Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Palladian Villas of Vicenza





Look familiar? Maybe the back of the American nickel? This is Antonio Palladio's "Villa Rotunda" outside of the city of Vicenza. It looks familiar to us now because his style of total symmetry and putting the first floor up on a pedestal and with a dome has been copied ever since.






We see the Greek style pediments and columns. The very high ceilings of the first floor and the living quarters on the second floor all capped by a dome.






Palladio's works are scattered through northern Italy and he is known for country villas, like we see here. Urban Palazzos and churches. I would show pictures of the former except I ran out of battery charge on my camera and took photos with my phone but I don't know how to get them off of my camera.






Outside from inside.






This is the Villa Valmerana ai Nani (of the Dwarves).






This photo (pilfered from Wikipedia) shows the last Palladio design. It's the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza. Built in 1585, right at the tail end of the Renaissance, notice the 3D perspective (Renaissance) of the set. The first show here was of Oedipus Rex and the stage is meant to show the Roads of Thebes. They have preserved ever since.


If I ever get the other photos off my phone, I will post them.

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