Villa Pisani (Bagnolo)

The Villa Pisani is a patrician villa designed by Andrea Palladio, located in Bagnolo, a hamlet in the "comune" of Lonigo in the Veneto region of Italy.

History

The Pisani were a rich family of Venetian nobles who owned several "Villas Pisani", two of them designed by Andrea Palladio. The villa at Bagnolo was built in the 1540s and it is the earlier of Palladio's Pisani villas. It was the centre of a vast agricultural estate and it was designed with rusticated features to complement its rural setting: in contrast the Villa Pisani at Montagnana appears more refined.

In 1570 Palladio published a version of the villa in his "Four Books of Architecture" [first published in Italian as "I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura", Venezia (Venice) 1570, Palladio's work is available in English translation: the Villa Pisani (Bagnolo) is shown in book two, page 47.] . The executed villa differs noticeably from the design. The deviations may have been in response to certain conditions on the actual site.

An gives a clear idea of the villa as it appeared in the eighteenth century.There was originally a a long "barchessa" (wing) at the back of the courtyard terminating in dovecotes that kept the villa supplied with squab; this wing was admired by Vasari, but it was demolished in the nineteenth century and replaced by a structure that bears no relation to the Palladian facade it faces. cite web|url=http://www.cisapalladio.org/veneto/scheda.php?sezione=4&architettura=26&lingua=e |title=International Centre for the Study of the Architecture of Andrea Palladio: Villa Pisani, Bagnolo di Lonigo |accessdate=2008-05-16]

The interior features a central T-shaped "salone" with barrel vaulting inspired by Roman baths; it is decorated with frescoes.

In 1996, UNESCO included the villa in the World Heritage Site "City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto".

Reference

* [http://www.cisapalladio.org/veneto/scheda.php?architettura=26&lingua=e Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio: Villa Pisani, Bagnolo di Lonigo]

ee also

*Palladian Villas of the Veneto
*Villa Pisani