculus (intended to be open to the sky) inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. The dome was ultimately completed with a cupola.

There have been some significant changes to the original vision of Palladio due to the amount of time that has passed since its original creation and the changing of architects and owners over the last several centuries. Due to the amount of changes created, scholars have created three views of the building from which it can be analyzed. The first view is the original, as seen in Palladio's I quattro libri dell'architettura, originally drawn and designed by the architect. Another is its first completion, which most closely reflects the original drawings. The final version is the Villa as it stands now, with all of the alterations made by architects and owners following Palladio's time.

Article Draft

References

Read, Gray ; Feuerstein, Marcia. “The Satyric Scene: Palladio’s Villa Rotonda.” Architecture as a Performing Art, Routledge, 2013, pp. 137–154.

Hopkins, Andrew. “Neither Perfect Nor Ideal: Palladio’s Villa Rotonda.” Architectural History, vol. 65, 2022, pp. 155–194.

Holberton, Paul. Palladio's Villas : Life in the Renaissance Countryside. Murray, 1990.