Pallazzo Chiericati, Andrea Palladio, Case Study

Claudia Petre

Case Study Essay Andrea Palladio, Palazzo Chiericat

This essay aims to examine the significance of Palladio’s theoretcal and applied legacy through Palazzo Chiericat, not only in the context of Renaissance Architecture but also as a tremendous influence for Architecture worldwide. This building was chosen for the case study due to its uniqueness of concept in relaton to the architectural program, the physical and the social context.

Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) was a great architect born in Italy, in Veneto Region, and has spent most of his career life building in this area. He has been having a significant influence not only on Renaissance architecture and arts, but also his legacy lived over further decades, reaching generatons of architects inspired by his practced concepts. Later important icons of architecture, such as William Kent, Lord Burlington and so on developed even further his theoretcal works, even creatng a new style called Neo-Palladianism.

Palazzo Chiericat is an iconic building designed by Andrea Palladio in Vicenza, Veneto Region, Italy around the middle of the 16th century, more exactly, the constructon was finalized in the year 1554. By that tme Italy was going through the Late Renaissance period which influenced Palladio greatly in his architecture career. We can even refer to Mannerism as a source of inspiraton, however he cannot be placed in neither one of this styles as his approach, ideas and way of thinking are unique and widely appreciated as being a free-standing style called Palladianism. Due to this reason, and many others, Palladio is widely recognized as a truly inspiraton, being the most imitated of all tmes, having an amazing influence on the development of English and American architecture.

Fig.1 Palazzo Chiericati, main elevation, portico that opens towards piazza dell'Isola, the statues act as a continuation of the columns and the entire building towards the sky (Palazzo Chiericati City Museum website: http://www.palladiomuseum.org/veneto/opera/17?lang=en)

In the context of the Late Renaissance, the profession of architecture began to be questoned, whether it is a craft that should be practced on site or, on the contrary, whether the architect is supposed to work from its studio, expressing its ideas and concepts through drawings and small scale models, creatng the Art of Architecture. Palladio was not only a great architect in practce, or on the drawing table, but he was, and stll is untl today, a valuable theoretcian and a very well educated person. After long decades of studies, he finally gathered the informaton collected in his sketchbooks and his innovatve ideas experimented through his designs and, in the year 1570, he compelled a book called “Quatro Libri dell'Architettura” (‘The four books of architecture’) that contnues to be, even in today’s period of modernity, a very important reference that any person desiring to become an architect should be acquainted with.

The city of Vicenza and its surroundings hold a great importance to Palladio. As is it the city that houses the majority of his works, the architect was truly grateful to Vicenza’s inhabitants as well as to its mayors for trustng him to let his ideas come to life into a huge series of buildings that changed the appearance and the statute of the city forever.

Around the forth decade of the 16th century (1540s) Count Girolamo Chiericat, who had come to know and appreciate Palladio during his period working on the Basilica loggias, commissioned a palazzo a few years before the middle of the 16th.

The client’s main expectaton was that of a great monument, even a landmark for the city of Vicenza, expressing the owner’s statute and offering a glimpse of elegance as well as comfort for both his family and the inhabitants of the area. 2 The usage of a colonnade along the main façade was a direct request from Chiericat who insisted on it being built (having the depth of 4 meters) that he even made a petton to the council.

Fig.2 Potico of the main elevation joints the building with the city space. (Marton, P., Palladio, The Complete Buildings, Palazzo Chiercicati, Taschen, 2008)

‘A decade of eclectc experimentaton came to fruiton in this building as the architect perfected the motfs and elements that would characterize his subsequent architectural language.’ 1 The working site for this palazzo was opened somewhere around the year 1550, but by the year 1552, the actvity was interrupted, probably due to financial reasons .At that tme, it was decided to make habitable the part already built, while waitng for the constructon to be resumed. After 1570 the owner started living permanently in the unfinished house and it is possible that by the tme he died in 1609, the building state of the palazzo remained the same – ‘only the south wing, the three intercolumnar sectons consistng of the portco and loggias, the residental and service rooms behind and the main staircase were erected and habitable and also decorated with stucco friezes and frescos’ 4.The rest of the palazzo was completed at the end the 17th century by an architect named Bartotti Scamozzi, who was probably familiar to the Palladian documents, drawings and engravings own by Chiericat family. In 1838 it started to host the City Museum and Library and it was restored between 1853-5 by Giovanni Miglioranza who removed the decoratons added after the 16th century.

