wittkower oublished -was makingc

Y
I
1044 Rudolf
"two essavs on Palladio's architecture. The Geo-Politics was investedwi
this programm
^,\ tn. .rrays, lter lncluoed ln nls Dool(,
Archtectural Prnciple s n the Age of Humani sm,
featured r-r schematic drawings of Palladio's vil-
of the Ideal Villa a model for an l
classicist term
las which Wittkower used to reinforce his argu- Iiberated from
ment for reading Renissance architecture in Andrea Palladio and the the ascendanc
terms of irreducible rules or principles.'These decline ofthe F
drawings showed that architectural artefacts
Project of an Anti-Ideal City into political ar
+
+ +
= - + such as Palladio's villas were not merely episodic tion fromTriss
-+ + -f-
formal studies but systematic variations of the Palladio's early
same compositional logic. Architectural princi
Per Vittoro Aureli a classical faca

ples were thus implicitly proposed as an intellec- proposal forth

tual framework for architectural form, superior to and thus repea
the functional, programmatic or aesthetic goals to seminatedwitl
wich architectural historywas then still bound. Thepalazzowa
agricultural sheds andwere an essential compo-
As a core component of architecture's nentof Palladio'svillas, providingnotonlya merchanthous
emerging historiography, Wittkower's reading sense of context but a semiotic distinction that
domus."lhecer
ofRenaissance architecture quickly proved to secular domes'
allowed these buildings to be classified as villas
be influential far beyond academic historical recoveryof Ror
rather than palaces.The barcftesse, in this sense,
scholarship. Within postwar reconstruction in core ofPalladi<
are Palladio's geo-political context because they
:- -----F
Br
l England, for example, his project established a figure as the key metonymical register for the
-l point ofreference for a generation ofarchitects whole typology.
searching for formal legitimacy beyond the tech- Palladio's villas themselves were commis-
nocratic impetus of functionalist modernism. sioned at the highpoint ofwidespread social and
Venetian repu
In particular, his drawings, reducing Palladian city as sympt
economic reforms advanced bythe Serenissima
villas to proportional and spatial schemes, and social frag
Republic in the sixteenth century, and their par-
offered the possibility of deflning a more pro- collapse ofthe
ticular formal composition - a central palace
found rationality than could be provided simply Monarchia,he
flanked by two barns * is deeply embedded in
by technology. This commitment to seeing and ment, identifir
the political, social and formal impetus of such
interpreting a contemporary condition through reform. If, asJames Ackerman has argued, the
HolyRomanE
a Renaissance precedentwas reinforced five governmentw
s\t12 villa is one the most radically ideological archi-

tl 4r

IL
t
=
years later (and more radically still) by Colin
Rowe, whose ? e Mathematics of the
famously established a comparison between
IdealVilla

Palladio's Villa Foscari in Malcontenta and

Villa Thiene at Cicogna
Villa Badoer at Fratta Polesine
Villa Pisani at Monatagnan
Villa Pisani at Bagnolo
Le Corbusier's Villa Stein in Garches.'
tectures because in claiming self-sufficiency
within the countryside it hides its economic
dependency on the city, then Palladio's palace +
barchesse composition openly signals the villa's
relation with its regional and agricultural eco-
Empire, a sect
ism and eccle
these aspiratit
remained a ke
gothic mediev
architecture a
nomic context.: This immediately suggests an
political proje
riiiiri*d;;1ru:*
was unintentional, Rowe's iconoclastic compar-
alternative interpretation of Palladio's architec-
ture to the ones advanced byWittkower and
Rowe. This counter position does not define
as a kind ofrer
the series offc
ison of twovillas - one from the sixteenth cen- Trissino to Ro
Palladio's relevance to contemporary discourse
tury, the other from the twentieth - seems to in terms of proportion or the 'mathematics' of its
through firstl
have been a deliberate attempt to interfere with of Roman antr
architectural composition, but reads the villa as
the trajectory of postwar architectural mod- research, and
one elementwithin a larger, latent project'
ernism. This desire to subvertwas established ing these visit
Rather than taking Palladio's 'ideal' as a model
not only by his argument for the comparable his architectu
for an equally ideal urban configuration, itviews
nature ofRenaissance and modern architec- to note here is
the geography and politics of the villa as a frame-
ture, but also by his pointingto the possibility Influenced by
work for rethinking and re-theorising the signifi-
ofa rigorous close reading ofarchitectural form about the dep
cance ofPalladio's work as a project for an
independent of its historical circumstances. pictorial persl
anti-ideal city.
For this reason, the villas ofPalladio and Le orthogonal te
First, however,let's dealwith the name,
Corbusier were deliberately extrapolated from ventions ofor
Palladio, bombastic and slightly ridiculous in
their geographical and political context; Rowe that contribu.l
its overloaded pretention. This was the name
even argued that the architects' lyrical site approach to tJ
conferred on Andrea della Gondolawhen he
descriptions celebrating their best-known villas Architecture r
was already in his 3os, having completed a long
- 'La Rotonda' and the Villa Savoye at Poissy - but scientific,
apprenticeship in a stonemason's workshop.
offered a too easy point of entry for comparison. rules. This fur
The man who named him - the Renaissance poet,
In this way, Rowe's text reinforced Wittkower's original form
humanist and diplomat Giangiorgio Trissino
radical denial of Palladio's site-specifi city, emancipatin
Villa Sarego at Meiga Villa Poiana at Poiana Maggiore and giving it u
apparent in the removal of the barchesse nhis r of Palladio's villas,
o pp o site : Schematic plans of r
Villa Zeno at Cessalto Villa Cornaro at Piombino Dese potential imp
Villa Malcontenta at Mira
schematic drawings of the villas. These adjoin- from Rudolf Wi ttl<ower, Architectural P rinciple s
Villa Emo at Fanzolo
ing loggias were adapted from local Venetian in the Age of Humanism, tg4g across the Ver
Villa Rotonda near Vicenza Geometrical pattern of Palladio's villas

