Where Gumbo Was #291
Someone once jokingly asked why Shakespeare was so highly regarded as a writer, when all his works just seemed like a string of famous quotations. Vicenza is a bit like that: the streetscapes of its historic center seem almost like a library of architectural references—and that’s no accident!
Palazzo Chiericati (1550), a combination of a town palace and suburban villa. It’s now Vicenza’s historical museum. Lower picture, ceiling of portico.
When I began writing this blog, with a Where in the World puzzle (which George G solved) in mind, it occurred to me that although the clues were all specific architectural items, they might look as if they were from anywhere. No tell-tale White House, or Banqueting Hall in London, no Pantheon in Paris.
The Teatro Olimpico, said to be the world’s first masonry indoor theatre
And yet, each of those buildings, and thousands upon thousands of others might come to mind looking at the clues, which were all the work of Andrea Palladio, a native of Vicenza, and all from his home town. Working in the 16th century, he revived and revised the forms of classical antiquity, and influenced, in one way or another, all of architecture since, and left his name to describe it.
At center, Casa Cogollo, mistakenly believed to be Palladio’s residence. Newer building to the left draws on his styles.
In addition to his buildings, his legacy includes an architectural treatise, one of the first and still influential, titled The Four Books of Architecture. In them, he set down principles and proportions, studies of architectural styles and orders, ideas on city planning, and plans for bridges, basilicas and for restoring ancient ruins.
The Valmarana Chapel and Church of Santa Corona. Valmarana was an important patron for Palladio; he also had a nearby palace built by him.
The books circulated widely and spread his ideas even to those who didn’t visit Vicenza to see his 23 buildings there, and others scattered in the region. His buildings, and the historic center around them, are a Unesco World Heritage.
Palazzo da Monte Migliorini (1550) and Palazzo Negri de Salvi, where he connected two existing medieval buildings to make a new one.
We took a day trip to Vicenza while staying in Verona in August. I had no real idea what to expect; in my mind, austere and well-proportioned buildings standing in open space, I think. But Palladio’s work in Vicenza was urban; villas, churches and palaces on streetfronts, and still in use, although mostly for other purposes than they were built for.
Palazzo Thiene (1542). The Thienes were one of the city’s most powerful families, and built one of its largest palazzos
Palaces of the wealthy have become bank headquarters, shopping malls and more—even a discount variety store. Some have better-maintained facades than others; some are more visitable, and one is even a Palladio Museum, unfortunately closed the week we were there. And none of them is hard to find; the local tourism office has a map with descriptions at its office and online.
Palazzo Thiene’s large spaces are now a headquarters of Banco Popolare and have a shopping arcade in ground-floor spaces.
We walked the route—not surprisingly, most of it follows the street named for him, Corso Palladio—stopping at many of the buildings, and wishing for a future day with more time to explore and better weather. The town has other things worth seeing as well, as the website is glad to tell you. It’s an easy hour by frequent trains from Verona and Venice.
The man himself, Andrea Palladio, wasn’t born to the life his clients led, and didn’t start out as Palladio, either. He was born the son of a miller in Padua and named Andrea Di Pietro della Gondola. The name ‘Palladio,’ referring to the wisdom of Pallas Athena, was given to him by one of his early patrons, the poet Trissino.
At the Palazzo built for Iseppo da Porto, note the recessed fan shapes above the lower-floor windows.As a young teen, he went to work as a stone-cutter in a sculptor’s workshop, and continued in that trade when he moved to Vicenza at age 16 and joined a guild of stonemasons and bricklayers. He earned a living making monuments and decorative sculptures. Trissino hired him while building a villa, took him under his wing, and introduced him to the study of classical buildings, even sending him to Rome to study them.
The Santa Maria church, near the town center at Piazza Dei Signori, is widely believed to be Palladio’s; St. Vincent, on the Piazza, may be by a student of his
In his early 30s, around 1541, Palladio began to work as an architect, developing a style from the buildings he had studied. And a practical style it was, too: Nearly all his buildings are stucco over brick, which allowed much cheaper construction than using heavy stones, and which mirrored both classical domestic architecture and his own training in the trade.
Facing the same square, one of Palladio’s narrowest and one of his widest buildings, Palazzo Porto Breganze and Palazzo Capra (now occupied by a Coin department store). Porto Breganze is only part of its original design size.
His first major public building, modified loggias for the town hall, are also one of his most beautiful. Although it’s not a religious building, Palladio referred to it as a basilica, and the name stuck; it’s now referred to as the Basilica Palladiano. His statue, at the top, is in the square at the end of the building.
Opposite the Basilica is the Loggia dei Capitani, designed by Palladio and built as an office for the local military commanders, with ceremonial space at the bottom.
And, not truly germane, but it’s hard to resist a view of the tower, looking up.
Excellent photos capturing the architectural styles. U.S. Army soldiers are fortunate to get stationed at Caserma Ederle and Longare and have a treasure trove of historical architecture at their feet. I was lucky to visit the Army bases here on military business but too naive to take advantage of that history.