Wednesday, November 28, 2007

This is what we are here for - La Rotonda - Palladio's most famous building!!!!!!

In fact, we had planned the entire trip to be at La Rotonda on a Wednesday, which, according to everything we read on line and in guides, was the only day it was open during the fall and winter.

So on the appointed Wednesday morning, we came down the ancient walkway towards the villa, our hearts pounding.....

There it is in the distance!

...only to find the gate locked, and a curt gatekeeper who barked at me, "E chiuso, signora!" ("It's closed, madam.") No reason. Just didn't care to open that day, I guess. Italians are like that sometimes.

This is as close as we got...

Man, were we disappointed.
David says it looks like poor La Rotonda is in jail.

We're going to have a whole series of photos of ourselves outside of Palladian villas that are "chiuso." It's our destiny.


A Little Palladian History and Design

Paolo Almerico, a papal prelate of the Popes Pio IV and Pio V, commissioned Villa Rotonda in 1566 upon his return to Vicenza after a long residence in Rome.

In the villa designed for the prelate, Palladio introduces formal elements to suggest a significance of sacredness. Palladio was inspired by the roman Pantheon, then named "Rotonda", resuming the classical theme of the "sacred space" that comes from the blending of the formal models of the cube and the sphere.

Palladio crowns the building with the cupola, and repeats four times the classical pronao (the inner area of a portico situated between the colonnade and the entrance) to celebrate the prestige of the commissioner and his important office beside Popes. La Rotonda is the only one of Palladio's buildings crowned by a cupola.

La Rotonda refers to the central circular hall with its dome. Describing the villa as a whole as a 'rotonda' is technically incorrect, as the building is not circular, but rather the intersection of a square with a cross.

Each of the four facades has a portico with steps leading up, and each of the four principal entrances leads via a small corridor to the circular domed central hall. This and all other rooms were proportioned with mathematical precision according to Palladio's own rules of architecture which he ordained in his famous book, Quattro Libri dell'Architettura. (The Four Books of Architecture.)

The design of the villa reflects the humanist values of Renaissance architecture; it was built so that each room would have some sun. Each of the four porticos has pediments graced by statues of classical deities, and each is supported by six Ionic columns.

Palladio's protege Vincenzo Scamozzi oversaw completion of the structure following Palladio's death in 1580.

Here's David with Cynthia, our host at the Villa Pasini where we stayed.
When she heard we couldn't get in to see La Rotonda, she drove us around
on a small road in the back where we had a good view of the building.
She was awesome!

La Rotunda - e chiuso.

Right down the road from La Rotonda is an interesting little villa, built in 1669, called Villa Valmarana ai Nani ("ai Nani" means "the dwarfs"). The villa takes it name from the statues of the 17 stone dwarfs, originally placed in the garden, now on the walls surrounding the house.

The legend tells of a dwarf princess who lived secluded in the villa, unaware of her size because she was surrounded by dwarfs. Upon seeing a handsome prince in the garden, she realized her handicap, and threw herself from the tower. The pain the dwarfs felt for the princess transformed them into statues of stone.

Another explanation has it that perhaps the statues were sculpted to please a dwarf child of the family.


The villa is famous for an extraordinary cycle of frescoes by Tiepolo done in 1757: it is considered one of the most important painting cycles of the Italian 18th century and one of the best examples of the artist's genius. They depict a fantastic "journey" through the Iliad, Aeneid, Orlando Furioso and Gerusalemme Liberata, the Olympic gods, and the Carnival of Venice. But we didn't get to see any of that ----

You can just see the top of David's head in this photo, looking through the gate.
The villa was (all together now) CHIUSO!

Cynthia, our host at the Villa Pasini where we were staying, drove us to this villa, and told us she and her husband are friends of the owner, who is a member of the Valmarana family. Seeing that the villa was closed, she even called the woman on her cell phone to request a personal tour, but the owner was out of town. Dang. That would have been incredible.



Returning to Venice

We came back to Venice for this last night because we have an early flight tomorrow. We took a train, and shared the car with a family from Singapore.

The Snail Stairs
The last thing I wanted to do this evening was to visit the Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, a small palace best known for the external spiral staircase named after a snail shell.

The palace dates from the 15th century and is currently being restored. It is located in a tiny little dead-end alley near the Campo Manin, near the Rialto. It was dark when we finally found it, and this is the best photo I could get.


Before we went back to the hotel for the night, we stopped at a little glass shop I had seen on the first day we were here. They had some beautiful things, and we wanted to pick up a couple of gifts. David bought me a gorgeous ruby red goblet - it is magnificent.

We saw a barge selling vegetables in a canal near our hotel.

We're staying at the Pallazo Odoni tonight.

The palace is named after one of its first residents, Andrea Odoni, famous 16th century art and antiques collector. Odoni is named in the town archives for friendships that joined him to famous artist Treviso - who completed an oil painting of him which is in London at the Royal Collection Hampton Court; and architect Serlio, who designed the first "Serliana" (Palladian window) in Venice in the north wall of the palace. (A Palladian window has a central arched section flanked by two narrow rectangular sections.)

The owner family has lived in the palace for five generations. Current owners Alessandra Giangreco and Alessandro Fabris renovated the palace with refined XIX century furniture, tapestry from the Rubelli collection, and ancient Murano glass lighting. It is gorgeous.

This is our room:

When we got back to the room after dinner, we heard music from one flight up: the family was practicing classical music on a piano and two violins. The music drifted into the courtyard outside our window - it was enchanting. What a magical way to drift off to sleep on our last night in this magical city.

This is the view of the courtyard from our window. VERY romantic!!

I'll give Henry James the last word on succumbing to Venice's charms:

"When you have called for the bill to go, pay it and remain, and you will find on the morrow that you are deeply attached to Venice. It is by living there from day to day that you feel the fullness of her charm; that you invite her exquisite influence to sink into your spirit. The place seems to become human and sentient and conscious of your affection. You desire to embrace it, to caress it, to possess it; and finally a soft sense of possession grows up and your visit becomes a perpetual love affair."

Well said, Mr. James.

Thursday morning it was up early and off to the airport for the lonnnnnnng trip home.

Flying over the beautiful Alps ... I let David have the window seat.



Now THAT's love.