AA FrLES 59

Y #U.Ti..;l'#i,i:iJ l* f ,.
.,\ rn..rrays, laterlncluoeo rn nrs oouK'
Architectural Princples n the Age of Humanism,
featured 11 schematic drawings of Palladio's vil-
las which Wittkower used to reinforce his argu-
ment for reading Renaissance architecture in
terms of irreducible rules or principles.'These
drawings showed that architectural artefacts
.7=
+ + such as Palladio's villas were not merely episodic
formal studies but systematic variations of the
same compositional logic, Architectural princi-
ples were thus implicitly proposed as an intellec-
tual framework for architectural form, superior to
the functional, programmatic or aesthetic goals to
which architectural historywas then still bound.
As a core component of architecture's
emerging historiography, Wittkower's reading
ofRenaissance architecture quickly proved to
be influential far beyond academic historical
scholarship. Within postwarreconstruction in
-+- England, for example, his project established a
-l= point ofreference for a generation of architects
searching for formal legitimacy beyond the tech-
nocratic impetus of functionalist modernism.
In particular, his drawings, reducing Palladian
villas to proportional and spatil schemes'
offered the possibility of defining a more pro-
found rationality than could be provided simply
by technology. This commitment to seeing and
interpreting a contemporary condition through
+
+
a Renaissance precedentwas reinforced five
years later (and more radically still) by Colin
ldealVlla
Rowe, whose The Mathematics ofthe
famously established comparison betrveen
a dependency on the city, then Palladio's palace +
+ remained a key priority, and set against the
Palladio's Vitla Foscari in Malcontenta and
- Le Corbusier's Villa Stein in Garches'"
Inr;[*i:l'r:*i{*ffi::l
was unintentional, Rowe's iconoclastic compar-
ison of two villas - one from the sixteenth cen-
tury, the other from the tlventieth - seems to
have been a deliberate attempt to interfere with
the trajectory of postwar architectural mod-
ernism. This desire to subvertwas established
notonlybyhis argumentforthe comparable
nature ofRenaissance and modern architec-
ture, but also by his pointing to the possibility
of a rigorous close reading of architectural form
independent of its historic1 circumstances.
For this reason, the villas ofPalladio and Le
Corbusier were deliberately extrapolated from
their geographical and political context; Rowe
even argued that the architects' lyrical site
descriptions celebrating their best{<nown villas
- 'La Rotonda' and the Villa Savoye at Poissy -
offered a too easy point of entry for comparison'
In this way, Rowe's text reinforcedWittkower's
radical denial of Palladio's site-specificity,
at Meiga Villa Poiana at Poiana Maggiore apprent in the removal of the barchesse inhis
Cessalto Villa Cornaro at Piombino Dese
Fanzolo
schematic drawings of the villas' These adjoin-
Villa Malcontent at Mira
ar Vicenza Geometrical pattern of Palladio's villas ing loggias were adapted from local Venetian
AA FrLES 59
-was making clear from the outset thatPalladio
The Geo-Politics was investedwith a programme.'t ForTrissino,
this programme was the reinvention of Vicenza as
of the Ideal Villa a model for an Imperial Roman city - that is, in his
classicistterms, a newltalian civilisation finally
liberated from the Goths' According to Trissino,
Andrea Palladio and the the ascendancy ofthe Goths had paralleled the
decline of the Roman Empire and Italy's descent
Project of an Anti-Ideal CitY into political and cultural chaos. Drawinginspira-
tion from Trissino's classicist urban ideolory,
Palladio's early designs as an architect include
Pier Vittorio Aureli aclassical facade for a series ofcity houses and a
proposal for the Palazzo Civena - austere, simple
and thus repeatable prototypes, readyto be dis-
seminated within the gothic fabric of Vicenza.s
The palazzowas fusedwith the more modest
agricultural sheds andwere an essential compo-
merchant house to form a new quasi-bourgeois
nent of Palladio's villas, providing not only a
domus."lhe centrality of the house and thus of
sense of context but a semiotic distinction that
secular domestic life, alongwith the systematic
allowed these buildings to be classified as villas
recoveryof Roman architecture, provided the
rather than palaces.'Ihe barcftesse, in this sense,
core of Palladio's attemptto define a universal
are Palladio's geo-political context because they
figure as the key metonymical register for the
whole typology.
Palladio's villas themselves were commis-
IB;',rrir,:',':H;,.Ti'"''
Venetian republic. Trissino saw the fragmented
sioned at the highpoint ofwidespread social and
city as a symptom of the larger political, cultural
economic reforms advanced bythe Serenissima
and social fragmentation of the nation after the
Republic in the sixteenth century, and their par-
collapse of the Roman Empire' Like Dante inDe
ticular formal composition - a central palace
Monarchia,he called for a universal civic govern-
flanked by two barns - is deeply embedded in
ment, identifiable through the singular figure of
the political, social and formal impetus of such
Holy Roman Bmperor Charles V.6This universal
reform. If, asJames Ackerman has argued, the
government was to represent a new Roman
villa is one the most radically ideological archi-
tectures because in claiming self-sufficiency
Empire, a secular power free from both feudal-
ism and ecclesiastical authority. Fundamental to
within the countryside it hides its economic
these aspirations, the city and its architecture
barchesse composition openly signals the villa's
relationwith its regional and agricultural eco-
gothic medieval city, Trissino promoted Roman
architecture as the appropriate language for his
nomic context. This imrneditely suggests an
political project.T This promotionwas organised
alternative interpretation of Palladio's architec-
ture to the ones advanced byWittkower and
Rowe, This counter position does not define
as a kind of research programme - evidenced by
the series of four fleld-trips Palladio made with
Trissino to Rome as exercises in generating form
Palladio's relevance to contemporary discourse
through first-hand experience' The careful study
in terms of proportion or the 'mathematics' of its this
of Roman antiquitywas the express goal of
architectural composition, but reads the villa as
research, and the drawings Palladio made dur-
one elementwithin a larger, Iatent project'
ing these visits would become the source book of
Rather than taking Palladio's 'ideal' as a tnodel
his architectural grammar. What is important
for an equally ideal urban configuration, itviews
to note here is Palladio's drawing method.
the geography and politics of the villa as a frame-
Infl uenced by Raphael's recommendations
work for rethinking and re-theorising the signifl-
about the depiction ofancient ruins, he avoids
cance ofPalladio'swork as a project for an
pictorial perspective and instead uses a flat
anti-ideal city.
orthogonal technique anticipating modern con-
First, however,let's dealwith the name,
ventions of orthogonal projection - a method
Palladio, bombastic and slightly ridiculous in
that contributed enormously to his systematic
its overloaded pretention. This was the name
approach to the architecture ofthe city.8
conferred on Andrea della Gondola when he
Architecture was notvisionary and picturesque
was already in his 3os, havingcompleted a long
but scientific, the product ofcarefully defined
apprenticeship in a stonemason's workshop'
rules. This fundamental distinction enabled the
The manwho named him - the Renaissance poet'
original form to be reconstructed out ofthe ruin,
humanist and diplomat Giangiorgio Trissino
emancipating it frorn its reality as a fragment
and giving it a new status s a component in a
Opposite: Schematic plans of lr of Palladio's villas'
potential imperial city inVicenza, and later
from Rudolf Wi ttkowet, Archite ctural Princip le s
in the Age olHumanism, 1949 across the veneto.
77

