When I presented my senior thesis in architecture to get my Bachelor of Fine Arts, the studio's program was called "The Center for the Filmic Image" (CFI) – a film archive, study center, and studio spaces. The studio critic was Shane O'Neil, who had come down to RISD from the GSD at Harvard to teach a class while our Department Head, Rodolfo Machado was on leave.
My solution involved a fictional archeology of the site, located on Fort Point Channel in Boston. The fiction justified my co-opting a sizable geometric square between the site and the Post Office building on the other side of the Channel, with the archive and study center occupying a long, thin slab building following the seawall. And the invented geometry prescribed the installation of a tower (lighthouse) on a long jetty in the Channel and the projection of a rectangular panel (screen), which allowed the CFI to show movies over the water.
All I have left of the project are these two rough, constructed perspective drawings of the CFI, looking at both sides of the Channel (note the Federal Reserve Bank and One Financial Center visible behind the Post Office). They represent my 'filmic image' – a way for the creative arts to make themselves seen in Boston.
For the final crit, Prof Machado returned to review the studio's work. While discussing my project, he urged me to visit Villa Barbaro (Andrea Palladio, 1554-58). Well, I was familiar with the Villa but never got a clear explanation regarding his instruction. What was it about the Villa Barbaro that connected to my design of the CFI to Palladio's? the geometry? the 'filmic imagery'? the water?
That was over forty years ago, and that's why the Villa Barbaro is on my 'bucket list'. Today, I finally get the chance to try to answer those questions for myself. The itinerary promises a long day, so the coach leaves early.
Villa Trissino at Cricoli
The day's first stop is a brief one, at the Villa Trissino (1534-38), just outside Vicenza (pop 110,563 in 2025). Of course, this is not the same as yesterday's Villa Trissino in Meledo di Sarego, nor is it a design by Palladio. The history tells us that Palladio worked here as a scalpellino – a stonecutter. And during this time, he met the Renaissance academic Gian Giorgio Trissino, who would become his mentor and introduce young Andrea to Rome in about 1541.
When I look at a facade, I look for simple shapes: squares, double squares, golden section, circles, semi-circles. The columns appear to frame squares. But this facade seems under-square; if we add the dark roof, it seems over-square. The torri (towers) are slightly more than double squares. The whole feels stretched and squashed in different places. And oddly, one tower looks smooth while the other is painted with beveled blocks (look at the tower's edge; the blocks are painted). It's pretty, but unresolved.
Across the upper windows it says: "IOANNES GIORGIUS TRISSINUS". The portico (porch) is enclosed with glass, though the center arch appears to be operable.
In any case, we don't stop long. We head north and make our 'loo' stop in the extraordinary hill town of Marostica.
Marostica is enchanting, and I make a mental note to plan a return trip. The old town is ringed by fortified walls with the 'swallowtail' crenellations (this town supports the Ghibellini. The walls climb and converge at the Castello Superiore (14th century).
The village is famous for its live chess event. There are an over-sized board and pieces in the Palazzo del Doglione, and an even larger board for the live chess in the Piazza degli Scacchi.
Ponte Vecchio di Bassano
Palladio's Ponte Vecchio (1569) crosses the Fiume Brenta at Bassano del Grappa; it does appear in I Quattro Libri. The color is an earthy red, and familiar to anyone who's ever been from San Francisco or Lisboa. The form, however, is truly unique.
Four narrow, trapezoidal piers lift the deck with triangular truss work turned on the orthogonal. The pier battens and the spacing of the trusses allows shimmer of light through, so it doesn't appear heavy. The abutments are embedded in the two building that anchor each end of the Ponte.
The shape of the pile caps and the piers allow for both the easy flow of rushing flood waters as well as the passage of floating logs caught in the current.
The covered is deck is a simple post and lintel, timber construction with a pitched roof and extended bird-like gargoyles to keep the rainwater away from traffic. There is a thoughtful viewing balcony at midspan.
The Ponte is striking and full of character, and a true attraction for the town. But the town of Bassano del Grappa also seems worth a longer visit. The town is clean and colorful, with intriguing towers, with the Dolomiti as a backdrop. I make another metal note.
Villa Barbaro at Maser
Despite the early start, it is almost noon when we reach Maser. But then having the late morning light on the main southeast facade is ideal. We approach the Villa Barbaro from the parking lot to the east, and then around the eastern torre colombaia (dovecote tower), which is quite tall and wide. Like all the villas so far, the scale makes an impact.
