Sayre RR7 IAR 221

Simple Rules for Superior Architecture

Roth’s examination on the Villas of Palladio was exceptionally interesting due to a few factors but prominent among them was the fact that the building designer was originally a builder, not a designer.  Generally I have read that mainly the very well educated and, almost virtuoso-esk, classical educated men. Andrea Palladio received this education after he built the Villas, which goes to show that simple beginnings do not result in simple endings, which shows in his architecture as well as his training. The prime example is the Villa Capra or Villa Rotonda.  “This was the Villa Capra, called the Villa Rotonda because it focused not on a single entrance façade but on a cylindrical rotunda at the center capped by a dome visibly poking through the roof” (Roth 379). 

The Villa Capra, Andrea Palladio.With superior views on all sides would have

made this building a nice fortress. Glad it never came to it. Palladio meant for

this building to be more of a belvedere, and elevated pavilion designed to 

offer pleasing views over the countryside. (Roth 381)

[image:here]

I have to say I loved everything about this building. While following many rules of the renaissance, Roth pointed out that one was severely broken. Generally dome’s were placed on churches are reserved as such due to the nature of their representing the heavens and divinity. I find this move to be very bold and, architecturally, one of the most pleasing ones I’ve noticed so far in the Renaissance. The buildup of stacks and groves on all four identical facades leading to the dome is quite beautiful. The roofs curve when they meet the cylinder which is capped by the dome 

and accentuates the divergence from straight lines very dramatically, which may even represent how dramatic placing a dome in a house was.

This image accentuates the commanding view the Villa Capra had over the area. It looks like a castle in the sky, which follows the expansion of the physical world as well as changing the perspective of the building. [image:www.esploriamo.com]             

                                                                                The inside of the Villa Capra, heavily decorated   mosaics seemingly with man at the center. Representing art to come?

image[here]

Holding on to the rules here was a very important factor. All of them are followed but probably the most firm are moving forward the secular (with the placing of the dome in a house), following the rules of course, groves and stacks, and expanding the physical world. A lot can be attributed to the dome which I think is the key to this building as it is a rotunda. Reviving the past is found everywhere here and is possibly overdone by the words which are plastered above the archway, next to the Ionic columns. The inside dome is of course heavily decorated with a man sitting on a chair, or throne more like, and so man is at the center. I love this building and it is the epitome of the Renaissance in every shape and form. “The Villa Capra summarizes the confident spirit of the Renaissance and its ideal of a rational, intelligible order superimposed on nature” (Roth p381).