alladio's last trip to Rome in 1SS7 plo-
vided the material for two books, one
of them a guide to the city's antiquities
thatwould remain the standard reference for
tourists for the next two centuries, the other
a curious guide for pilgrims that documented
Rome's manychurches.s If Roman antiquity
offered the source for Palladio's universal archi-
tectural grammar, the mapping of churches -
many of them located in what was their typically
suburban and de-populated, fragmented
context - enabled him to present the city as
an archipelago of monuments. These finite,
autonomous artefacts carried a highly charged
ritualistic geography, even when presented
in isolation. But Palladio went beyond this by
ordering the descriptions of the churches
according to the pilgrim's peripatetic approach
to the city. In otherwords, the guide does not
describe these churches as monumental forms
removed from their context, but addresses them
within site-specific patterns of an urban itiner-
ary. In addition to his study of antiquity, there-
fore, Palladio's interest in compilinga pilgrim's
guide is ofexceptional interest because it signi-
fies his familiaritywith the geographic symbol-
ism of the city. And it is preciselythis actof
locatingand markingthat seems to underpin
Palladio's abilityto define the citythrough
its architecture.
The heroic mission of Trissino and Palladio
to recastVicenza as a latter-day imperial city
was prompted, somewhat more prosaically, by
a fl eeting celebration of religious authority: the
entrance ofCardinal Ridolfi to the city in r543.
Forthis occasion, Palladio designed a sequence
of temporary markers to delineate the cardinal's
procession towards the cathedral, Two of the
most exemplary urban landmarks of the Roman
city - the triumphal arch and the obelisk - sym-
bolised the veritable analogous city generated by
this circuit, andwere considered byPalladio as
ideal and instant devices for urban reinvention,
radically transforming the gothic form of the city
into a classical landscape.'oThe theme of the tri-
umphal procession also highlights the city as a
contested field of directions to be mapped and
manipulated by a series of punctual interven-
tions. Palladio's approaph to the city, then, as his
temporary installation for Vicenza makes clear,
is based not on an overall urban plan but on
the strong formal continuity and universalism
evoked byhis classical references. Yet, in con-
trast to the Roman city model, Palladio's univer-
salism is defined bythe concrete flgure of
architecture as a clearly circumscribed artefact,
distinct from the void ground oftheCtty spaces
surrounding it.
Palladio's mapping of Roman churches,
therefore, and his processional installation
forVicenza, reflects his mastery of the program-
mingof architectural sequences. The variety
ofcontexis in which he operated - the city of
l8
Vicenza, the Veneto countryside and the Venice
Lagoon - offered a multi-scalar array of urban sit-
uations in which he could test the seamlessness
ofan architectural language against the inex-
orably fragmented nature of a city. the strategic
link between the two extremes - continuity and
of
discontinuity- is preciselythe core dialectic
Palladio's urban design methodology.
In the sixteenth centuryVicenzawas one of
Italy's most violent cities. Infl ghting among the
most important families and political turmoil
among the populace made it a theatre of almost
perpetual mayhem and murder." The physical
manifestations of this violence also unfolded
within a larger conflict involving the local oli-
garchy, the colonial power ofVenice and the
adversarial relationship between the church and
theVeneto (atthattime,Vicenzawas the Italian
epicentre of Calvinist and heretical sensibili
ties). Given this context, the attempt by Trissino
and Palladio to recastVicenza as a model for an
imperial city that evoked the Pax Romana seems
a very obvious and deliberate provocation - or,
conversely, not so much a provocation as an
attempt to use the uniffing architectural lan-
guage of classicism to project a self-harmonis-
ing civic sense of calm,
For Palladio the grammar of this classicism
lay in his impeccable use of the five orders as a
way to make architecture intelligible as form, in
contrastto the irrational patterns ofthe medieval
city. There is in this allegiance an interesting par-
allel between Palladio's systematic use of the
five orders and Trissino's political vision, based
on the idea of a uni$'ingseculargovernment.
Trissino (ever the poet and diplomat) was espe-
ciallyconcerned with the reform of the Italian
language, as evidenced byhis letterto Pope
Clemente VII about the urgent need to address
vernacular or colloquial ttalian, and by his trans-
lation of Dante's D e Vulgari Eloquenta. ln many
ways, Trissino's interest in the idea of grammar
as a meta-historical political tool can be seen
as the inspiration for Palladio's systematic
approach to architecture, where classicism is
used not simply as a means of representation
and authority but also as an ordered set ofrepeat-
able elements whose influence could extend
beyond the construction of buildings to embrace
the whole manifestation of the city itself. In order
to be established, however, a grammar relies on
clear examples. It is notby chance that Palladio's
debut as an independent architect, under
Trissino's mentorship, resulted in a design
for the most important public monument in
Vicenza: the completion of the Palazzo della
Ragione, a vast civic hall built in the fifteenth cen-
tury, and renamed (significant by Palladio as
the'Basilica'. Palladio's intewentionwas noth-
ing more than a lintel-arch{intel device, stacking
tuo serlane orders built in white stone, so that
theywrapped the existing hall and shops under-
neath. The irregular structure ofthe existing
buildingwas absorbed byvarying the length of
the lintel without altering the arches. The build-
ingwas thus conceived as a didactic displayof
the orders and their ability to support, correct
and mask the existing irregular gothic structure.
Moreover, his restructuringof the Basilica placed
classicism atthe heart ofthe civic space ofthe
city, as the hegemonic and universal architec-
tural language ofa Iong-desired, civitas.
The Basilica, like manyother Palladio build-
ings, would not be completed during his life-
time. A permanent state of instability defi ned
bywars, economic crises, disease and, more
spectacularly, the tormented vicissitudes of
the families forwhom Palladio worked, delayed
or prevented their construction. It is easy to
imagine that a desire to counteract this flux
was the key impulse behindl Quattro Libr
dellArchtettur, which sets out all ofhis projects
in order and according to his original design,
regardless of alterations made during their con-
struction. The Four Books, in this sense, suggest
the emancipation of the idea of architecture
from its material realisation, Confronted with
an unstable and complex environment, the lan-
guage of building cannot tame the cityin all its
manifestations, but can only insert exemplary
forms into its unstable body. Aswith his experi-
mentwith the triumphal route for Cardinal
Ridolfl, Palladio's confidence in the city is
revealed by the way he positions a building, even
ifhe never proposed any ideal urban scheme.
The architectural historian Franco Barbieri has
suggested that although Palladio never predeter-
mined the site of his projects, the location of his
buildings seems to follow the Roman street lay-
out that was still legible in medieval Vicenza
(and that remains legible today - the intersec-
tion of a north-sottth cardo axis and an east-west
decumanusisprovided bythe Corso Palladio and
the route thatgoes from the ruins of the Roman
Berga theatre to the Pusterla Bridge on the river
Bacchiglione).1' Trissino's utopian vision for
Vicenza as a Roman citythus seems to emerge
from Palladio's insistence on this layoutas the
ordering principle of his interventions.
Lf f we followthis hypothesis diachronically,
I *e find alongthe decumanus rhe highly
abstract f'orms of the Palazzo Chtertcatl
-l\
(r55o), the sophisticated facade ofthe Casa
Cagollo (r559-62), and the PalazzoPojana
(r56o-6r). Nearbywas the site of an unbuilt
project for the Palazzo Capra(r563-64) and,
at the end of the decumanus, directly opposite
the Palazzo Chiericati, another Palazzo Capra,
Following the perpendicula cardus,we stat at
the ruins ofthe Berga theatre (itselfa strategic
precedent for Trissino and Palladio in their
vision of resurrectingVicenza's latent Roman
plan) and then pass the bridge ofSan Paolo
(which in the sixteenth centurywas believed to
be another Roman structure), before arriving at
the loggias ofthe Basilica and the del Capitano
AA FILES 59
ecumanus.'lhe
t the intersection with the It is preciselyPalladio's mastering of the organisation
d
carduswouldthen lead us to two of Palladio's dialectic between continuity and discontinuity spacesjuxtap
most impressive buildings - tl:,e Palazzo that theatrically emphasises the urban role of his countrysir
Montano Barb arano (t569-7o) and the Palazzo his buildings as civic actors within Vicenza's politan air. In
Porto (1549). Finally, we would end up at the analogous city - a dialectic also perfectly complexityol
Casa Bernardo Schio (r565-66). Following the depicted by Canaletto in his own analogous miniaturised
streets that run parallel to th e cardo,towardsthe city in the form of the paintinghe made of the that Palladio'
eastwe would flnd the Palazzo Da Monte (r54r- bridge of the Rialto, composedwith two other bath and the
45),PalazzoThiene Ir542-46), a project for a buildings from Vicenza, the Palazzo Chiericati of the religior
palazzo for Giacomo Angarano (r 564) and a and the Basilica. Rather than the actual bridge, ment that ten
fragment of th e Palazzo Pojana (r555). Similarly, Canaletto shows the bridge as designed by origin), and t
followingthe streets thatrun parallel to the Palladio and presented in hi s Quattro Libri. with an agricr
decumantts, on the northwewould find projects These forms are interpreted by Canaletto in all thatgoes bey
forthePalazzoTrissino (r558) and a palazzo for their paradigmatic integrity and yet disposable, classicism ar
Giambattista Garzadori, along with other minor to be used and combined according to unpre- rial demands
dictable urban inventions. have more to
ut signifi cant works such as Palladio's youthful
interventions at the Pedemuro workshop with More than his bridges and palazzos, however, ground as an
the Church of Santa Mria in Foro (r53r) and the it is the villas in the Veneto region forwhich tureswhere t
city's cathedral (rSq-96). Collectively, these Palladio is most celebrated. What is impressive the Venetian
intewentions can be summarised as the media- about these buildings is not so much their archi- bythe sea) is
tion between two opposite forces which consti- tectural quality as their quantity. With the excep- viathe examl
tute the two major ingredients of all of Palladio's tiorl perhaps of Frank Lloyd Wright, no other the Veneto c(
projects: on the one hand an abstraction ofthe architecthas offered a portfolio filled with designs plex of analol
orders, proportion and symmetry, and on the of such impressive continuity. The fashion forvil- Palladio's arr
other a site-specificity, with each building being las, a patrician typologyof the Roman Empire, was ential as an u
carefully inserted into the tight and complex revived in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.14 Underlyir
medieval fabric of the city. In a rural economy, its reappearance marked the outputwas tl
rn.f.
ff i::"'"',ii i:ii#;icul
Chlerlcatl. Strateglcally locateo on
a'[es transition from feudalism to the economic power
ofthe estate, and fuelled bythis succession,
Palladio assigned the villa a position ofexcep-
Serenissima
ing the first c
developed as
the edge ofthe Isola (the beginning ofthe tional importance in his Qr.raltroLibri: five chap- transction,
decumanus and thus at the city gate approaching ters ofthe Second Book are devoted to the had been Vel
from Padua and Venice), the main facade of the rchitectural principles ofthis type, which is early history,
palazzo consists of two superimposed loggias treatedwith the same attention to detail as other the city-state
powerfully framed by the orders. Butwhat is crucial citytypes such as palaces and religious of the Adriat
most striking about this design is that for the buildings. Bythe time the Qu attro Lbriwaspub- republics su,
first time in the Renaissance the composition lished Palladio had already designed a large num- ence ofthe B
ofthe facade is rigorously projected into the ber ofvillas, and the serial nature ofthe solutions establishVe
interior. The elevation thus becomes a veritable he developed (akin to the repeting rules he linkingthe lt
index of the workings of the plan and section' employed in his palaces iri Vicenza and churches cial routes tc
At the same time, the space onto which this in Venice) allowed him to define a consistent for- impetuous r
utopian architectural language is projected is mal lexicon. Although made up of very few princi- major eventr