Fig 3. Site sketch of the area surrounding the palazzo (Personal sketch)

The inspiraton for Palazzo Chiericat has its roots in two ancient traditons: that of medieval row houses with covered street arcades, used in Villa Civena, and that of stoa-like building (known for the first tmes in Greek Antquity and later in Roman tmes, stoa was a public building placed alongside a square, with a wide and deep portco that was functoning as a meetng place and as a covered market) like the Basilica designed by him a bit earlier. The portco also offers permeability between the building and the street. However, some may say that ‘Palladio’s interventon in the urban area (…) have been focused on the ‘mysterious isolaton of that building, which recreates the space surrounding it solely through the power of its form.’ 4 In the original Palladio’s drawing from 1570 (poza desen galbui elevate ½) the essental theme of the building, can be recognized in the main façade as well, ‘a triadic compositon with a central block build around the axis of the entranceway, and two symmetrical flanking blocks’1.Moreover all of them are treated in a similar way with series of free standing columns, that on the ground floor create a portco and on the first floor, two loggias and an enclosed volume divided in 5 parts by a group of half columns. Also, this early drawing depicts a triangular shaped ornament on top that is mainly used in classical styles untl that age, especially in Renaissance. An earlier drawing shows this central motf and also a preliminary soluton for the roof – triangular tympanum which resembles the inital design for Palazzo Thiene, which, in both cases was never executed.

Fig 4. Preliminary study for Palazzo Chiericati, Vicenza (Oxford Worcester College)

Fig.5 Preliminary Study of the main faรงade by Palladio (Beltramini, G., Palladio, London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2009)

‘Palladio thought about strict uniformity as literally unnatural’ and also of ‘proporton as if it were a cardinal virtue: ‘the very source of distributon, of beauty and of health’ 1. Moreover, one of his basic principles is stated very clearly in his book: ‘Beauty will derive from a graceful shape and the relatonship of the whole to the parts, and of the parts among themselves and to the whole because buildings must appear to be like complete and well-defined bodies, of which one member matches another and all the members are necessary for what is required.’3

Fig.6 Elevation and plan drawings (https://www.pinterest.com/oniub/arquitectura-andrea-palladio/)

‘The triadic division is made functonal as well as formal’1. It also resembles the human figure – central part suggestng the spine, with the main ‘functons’ and the main blood flow, whereas the side parts are the secondary elements – hands, legs etc., everything being symmetrical. The central part, from front to rear, is dedicated to circulaton: hall logia, staircases and the spiral stairs. This formula may seem effectve in concept though in this plan it creates a disproporton of circulaton over the living space. This concept goes hand in hand with his principle called the Hierarchy of Parts. The plan and main façade are not only divided into a number of vertcal sectons, but also the central bay dominates the sides actng as a ‘climax of the compositon’1. Moving further form the central secton, the parts nearer are larger and more important that those farther. ‘The central secton is the locus, in plan, of the entranceway – usually a stair and a portco in the villas and an ‘atrium’ in the palaces and a principal hall and frequently, in elevaton, of a pediment supported on the columns of a portco, which raises the center above the wings and is another way of suggestng dominance.’ 1

Fig.7 Transversal Section through Palazzo Chiericati, the succession of rooms by mathematical order can be seen (Palladio: Palazzo Chiericati, Vicenza, section by Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi, 1776)

The building also benefits from proportonality. As it can be notced in the plan, the sequence of rooms is not only ordered in an ascending/descending size distributon. This idea is developed even further by using proportonal numbers: one of the dimensions of the preceding room is retained while the other one changes mathematcally. ‘For example, the smaller room measures 12’x18’ (3.65 x 5.48 meters), the next one is 18’x18’ (5.48 x 5.48 meters) and then 18’x30’ (5.48 x 9.14 meters). The main hall is the only excepton. In the beginning it was supposed to be 18’ deep, but it was reduced to 16’ x 54’ (4.87 X 16.45 meters) because the greater width would have pushed the vault into the upper story.’ 1 Palazzo Chiericat owes its place among the top world master pieces to the authentcity of Palladio’s manner to approach the form, stll and functon in architecture. Studying Palladio’s principles, observing his works and trying to understand his genius inspired me a profound respect and admiraton.

1

1 Ackerman, J. S., Palladio, Penguin Books, 1991 2

Beltramini, G., Palladio, London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2009

3

Palladio, A., The four books of architecture, New York: Dover Publicatons, 1964 Puppi, L., Andrea Palladio, London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1975

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