Comparison of Villa Rotonda and Palazzo Della Ragione or Basilica - Coursework Example

Topic:  Comparison and contrast between Villa Rotonda and Palazzo della Ragione or Basilica Introduction Both the Villa Rotonda or Villa Capra, as it is also known, and the Palazzo della Ragione or Basilica are exemplary creations of renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. While Villa Capra is one of his most renowned villas, the Palazzo della Ragione is a public building. According to (Trachtenberg. pp 312 313), Palladio’s mastery in architecture had led to numerous commissions; but it was from his villas that the whole new way of architecture ‘Palladianism’ came into existence and which influenced eighteenth century classical architecture of England and America. The landscape of Venice changed because of his architecture. Introducing the Creator Andrea Palladio was one of the most famous renaissance architects, who single-handedly transformed the city of Vicenza changing its landscape with imposing villas, palaces, churches, and public buildings. Palladio was responsible for replacing the Gothic style with a harmony and balance of classical style complementing the renaissance taste. Palladian architecture was characterized by symmetrical planning, proportionate consideration of mass and volume and their harmony to the human form, innovative ideas in construction and engineering, preference for classical elements such as columns, arches, atriums, and rich sculptural decorations. Historical Context of Palladio’s Designs Three incidents during this period necessitated the building of Villas in Venice. The attack by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Spanish expedition of Christopher Columbus in 1492, and Vasco da Gama’s discovery of a new sea route to Asia in 1497, finally brought security to Venice, to develop large scale agriculture. To fulfill this requirement, a group of entrepreneurs, comprising the nobility in Venice, with money to clear the land and drain the swamps and start agricultural activities, came forward. These rich people needed houses to reflect grandeur, but suited to the purpose of country living. The houses had to be magnificent yet inexpensive, comfortable but suited to the purposes of a large agricultural establishment that required places to store grain and wine and accommodate the large number of farm hands. In this historical context, Andrea Palladio, suggested his three-part solution and thus was born the legendary villas in the Palladian style. Theoretical Context of Palladio’s Designs The Renaissance buildings have a plan with a symmetrical appearance. Certain components such as the façade, columns and pilasters, arches, vaults, domes, were present in renaissance buildings. The most relevant thing about renaissance architecture was that it was not restricted to practice but ideas could be disseminated because of the availability of printing. The effect of the Italian renaissance was carried across the world and Palladio’s style and designs influenced both European architecture and British American architecture. Famous architects such as Inigo Jones, Colin Campbell, Sir Christopher Wren, William Kent, and Sir William Chambers were influenced by Palladio and imitated his styles and motifs to design their buildings. However, this wide influence was not just because of the brilliance of Palladio’s work but because Palladio incorporated the details of his structures and techniques in the I Quattro Libri dellArchitettura or ‘Four Book on Architecture,’ one of the first guide books, published in 1570, which detailed every aspect of building and was considered as the bible of architecture. Palladio’s book served a great purpose in spreading his ideas beyond Italy. In eighteenth century Britain, it became fashionable to build interpretations of Villa Capra as Mereworth, Chiswick House and other buildings were built. The influence also spread to America, where Thomas Jefferson, the late President, designed Monticello, his house, after Villa Capra. Comparing both forms of buildings, as represented by the Villa Rotonda and Palazzo della Ragione or Basilica, certain similarities and contrasts can be identified. These comparisons have been shown under various parameters. However, the most important point of difference between these two buildings is that while the Villa Capra was a Palladian creation that is considered to be a trend-setter in architecture, the Palazzo della Ragione was reconstructed by Palladio by his signature creations, only after a fire destroyed parts of the original medieval structure. Location or Site of the Building Palladio’s patrons were wealthy people, which provided him with unique opportunity to experiment with design. The villas, which were designed for the purpose of