far from ideal - the loggia is directly at odds with ples, this language was very strict in its application of Cambrai (
the narrow and long form ofthe site, derived - notably, a clear symmetry of plan, an abundance tant Europe
in turn from the city's complex topography. ofloggias in the form ofbelvederes and barns, the EmperorMa
Forcing the building to fit into its unlikely site unconventional use of pediments nd (Palladio's France - uni
generated an unprecedented compression in most striking typological cross-contamination for to limit its la
event,whost
the plan, which reads as a kind of sixteenth-cen- rural buildings) the reinterpretation ofthe spatial
become app
tury barcode, with its sequence of compressed intricacy of the imperial Roman bathwithin the
teenth centt
versions ofatria, internal loggia and a garden.'a interior ofthe villa's central building.
Moreover, within this logic, the facade's classi- number of historians have addressed World andtl
cal form may be understood as a clear political Palladio's mixingof classical and itime trafflc
manoeuvre. Expanding the building's trans- vernacular elements and his villa Confron
verse section by only a few metres, the loggia typology as both a retreat and an economically ofthe Seren
occupies a portion ofthe Isola, not only creating and culturallyproductive rural hub. Much, too, were about t
a noble public gesture in one of the city's most has been written about his use of the pediment interestingi
important civic spaces, but also projectinga which, but for one exception, had previously they accept(
highly formal grammar. The peculiarities of the been confined to religious buildings.'s fortune and
site (the exception) and the generative principle Significantly less, however, has been said about seemed iner
of the building (the rule) are thus intrinsically howthe interior space of Palladio'svillas appro- cally and cor
linked and mutually reinforced, producing a priated the spatiality of the imperial baths which attempted t
paradoxical combination of formal abstraction he obsessively mapped, drew and reconstructed instead ofp
and radical site-specifl city. during his field-trips to Rome, and whose republic's u
AA FrLES 59
 t theintersection with the decumanus,"Ihe It is precisely Palladio's mastering of the organisation - a sequence of monumental
buildingwas absorbed byvaryingthe length of spaces juxtaposed alongaxes of symmetry- lent
carduswouldthen lead us to two of Palladio's dialectic between continuity and discontinuity
sit- the lintel without altering the arches' The build-
most impressive buildings - thePalazzo that theatrically emphasises the urban role of his countryside villas a quintessentilly metro-
ingwas thus conceived as a didactic display of politan air. In manyways, the theatrical spatial
Montano Barbarano (r569-7o) and the Palazzo his buildings as civic actors within Vicenza's
the orders and their ability to support, correct
Porto (1549). Finally,wewould end up atthe analogous city * a dialectic also perfectly complexity of the Roman bath offered an indoor
and mask the existing irregular gothic structure'
Casa Bernardo Schio (r565-66). Following the depicted by Canaletto in his own analogous miniaturised city. It is thus possible to speculate
Moreover, his restructuring of the Basilica placed
streets that run parallel to the cardo,toward'sthe city in the form of the paintinghe made of the thatPalladio's appropriation of the imperial
of classicism atthe heart ofthe civic space ofthe
eastwe would find the Palazzo Da Monte (1541- bridge of the Rialto, composedwith two other bath and the pediment (taken from the model
city, as the hegemonic and universal architec-
buildings from Vicenza, the Palazzo Chiericati of the religious building, with the implied argu-
of tural language of a long-desiredcivitas. 45),Palazzo Thiene (t542- 46), a project for a
palazzo for GiacomoAngarano (r564) and a and the Basilica. Rather than the actual bridge, ment that temples and houses share the same
the The Basilica, like many other Palladio build-
fragment of th e Palazzo Pojana (r555). Similarly' Canaletto shows the bridge as designed by origin), and the conflation ofthese typologies
ings,wouldnotbe completed duringhis life-
following the streets that run parallel to the Palladio and presented in hi s Quattro Libri. with an agricultural context, is part ofa strategy
time. A permanent state of instability defined
decumantts, onthe north we would find projects These forms are interpreted by Canaletto in all thatgoes beyond erudite references to Roman
bywars, economic crises, disease and, more
forthePalazzoTrissino (r558) and a palazzo for their paradigmatic integrity and yet disposable, classicism and the accommodation of the mate-
spectacularly, the torrnented vicissitudes of
Giambattista Garzadori, alongwith other minor to be used and combined accordingto unpre- rial demands of the estate. Instead, it seems to
the families forwhom Palladio worked, delayed
but significantworks such as Palladio's youthful dictable urban inventions. have more to dowith the idea of figuringthe
or prevented their construction' It is easy to
interventions at the Pedemuro workshop with More than his bridges and palazzos, however, ground as an assemblage of metropolitan struc-
and imagine thata desire to counteract this flux
the Church of Santa Maria in Foro (r53r) and the it is the villas in the Veneto region forwhich tures where the political and economic power of
was the key impulse behindl Quattro Lbri
city's cathedral (rS:+-6). Collectively, these Palladio is most celebrated. What is impressive the Venetian archipelago (until then constituted
dellArchitettura, which sets out all ofhis projects
interventions can be summarised as the media- about these buildings is not so much their archi- bythe sea) is projected analogically - that is,
in order and according to his original design,
tion betvveen two opposite forces which consti- tectural quality as their quantity. With the excep- via the example of imperial Rome - towards
an regardless of alterations made duringtheircon-
tute the two major ingredients of all of Palladio's tion perhaps of FrankLloydWrig'ht, no other the Veneto countryside. It is precisely this com-
struction. The Four Books, in this sense, suggest
projects: on the one hand an abstraction ofthe architect has offered a portfolio filled with designs plex of analogical appropriations that made
oft the emancipation of the idea of architecture
orders, proportion and symmetry, and on the of such impressive continuity. The fashion forvil- Palladio's architecture so successful and influ-
from its material realisation. Confronted with
other a site-specificity, with each building being Ias, a patrician typology of the Roman Empire, was ential as an urban model.
an unstable and complex environment, the lan-
carefully inserted into the tight and complex revived in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.'+ Underlying all of Palladio's architectural
guage of building cannot tame the city in all its
medieval fabric of the city. In a rural economy, its reappearance marked the outputwas the biggest crisis then facingthe
manifestations, but can only insert exemplary
he proj ect that most fully articulates transition from feudalism to the economic power Serenissima Republic. Founded some time dur-
forms into its unstable body. Aswith his experi-
this mediation is the Palazzo ofthe estate, and fuelled by this succession, ingthe firstdecades of the eighth centuryand
rnentwith the triumphal route for Cardinal
^ Chiericati. Strategically located on Palladio assigned the villa a position ofexcep- developed as a mercantile city-state, economic
1n Ridolfi, Palladio's confidence in the city is
the edge ofthe Isola (the beginning ofthe tional importance in his Qaaf tro Llbr:frve chap- transaction, in the form of maritime commerce,
revealed by the way he positions a building' even
decumanus and thus at the city gate approaching ters ofthe Second Book are devoted to the had been Veni ce's raison d'lre' Throughout its
par- ifhe never proposed any ideal urban scheme.
from Padua and Venice), the main facade of the architeciural principles ofthis type, which is early history, this trade was bolstered not only by
The architectural historian Franco Barbieri has
palazzo consists of two superimposed loggias treated with the same attention to detail as other the city-state's geographical position at the edge
suggested that although Palladio never predeter-
powerfully framed by the orders. Butwhat is crucial citytypes such as palaces and religious of the Adriatic and the defeat of other maritime
mined the site of his projects, the location of his
most striking about this design is that for the buildings. By the time the Quattro Libriwas pub- republics such as Genoa, but also by the influ-
e- buildings seems to follow the Roman street lay-
first time in the Renaissance the composition lished Palladio had already designed a large num- ence of the Byzantine Empire, which helped to
out thatwas still legible in medieval Vicenza
ofthe facade is rigorously projected into the ber ofvillas, and the serial nature ofthe solutions establishVenice as a privileged economic hub
(and that remains legible today - the intersec-
interior. The elevation thus becomes averitable he developed (akin to the repeatingrules he linkingthe Mediterranean basinwith commer-
tion ofa north-south cardo axis and an east-west
index of the workings of the plan and section. employed in his palaces iri Vicenza and churches cial routes towards the east. However, Venice's
decumanus sprovided by the Corso Palladio and
At the same time, the space onto which this in Venice) allowed him to define a consistent for- impetuous rise came abruptly to an end with two
the route that goes from the ruins of the Roman
utopian architectural language is projected is mal lexicon. Although made up of very few princi- major events. The firstwas the War of the League
Berga theatre to the Pusterla Bridge on the river
far from ideal - the loggia is directly at odds with ples, this language was very strict in its application of Cambrai (r5oB-t5r6), when the most impor-
Bacchiglione).', Trissino's utopian vision for
the narrow and long form ofthe site, derived - notably, a clear symmetryof plan, an abundance tant European superpowers - PopeJulius tt,
Vicenza as a Roman city thus seems to emerge
in turn from the city's complex topography. oftoggias in the form ofbelvederes and barns, the Emperor Maximilian I and I(ing Louis xrr of
ls from Palladio's insistence on this layout as the
Forcing the building to fit into its unlikely site unconventional use of pediments and (Palladio's France - united against the Serenissima in order
ordering principle of his interventions.
generated an unprecedented compression in most striking typological cross-contamination for to limit its land expansion. The second decisive
\r f we follow this hypothesis diachronically, event, whose consequences would only slowly
the plan, which reads as a kind of sixteenth-cen- rural buildings) the reinterpretation ofthe spatial
! we finA alongthe decumanusthehighly become apparent over the course ofthe six-
tury barcode, with its sequence of compressed intricacy of the imperial Roman bath within the
- ubrtru.t forms of the Palazzo Chiericatl teenth century, was the discovery of the New
order (r55o), the sophisticated faaade ofthe Casa versions ofatria, internal loggia and a garden.': interior of the villa's central building.
son Moreover, within this logic, the facade's classi- number of historians have addressed World and the consequent shift of major mar-
Cagollo (r559-62), and the PalazzoPojana
(r56o-6r). Nearbywas the site ofan unbuilt cal form may be understood as a clear political Palladio's mixingof classical and itime traffic from east to west.
project for the Palazzo Capra(r563-64) and, manoeuvre. Expanding the building's trans- vernacular elements and his villa Confrontedwith this crisis, the oligarchy
verse section by only a few metres, the loggia typology as both retreat and an economically of the Serenissima became convinced that they
at the end of th e decumanus, directly opposite
occupies a portion ofthe Isola, not only creating and culturallyproductive rural hub. Much, too, were about to enter a period of decline. What is
the Palazzo Chiericati, anoth er Palazzo Capra.
Following the perpendicular cardus,we start at a noble public gesture in one of the city's most has been written about his use of the pediment interesting about their response, though, is that
cen- important civic spaces, but also projecting a which, but for one exception, had previously they accepted the prospect of their diminishing
the ruins ofthe Berga theatre (itselfa strategic
AS precedent for Trissino and Palladio in tleir highly formal grammar. The peculiarities of the been confined to religious buildings.'s fortune and, rather than seeking to reverse what
vision of resurrectingVicenza's latent Roman site (the exception) and the generative principle Significantly less, however, has been said about seemed inevitable, they did somethingpoliti-

