Description
Designed by Andrea Palladio, the Villa Pisani at Montagnana was the country residence of a Venetian nobleman, Francesco Pisani. Unusually, its design combines features of both villa and palace architecture, and it challenges the conventional view of a villa as subsidiary to the urban palace, the true seat of an elite family. In this book, Johanna D. Heinrichs offers the first comprehensive study of the Villa Pisani, providing a critical analysis of Palladio's hybrid design, the villa's original setting and uses, and the preoccupations of its patron. Heinrichs argues that the Villa Pisani served as the owner's principal residence. She also shows how a microhistorical approach can provide new insights about a familiar Renaissance building type and about the theory and practice of a canonical architect. Based on scrutiny of original documents and visual sources, Heinrichs's study is supported by a rich illustration program composed of photographs, plans, maps, and digital reconstructions.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. Villa and Palace: 1. Urban dignity & villa delights; 2. The patron; 3. Four seasons; Part II. Territory and Town: 4. Estate building; 5. Montagnana and its Venetian Borgo; 6. Mobility and the stop-over villa; Part III. The Villa in Time: 7. Between real and ideal; 8. Liminal architecture; 9. The villa as patrimony; Epilogue; Appendices; Manuscript and archival sources; Bibliography; Index.
