Other Villas

The Palazzo Te, located on the island of Te near Mantua, was commissioned by the Gonzaga family (the ducal rulers of Mantua). Designed by the artist Giulio Romano (c. 1499-1546), the villa complex was built between 1527 and 1534 as a rustic retreat for dining and entertaining. As in many other Renaissance building projects, the architect had to contend with a preexisting medieval structure. Here, the architect integrated medieval, classical, and capricious forms in surprising Mannerist combinations. Giulio Romano also played with the classical forms themselves. For example, every now and then a sculpted decoration on the architrave (the horizontal beam running along the base of the entablature above the columns) is set partly below the beam. The facade is thus destabilized in a distinctly unclassical fashion. The educated guests at the Gonzaga villa would have appreciated such Mannerism as an architectural joke.

Giacomo da Vignola was commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520-89) to design a luxurious villa at Caprarola, outside Rome. Because of its grand scale and extensive gardens, this villa is sometimes referred to as the Palazzo Farnese, which confuses it with the palazzo in the city of Rome built for an earlier Cardinal Farnese (see page 112). Completed in 1583, the Villa Farnese has four stories plus a basement. Vignola’s design, based on an earlier pentagonal foundation, ingeniously united the house with the gardens by connecting them via bridges. In addition, the terraced gardens gracefully lead up to the villa by a series of wide staircases shaped like horseshoes.