plan) and then pass the bridge ofSan Paolo of the building (the rule) are thus intrinsically howthe interior space of Palladio's villas appro- cally and conceptually far more radical: they
(which in the sixteenth centurywas believed to linked and mutuallyreinforced, producinga priated the spatiality of the imperial baths which attempted to slow down the decline, so that
be another Roman structure), before arrivingat paradoxical combination of forml bstraction he obsessively mapped, drew and reconstructed instead ofprecipitating a sudden collapse, the
the loggias ofthe Basilica and the del Capitano and radical site-specifi city. during his field-trips to Rome, and whose republic's waning influence could be tamed

AA FILES 59 79
AA FILES 59
 condition of'dura- new lnguafrazca ofcivic life, and theatrical similarityto th
and governed as a utopian
framing of the garden which made the loggia yet at the Rotol
tion','6Theirresponse consisted of acomplex
both the scenery and the spectator's tribune. side is further
series ofstrategic manoeuvres, all ofthem predi-
This compositional dialectic between subject some kind of r
cated on a shift of Venice's economic basis from
and object, between a point ofview and a space outside Vicenz
the sea to the land; from maritime commerce
framedwithin it, would be the basis of Palldio's an ideal'obset
to agriculture. Within this transfer, the ground
own unique approach to landscape. In all ofhis conceptual an
or tenaJirma suddenly took on the status of a
work, the encircling territory is not a passive bythe long der
territorial project - one that included land recla-
ground to be activated by the imposition of a fig- this project in
mtion, cartographic mapping and the hydro-
ure, buta specific site made of existing natural and variety ofl
logical control ofthe network ofrivers that
and artificial elements ofwhich the object- the form and pecu
descended down into Venice from high in the
villa - becomes a theatrical frame. In this sense, a rather small
Alps.'zAnd so, rather than projecting itselfsolely
Palladio's villas are not simply objects enclosed made up of co
towards the se aas a stato deln r, Venice turned
within a reconstructed context (think of the Medici Asiswell docu
inwards, towards its territorial lands - a (re)dis-
villas in the Florentine hills or Pirro Ligorio's Villa housewas ins
covery of its more earthly influence that must
d'Este), but specific objects that frame and rede- tion ofthe ten
b seen as the deflning context for Palladio's
fine the existinglandscape as an economic, FortunaPrimi
unprecedented succession of countryside
cultural and political counter to the city. complexPalla
villas, each commissioned by patricians of the
Let's take a look at trvo of Palladio's better the Rotonda, t
Serenissma regime, and which would ultimately
give Venice's project of duration its most endur- knownvillas. TheVillaEmo in Fanzolo (r556) is villa's porticor
a+ -t2 48 scale ofthe ac
ing historical form. perhaps the building that best shows the radical-

zA a ll td@ g @o@Yr,,Ytw
f I i:l
t
i"'."#J,i:,,":ii
the ldeas
::ff li::"
ottne tneorlstnd patron or
ismbf Palladio's approach to the relationship
between the villa and its immediate landscape.
It is his simplest and most obviously minimal
suggests that l
ways into the r
outwards, tovt
villa and yet its structure, like all the others, is In otherword
the arts Alvise Cornaro (r484-r566), who argued,
based around the clearjuxtaposition ofthe csa for a spectaclt
in particular, for the promotion of agriculture as
mercantilist dominicale (palace) with the fl ankingbarchesse landscape all
an alternative to Venice's existing
(barns),which sewed as storage and as a covered then the class
economy. Author of LaVitasobra,atreatise on
gallery passage between the central body and a pyramidal cr
the virtue of livingin the countryside, Cornaro
political thinkers dur- the symmetric al colombare along its two sides' forms the pin
was one of the most active
Unlike his othervillas, however, this juxtaposi- inverted, by tl
ing the Veneto's economic crisis. His ideas largely
tion is revealed alongthe same frontal plane, a is not about a
concerned the reclamation of land, and the pro-
device that accentuates the Villa Emo's perpen- ship inwhich
motion of agriculture over trade as the basis for a
dicularity against the horizontality ofthe sur- inside but oft
more solid relationship between power and terri-
roundingVeneto plains, In its simplicity, the villa The formal sy
tory.'s Before Cornaro' country life (of which the
heightens the importance of directingthe land- index ofthe R
villawas the most idealised form) was typically
Moreover, tht
understood as radically anti-political because it scape, not by imposing on it a new, meticulously
turned its back on the political space par excel- regulated ground arrangement, but by figuring it required all ft
through the simple act of framing. Palladio does above them P
lence,the ciq, After Cornaro, however, this image
this by developing one side ofthe villa as a con- such a detailr
was subverted: ratherthan beingpredicated on
tinuous row ofloggias and the other side as a row conveys not a
the fundamentally apolitical ideas of disinterest
ofwindows, therebyestablishing, in averypow- ness that sugj
and denial, the countryside became highlypoliti-
erfulway, the experience of front and backwithin ofthe landsc
cised by its promotion of a newformal model and
the vastness ofthe building's landscape. Rotonda subr
its explicit rejection ofthe existingone -Venice.
WiththeVillaEmowe see, once again, the tion, with its
To represent hisvision ofa civic life, Cornaro
classic Palladian paradox ofa building that has buildingovet
built his own analogous city in the countryside
been designed according to its own composi- Renaissance
near Padua, Palladio's birthplace. In the r5zos,
tional logic (tpically based on symmetry), yet at nium front-tt
he commissioned the Paduan painter Giovanni
the same time is also inflected so as to reactto its then, the buil
Battista Falconetto to produce a garden loggia,
specific site condition. This paradox is further it is architect
and a year later an odeon was built next to it to
radicalised in Palladio's most famous (and most Iti
host the performances of a famous local dialect
na
actorAngelo Beolco (better knowby his pseudo- bizarre) building, the Villa Capra or La Rotonda
P
nym, Ruzzante). In Cornaro's garden, therefore, (t S6. ln tLLe Quattro Lbr, this villais included
in the section dedicated to urban palaces, an his project ot
it is possible to see an attempt to elevate the rustic
aspirational characterisation that further reveals there, mostlr
countryside to the level of a new, cultivated civic
Palladio's attemptto transform a building in the backdro
condition - one that lay beyond the city's monu-
the countryside into averitable civic form.'g and political
mental spaces but had a competing measure of
The equation of city and countryside in relate to two
cultural and social charisma. Falconetto's loggia
Palladio is already visible in the very obvious for- ing and pres
- the first example in the Veneto of architecture
mal similarities betrveen his rural villas and civic Serenissima
la Romana - was clearly built as a highly symbolic
protot)?e, an example. Its key feature is the for- palaces (but for the absence ofthe barns, the initiated by t

palaces are the same as the villas - for example, Venice's firs
mal theme of the loggia itself, with its generous
Andrea Palladio, Villa Emo, Fanzolo, t556, engineer,wl
openings, didactic exposition ofthe orders as a the Palazzo Antolini in Udine bears a striking
from I Quattro Libri dellArchtettura, L57o

AA FILES 59
 new lnguafrzc ofcivic life, and theatrical similarityto th
and governed as a utopian condition of'dura-
framing of the garden which made the loggia yet at the Rotor
tion'.'6Their response consisted of a complex
both the scenery and the spectator's tribune. side is further
series ofstrategic manoeuvres, all ofthem predi-
from This compositional dialectic between subject some kind of r
cated on a shift of Venice's economic bsis
and object, between a point ofviewand a space outside Vicenz
the se to the land; from maritime commerce
framedwithin it, would be the basis of Palladio's an ideal'obser
to agriculture. Within this transfer, the ground
own unique approach to landscape' In all ofhis conceptual an
or teffafrma suddenly took on the status of a
work, the encircling territory is not a passive bythe long der
territorial project- one that included land recla-
ground to be activated by the imposition of a fi5 this project in
mation, cartographic mapping and the hydro-
ure, but a specific site made of existing natural andvariety oft
logical control ofthe network ofrivers that
and artificial elements ofwhich the object- the form and pect
descended down into Venice from high in the
villa - becomes a theatrical frame. In this sense, a rather small
Alps.'7 And so, rather than projecting itself solely
Palladio's villas are not simply objects enclosed made up of co
towards the se aas a stato deln r, Venice turned
within a reconstructed context(think of the Medici As iswell doctr
inwards, towards its territorial lands - a (re)dis-
villas in the Florentine hills or Pirro Ligorio's Villa housewas ins
covery of its more earthly influence that must
d'Bste), but specific objects thatframe and rede- tion ofthe ten
bp seen as the deflning context for Palladio's
fine the existing landscape as an economic, Fortuna Primi
unprecedented succession of countryside
cultural and political counter to the city. complexPalla
villas, each commissioned by patricians of the
Let's tke a look at two of Palladio's better the Rotonda, l
Serenissma regime, and which would ultimately
knownvillas. The Villa Emo in Fanzolo (r556) is villa's porticor
give Venice's project of duration its most endur-
+ 48 perhaps the building that best shows the radical- scale ofthe ac
ing historical form.

