Villa and Palace in the Venetian Renaissance
The Palladian House Between Country and City

Offers new insights about the Renaissance villa and the architectural practice of Andrea Palladio through a study of Villa Pisani, Montagnana.

Johanna D. Heinrichs (Author)

9781009492232, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 January 2025

375 pages
26.1 x 18.5 x 2.1 cm, 0.95 kg

'Was Palladio's Villa Pisani at Montagnana conceived as a villa or a palace? Was it a working farm or a rural retreat? Johanna Heinrichs looks at the villa through a series of different lenses to address these puzzling questions. Based on pioneering research, her fluently written book paints a vivid picture of the life and concerns of the patron, and it hardly comes as a surprise that Palladio was present at Francesco Pisani's deathbed.' Deborah Howard, Professor Emerita, University of Cambridge

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Architecture [AM]