- Villa Barbaro
Infobox Historic building
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name =Villa Barbaro
location_town =Maser
location_country =Italy
architect =Andrea Palladio
client =Barbaro family
engineer =
construction_start_date=c.1560
completion_date =
date_demolished =
cost =
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style =Palladian |Villa Barbaro, also known as the Villa di Maser, is a large
villa at Maser in theVeneto region of northernItaly . It was designed and built by the Italian architectAndrea Palladio for two of his most important patrons, the brothers Barbaro (Daniele,Patriarch of Aquileia and ambassador to QueenElizabeth I of England , and Marcantonio an ambassador to KingCharles IX of France ). TheBarbaro family is an old Venetian patrician family documented as holding high office in the Republic of Venice as early as the ninth century. [Hobson in "Great Houses of Europe", ed. Sitwell, S. p.91 (see below)]History
The authorities vary as to the dates given for the building of the villa. The architectural historian Adalbert dal Lago states it was built between 1560 and 1570 [Dal Lago, Adalbert. "Villas and Palaces of Europe", p.50,
Paul Hamlyn 1969.] , while others state that the villa was mostly completed by 1558 [ [http://rubens.anu.edu.au/raider4/chandler/chap5.htm "Villa Barbaro: Architecture, Knowledge and Arcadia", website dated 2003] retrieved 09 July 2007] : Hobson [Hobson, "op. cit."] concurs with dal Lago that the date of commencement was probably 1560. By this date Palladio already had a close relationship with at least one of the brothers, having provided the illustrations for one of Daniele's publications, a commentary on the writings of the Roman architectVitruvius . Hobson credits Daniele with the idea of not only building the villa but also the choice of architect and the sculptorAlessandro Vittoria . While Daniele was better-known as aconnoisseur of the arts, it was for the use of Marcantonio's family and descendents that the villa was intended in the long term. [Hobson, "ibid."]Palladio planned the villa on low lines extending into a large park. The ground floor plan is complex - rectangular with perpendicular rooms on a long axis, the central block projects and contains the principal reception room. The central block, which is designed to resemble the
portico of a Roman temple, is decorated by four Ionic columns, a motif which takes inspiration from theTemple of Fortuna Virilis in Rome. The central block is surmounted by a largepediment with heraldic symbols of the Barbaro family inrelief . [ Wundram, Manfred, "Andrea Palladio 1508-1580, Architect between the Renaissance and the Baroque"Taschen ,Köln , ISBN 3-8228-0271-9 p.123] Below the pediment is aLatin inscription on theentablature dedicating the villa to the brothers' father: the inscription translates, "Daniel Barbaro,Patriarch of Aquileia , and Marcantonio his brother, sons of Francesco Barbaro" [Rybczynski, Witold, "The Perfect House",] .The central block is flanked by two symmetrical wings. The wings have two floors but are fronted by an open arcade. Usually Palladio designed the wings to provide functional accommodation for agricultural use. The Villa Barbaro is unusual in having private living quarters on the upper level of the "barchesse" (that is; the rooms behind the arcades of the two wings). The Maser estate was a fairly small one and would not have needed as much storage space as was built at
Villa Emo , for example.The wings are terminated by pavilions which feature large sundials set within their pediments. The pavilions were intended to house
dovecote s on the uppermost floor, while the rooms below were for wine-making, stables and domestic use. In many of Palladio's villa's similar pavilions were little more than mundane farm buildings behind a concealingfacade . A typical feature of Palladio's villa architecture, they were to be much copied and changed in thePalladian architecture inspired by Palladio's original designs.The interior of the
piano nobile is painted withfrescoes byPaolo Veronese in the artist's most contemporary style of the period. These paintings constitute the most important fresco cycle by this artist and were inspirational to many of the frescoes painted by other villa artists at that time. The frescoes have been dated to the beginning of the 1560s, or slightly before. To describe the frescoes by room: in the "Hall of Olympus", Veronese painted Giustiniana, mistress of the house and wife of Marcantonio Barbaro, with her youngest son, wetnurse and the family pets, a parrot and spaniel dog. The family dog also appears in another room, "The Room of the Little Dog". The "Crociera" room depicts imaginary landscapes and the villa's staff peering aroundtrompe-l'œil doors. "The Room of the Oil Lamp" has images symbolizing virtuous behavior and strenth. "The Bacchus Room" shows winemaking scenes and a chimneypiece carved with the figure of Ambundance, reflecting the bucolic ideals and