gA ! I A T @e@Yt,"Ytwt
f
l,
I i:Ti.':ill,i ::HlT i:1.
the rdeas ot tne tneortst no patron or
ism bfPalladio's approach to the relationship
between the villa and its immediate landscape.
It is his simplest and most obviously minimal
suggests that
ways into the
outwards, tow
l

'd In otherword
":ii
the arts Alvise Cornaro (r484-r566), who argued, villa and yet its structure, like all the others, is
based around the clearjuxtaposition ofthe cs for a spectaclt
in particular, for the promotion of agriculture as
dominc ale (palace) with the fl anking b arche sse landscape all
an alternative to Venice's existing mercantilist
(barns), which served as storage and as a covered then the class
economy. Auth of ofLaVta Sobria,atreatise on
gallery passage between the central body and a pyramidal c'
the virtue of living in the countryside, Cornaro
the symmetric al colombare along its two sides. forms the pin
was one of the most active political thinkers dur-
Unlike his othervillas, however, this juxtaposi inverted, by tl
ing the Veneto's economic crisis. His ideas largely
tion is revealed alongthe same frontal plane, a is not about a
concerned the reclamation of land, and the pro-
device that accentuates the Villa Emo's perpen- ship inwhich
motion of agriculture over trade as the basis for a
dicularity against the horizontality ofthe sur- inside but oft
more solid relationship between power and terri-
roundingVeneto plains. In its simplicity, thevilla The formal sy
tory.'s Before Cornaro' country life (of which the
heightens the importance of directing the land- index ofthe R
villawas the most idealised form)was typically
scape, notbyimposingon ita new, meticulously Moreover, tht
understood as radically anti-political because it
turned its back on the political space par excel' regulated ground arrangement, but by flguring it required all f<
throughthe simple actof framing. Palladio does above them P
lence,the ciq. After Cornaro, however, this image
this bydevelopingone side ofthevilla as a con- such a detail r
o was subverted: rather than being predicated on
w d E the fundamentally apolitical ideas of disinterest tinuous rowof loggias and the other side as a row conveys not a

ofwindows, thereby establishing, in averypow- ness that sugl

and denial, the countryside became highlypoliti-
erfulway, the experience of front and backwithin ofthe landscr
cised by its promotion of a new formal model and
the vastness ofthe building's landscape. Rotonda subr
its explicit rejection ofthe existing one -Venice.
with the Villa Bmowe see, once again, the tion,with its:
To represent his vision ofa civic life, Cornaro
classic Palladian paradox ofa buildingthat has buildingovet
built his own analogous city in the countryside
been designed according to its own composi- Renaissance
near Padua, Palladio's birthplace' In the r5zos,
tional logic (typically based on symmetry)' yet at nium front-tt
he commissioned the Paduan painter Giovanni
the same tirrie is also inflected so as to react to its then, the bui
Battista Falconetto to produce a garden loggia,
specific site condition. This paradox is further it is architect
and ayear later an odeonwas built nextto itto
radicalised in Palladio's most famous (and most Iti
hostthe performances of a famous local dialect
actor ngelo Beolco (better know by his pseudo- bizarre) building, the Villa Capra or La Rotonda nl

P
nym, Ruzzante), In Cornaro's garden, therefore, (1567). In the Q uattro Lbr,this villa is included
in the section dedicated to urban palaces, an his project o.
it is possible to see an attempt to elevate the rustic
aspirational characterisation that further reveals there, mostl'
countryside to the level of a new, cultivated civic
Palladio's attempt to transform a building in the backdro
condition - one that lay beyond the city's monu-
the countryside into averitable civic form.'g andpolitical
mental spaces but had a competing measure of
The equation of city and countryside in relate to two
cultural and social charisma. Falconetto's loggia
Palladio is alreadyvisible in the very obvious for- ing and pres
- the first example in the Veneto of architecture
mal similarities between his ruralvillas and civic Serenissima
IaRomana -was clearly built as a highly symbolic
prototype, an example. Its key feature is the for- palaces (but for the absence ofthe barns, the initiated by t
palaces are the same as the villas - for example, Venice's firs
mal theme of the loggia itself,with its generous
Andrea Palladio, Villa Emo, Fanzolo, r556, engineer,wl
openings, didactic exposition ofthe orders as a the Palazzo Antolini in Udine bears a striking
frotn I Quattro Libri dellArchitettura, t57o

