The Palazzo Porto is a palace in Piazza Castello,

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a th ...

, northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It is one of two palazzi in the city designed by

Andrea Palladio Andrea Palladio ( ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be one of th ...

for members of the Porto family (the other is Palazzo Porto, for Iseppo Porto, in contrà Porti). Only two bays of it were ever built, beginning shortly after 1571. Why the patron, Alessandro Porto, did not continue with the project is not known.

History

For completing the scheme, which was probably intended to have been seven bays wide, the Porto family's 15th-century ''case'', still standing to the left of the great architectural torso, would have been incrementally demolished. The structure was completed after Palladio's death by Vincenzo Scamozzi. The project seems to have been initiated immediately following the publication in 1570 of Palladio's '' I quattro libri dell'architettura'', in which its design does not appear. It was illustrated by

Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi Ottavio is the Italian form of Octavius. Its feminine given name version is Ottavia. Ottavio may refer to: Given name * Ottavio Cinquanta, the President of the International Skating Union * Ottavio Leoni, Italian painter * Ottavio Piccolomini, (1 ...

in 1776, who called it the Casa Porto and traced the extent of foundations built for it, suggesting that an interior courtyard with an

exedra An exedra (plural: exedras or exedrae) is a semicircular architectural recess or platform, sometimes crowned by a semi-dome, and either set into a building's façade or free-standing. The original Greek sense (''ἐξέδρα'', a seat out of d ...

end was contemplated, of which part was built. Bertotti Scamozzi attributed its design to Vincenzo Scamozzi.

Architecture

Palazzo Porto in Piazza Casello shows the influence of Palladio's

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

visit. Its grandiose scale was not purely competitive with the Thiene, with whom the Porto were connected by contemporary marriages and whose palazzo faces it across the broad piazza, but corresponds with its urban position, intended to shape and dominate a great open space. The two standing bays fully define the programme of the intended façade: a giant order of

engaged An engagement or betrothal is the period of time between the declaration of acceptance of a marriage proposal and the marriage itself (which is typically but not always commenced with a wedding). During this period, a couple is said to be ''fi ...

Composite Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic materials ...

columns stand on high socles – themselves on bases that are taller than a person's heightThe proportions of base to column here violate Palladio's own canons of proportion. – against the crisp and flat urbane rustication of the

basement A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...

. The full expression of the order in columns breaks the

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

boldly forward over each column; it is one-fifth the height of the columns and pierced with windows in the manner of

Baldassare Peruzzi Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi (7 March 1481 – 6 January 1536) was an Italian architect and painter, born in a small town near Siena (in Ancaiano, ''frazione'' of Sovicille) and died in Rome. He worked for many years with Bramante, Raphael, and la ...

, to give light to rooms of a

mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian language, Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft ...

. A frieze carved with swags of oak garlands in bold relief, hung from the

abaci The abacus (''plural'' abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool which has been used since ancient times. It was used in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, centuries before the adoption of the Hi ...

of the capitals, passes between them, creating a richly sculptural unbroken band across the façade. Windows with alternating triangular and segmental pediments are each provided with a

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

d balcony supported by

bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

s. File:Palazzo Porto piazza Castello pianta BScamozzi 1776.jpg, Floor plan (drawing by Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi, 1776 File:Palazzo Porto piazza Castello sezione BScamozzi 1776.jpg, Cross section (Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi, 1776)

Conservation

In 1994,

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

designated "Vicenza, City of Palladio" a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

to protect the Palladian architecture of Vicenza. In 1996, the site was expanded to include the villas elsewhere in the

Veneto Veneto (, ; vec, Vèneto ) or Venetia is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about five million, ranking fourth in Italy. The region's capital is Venice while the biggest city is Verona. Veneto was part of the Roman Empire unt ...

and it was renamed "

City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto is a World Heritage Site in Italy, which protects buildings by the architect Andrea Palladio. UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1994. At first the site was called " ...

References

External links

Città e siti Italiani: Palazzo Porto in piazza Castello
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palazzo Porto In Piazza Castello Houses completed in 1572 Porto in Piazza Castello Renaissance architecture in Vicenza World Heritage Sites in Italy Andrea Palladio buildings 1572 establishments in the Republic of Venice

History

Architecture

Conservation

See also

References

External links