Villa Thiene

The north side towards the city

The Villa Thiene is in Quinto Vicentino in Vicenza situated villa that of Andrea Palladio was designed and partly built. Of the outstanding project, which was originally designed to be much larger, only a two-storey building was carried out, difficult to identify from the original plan. Like the old town of Vicenza and the villas of Palladio in the vicinity, the building has been under protection as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996 .

Client and building history

The clients were Count Marc'Antonio von Thiene and his uncle, Count Adriano von Thiene, later Marc'Antonio's son, Ottavio von Thiene. The Venetian noble family of Thiene belonged to the most noble families in the Vicenza area, and St. Kajetan von Thiene also came from this family . However, they took over themselves so completely with this building and other projects that they ruined themselves. The construction is an early project by Palladio, the order was placed around 1540, the construction time of the first section was from 1542 to 1545 or 1547. Not even the body of the current house was actually completed during this time - despite frescoes by various artists. Around 1740, the descendants decided to have at least this part completed; they chose Francesco Muttoni , an architect who worked closely according to Palladio's principles. He completed the building, but nevertheless deviated significantly from the original plans. Today it is difficult to see which parts were built after Palladio and which after Muttoni. Goethe visited the Villa Thiene on September 22, 1786.

He mentions this in the Italian trip and also that construction work was still going on. The fact that the design is rather unusual for Palladio in terms of the floor plan may be due to the fact that the clients, as dilettantes, were interested in architecture and wanted to see their ideas implemented. Their models were the ancient Roman villas and thermal baths. The irony of fate probably wanted that Count von Thiene, of all people, who was unable to finish his own house, in the Vicenza city council in 1548/49 in the narrow vote on the construction of one of the most futile and expensive buildings in Vicenza, the Palazzo della Raggione , also called Basilica Palladiana , belonged to those aristocrats who supported Palladio's design for it. Villa Thiene now belongs to the town of Quinto Vicentino and houses part of the town council, but can be visited during opening hours.

Palladio's own description of the design

The outline and elevation of the design from the “Four Books on Architecture”, Book II, Chap. XIV., P. 64, Venice 1570

Palladio himself described the design in his famous main work, I Quattro libri dell'architettura , "The four books on architecture":

" I DISEGNI, che seguono sono della fabrica del Conte Ottaiuo Thiene à Quinto sua Villa / Fù cominciata dalla felice memoria del Conte Marc'Antonio suo padre, e dal Conte Adriano, suo / Zio: il sito è molto bello per hauer da una parte la Tesina, e dall'alta un ramo di detto fiume assai / grande: Hà questo palagio una loggia lasti la porta di ordine Dorico: per questa si passa in un 'al- / tra loggia, e di quella in un cortile: il quale ha ne i fianchi due loggie: dall'una, e l'altra testa di queste / loggia sono gli appartamenti delle stanze, delle quali alcune sono state ornate di pitture da Messer / Giuoanni Indemio Vicentino huomo di bellissimo ingegno. Rincontro all'entrate si troua una / loggia simile à quella dell'entrata, dalle quale si entra in un'Atrio di quattro column, e da quello nel / cortile, il quale ha i portici die ordine Dorico, e suere per l uso di Villa. Non ui è alcuna scala princi- / pale corrispondente à tutta la fabrica: percioche la parte di sopra non ha da seruire, se non per salua- / robba, e per luoghi da seruitori. "

Translated: “The following drawings show the building of Count Ottavio Thiene in the Quinto. It was started by his blessed father, Count Marc'Antonio, and his uncle, Count Adriano. The location is very beautiful as the Tesina on one side and a fairly large tributary of the same river on the other. This palace has a loggia of Doric order in front of its entrance . This leads to another loggia and through this to a courtyard with two loggias on the sides. At one end and the other of these loggias are the apartments, some of which were decorated by the painter Giovanni Indemio, a brilliant man from Vicenza. Opposite the entrance is a loggia similar to that of the entrance, through which one enters an atrium with four columns. From this one arrives in a courtyard which has porticos of Doric order and is used for agricultural purposes. There are no main stairs that are connected to the whole building, which is why the upper part is not used for anything else, except as space for pantries or as a servant's apartment. "

Regarding Palladio's own description, it should be noted that his description of the river Tesina must be meant in literary terms rather than emphasis, since even considering a shift in the course of the river over the centuries, a width as described is not possible.