AA FILES 59
 borders in the form ofa ring ofwaterfront
would
fondamenta - large embankments that
enclose and defi ne Venice's forma urbs (the
Fondamenta Nuove and Fondamenta Zttere'
two of the city's most suggestive sites, still visible
today, were the result ofthis proposal). For
Sabbadino, this ringwas not only a functional
element and a necessary limit to the city, but
also a new monumental space that if realised
in its entiretywould have opened up the city
towards the vastness of the Lag-oon.2o
rll n',."" i li.:,i,iii in:T Roman theatre as reconstructed byDaniele
.f. concept
ration byAlvise Cornaro of the
ofthe theatre he had constructed in his garden
in Padua. Like Sabtiadino, Cornaro aimed to syn-
thesise two apparently contradictory forces by
opening the city towrds the Lagoon while at the
same time insisting on a clearly defined urban
edge. The project itselfwas articulated in trvo
parts. The flrst consisted of a man-made grove of
trees planted on a linear island, built in the form
of a floating city-wall. This wooded isthmus was
proposed notjust as a defence system, offering
protection from military attacks and the forces
ofthe sea, but as social infrastructure for the city
- in effect agigntic park. The project's second
part focused on the most strategic and monu-
mental point in the city: the basin of San Marco,
the vast and monumental space triangulated by
the Piazzetta of San Marco, the Punta della
Dogana and the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.
Within this space Cornaro imagined another tri-
angulation - a floating theatre la Romana; art
artificial island in the form of a 'shapeless little
hill', built out of the mud extracted from the
city's canals, planted with trees and topped with
a loggia; and a spring-water fountain set on the
edge of the piazzetta,tightbetween the two
monumental columns featuring Venice's twin
patrons, the lion of St Mark and the sttue of St
Teodoro ofAmasea, which framed the viewof
the basin from St Mark's Square' The rationale
(and, as Manfredo Tafuri has noted, powerful
ideological resonances") behind this composi-
tion seems to have been based around the idea
territorial condition into
ofintroducing a ith the fall of the Roman EmPire
Venice's largely aquatic universe. Yetwhat is
interesting about this insertion is that it is for-
malised not by destroyirig Venice's insularity,
but by theatrically emphasising the silhouette
archiPelago.
ofthe Lagoon as an
The schemes ofboth Sabbadino and
Cornaro were designed to expand the city
beyond the limits of its traditional monumental
until then iconographically controlled
spaces,
by the Piazza San Marco. Elements gfCornaro's
urban vision - notably the freshwter spring
and the linearwooded glade -were also clearly
meant to introduce, analogically, the theme
of agriculture and land management into a
city that had previously developed only through
its maritime economy. Moreover, the island
8z
theatre, imagined as a place of public spectacle,
and thus, like the archipelago oftrees, conceived
as a piece ofsocial infrastructure, emphasised
the performative character of the entire project.
within the context of the Serenissima Republic,
the theatre was the most popular formal register
of some kind of intrinsic, collective art of mem-
ory, which made it the most effective formal
typolory for staging broader political and cul-
tural ideas. What is interesting to note here is
that Cornaro's theatre onwaterwas imagined
according to the precepts ofVitruvius's ancient
Barbaro in his r556 edition ofDeArchtectur-
an edition illustrated byPalladio' Thus an island
(Venice's definingurban form) inthe form of a
theatre (the classical qpepa r excellence) offercd
the centrepiece of Cornaro's territorial project
for Venice, and made explicit precisely what was
also at the core ofPalladio's analogical language:
the utopian and timeless abstraction of architec-
ture, and its abilityto evoke potential or even
pregnant geographic and political scenarios.
The difference between Sbbadino's urban proj-
ect and Cornaro's vision is thatwhile Sabbadino
aimed at the consolidation of the existing city,
Cornaro imagined a newVenice that radically
invested architecture by stressing the analogy
betvveen the singularity ofthe architectural arte-
fact and the insularity of the city form.
Both projects, however, were united in intro-
ducing an urban theme that is key to Palladio's
monumental interventions inVenice. This is the
idea ofthe urban edge notjust as city form but
as a new monumental space linking the city to
its territorial context: in this case, the Lagoon'
In other words, there is a link between the idea
ofthe edge, as introduced by the projects of
both Sabbadino and Cornaro, and the physical
location of all of Palladio's Venetian buildings.
Of course, Palladio never actively chose the site
for any of these projects (that always wentwith
the commission), but in retrospect it is impossi-
' ble not to see that nearly all of his intewentions
in Venice were situated on the edge of the
city - for example, the facade for San Pietro di
Castello (r559), the facade ofthe Church ofSan
Francesco allaVigna (r.564-65), the Church and
Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore (r56o-65)'
the Church ofthe Redentore (r592) and the
Church of the Zitelle (r57$'As much as their
occupation ofthe periphery, all ofthese projects
also share the same formal language, and above
all a common lexicon for the facade: an austere
and hieratic classicism made bythe rigorous
use of the orders; the superimposition of
facades (a technique invented byPalladio but
clearly inspired both byBramante and by
Vitruvius's description of the Fano Basilica);
and, most obviously, by the unprecedented use
of Petra d'Istri, awhite stone that renders the
buildings in marked contrastto the vernacular
brick, plaster and wood colours ofthe city.
Visually pronounced, then, not simply by their
removal to the edge but also by their striking
white stone elevations, Palladio's churches - in
particular the San Giorgio Maggiore' Redentore
and Zitelle - also radiated their difference
through their foreground, the open Giudecca
canal or basin. Ifthe palaces in Vicenza are still
flanked by the existing medieval fabric, and if
the villas across the Veneto are mediated byver-
nacular elements such as the barchesse,thent
is only in Venice - through the wide open expan-
siveness ofthe venetian Lagoon and the loaded
neither-sea-nor{and archetype of the archipel-
ago - that Palladio was able to establish his
I
architecture as an absolute geo-political form.
n the end, in order to fully understand
Palladio's analogical Venice we need to
go back to his earliest failed assault on
the city and the first of two proposals he made
for a newRialto Bridge (r556)' In this project
Palladio programmatically established an
approach to the city that is anything but classical.
The bridge - a central theme of Roman urbanism
where infrastructure and monument are indis-
solubly linked - is conceived here as a civic hub
made up of two parallel rows of shops spanning
the Grand Canal. On either side, tlvo identical,
gigantic squares frame the approches to the
bridge, enclosed by an uninterrupted columned
gallery. Though only ever illustrated in plan, the
form of this project is impressive. And as with
ever'thingPalladio produced, it should be seen
not invacuobut in relation to the tight and intri-
cate gothic fabric ofthe city - ofabsolute space
miraculously emerging out of the existing dark,
labyrinthine city structure.
In the secondversion ofthe proiect - the one
published in theQuattro Librl and painted by
Canaletto - Palladio focused only on the bridge.
At its centre he placeda classical square framed
by two symmetrical colonnaded porticos' The
square and the porticos are flanked bythe shops.
By movingthe theme of the square from the
entrances to the centre ofthe span, Palladio
transformed the bridge into a forum, a micro-
cosm dialectically linked to the citybyvirtue of
its radical autonomy as a citywithin the city. The
analogical motive of the Rialto Bridge - as Tafuri
once noted - is the radical contrast that Palladio
established between the static, somewhat sober
character of the forum/square (the elevation of
whichwas designed inthe form of atemple,
topped by a pediment), and the everyday hustle
and bustle of the canal activities below- a con-
trst perfectly captured in Canaletto's painting.
Accordingto this analory, Palladio's bridge acts
as a frame forVenice's constituent elements -
a 'mental montage', as Tafuri described it, that
defines Palladio's approach to the city."Tafuri
went on to arg'ue that 'the utopian character of
the Rialto project seems to have been generated
by a design principle that transformed the city
into a territory. In this city-territory the heroic
AA FILES 59
image of architecture entered the city in the form
of finite parts, of points that defined the city,with-
prompted philospophers and later architects to
ietrace the legacy of antiquity as a model for the
iT:l
..f. plyas
new city. Vitru vits' s D e Archite ctura, rediscov-
out reducingit to an all-encompassed form''':
ered in the fifteenth century, was an emblem of
tation ofthe o
It is precisely this now characteristically
that in themse
modern dialectic between the absoluteness of this historicism, and supported not only an eru-
tural qualities
architecture and the openness ofthe citythat
dite antiquarianism but a treatise on city man-
he so carefullY
agement covering all scales ofihe urban project
Palladio's unique architectural approach sought bath, an urbar
from the design ofhouses towarfare'
to establish. Using forms and typologies to effect
Itwas in this context that figures such whole bookto
contextual relationships and political visions,
Alberti, Francesco di Giorgio and Filarete treatise. For P
he fundamentally re-imagined not only the physi-
as
expanded the remit of the architect from build- unique public
cal manifestation of the city but itsvery idea'
or basilicas it
ings to the design ofentire cities. Subsequently,
Significantly, however, unlike most other key the- grammes and
orists of architecture - such as Vitruvius, Alberti,
Filarete or Serlio - Palladio never produced a
the image of the ideal city as one orderly con-
ceived according to a rational plan, appears through its se,
same spatialit
in many fi fteenth-century paintings, precisely
comprehensive theory, plan or even a general
reflecting the political immediacy of urban las, palaces ar
view ofthe city. In spite ofthe fact that his archi-
ofthe interior
design. And it is here that the Renaissance
tecture, as we have seen, takes the form ofrepeat- Maggiore, the
invention of perspective clearly resonates
able prototypes, his projects are always rigorously
because it demonstrated the possibility of radically diffe
site-speciflc. The effect is to place Palladio out-
reducing the space of the city to the manageable oped accordir
ofthe topics through which architectural
side one geometries at
logic of calculation and the mapping and organ-
culture in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries metryandcot
isation ofspatial and geographical facts' But
is repeatedly defined - the 'ideal city"
for ll the perspectival idealism exemplifled the two extra(
In the popular imagination, ideal cities are
Venice, Publi
by architects like Sebastiano Serlio, Italy in the
those rationally planned, perfectly harmonious
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was in reality plans develol
Renaissance municipalities whose structure and
so politically fragmented and unstable that
cession ofsPt
image reflected the rediscovery of humanistval- simplyreduc
in an overall planning ofits cities accordingto
ues within a culture of civic coexistence' But
Renaissance
order to effectively understand how the radical-
rational criteriawas quite impossible' Those
The samt
ism ofPalladio's project for the city subverted
Italian cities that do appear as 'ideal' (towns like
compound a
Pienza inTuscany orVigevano in Lombardy) are
this image, the conventional interpretation Palladio in th
in fact fairly restricted spaces enveloped by a
needs to be exposed' What is traditionally
medieval urban fabric. Interestingly, this is also and Latin sqt
referred to as an 'ideal city' is in fact a complex of tion), as moi
the casewith Rome, a city longpredicated on
theories, projects and actions for a city designed indoor and o
a chaotic and somewhat haphazard model
of
according to rational and scientifically intelligi-
urban growth. Although the city's papacy in association r
ble criteria. Its origin dates backto Graeco- porticos ma(
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries attempted
Roman times and the founding of ex novo tive architec
to reconstruct Rome in accordance with its
settlements according to repeatable principles public civic t
independent from the context inwhich theywere ancient splendour, such plans materialised only
text, aswe hl
in the form of small interventions with the exist-
to be applied' These principles, often under the the Basilica
ing infrastructure. For example, Bramante's
umbrella of a singular urban layout, aimed to would often
more effectively link the internal social manage-
implementation of PopeJulius Ir'svision for
therebY inst
citywith its defence against outside Rome as an imperial citywas (partially) realised'
mentof a
from simP
not in the form of an overall plan, but as a strate-
a
enemy forces. Mediating between the ancient thatsymbol
gic positioning of large-scale architectural arte-
Greek olftos (household) andpolls (city-state), the
facts connected by a network of straight streets'
mal attribut
idealism ofthe city therefore incorporated every- ratingPubli
Given the limited scope of these interventions,
thing from the private space of the family house simPlYouts
architects like Bramante tended to overload the
to the militarisation of'the city-state''+
nr
metonymical and microcosmic resonances of
butexemPl
individual buildings in an architectural organ-
to the city. Ir
in 476 cn, however, there ensued
made Pallar
in Europe a ParalYsis in the evolu- ismwhose formal and spatial composition [via
the use of porticos, squares, forums, villas and
the absolut
tion ofthe city that Iasted right through to the
basilicas) exuded the exemplary characteristics
city. Yet the
eleventh century, as settlements tookthe form
of ancient cities. Consider, for example, his
notbeview
only of small, self-suffi cient citadels or fortress
Belvedere in the Vatican, where the model
establishin
cities, diagrams almost of the politics of feudal- subservien
ofan ancientvilla -with explicit references
ism. The feudal model, of course, proved to be Palladio on
to the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia in
as economically unsustainable as itwas archi
Palestrina - is translated into a massive, self-
the history
tecturallyunnavigable, and itwas against this portfolio is
contained courtyard building' Through overly
model that th e ciq as ciuitaswas rediscovered cultural u
symbolic structures like these, Renaissance
a
as the fundamental structure for human coexis-
Italy's project for the city shifted away from the
city, offerit
tence from the fourteenth century onwards'
thatimmei
It is precisely this rediscovery, togetherwith the overall plan / Filarete towards analogical
representations based around contained, fl nite
As Gior
recovery of the juridical implications of being
of makingr
a citizen as opposed to a feu dal subditus,that architectural comPositions'
AA FILES 59