splendor of the villa. [ Boulton, Susie & Catling, Christopher, "Villas of Palladio: Villa Barbaro" in "Venice & the Veneto",Dorling Kindersley , London 2001 p.25 ISBN 1-56458-861-0 ] The ceiling fresco of the "north salon" is a depiction of the planets represented by classical deities, which are linked to the signs of the zodiac. Gaia, the Earth goddess, is apparently depicted astride adragon . [ [http://www.chem.vt.edu/chem-dept/field/palladio.htm "Italian Palladian Villa at Maser" - Website belonging to Paul E. Field] accessed 2008-06-09]The male line of the Barbaro's San Vidal branch, which owned Villa Barbaro, died out in the 18th century [Hobson, p.93] and the villa passed through the San Vidal's female line into the ownership of the Trevisan and then the Basadonna aristocratic families. Finally, it passed to the Manin family, which produced Venice's last doge. Having been allowed to become ruinous in 1850, the villa was purchased by the wealthy industrialist Sante Giacomelli who began to renovate it. In 1934 Count Giuseppe Volpi di Masurata, founder of the
Venice Film Festival and father ofGiovanni Volpi , acquired the villa and began a full restoration back to its former glory. Today, it is lived in by his granddaughter.Since 1996 the villa has been conserved as part of a
World Heritage Site , "City of Vicenza and thePalladian Villas of the Veneto " which includes more than twenty villas. It is open to the public. [ [http://www.villadimaser.it/eng/home_eng.htm "Villa di Maser" website, 2008] en icon it icon Accessed 2008-06-09, when the site advised of special opening hours for the "Palladio 500" quincentenary]NymphaeumIn the rear grounds of the villa resides the "
Nymphaeum ", an arching architectural structure that frames the natural spring that has flown on the site since antiquity. The form is dedicated to the spirits of the woods, in honor of the villa's country setting. It has 7 figural statues in niches and 4 nearly free-standing figures which may have been carved by Marcantonio Barbaro himself. The spring forms a pool, which can be used for fishing. The water also flowed to the kitchen as well as watered the gardens. [ Wundram, Manfred, "op. cit." pp. 123/128 ]Tempietto Barbaro
Towards the end of his life, Palladio received the opportunity to build a church, the "Tempietto Barbaro", to serve the Villa Barbaro and the estate village. Tempietto Barbaro was built by the orders of
Marcantonio Barbaro , and the patrician's name appears on the entablature. Legend has it that Palladio died at Maser while working on the building. At Maser the patron and the architect agreed on a centralised building closely following classical models. In some other church commissions such as theRedentore (which is a related design to the Tempietto), Palladio had been obliged to go against his inclinations and provide a long nave, but at Maser he had a patron who preferred a centralised plan. The connection of a temple front to a domed building refers to the Pantheon. Aportico that is drawn out a long way, and has unusually steep proportions, leads along with the diagonal parts of thegable to two small bell-towers, which for their part pass on the upward-moving trend to thedome . The five spaces between the columns are framed by pillars, which are like the middle four columns in theirentasis and tapering. Thefacade probably faced on to a small square originally.The interior has stucco decorations attributed to
Alessandro Vittoria . Anentablature is finished with a rich decoration ofcherub s andtendril s and creates a transition to the dome vault, along with abalustrade . Palladio alternates deep niches on a rectangular ground-plan and closed wall areas with figuretabernacle s between the eight regular half-columns. The lower part of the building is completed by an unbroken continuous ledge, whose profile- three flat bands which are contrasted with each other by ovolo moulding- is taken over from the arcade arches. The architect contrasts two forms of cylinder and semi-sphere by a repeated emphasis on horizontals, and, over and above that, divides them into a palpable terrestrial zone and into a light, celestial one that cannot be precisely gaugued with the eye.Media Interest
In the 1990s the villa was featured in a production by the Cuban-American TV presenter
Bob Vila forA&E Network ("Guide to Historic Homes: In Search of Palladio").cite web |url= http://www.bobvila.com/BVTV/AE/Palladio.html |title=Bob Vila's Guide to Historic Homes: In Search of Palladio |author= BobVila.com |quote= ] More recently the villa has attracted the attention of the British TV presenter Dan Cruickshank for theBBC "(Dan Cruickshank's Adventures in Architecture )".References
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*Hobson, Anthony wrote the material on Villa Barbaro (pp 89–97) in "Great Houses of Europe", edited by Sitwell, Sacheverell,Weidenfeld & Nicolson ,London 1964. ISBN 0-600-33843-6.ee also
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