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Essential Architecture- Vicenza Palazzo Thiene |
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architect |
Andrea Palladio |
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location |
Contra' S. Gaetano Thiene Vicenza |
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date |
1545 |
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style |
Italian Rennaisance |
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construction |
masonry |
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type |
Palazzo |
 
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In October 1542 Marcantonio and Adriano Thiene
began to remodel their Quattrocentesco family palace to a grandiose
project, which would have occupied an entire city block of 54 x 62
metres and faced onto Vicenza’s principal artery (today’s Corso
Palladio). The rich, powerful and sophisticated Thiene brothers belonged
to that great Italian nobility which could moved with ease between
Europe’s most important courts: they therefore required a domestic stage
adequate for the cosmopolitan nobility of their guests who might visit
them. At the same time, as exponents of a well-defined, political
faction in the city’s aristocracy, they desired a princely palace to
emphasise their proper role in the city itself, as the sign of their
true seigniorial power. When, in 1614, the English architect Inigo Jones visited the palace he noted down information directly garnered from Vincenzo Scamozzi and Palma il Giovane: “this project was made by Giulio Romano and executed by Palladio”. Most probably, in fact, the original conception of the Palazzo Thiene should be attributed to the mature and expert Giulio Romano (from 1573 at the Mantuan court of the Gonzagas, with whom the Thiene enjoyed the closest rapport) and the young Palladio was responsible rather for the executive design and execution of the building, a role which became ever more essential after Giulio’s death in 1546. The elements of the palace which are attributable to Giulio and alien to Palladio’s vocabulary are clearly recognisable: the four-column atrium is substantially identical with that of the Palazzo del Te (even if Palladio indubitably modified its vaulting system); also Giulian are the windows and the ground storey faades onto the street and courtyard, while Palladio must have been defined the upper storey trabeation and capitals. Works began on the building in 1542. In December of the same year, Giulio Romano visited Vicenza for two weeks as a consultant on the Loggias for the Basilica. Probably on this occasion he supplied the outline project for the Palazzo Thiene. But works proceeded slowly: on the external faade is inscribed the date 1556, and in the courtyard 1558. In 1552 Adriano Thiene died in France and thereafter, when Marcantonio’s son Giulio became Marchese di Scandiano, family interests gradually shifted to Ferrara. As a result only a small portion of the grandiose project was ever realised, but probably neither the Venetians nor the other Vicentine nobles would have accepted such a private kingdom in the centre of their city. Thanks to www.cisapalladio.org |
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links |
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| www.essential-architecture.com | |