factory, farm, and home had a unique style of its own and defined countryside civilization in the 15th century. The Villa Capra is a renaissance villa located just outside Vicenza in Northern Italy. The villa located on a hillock, with the countryside spreading all around it. The Palazzo della Ragione was Vicenza’s chief building of government and commerce and was located in a prominent part of the town. When Palladio was commissioned to restructure the building, he hid the irregular medieval rooms with covered arcades or loggias. This also provided the people with extra accommodation for business. Form and Function The Villa Capra was commissioned by Paolo Almerico, a papal prelate, in 1566, when he returned from Rome to Vicenza. It was to be used as a party house to entertain guests. Though termed a villa, according to Palladio himself, the house was more a palazzo, as there was no farm and there was no land attached to it. The design was influenced by the Pantheon and the Villa Capra is also referred to as the ‘La Rotonda,’ after the name by which the Pantheon was known in ancient times. The form of the villa is simple; it is a cube-like mass with a dome over the central salon, which is round. There are four temple front porches, identically designed, on all four sides of this cube-like block. At the center of the square plan of the building is a circular hall, which is two-storey high. The position of the building is 45 degrees to the South, so that all rooms receive sunlight. Though there is symmetry in the four loggias, which are identically designed, there is also a customization of each loggia to the landscape in front of it, cleverly achieved through variations in width of the steps, retaining walls, and the embankments, and this asymmetrical relation in a symmetrical architecture gives a profound experience. The total form of the construction reflected the humanist values evident in renaissance architecture. Palladio’s public houses, though less famous than his villas, also reflect his fascination with Roman architecture. The Palazzo della Ragione was also called the basilica because of its similarity with this ancient form of building. There are two piazzas, which flank the basilica; the Piazza dei Signori, meant for the nobility, bears the winged lion emblem of the Serenissima and faces the town’s east-west artery, while the Piazza delle Erbe, is the lower piazza and still functions as a market. The Palazzo della Ragione thus succeeded in bringing together all classes of people though its design element. The Palazzo della Ragione’s enormous hall is unique in having no structural columns. This hall is called the Consiglio dei Quattrocento or Council of the Four Hundred. When Palladio received the commission he visualized it as the classical Roman basilica. He used Serlian windows to conceal the varying distances between pilasters. In doing this, he maintained the dimensions of the arch and varied only the lateral openings. The Purpose of the Building Since the Villa Capra was designed as a party house for guests, the plan emphasized on beauty and comfort. The location of the villa on the hillock was hence important, as it provided an uninterrupted visual treat of greenery. Palladio always tried to adopt the climatic conditions to his building designs. The sheltered porches of the Villa Capra provided shade against the intense Venetian sun. Located on the top of a hill, the cool breezes flow along the main axis of the building. Palladio’s client’s religious background also suited the villa’s temple front design. The Palazzo della Ragione was built as a town hall of the renaissance period. The town hall was designed to have the largest roof, in Europe, that was unsupported by columns. The rectangular hall is 27 meter broad, 81.5 meters long, and 24 meters high. Standing upon arches, the upper storey of the building has an open loggia surrounding it. The original design that was finished in 1219 had three separate roofs, over the three chambers of the hall. In 1420 a fire destroyed the internal walls of the hall and the restoration design combined the three separate spaces into a single hall, called the Salone. The new frescoes on the walls were done between 1425 and 1440. Techniques of Construction Palladio’s designs were principally based on three elements. The exterior motif had to have a dramatic effect, the materials used had to be economic, and there should be perfect harmony and balance in the internal design. Let’s consider each element to understand Palladio buildings. Palladio worked in three types of exterior elevations. The most modest and simple of these has a loggia with three openings, Fig 1 [1]. The second type is what he borrowed from the Greek temple front. He adapted the pediment and columns in the Greek temple front to