I turn, step out along the edge of the lawn, and with the distance, can see the whole thing (top image). Finally, here is a villa that is finished, and executed almost exactly as drawn in I Quattro Libri: two colombaie connected by two five-bay barchesse (farm building wings) and the temple-front villa extending forward. The villa's columns are Ionic, with proper angulated (one angled volute) capitals on the corners.
The Villa is covered in a surprising amount of sculpture, though there is none at the roofline, where Palladio typically prescribes. There are full figures in each of the four rectangular niches of the colombaie and faces in each of the keystones on along the barchesse. The pediment includes a deep and elaborate relief by Alessandro Vittoria, with putti, grasping couples, classical dolphins, and a bucranio. The entablature is broken by the top of the arch, then bridged with swags and eagles.
In the center is a two-headed eagle (also Ghibelline?), representing the state. At the top there is a tiara papale for the church. The clients, Daniele and Marcantonio Barbaro were diplomats and served the Repubblica di Venezia, but Daniele also served Pope Paul IV as Patriarca di Aquileia and may have served Pope Pius IV as cardinale in pectore ('unannounced'). Daniele also translated an edition of Vitruvius' De Architectura and was great champion of Palladio's work.
The sundial calendar on the right tells the time of the year: the gnomon's shadow is almost to Scorpio from Libra, so mid-October. The sundial clock tells the time of day: it's almost eleven, which is an hour off – but of course, my iPhone is on daylight savings.
Way out, across the road, the line of symmetry ends at the Fontana del Nettuno (Vittoria), holding another dolphin. From the fountain, a road leads straight out to the fields and orchards.
Upon catching sight of the Villa, Palladio stopped briefly at Neptune's fountain rest after his long journey, water the horses, and take in the magnificent view of the building. Neptune, God of the seas, refreshes us with his playful jets of water and serves as a reminder of the Venetian origins of the Villa's original owners. [from "Villa di Maser" (guidebook), 2021]
We receive a tour of the interior of with our Director. To access the piano nobile, we must enter from the barchessa, up the split stairs, and into the center of the main block. Unlike Palladio's other villas, there is no direct access to the portego (central hall) from the front.
The cruciform hall is known as the croceira and features the stunning fresco cycle by Paolo Veronese, with all manner of visual puns and tricks. Photos are not allowed, but the frescos are catalogued here, and you can follow along in the video from the Musée du Louvre (below).
The formal garden is at the same level as the piano nobile, so the grade rises from front to back. The Ninfeo (Vittoria) is another richly embellished architectural element, and by historical accounts, the telamoni (giants) were carved by Marcantonio himself.
Palladio's system delivers spring water from the hills just north of the Villa, down to this 'fish pond' (which was intended to be stocked). A statue of Diana, Goddess of the countryside, fills the pond with streams of water from her breasts. Then, taking advantage of the sloping grade, Palladio routes the spring water to the ground level kitchens and work rooms, out to the Fontana, and finally to the vineyards beyond.
The irrigation system seems astonishingly thoughtful and efficient, especially given the agricultural and aquacultural functions.
THE following fabrick is at Masera, a village near Asolo, a castle in the Trevigiano belonging to Monsignor Reverendissimo ELETTO DE AQUILEIA, and to the magnificent Signor MARC' ANTONIO DE BARBARI, brothers. That part of the fabrick which advauces a little forward, has two orders of rooms. The floor of those above is even with the level of the court backwards, where there is a fountain cut into the mountain opposite to the house, with infinite ornaments of stucco and paintings. This fountain forms a small lake which serves for a fishpond. From this place the water runs into the kitchen; and after having watered the gardens that are on the right and left of the road, which leads gradually to the fabrick, it forms two fishponds, with their watering places upon the highroad; from whence it waters the kitchen garden, which is very large, and full of the moft excellent fruits, and of different kinds of pulse. The front of the master's house has four columns, of the Ionick order. The capitols of those in the angles face both ways. The method of making which capitols, I shall set down in the book of temples. On the one, and on the other part, there are loggia's, which, in their extremities, have two dovehouses; and under them there are places to make wines, the stables, and other places for the use of the villa. [Andrea Palladio, "The Four Books of Architecture", trans Isaac Ware, London, 1738]
Tempietto Barbaro
The Tempietto Barbaro is dated 1580, the year of Palladio's death. It is one of the last things he designed and the fulfillment of his desire to build a true, central-plan church. It's a concentrated dose, his perfect confection.
