Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

arranged the outbuildings in long, low wings branching out from the
main building and enclosing a large rectangular court area.

VILLA ROTONDAPalladio’s most famous villa, Villa Rotonda
(FIG. 22-29), near Vicenza, is exceptional because the architect did
not build it for an aspiring gentleman farmer but for a retired mon-
signor who wanted a villa for social events. Palladio planned and de-
signed Villa Rotonda, located on a hilltop, as a kind ofbelvedere(liter-
ally “beautiful view”; in architecture, a structure with a view of the
countryside or the sea), without the usual wings of secondary build-
ings. It has a central plan (FIG. 22-30) with four identical facades and
projecting porches oriented to the four compass points. Each facade of
the Villa Rotonda resembles a Roman Ionic temple. In placing a tradi-
tional temple porch in front of a dome-covered interior, Palladio
doubtless had the Pantheon (FIG. 10-49) in mind as a model. But, as
Bramante did in his Tempietto (FIG. 22-22), Palladio transformed his
model into a new design that has no parallel in antiquity. Each of the
villa’s four porches can be used as a platform for enjoying a different

view of the surrounding landscape. In this design, the central dome-

covered rotunda logically functions as a kind of circular platform

from which visitors may turn in any direction for the preferred view.

The result is a building with functional parts systematically related to

one another in terms of calculated mathematical relationships. Villa

Rotonda embodies all the qualities of self-sufficiency and formal com-

pleteness most Renaissance architects sought.

SAN GIORGIO MAGGIOREOne of the most dramatically

placed buildings in Venice is San Giorgio Maggiore (FIG. 22-31), di-

rectly across the Grand Canal from Piazza San Marco. Dissatisfied

with earlier solutions to the problem of integrating a high central

nave and lower aisles into a unified facade design, Palladio solved it

by superimposing a tall and narrow classical porch on a low broad

one. This solution reflects the building’s interior arrangement (FIG.

22-32) and in that sense is strictly logical, but the intersection of

two temple facades is irrational and ambiguous, consistent with con-

temporaneous developments in Mannerist architecture, discussed

22-31Andrea Palladio,aerial view of

San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy, begun

1566.

Dissatisfied with earlier solutions to the

problem of integrating a high central nave

and lower aisles into a unified facade,

Palladio superimposed a tall and narrow

classical porch on a low broad one.

22-32Andrea Palladio,interior of San

Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy, begun 1566.

In contrast to the somewhat irrational

intersection of two temple facades on the

exterior of San Giorgio Maggiore, Palladio’s

interior is strictly logical, consistent with

classical architectural theory.

High and Late Renaissance 603

22-31A

SANSOVINO,

Mint and

Library, Venice,

begun 1536.