private forms, Fig 2 [1]. The Villa Capra is an example of this external motif. The third external motif that the architect used was the most innovative and modern design and constituted of a loggia that had double columns, Fig 3 [1]. Fig 1 Fig 2 Fig 3 The next element in Palladio’s buildings was the internal harmony and balance. The foremost principle to achieve this harmony is to conceive that the parts of the house and the entire house must correspond to each other. This concept is what is the most difficult to conceive or imitate among all of Palladio’s building techniques. Inside a Palladian building, one gets the exact sense of where one is located and what in modern parlance is termed as a ‘transparent floor plan.’ This harmony is living only in his surviving villas in Veneto, for no amount of conceptualization and detailing, even by Palladio himself, could convey the secrets by which it could be replicated by other builders. Palladio’s rooms have innumerable possibilities from squares, and circles, to rectangles. His rectangle rooms have been studied widely. In 1949, Rudolf Wittkower proposed in his ‘Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism’ that Palladio had used the concept of harmonic proportions in music to decide on the ratio of length and breadth of his rectangular rooms. Though this was true for some rooms it was also not true for others. However, that Palladio was fascinated with perfect numbers ‘6’ and ‘10’, deemed perfect as it was the proportions of the human body, cannot be ignored. His logic was that a person would be most comfortable in a room that matched his body proportions and hence the secret of the harmony and internal balance. When Palladio took over the restructuring of the Palazzo della Ragione, Fig 4 [2], he used an architectural technique where the old façade of the building would be hidden by new construction. The medieval market hall of the palazzo was concealed by a classical colonnade, which was a form of facadism. Palladio used stone arcades to wrap the medieval inner building of the palazzo. The Palladian motif for this building was three openings with a rounded arch in the middle and two smaller apertures on either side. Fig 4Fig 5 Fig 5 [3] shows the two storey loggia of the Pallazo della Ragione. Materials Used for Construction Palladio preferred the use of economic materials, which was the last element of his designs. Instead of using stone and marble, Palladio used brick and covered them in stucco. The ornate capitals were made of terra cotta instead of the stone, which was more common for such usage. The most unusual material used was in the architraves that supported the huge columns. Since the columns became lightweight due to use of terra cotta the architraves were made from wood which was covered with straw lathing and then stucco. In the inside of the buildings, Palladio reasoned that costs could be cut down by decorating the walls with frescoes rather than investing in tapestries. Also since the villas in the Venetian country side were used in the summer season when farming was going on, one did not need tapestries to insulate the walls from the winter cold. So, most Palladio villas had artists such as Veronese or Zelotti work on the frescoes on the walls. Expression and Symbolism Palladio’s architecture was an expression of his Platonic ideals. For him architecture symbolised a virtuous moral act and the purest form of such manifestation was thought to be the use of mathematical calculations. He allowed for variety but within the limits of theory. The classical influence was apparent in his work, which was also largely influenced by Greek architecture. His work combined Christian and classical elements of designing, bringing together nature and man. A number of social, cultural, and historical changes during the 15th to the mid 16th century were responsible for changes in art, architecture, and other artistic modes of expression. The invention of the printing press, helped in dissemination of information, while the Turkish domination of the Eastern Mediterranean region prompted countries in Europe to look for other trade routes. The middle and the upper class grew and the church was challenged with secularist ideas. With more wealth, private homes, palaces, and even chapels were commissioned and the Greek and Roman styles of architecture came to influence artists in Italy. Art could diversify, as the subject matter became varied. Style The whole purpose of the vials was to combine the functional needs of farming and the luxurious lifestyle of a gentleman. The villas were designed by mathematical or musical proportions (Palladio’s forte). The total sense of balance between the exterior and the interior, the proportion of height, width, and length, the symmetry in plan, elevation, and volume, are totally a Palladian process that is beyond the realm of know architectural procedures. The interior area of the Palazzo della Ragione is famous for its high vault that has often been referred to as ‘Europe’s largest hanging hall.’ Allegorical patterns, signs of the zodiac and other extravagantly made frescoes adorn the walls of the Salone. Though the central portion of the palazzo dates back to 1218, the porticoes made out of attractive Istrian stone, ammonite red columns and balustrades, are the additions made between 1306 and 1309 by Fra Giovanni degli Eremitani. There was once a mezzanine floor, which was destroyed in the fire. There is the figure of a wooden curved horse in the Salone. The first floor of the palazzo, today, has been transformed into an exhibition place because of the city’s policy to reuse its ‘historic containers.’ The palazzo has been restored to its active role as a part of the community life. Conclusion Palladio was one architect whose work can be classified as a huge body of similar work, similar to, for example, the ‘French Gothic Cathedrals,’ according to George Hersey. The only difference in Palladio’s case was that it was the work of a single artist. Palladio has explained his attitude towards his designs quite clearly when he has said that ‘in trying to please people with variety and new ideas, designers should not do something contrary to the percepts of art but be consistent with reason. There are some universal and necessary rules which dictate art and one cannot depart from it to create a variety that is pleasing to the people.’ In summary, Palladio’s patterns can be analyzed following Rudolf Wittkower and George Hersey. The designs have a bi-lateral vertical axis, around which the Sala or the main room is designed. Auxillary rooms are rectangular and are arranged around this central space. These rooms are usually arranged in the shape of a ‘U’. The number of secondary rooms was limited and no room was equal or more wide or long as the entire plan. The whole design looked like a rectangular block. Reference List: 1. The Secrets of Palladios Villas. Adapted from an illustrated lecture by Carl I. Gable. [Internet] (Updated NA) Available at: http://www.boglewood.com/palladio/analysis.html. [Accessed 02 Feb 2010.] 2. Palladios public buildings.[Internet] (Updated NA) Available at: http://www.architecture.com/LibraryDrawingsAndPhotographs/Palladio/AndreaPalladio/PalladiosBuildings/PalladiosPublicBuildings/PalazzodellaRagione.aspx [Accessed 02 Feb 2010.] 3. Image from: P. Asensio, ed. Andrea Palladio, 2002, p. 4. Andrea Palladio: His Life and Legacy, at the Royal Academy, review. Ellis Woodman. [Internet] (Updated 02 Feb 2009) Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/4435253/Andrea-Palladio-His-Life-and-Legacy-at-the-Royal-Academy-review.html [Accessed 02 Feb 2010.] 5. Palladio, Andrea . [Internet] (Updated 29 Nov 2009) Available at: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3205500235.html [Accessed 02 Feb 2010.] 6. Andrea Palladio. Renaissance Architect of Italy. [Internet] (Updated NA) Available at: http://www.ultimateitaly.com/culture-antropology/andrea-palladio.html [Accessed 02 Feb 2010.] 7. Palladios buildings. [Internet] (Updated NA) Available at: http://www.architecture.com/LibraryDrawingsAndPhotographs/Palladio/AndreaPalladio/PalladiosBuildings/PalladiosBuildings.aspx [Accessed 02 Feb 2010.] 8. Lecture 16: Palladio and Palladianism. [Internet] (Updated NA) Available at: http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:jGXzr-BGfeYJ:architecture.cua.edu/res/docs/courses/arch136/2009a/schedule-and-slides/lecture-16-palladio.pdf+compare+palladio%27s+villa+Rotonda+and+Palazzo+della+Ragione+or+Basilica&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in [Accessed 02 Feb 2010.] 9. Villa Rotonda and its influence. [Internet] (Updated NA) Available at: http://www.architecture.com/LibraryDrawingsAndPhotographs/Palladio/PalladianBritain/VillasInBritain/VillaRotondasInfluence/VillaRotondasInfluence.aspx [Accessed 02 Feb 2010.] 10. 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CHAPTER FOUR. VICENZA AND THE HEROIC CITYSCAPE. [Internet] (Updated NA) Available at: http://rubens.anu.edu.au/raid4/chandler/chap4.htm [Accessed 02 Feb 2010.] 16. Palazzo della Ragione. [Internet] (Updated NA) Available at: http://www.italian-architecture.info/VI/VI-006.htm [Accessed 02 Feb 2010.] 17. Palazzo della Ragione | Padua, Italy. [Internet] (Updated 21 June 2007) Available at: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=489222 [Accessed 02 Feb 2010.] 18. Tobia Scarpas plan for renovation of Palazzo della Ragione in Verona. [Internet] (Updated 21 June 2007) Available at: http://www.floornature.com/progetto.php?id=4966&sez=30 [Accessed 02 Feb 2010.] Read More