The Villa Pisani is a patrician villa outside the city walls of

Montagnana Montagnana is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Padova, in Veneto (northern Italy). Neighbouring communes are Borgo Veneto, Casale di Scodosia, Urbana, Bevilacqua, Pojana Maggiore, Pressana, Minerbe and Roveredo di Guà. , the popula ...

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 ...

northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...

Architecture

It was designed by Italian Renaissance architect

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 ...

about 1552, for

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

Francesco Pisani Francesco Pisani (1494 – 28 June 1570) was an Italian Cardinal, born in Venice, the son of Alvise Pisani the noted banker, who was Procurator of S. Mark's, a member of the Council of Ten, and a Councilor of the Doge of Venice; and Cecilia Giust ...

. Pisani was also a patron of the painters

Paolo Veronese Paolo Caliari (152819 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( , also , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as ''The Wedding at Cana'' (1563) and ''The ...

and Giambattista Maganza and the sculptor

Alessandro Vittoria Alessandro Vittoria funerary monument - San Zaccaria, Venice Alessandro Vittoria (1525–1608) was an Italian Mannerist sculptor of the Venetian school, "one of the main representatives of the Venetian classical style" and rivalling Giamb ...

, who provided sculptures of the ''Four Seasons'' for the villa, which is in fact provided with fireplaces to dispel winter chill. Unlike more typical Palladian villas – and their imitations in Britain, Germany and the United States – the Villa Pisani at Montagnana combines an urban front, facing a piazza of the ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'', and, on the other side, a rural frontage extending into gardens, with an agricultural setting beyond. Unlike many of Palladio's villas in purely rural settings, it has an upper storey, set apart from more public reception rooms on the main floor; twin suites of apartments are accessed by twin oval staircases that flank the central recess on the garden side. On the exterior, little differentiation between floors is made: there is no obviously visible ''

piano nobile The ''piano nobile'' (Italian for "noble floor" or "noble level", also sometimes referred to by the corresponding French term, ''bel étage'') is the principal floor of a palazzo. This floor contains the main reception and bedrooms of the hou ...

''. On the garden front, access to the park is from the central recessed portico only; 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 ...

above a deep ditch keeps out informal wanderers. Construction of the villa was under way by September 1553, and it was complete in 1555. The central block is an uncompromising rectangle, with a pedimented tetrastyle portico, Ionic over

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

, that has been sunk into its wall-plane so that the columns are embedded half-columns. On the garden front, the similar structure instead forms a screen across the fronts of a recessed portico surmounted by a loggia, which become in single recessed central feature. The Doric frieze runs uninterrupted round the building, further binding all elements together. There are no surviving autograph drawings related to this project. However, Palladio published a version of the building in his '' I quattro libri dell'architettura''. The woodcut shows an idealized, amplified form of the villa, in which the

central block Central Bloc () is the name given in Portugal to the grand coalition of the Socialist Party and the Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries ar ...

is flanked by arched gateway structures that end in tall, three-storey tower-like pavilions.
I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura
', Venice, 1570 — facsimile of the book at octavo.com ]

Conservation

In 1996,

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 ...

included the Villa Pisani in the

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 ...

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 " ...

". The villa continues to be in private ownership.

Influence on other buildings

The Hammond-Harwood House in

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

Kinlet Hall Kinlet Hall is an 18th-century, English country house at Kinlet, Shropshire, England, now occupied by an independent day and residential school. It is a Grade I listed building and its design was inspired by Villa Pisani, Montagnana. The mano ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and

Wilanów Palace Wilanów Palace ( pl, Pałac w Wilanowie, ) is a former royal palace located in the Wilanów district of Warsaw, Poland. Wilanów Palace survived Poland's partitions and both World Wars, and so serves as a reminder of the culture of the Polish ...

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

were all inspired by Palladio's designs for the Villa Pisani.

References

External links

Centro Internazionale di Studi Achitettura Andrea Palladio: Villa Pisani di Montagnana
{{Authority control Palladian villas of Veneto Andrea Palladio buildings Pisani Montagnana Renaissance architecture in Veneto Montagnana

Architecture

Conservation

Influence on other buildings

See also

References

External links