ed, then, not simPlY bY their
the edge but also bY their
striking
elevations, Palladio's churches - in
Maggiore, Redentore
San Giorgio
difference
- also radiated their
foreground, the oPen Giudecca
Ifthe palaces in Vicenza are still
the existing medieval fabric, and if
the Veneto are mediated bYver-
such as the a rchesse,thenit
- through the wide oPen exPan-
the Venetian Lagoon and the loaded
archetype of the archiPel-
was able to establish his
as an absolute geo-political form.
end, in order to fullY understand
analogical Venice we need to
to his earliest failed assault on
the flrst of two ProPosals he made
Bridge (tS56). In this Project
established an
the city that is anything but classical.
- a central theme of Roman urbanism
and monument are indis-
- is conceived here as a civic hub
two parallel rows of shops spanning
On either side, two identical,
uares frame the aPProaches to the
by an uninterrupted columned
onlyever illustrated in Plan, the
project is impressive. And as with
Palladio produced, it should be seen
but in relation to the tight and intri-
fabric ofthe city- ofabsolute spce
emerging out of the existing dark,
city structure
version ofthe project - the one
inthe Quattro Libri andpaintedby
Palladio focused only on the bridge.
he placed a classical square framed
al colonnaded porticos. The
the porticos are flanked by the shops.
the theme of the square from the
to the centre ofthe span, Palladio
the bridge into a forum, a micro-
linked to the city byvirtue of
as a citywithin the city. The
motive of the Rialto Bridge - as Tafuri
- is the radical contrast that Palladio
between the static, somewhat sober
,
of the forum/square (the elevation of
designed in the form of a temple,
a Pediment), and the everyday hustle
of the canal activities below- a con-
captured in Canaletto's painting.
to this analory, palladio's bridge acts
forVenice's constituent elements -
', as Tafuri described it, that
glladio's approach to the city.,,Tafuri
o argue that ,the utopian character of
I project seems to have been generated
n principle that transformed the city
litory. In this city-territorythe heroic
AA FILES 59
prompted philospophers and later architects to alladio, like Bramante, looked to the
image of architecture entered the city in the form
ancient monuments of Rome not sim-
of finite parts, ofpoints thatdefinedthe city,with- retrace the legacy of antiquity as a model for the
ply as sources for the correct interpre-
out reducing it to an all-encompassed form'''3 new city. Vitruvius's De Architectura, rediscov-
tation of the orders, butas complex organisms
It is precisely this now characteristically ered in the fifteenth century, was an emblem of
this historicism, and supported not only an eru- that in themselves reproduced the rich architec-
modern dialectic between the absoluteness of
dite antiquarianism but a treatise on city man- tural qualities ofa city. Itwas for this reason that
architecture and the openness ofthe city that
he so carefully studied the model of the Roman
Palladio's unique architectural approach sought gement covering all scales ofihe urban project
from the design ofhouses towarfare. bath, an urban type he planned to devote one
to establish. using forms and typologies to effect
It was in this context that flgures such whole bookto in his (unfinished) architectural
contextual relationships and political visions,
as Alberti, Francesco di Giorgio and Filarete treatise. For Palladio the bathhouse was a
he fundamentally re-imagined not only the physi-
expanded the remit of the architect from build- unique public structure because unlike temples
cal manifestation of the city but itsvery idea'
or basilicas it grouped together multiple pro-
Significantly, however, unlike most other key the- ings to the design ofentire cities. Subsequently,
grammes and activities, lending it an intricacy
orists ofarchitecture - such as Vitruvius, AIberti, the image of the ideal city as one orderly con-
through its sequence ofdifferent spaces' This
Filarete or Serlio - Palladio never produced a ceived according to a rational plan, appears
Palladio'svil-
in many fi fteenth-century paintings, precisely same spatiality is often evoked in
comprehensive theory, plan or even a general
reflecting the political immediacy of urban las, palaces and churches. Think, for example,
view ofthe city. In spite ofthe fact that his archi-
design. And it is here that the Renaissance ofthe interiors ofthe Redentore or San Giorgio
tecture, as we have seen, takes the form of repeat-
invention of perspective clearly resonates Maggiore, the forms of which are the result of
able prototypes, his projects are always rigorously
because it demonstrated the possibility of radically different spatial models, each devel-
site-speciflc. The effect is to place Palladio out-
reducing the space of the city to the manageable oped accordingto their own autonomous
side one ofthe topics throughwhich architectural
logic of calculation and the mapping and organ- geometries and linked together only by the sym-
culture in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
isation ofspatial and geographical facts' But metry and continuity of the orders. Or consider
is repeatedly defined - the 'ideal city"
for all the perspectival idealism exemplified the two extraordinary projects for palaces in
In the popular imagination, ideal cities are
by architects like Sebastiano Serlio, Italy in the Venice, published in the Second Book, whose
those rationally planned, perfectly harmonious
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was in reality plans develop around the elucidation ofa suc-
Renaissance municipalities whose structure and
so politically fragmented and unstable that cession ofspaces, the sequence ofwhich is not
image reflected the rediscovery of humanistval-
an overall planning ofits cities according to simply reducible to the traditional tripartite
ues within a culture of civic coexistence' But in
rational criteriawas quite impossible' Those Renaissance palazzo atrium or courtyard''zs
order to effectively understand how the radical-
Italian cities that do appear as 'ideal' (towns like The same miniaturisation of city space into
ism ofPalladio's project forthe city subverted
Pienza in Tuscany orVigevano in Lombardy) are compound architectural artefacts also pushed
this image, the conventional interpretation
in fact fairly restricted spaces enveloped by a Palladio in the Quattro Lbrito reconstruct Greek
needs to be exposed. What is traditionally
medieval urban fabric.Interestingly, this is also and Latin squares (following Vitruvius's descrip-
referred to as an'ideal city' is in fact a complex of
the case with Rome, a city long predicated on tion), as models for avariety of colonnaded
theories, projects and ctions for a city designed
a chaotic and somewhat haphazard model of indoor and outdoor spaces. Because oftheir
according to rational and scientifically intelligi
urban growth. Although the city's papacy in associationwith the forums of ancient Rome,
ble criteria. Its origin dates backto Graeco-
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries attempted porticos made by colonnades became the defini-
Roman times and the foundingof ex novo
to reconstruct Rome in accordance with its tive rchitectural response in framing open,
settlements ccordingto repeatable principles
ancient splendour, such plans materialised only public civic space' within this analogical con-
independent from the context inwhich theywere
in the form of small interventions with the exist- text, as we have seen in the Palazzo Chiericati,
to be applied. These principles, often under the
ing infrastructure. For example, Bramante's the Basilica or the Palazzo Civena, Palladio
umbrella of a singular urban layout, aimed to
implementation of PopeJulius rr's vision for would often introduce a ground-floor portico,
more effectively link the internal social manage-
Rome as an imperial citywas (partially) realised, thereby instantly transforming the building
ment of a citywith its defence against outside
not in the form ofan overall plan, but as a strate- from a simple, self-standing object to an entity
enemy forces. Mediating between the ancient
gic positioning of large-scale architectural arte- that symbolically resonated with all of the for-
Greek olfros (household) andpolis (city-state), the
facts connected by a network of straight streets' mal attributes of the city around it. By incorpo-
idealism of the citytherefore incorporated every-
Given the limited scope of these interventions, rating public spaces, these buildings were not
thing from the private space of the family house
architects like Bramante tended to overload the simply outstanding examples of architecture,
to the militarisation of'the city-state''+
nr metonymical and microcosmic resonances of but exemplars of an architectural relationship
ith the falt of the Roman EmPire
individual buildings in an architectural organ- to the city. Itis this explicitwill to idealise that
in 476 cn, however, there ensued
ismwhose formal and spatial composition (via made Palladio's collective series of buildings
in Europe a ParalYsis in the evolu'
the use of porticos, squares, forums, villas and the absolute embodimentof aprojectforthe
tion of the citythatlasted rightthrough to the
basilicas) exuded the exemplary characteristics city. vet the impact of these examples should
eleventh century, as settlements tooL the form
of ancient cities. Consider, for example, his not be viewed simply in terms of their role in
only of small, self-sufficient citadels or fortress
Belvedere in the Vatican, where the model establishing an architectural pattern book (a
cities, diagrams almost of the politics of feudal-
ofan ancientvilla -with explicit references subservience to type and form that has made
ism. The feudal model, of course, proved to be
to the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia in Palladio one of the most copied architects in
as economically unsustainable as itwas archi
Palestrina - is translated into a massive, self- the history of the discipline). Instead, Palladio's
tecturally unnavigable, and itwas against this
contained courtyard building. Throug'h overly portfolio is more powerfully infl uential within
model that th e cty as ctttaswas rediscovered
symbolic structures Iike these, Renaissance a cultural understanding ofthe Renaissance
as the fundamental structure for human coexis-
Italy's project for the city shifted away from the city, offering specifi c architectural compositions
tence from the fourteenth century onwards'
overall plan /a Filarete towards analogical that immediately evoke paradigms of city space'
It is preciselythis rediscovery, togetherwith the
representations based around contained, flnite As Giorgio Agamben has written' the act
recovery of the juridical implications of being
architectural comPositions. of making an example is a complex business
a citizen as opposed to a feu dal subditus,tl:'at
B3
AA FILES 59