The portico is a hexastyle temple front with closely spaced Corinthian columns. At the corners, the column shafts are square, flush to the side arches. Between the capitals are sculptural, floral swags. The tympanum depicts the Martirio di San Paolo (Vittoria), the town's patron and protector. The Tempietto contains the Barbaro family tombs and is said to be the place where Palladio died.
Behind the portico, two small bell towers bookend the dome and lantern. The inscription in the frieze wraps from the front to the right:
MARCUS ANTONIUS BARBARUS PROCURATOR FRANC FILIUSANDREAS PALADIUS VICETINO INVENTOR
Whatever Prof Machado's intention, I am here, and I am really enjoying the Villa. But I am still confused and full of questions. During the crit, my thought was that we were talking about formal issues – of the enclosure of large spaces by use of repetitive modules; I'm not sure I see that relationship that here. Maybe it's about how to manipulate simple geometries to generate complex spaces. But then there are lots of examples of that, why send me to Maser?
Perhaps this is about unexpectedly moving an element away from the primary, linear structure and 'projecting' into the landscape, like the Ninfeo to the Fontana. Palladio's focus here appears to be the hydraulics, as evidenced by his statement in I Quattro Libri. I imagine Diana as the lighthouse and Nettuno as the screen, and they are moving light rather than water. And that also seems like a big-big stretch, but maybe not?
In any case, I am satisfied that I am here and that I've seen it. I'd much rather be satisfied with unanswered questions than dissatisfied with answers. I expect the important thing is to stay curious. It certainly is a unique and incredibly beautiful building.
Our lunch stop is in the picturesque town of Asolo. I'm adding Asolo to the list, too.
Memoriale Brion by Carlo Scarpa
The Memoriale Brion (Carlo Scarpa, 1968-78) offers the tour a tremendous genre-shift from Renaissance to Brutalism – a palette cleanser. For me, this seems wholly unnecessary, but at the same time, it is extremely welcome (iPhone tour here).
The project fills the northeastern corner of the Cimitero di San Vito di Altivole, just south of Asolo. A rows of cypress trees creates an arrival, and the Memoriale first appears as a sloped, concrete bunker at the edge of a mown cornfield. As we get closer, the architectural details begin to pour out: the board-forms, the concrete grilles, the stepped slots and 'ziggurat' forms, and the playful bronze inserts.
The entry gate is an asymmetrical, 'propilei' tower with an interlocked rings, a vesica piscis ('fish bladder') at the back symbolizing the union of two opposites. Brass hoops with inset blue and rose mosaic glass represent male and female, water and earth, physical and spiritual, etc. Just to the left is a narrow space outside the concrete walls which contains Scarpa's tomb.
Shallows steps offset to the left, guide us toward the tombs. The floor is a loose arrangement of board-formed pavers which rattle around to announce the arrival of the living. Below the roof opening, hard plaster panels reflect the light. The tombs are beneath a curved concrete 'arcoslio' set at a forty-five-degree angle to the walls; we are meant to view them on the oblique.
A channel of water follows our approach. The vesica piscis reappears and releases as two cylindrical basins; one is the source that feeds the channel the other is still. This transitions to a smaller circle that flows to a cross-like stone marker and to a band in the pavement.
Radial, sod-filled steps lead down to the sarcofagi – a pair of extruded, granite rhomboids with 'rocking' marble bases that lean into each other and might move and touch at any moment. Under the bridge-form, the mosaic glass glows with greens and greys, reflecting the ivy and the grass.
We turn to look down the lawn and see that the water flows into a pool. The water brings us back to the propilei, past a vertically slipped gate suspended on cables, and then on to the 'padiglione sull'acqua'. Our eyes pick up the sparkle from golden tile band, set at eye level on the wall surrounding the pool.
Here, a narrow bridge carries us over the water, and the cutouts and apertures compose views that combine earth, water, and sky
The padiglione is covered in delightful details: iron, bronze, glass, and wood form a variety of joints and edges. The boards that might have formed the concrete are now applied as battens covering the shelter. Slender, awkward iron posts hold this assemblage aloft, with a sheet metal curtain hanging just below. The whole thing looks like it might descend trapping people inside – it may be a kind of memento mori.
Once under the shelter, the curtain acts as a blind, aligning to the tile band, and focusing our attention on the water. A slim cutout hovers over the 'arcoslio', crowning the view with the silhouette of the vesica piscis. The only other cutout allows guests to pass in and out with a slight bow of the head.
