Villa Pisani, Stra
Villa Pisani is the name shared by a number of villas commissioned by the patrician Pisani family of Venice. However, Villa Pisani usually refers to a large, late baroque villa at Stra on the mainland of the Veneto, northern Italy. It was begun in the early 18th century for Alvise Pisani, the most prominent member of the Pisani family, who was appointed doge in 1735. The initial models of the palace by Paduan architect Girolamo Frigimelica still exist, but the design of the main building was ultimately completed by Francesco Maria Preti.
From the outside, the facade of the over sized palace appears to command the site, facing the Brenta canal some 30 kilometers from Venice. The villa is part of a series of villas, which the Venetian noble families and merchants started to build in the 15th century. However, unlike the earlier buildings, which were designed as to be a pleasure house and an agricultural enterprise, Villa Pisani was primarily built as a demonstration of the power achieved by the family, since one of them, Alvise Pisani, was elected doge in 1735.
Villa Pisani, Bagnolo
Coordinates: 45°21′26″N 11°22′17″E / 45.357140°N 11.371381°E / 45.357140; 11.371381
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 represents Palladio's first villa designed for a patrician family of Venice: his earlier villa commissions were from provincial nobility in the Vicenza area. The villa at Bagnolo was at the centre of an agricultural estate, as were most of the villas commissioned from Palladio. It was designed with rusticated features to complement its rural setting; in contrast, the Villa Pisani at Montagnana in a semi-urban setting utilizes more refined motifs.
In 1570 Palladio published a version of the villa in his Four Books of Architecture. The executed villa differs noticeably from the design. The deviations may have been in response to certain conditions on the actual site.
Villa Pisani, Montagnana
The Villa Pisani is a patrician villa outside the city walls of Montagnana,Veneto, northern Italy.
Architectural details
It was designed by Andrea Palladio about 1552, for Cardinal Francesco Pisani. Pisani was also a patron of the painters Paolo Veronese and Giambattista Maganza and the sculptor Alessandro Vittoria, who provided sculptures of the Four Seasons for the villa, which is in fact provided with fireplaces to dispel winter chill. Unlike more typical Palladian villas — and their imitations in Britain, Germany and the United States — the Villa Pisani at Montagnana combines an urban front, (illustration) facing a piazza of the comune, and, on the other side, a rural frontage extending into gardens, with an agricultural setting beyond.
Unlike many of Palladio's villas in purely rural settings, it has an upper storey, set apart from more public reception rooms on the main floor; twin suites of apartments are accessed by twin oval staircases that flank the central recess on the garden side. On the exterior, little differentiation between floors is made: there is no obviously visible piano nobile. On the garden front, access to the park is from the central recessed portico only; a balustrade above a deep ditch keeps out informal wanderers.
Podcasts:
