Villa Capra la Rotonda

Villa Capra Rotonda is in northern Italy it was designed by Andrea Palladio. The correct name is Villa Almerico-Capra. also, known as La Rotonda, Villa Rotunda, Villa La Rotonda, and Villa Almerico. The building was named after the Capra brothers who completed it. villa Capra is now conserved as part of the World Heritage Site like many other work by Palladio: such as "City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto".

construction began in the year 1567. Palladio, and the owner, Paolo Almerico, were not 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 centre 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 highlight of the interior is the central circular hall, surrounded by a balcony and covered by the domed ceiling; it soars the full height of the main house up to the cupola, with walls decorated in trompe l'oeil. Abundant frescoes create an atmosphere that is more reminiscent of a cathedral than the principal salon of a country house. From the porticos, wonderful views of the surrounding countryside can be seen; this is no coincidence as the Villa was designed to be in perfect harmony with the landscape. This was in complete contrast to such buildings as Villa Farnese of just 16 years earlier. Thus, while the house appears to be completely symmetrical, it has certain deviations, designed to allow each facade to complement the surrounding landscape and topography. Hence there are variations in the facades, in the width of steps, retaining walls. In this way, the symmetry of the architecture allows for the asymmetry of the landscape, and creates a seemingly symmetrical whole. The landscape is a panoramic vision of trees and meadows and woods, with the distant Vicenza on the horizon.

The northwest portico is set onto the hill as the termination of a straight carriage drive from the principal gates. This carriageway is an avenue between the service blocks. As you get closer to the villa from this angle it was made to feel as though ascending from some less worthy place to a temple on high. This same view in reverse, from the villa.

The design of the building is completely symmetrical with a square plan and four facades. It reflected the humanist values of Renaissance architecture “The whole is contained within an imaginary circle which touches each corner of the building and centres of the porticos. The name La Rotonda refers to the central circular hall with its dome. To describe the villa, the building is not circular but rather the intersection of a square with a cross. Each portico has steps leading up, and opens via a small cabinet or corridor to the circular domed central hall. This and all other rooms were proportioned with mathematical precision per Palladio's own rules of architecture which he published in the Quattro Libri dell’Architettura. 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. 

The interior design was made to be as wonderful as the exterior. Alessandro and Giovanni Battista Maganzia and Anselmo Canera were commissioned to paint frescoes in the principal salons. Among the four principal salons on the piano nobile are the West Salon (also called the Holy Room, because of the religious nature of its frescoes and ceiling), and the East Salon, contains an allegorical life story of the first owner Paolo Almerico, his many admirable qualities was portrayed in fresco.

Work cited :

Palladio, Andrea"I quatro libri dell' arquitecttura di Andrea Palladio"Dominico de' Franceschi (Italian, active 1557–86)

Villa Barbaro, Villa DI Maser.

Villa Barbaro

In the fifteen hundreds the Venusian was going under an economic crises, the nobles Venusian’s had to live their palazzo in the city to keep an eye on their lands. This new life style gave birth to a new way of building. Half palazzo half farm known has the villa. In 1560 the Barbaro brothers, one of the most important family Venusian ask the architect Andrea Palladio to build them a country house, and a painter Paolo Veronese to decorate the interior of the central residence between 1560 and 1562.

Build into a slope, the building has two stories on the front and only one behind with and enclose courtyard.  Andrea Palladio, a former stonemason would become the favorite architect of the Venusian aristocracy. He had built over twenty prestigious houses. This type of villa invented and codifies by Palladio collected together a number of desperate building serving together different function but intended to melt into a harmonious whole. This was the new architectural ambition, a new concept.

The Villa of maser is strictly symmetrical. The main house with reception room is tossing forward it reclaimed the ability of the edifice while at the same providing the owner with an advance observation post  to keep an eye on their lands. The façade of the main house with pedimental column imitate the temple of the antiquity.

The central residential space is erected on the remains of a medieval castle or manor house. Its facade features four engage Ionic columns adapted from the Temple of Fortuna Virilis in Rome. As at nearby Villa Emo, barchesse (farm buildings) extend symmetrically from the left and right of the central structure The villa has an elongated composition consisting of a central wing with various side pavilions and courtyards. The ends of the barchesse are surmounted by dovecotes, each with a large sundial on the facade. The result is the famous 5-part profile familiar in later Palladio-inspired architecture, including the U. S. Capitol building.

Four smaller rooms set at the four corner of the ceremonial room makes the room cruciform. Just like in other similar past time. The cross shape room open to another larger room known as the salon of Olympus, which gives access to the privates apartments on each side.

Each apartment are alined in a row so that you can from one end to the other , according to Palladio it provide gayety and coolness during hot weather,

Respect for symmetry is sticcally mainted at one en is the portrait of Vene wife at the other is  a portrait of imself dressd for the hunt. In the Villa , Palladio alternate square room an room of  a square. 1, ½,1, ½,1 etc

 According to Palladio, beauty come from the form and the correspondent of the whole to the parts, the parts to each other and the parts to the whole such that it appears it appears like a well constructed body in which each members fit with each other. But, I wonder what happen to the meeting point between the main house and the wings it seems that they have been collide,like  they had crash into each other.
It does not seem like he put much time into connecting them.

 Worked Cited:
Palladio, Andrea"I quatro libri dell' arquitecttura di Andrea Palladio"Dominico de' Franceschi (Italian, active 1557–86)
La Villa Barbaro (Villa di Maser) • Stan Neumann • France • 2007 • 26 minutes • Color • 1.78:1 • English

Villa Madama

The villa holds a central place in the history of the Renaissance architecture. In 1518 Raphael was commanded by the cardinal Jules de Medici, cousin of pope Leon X to Build the villa.  The year 1518 is fall right in the middle of the renaissance, period between 14^th and 17^th centuries in different region of Europe. Originally, It started in Italy. Renaissance style emphasizes on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts. Renaissance architecture is essentially a revival of certain elements Greeks and Roman usually in churches, cathedrals or temples.

While the form of these structures changed over time and their location moved to suburban or even urban houses in garden settings, in villa Madama the core design principle remained an architectural setting for learned pursuits and spiritual withdrawal into a domestic retreat from the city. The idea of a house built away from the city in a natural setting captured the imagination of wealthy patrons and architects.

The Invention of the Villa: Renaissance Rome and Florence

The imagined grandeur of the ancient Roman villa-estate depended not only on written descriptions but developed from the rediscovery of painted frescoes on the walls of antique ruins. The painter-architect Raphael (1483–1520) reinterpreted the highly ornamental stucco details from their archaeological studies for the monumental Villa Madama in Rome. To design the Villa, Raphael had to study several existing building like the maritime Theater of Villa Hadrian, Tempietto and the roman villa Rustica etc.

Inspired by ancient precedent, Villa Madama integrated the concepts of the Roman garden and villa. Within an invented form featuring a Rectangular courtyard.

As constructed the, this villa only represent half of Raphael plan.If completed, the central feature would have been an open rotunda, inspired by the island enclosure at Hadrian’ s villa.

According to Yvan Loskoutoff in his article about Villa Madama several part of the plan is attributed to different architects. The first plan, a rectangular courtyard, is attributed to Giovan Francesco. The second is attributed to Antonio Da Sangallo. He introduced a circular central court partly design by Raphael. 

The decorations of Villa are by Giulio Romano and Baldassare Peruzzi, both major architects in their own right; Giovanni da Udine completed the stucco bas-reliefs imitating work found in Nero's recently rediscovered Domus Aurea; and finally, both Giovan Francesco Penni ("il Fattore") and the Florentine sculptor Baccio Bandinelli worked there too. Aside from the Raphael loggia, the villa's greatest artistic element is the salone.

The villa was to become a characteristic building type for the renaissance architects. In contrast to the urban dwelling, it was a country retreat. The villa most essential architectural attribute is the elevate porch, from which visitors could view the garden.

Work cited:

Loscoutoff,Yvan" Le symbolism des palle Medicinéennes a la villa Madama" Journal des savant. Years 2001. PP 351-391.

Bezemer, Vanessa" The Idea and Invention of the villa"  Oct 2004. print.