Returning, now we are in a channel, and flow out and away from the arcoslio towards the 'chiesa'. The chiesa is in its own shallow pool, and like the arcoslio, turned at forty-five-degrees to the walls. We find our gaze is directed skyward and tightly framed along this passage. Finally, we reach a white screen door, like a Japanese shoji; it is not wood and paper, but metal and white cement.
We enter the chiesa, through a single ring turned at forty-five, faced in blue, and trimmed with gold accents. The circle sits flat on the floor, and the metal edging turns outward just a bit, and thus forms an omega – the end.
Here, we confront those things beyond water and earth; this is Scarpa's meditation on light. The circle and square, and the indirect illumination remind me so much of Louis Kahn's Library at Exeter. Though there is a spiritual aspect to both, this is on an intimate, personal scale.
Inside the chiesa, the floor is covered in small granite setts, like Portuguese 'calçadas'. Four alabaster panes are arranged on each side of the altar, with a pyramidal cupola overhead finished with dark wood, all combining to wash the corner in a gold radiance. And the dark, polished ceiling catches the rippling, reflected light from the water.
Another set of shoji doors take us out to a small garden with eleven cypress trees. This garden also contains the cemetery of the priests.
The Memoriale and the Villa (with the Tempietto) are separated by four hundred years, yet it feels appropriate that they should come one after the other on the tour. Both are concerned with connecting water and land, and the ideas of proper living and honored passing.
In a formal sense, they share something in their geometries and their use of an architectural language: Palladio's is recovered from Rome, and Scarpa's is invented within a modernist context – but both are legible. The joy is in learning or discovering the languages, and interpreting and sharing the stories.
More proof of Palladio's fascination with plumbing is on exhibit at the Villa Caldogno (1543-1567). But first, we enjoy the golden-hour sunlight on the south-facing facade. It is a cross between the Villa Pisani at Bagnolo (the rusticated, arched loggia) and the Villa Saraceno (for the clean pediment and cornice, and smooth geometry). The facade looks compact, but the Villa is as deep as it is wide.
ANGELUS CALIDONIUS LUSCHI FILIUS MDLXX
The entrance is on the lower level, beside the stranger 'mounded' stairway. A tour of the bowels of the Villa is actually very informative. Stone blocks are used to create channels for water flow (sections of the floor under are removed to expose the engineering). Under the strange stairway is the old lavatory (the 'mound' is laced with grilles and openings in the risers to allow ventilation).
However, the piano nobile is a world away. Up an old, uneven interior stair, we enter the portego from the east.
The portego is surprisingly grand and covered with frescos by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo and Giovanni Batista Zelotti. The docent treats us to a thorough explanation of the cycle, which features four scenes in faux-arched opening and sets of telamoni on each wall. The effect is to make the space feel even bigger – note the scale of the 'door' behind the young lady.
The docent calls out are two scenes in particular which show country life of that day: "La Danza" (near, on her right – west), and "Il Concertino" (far, on her left – east). There seems to be a sunrise-sunset thing happening on the east-west sides.
I take a slow lap in and out of the remaining rooms. The colors in the other rooms seem richer and more saturated. The front room on the west includes Zelotti's "Le Vicende della Giustizia di Scipione e della Regina Sofonisba", an allegorical story about conscience and sacrifice popular during the Renaissance.
Other rooms hold similar images by Giulio Carpioni and include visual puns similar to those at Villa Barbaro: painted subjects looking directly at us, cherubs tumbling out of niches, and other 'fourth wall breaks'.
I finish my circuit in the loggia, which is now glassed on all sides; I can see the glass is not just to add an indoor space, but to protect the frescos, which have been conserved but not 'restored'. On the left, the central figure is a gentleman, and on the right, a lady. As in the portego, there are games and music.
A Doric temple stands above the gentleman, while broken, rusticated arches hang over the lady. Putti are caught in a swirl of clouds – we are told this is a kind of monogram for Fasolo and Zelotti, but it is hard to see. The central image in the ceiling is "Il Concilio degli Dei" a kind of 'last judgement', but that is also difficult to read.
So, this is what happens in the loggia: two hosts welcome, and the Gods judge.
The final story involves the image just below the knee of the telamone near "La Danza". It is a portrait of Palladio himself, taking in the scene, or perhaps admiring his work. I'm not sure I believe any of these stories, but that last one is excellent fun.
It's been a long but impactful day. I've learned some things, but not the things I thought I would. Other answers that are out of reach, I am happy to let go. And rather than checking items off my bucket list, the list has only grown.
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