Facades and equipment

The south facade to the garden side, a remnant of the former cladding can be seen on the (left) west side

The north facade facing the city, more precisely to Piazza IV Novembre , is simply adorned with brickwork with a few elements of former jewelry. It is unclear whether the facade was actually completely clad in marble , travertine or stucco . Only the bases, the capitals and part of the gable are actually made of stone, but they do not follow the Doric, as planned by Palladio, but the Tuscan order , which is related to the changes in the 18th century. In fact, the entablature above the colossal pilasters placed in pairs still corresponds to the Doric order , as it is formed from metopes and triglyphs . The unadorned triangular gable is only broken up by a round window and two rectangular windows. The structure of the south facade towards the garden differs from this: the four central pilasters form a central risalit , the three axes of the central section are structured on the upper floor by deep-drawn arched windows with pre-blinded balustrades . The gable on the south side corresponds to Palladio's design for the upper floor of the two two-story main buildings. The west side still contains the remains of an original panel.

Overall, the building reveals little of what was intended in Palladio's design. Palladio envisaged columns throughout , under a - typical for him - antique-style triangular gable with statues on top. However, it is also unclear which part of Palladio's plan was implemented with this building, either one of the two planned main buildings or possibly just an agricultural building, which is possible because Palladio always adapts his architecture and his buildings to the, as here, agriculturally intensive use of a villa.

Only a three-part vault fresco has survived from the decoration of the villa with frescoes , not just from Giovanni de Mio mentioned by Palladio . The villa was furnished in the 1560s by great artists such as Paolo Veronese and Giovanni Battista Zelotti , none of which is left. The fresco, it is still from de Mio, depicts mythological themes: one shows a fight between Lapiths and Centaurs , the second is a representation of Amazons coming to Troy to help and finally works by Hercules .

literature

• Michelangelo Muraro, Paolo Marton: The villas of the Veneto . 2nd Edition. Hirmer Verlag, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-7774-4570-3 .
• Wolfgang Braunfels : Small Italian Art History. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-7701-1509-0 .
• Art library of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (ed.): Architectural theory from the Renaissance to the present . Taschen, Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-8228-5082-9 .
• Stefano Zuffi: The Renaissance - Art, Architecture, History, Masterpieces . DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-8321-9113-9 .
• Jochen Golz (Ed.): Johann Wolfgang Goethe Italian Journey , 4th edition, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-352-00080-8

Web links

Commons : Villa Thiene  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Michelangelo Muraro: The Villas of Veneto. P. 187.
2. ^ ^{A b c} Wolfgang Braunfels: Small Italian art history. P. 375.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Michelangelo Muraro: The Villas of Veneto. P. 186.
4. ↑ Jochen Golz (Ed.): Johann Wolfgang Goethe Italienische Reise , 4th edition, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1987, p. 51.
5. ↑ Andrea Palladio, I Quattro libri dell'architettura, Venice 1570, Book II, Chapter XIV, p. 64 in the original edition, reproduced as a facsimile in Muraro, p. 187.
6. ↑ quoted from: Michelangelo Muraro: Die Villen des Veneto , p. 187, right column.
7. ^ Art library of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (ed.): Architectural theory from the Renaissance to the present. P. 64.
8. ↑ Stefano Zuffi: The Renaissance - Art, Architecture, History, Masterpieces. P. 328.

Coordinates: 45 ° 34 ′ 22.3 "  N , 11 ° 37 ′ 30.6"  E