Villa La Rotonda is a Renaissance villa just outside Vicenza in Northern Italy designed by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, and begun in 1567, though not completed until the 1605. The villa's official name is Villa Almerico Capra Valmarana, but it is also known as "La Rotonda", "Villa Rotonda", "Villa Capra", and "Villa Almerico Capra". The name Capra derives from the Capra brothers, who completed the building after they acquired it in 1592. Along with other works by Palladio, the building is conserved as part of the World Heritage Site "City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto".

Inspiration

In 1565 Paolo Almerico, a clerk and nobleman, on his retirement from the Vatican (as referendario apostolico of Pope Pius IV and afterwards Pius V), returned to his home town of Vicenza in the Venetian countryside and built a country house.Some like to consider this being the first addition of suburbs as it wasn’t built to be surrounding a farm. The building wasn’t meant to actually be inhabited even though it is described as a habitable place. It is proportionate enough where someone could live there but not a reputable family over the summer time

The name La Rotonda refers to the central circular hall with its dome. To describe the villa, as a whole, as a rotunda is technically incorrect, as the building is not circular but rather the intersection of a square with a cross. Each portico has steps leading up to it, and opens via a small cabinet or corridor to the circular domed central hall. The Hall is located in the center and tends to catch the light from the top. The smaller rooms located in the villa are mezzanines, over the big rooms that have vaults fashioned in the first manner and connects back to the hall and around. In Palladio's book Quattro Libri, it shows a high pitched roof and dome which in the actual building is low pitched and the dome is stepped. Work spaces for the villa's servants are hidden underneath the first floor, which is accessed via staircases hidden inside the walls of the central hall.

The design reflected the humanist values of Renaissance architecture. In order for each room to have some sun, the design was rotated 45 degrees from each cardinal point of the compass. Each of the four porticos has pediments graced by statues of classical deities. The pediments were each supported by six Ionic columns. Each portico was flanked by a single window. All principal rooms were on the second floor or piano nobile.

Building began in 1567. Neither Palladio nor the owner, Paolo Almerico, were to see the completion of the villa. The owner Almerico passed away in 1589 where the Villa was then transferred over to his illegitimate son Virginio. Palladio died in 1580 and a second architect, Vincenzo Scamozzi, was employed by the new owners to oversee the completion. One of the major changes he made to the original plan was to modify the two-storey central hall.

thumb|right|Interior of the rotonda

Palladio had intended it to be covered by a high semi-circular dome but Scamozzi designed a lower dome with an oculus (intended to be open to the sky) inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. The dome was ultimately completed with a cupola.

After the Villa was built, analysts saw that it differed from the original drawings of Palladio. In understanding it they have been confronted with three different versions. Firstly, the original published by Palladio in I quattro libri dell'architettura of 1570. The second is the current finished product of the construction. And third is the state of its first completion. The building's access points are only through the four pronaos, and unlike any other normal villa, the service quarters and the granary can only be accessed through the central hall then through the four internal staircases. However this part of the design was in Palladio's original drawings but now the current standing version allows direct access from the outside into the service floor. The design circulation isn’t optimal for the space. Carts that bring in fresh agricultural produce have to make a sharp turn at the corner to get into the building and there isn’t any connection to the central; space from the staircases on the ground level.

Interior

thumb|left|The cupola

The interior design of the Villa was to be as wonderful, if not more so, than the exterior.

Alessandro, Giovanni Battista Maganza, and Anselmo Canera were commissioned to paint frescoes in the principal salons. The rich stucco and fresco design of the interior was created by Domenico Fontana and Ruggero Bescapè.

A former family owner of the villa was Mario di Valmarana (1929–2010), a former professor of architecture at the University of Virginia. It was his declared ambition to preserve Villa Rotonda so that it may be appreciated by future generations. His brother was Lodovico Valmarana (1926–2018), Count of Valmarana and Nogara, whose father Count Andrea Valmarana (1891–1976) purchased the villa in 1912, with the villa now owned by Lodovico's son, Count Nicolò Valmarana. The interior is open to the public Friday through Sunday, and the grounds are open every day.

Film

In 1979 the American film director Joseph Losey filmed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Don Giovanni in Villa La Rotonda and the Veneto region of Italy. The film was nominated for several César Awards in 1980 including Best Director, and has generally been praised as one of the finer cinematic adaptations of opera.

<gallery mode="packed">

Image:Villa Rotonda front.jpg|Front

Image:Villa Rotonda side.jpg|Side

Image:Villa La Rotonda.JPG|Service corridor leading up to building façade

Image:Rotonda mantle02.jpg|carved marble fireplace mantel over a fireplace

Image:Rotonda broken pediment.jpg|Open pediment over doorway

Image:Rotonda ceiling.jpg|Ornamental moldings and fresco painting

Image:Palladio Rotonda (23547400).jpg| Palladio: I quattro libri

Image:Palladio Rotonda planta Scamozzi 1778 (23547396).jpg|Palladio: I quattro libri

</gallery>

Influences

England

Five houses have been built in England based on Palladio's Villa Rotonda: Henbury Hall, Cheshire, is the most recent; Chiswick House, Greater London, and Mereworth Castle, Kent, are protected as listed buildings; Foots Cray Place, Kent, and Nuthall Temple, Nottinghamshire have been demolished.

One of the earliest Palladian villas in the north of England is Rokeby Park.

Palestinian Territories

thumb|The "House of Palestine" and owner [[Munib al-Masri in Nabulus.]]

The "House of Palestine" (Bayt al-Filastin), built at the top of biblical Mount Gerizim, which towers over the Palestinian city of Nablus, north of Jerusalem, closely resembles the Villa Rotonda. It is owned by Palestinian millionaire Munib al-Masri.

Poland

Palaces built in Poland based on Palladio's Villa Rotonda include the Królikarnia (Rabbit House) Palace, the Belweder in Warsaw and the Skórzewski Palace in Lubostroń.

Belarus

The interior of the main building of the Gomel Palace in Gomel in the Eastern Belarus is based on Villa Rotonda.

Ukraine

The Cathedral of Transfiguration of Bolgrad in southwestern Ukraine, designed by architect Avraam Melnikov and build in 1833-1838, is inspired by Villa Rotonda.

United States

For the competition to design the President's House in Washington, DC, Thomas Jefferson anonymously submitted a design that was a variation on the Villa Rotonda. Though James Hoban's Palladian design for what would become known as the White House was selected, the influence of the Villa Rotonda can also be seen at Jefferson's own iconic home of Monticello.

The Calcasieu Parish Courthouse, finished in 1912 in Lake Charles, Louisiana, is a copy of the Villa La Rotonda

See also

  • Palladian architecture
  • 16th-century Western domes
  • Valmarana family

References

Sources

  • dal Lago, Adalbert (1969). Villas and Palaces of Europe. Paul Hamlyn, .
  • Description of the building written by the Palladio Museum in Vicenza
  • "La rotonda"
  • "Commentary and Images of Villa Capra" from GreatBuilding.com
  • Virtually visit an interpretation of the Villa Capra in Second Life.
  • Architectural analysis of Villa Capra