Architectural Details
Villa Cornaro was mainly constructed in 1553-1554, with additional work into the 1590s, after Palladio had died, for Giorgio Cornaro, younger son of a wealthy family. It represents one of the most exemplitory examples of a Renaissance villa during this time frame. The north façade (illustrated) has an innovative projecting central portico-loggia that is a flexible living space out of the sun and open to cooling breezes. The interior space is a harmonious arrangement of the strictly symmetrical floor plans on which Palladio insisted without exception. Rooms of inter-related proportions composed of squares and rectangles flank a central axial vista which extends through the house. As Rudolph Wittkower noted, by moving subsidiary staircases into the projecting wings and filling matching corner spaces with paired oval principal stairs, space was left for a central salone which is fully as wide as the porticos (plan, left). The central core of the villa forms a rectangle in which there are six repetitions of an elegant standard module. The interior has 18th century frescos by Mattia Bortoloni and stuccos by Camillo Mariani.
Through its illustration in Palladio's I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura, Villa Cornaro became a model for villas all over the world, particularly in England and in colonial America. Drayton Hall (1738-1742) in Charleston, South Carolina, and Thomas Jefferson's initial version of Monticello (1768-1770) are early examples of its influence in America.
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