HIGHER NATURE

the Order of Nature
and the Nature of Order
in Palladio's Exedral Villas

Underlying Harmonics (natural order) and the
Redemption of Landscapes Through
Architectural Ordering (ordered nature)

by David Fletcher
13 Jan. 1997

(presented 5 Dec. 1996)
for Prof. Alina Payne
U. of Toronto Fine Art History dept. FAH 1222F
"Andrea Palladio: Theory and Practice"

Abstract

nature

order

text

subtext

zeitgeist

Fortuna Stabilis

formal (extending control out into the environment expressed by the
form in many ways, for example: Palladio's floor plans extending
out into the landscape, use of discrete programmatic elements,
hierarchical spatial layering, and subordination of landscape as
a tabula rasa for the non-contextual placement of symmetrical
assemblages);
archaeological (Temples of Fortuna as main antiquarian precedents);
symbolic (Palladio's use of primary forms: cube enclosing the sphere);
cultural (connections with Rome's mission being to rationalize the world);
religious (connections with Catholic absolutism's appropriation of spiritual authority);
emblematic (connections with personal impresa of "Fortuna Stabilis" );
ideological (Renaissance preoccupation with supremacy over nature);
political (control as response to Veneto's autonomy & survival threatened);
economic (switch from mercantilism to land development in the Veneto);
financial (terra firma investments to make their fortunes' stable).

nature

order

1. Introduction: A Circular Field of Inquiry

2. Visual Analysis of Formal Qualities of Exedral Villas

2.1 The Exedral Villas: Variations on a Theme
2.2 La Rotonda
2.3 Villa Badoer
2.4 Villa Trissino
2.5 The Other Exedral Villas
2.6 Absence of Extensive Landscaping in Drawings, Villas, and Writings
2.7 Client Needs
2.8 Specifics of Siting
2.9 Common Formal Qualities: Ideal Forms Re-ordering the Landscape
2.10 Abstract Geometry, Harmonic Proportions, Symmetry, & Balanced Massing
2.11 Classicism: Motifs, Porticoes
2.12 Design Principles Extending Outwards
2.13 Radial Gradation of Design Interventions
2.14 Hierarchy in Section
2.15 Monumental Scale of Conception
2.16 Summary of Building--Site Relations

3. Associations with these Formal Qualities

3.1 Palladio's Reception, Duplication, and Interpretation: What Was Kept?
3.2 Classicism as Naturalized Power: the Order of Nature
3.3 Renaissance Context of Attitude to Environment: the Nature of Order
3.4 Formal Influences: Palestrina and Pincian Hill Temples of Fortuna
3.5 Cube Enclosing Sphere: Fortuna Stabilis and Stable Fortune
3.6 The Significance of the Quincunx as Rotonda's Order

4. Interpretation of Building-Site Relations

4.1 Perspective versus Scenographic Space
4.2 Architectural Ordering of Space / Landscape in the Exedral Villas

5. Conclusion: Architecture as a Higher Nature

Epilogue
Endnotes
Sources / Bibliographic References:

- Books
- Periodicals
- Internet

1. Introduction: A Circular Field of Inquiry

Omne nihil pellit, vacuumque exterminat omne:
Mola sua complens, qujod locus omnis habet.
Totque potest mundos, quotquot numerabis in illo
Centrorum notulas, signa vel exigua. 1
Architecture can be seen as "another nature" with its own order.2 This inquiry into the nature of the architectural order of Palladio hypothesizes that his was not only another nature but was seen by him and others as a higher nature -an ordered nature which had the power to spiritually redeem Earth. To investigate this, the relationship between his exedral villas (especially La Rotonda) and landscape must be investigated: the ordering of nature. This is done through direct visual inquiry in chapter two, emphasising what was thought of as an underlying natural order.
Human creations such as architecture propagate their influence concentrically, just as the Roman poet Ovid described circles propagating out from a "pebble cast into a spring, we see a sort of trembling circles rise."3 As the well-known early 16th century poem above suggests, every point can be constituted as a centre, and make use of it as a springboard to order the whole universe.
"Man is like a point and a centre, to which all parts of the world are related."4 A common Renaissance conception of the world was that it was an open and circular field which man invades bringing order.5 "Human activity consists in unfolding everything beyond itself into its own circular field , in making everything come forth from the virtuality of the centre."6 The research focus here is the architecturally created centre and its relation to the surrounding circular field of nature. What influence does built form (specifically Palladio's villas) have on the landscape? The contexts in which these forms exist must also be considered in trying to understand this relationship. Therefore chapter three re-examines the forms considering the archaeological, symbolic, emblematic, ideological, political, and economic associations of this relationship.
A popular Italian story during Palladio's day was that of "Pandosto" .7 It asks the essential Renaissance question: "how do we redeem a world out of control?" Can the lowly natural world of instability and kaos be fundamentally re-ordered and re-integrated by paying close attention to its underlying rational mathematical order? By bringing out this natural order into the visible world can we raise the built world up closer to the perfect order of God and the heavens? Chapter four finally interprets what has been learned in order to determine whether indeed Palladio was concerned with these questions and aspirations, and to learn something about the order of nature and the nature of order.
2. Visual Analysis of Formal Qualities of Exedral Villas
This inquiry starts by addressing the question: what can be learned about the villas by a close visual examination of the drawn designs and the built forms -especially with regard to the relationship of these forms to the landscape.
2.1 the Exedral Villas: Variations on a Theme
Some of Palladio's villas can be grouped because they share certain formal, or content, preoccupations (discussed in sections 2.6 to 2.16 below). It was common for Palladio to do a number of projects which were variations on a theme, with similar plans and general massing. The particular theme of interest here, that of combining the motifs of suburban villa and classical temple, preoccupied Palladio in the 1550s and resulted in the group of Veneto (see map, figure 2) projects called the ÒexedralÓ villas.8 Palladio was not the first to use the classical temple facade but he was the first to systematically use it on many private houses.9 The exedral group10 includes:

1. figures 1, 3, 6 -12, etc.: Villa Rotonda (1565);11
2. figure 4, 15 - 19: Villa Badoer (1554 - 6).12
3. figure 5, 20 - 23: the unfinished monumental Villa Trissino (1553); 13
4. figure 25: Villa Mocenigo (1550 );14
5. figure 26: Villa Thiene (1545);15
6. figure 14B: another Villa Thiene (1550);16
It is also possible to include three other (and early) villas in this group:

7. figure 29, 30: Villa Pisani (1542);17
8. figure 31, 32: Villa Saraceno (1545);18
9. figure 33: Villa Ragona (1550).19

Note that these last few are early villas indeed, and did not have fully classical temple porticoes. While these could be included, and all do share certain formal qualities, at the core of these projects are Villas Rotonda, Badoer, and Trissino.

Figure 5:

Figure 6:

Figure 7:

2.2 Villa Almerico-Capra (La Rotonda), Vicenza, 1565
The Villa Almerico-Capra,20 better known as Villa Rotonda or simply La Rotonda, is Palladio's most famous and influential building. It is often discussed in terms of an Òideal formÓ and has been copied many times around the world.21 Wittkower states that La Rotonda was the culmination of the evolution of the Palladian villa.22 To reduce its form down to its essential volumetric components, it is basically a cube enclosing a sphere. In La Rotonda both the frescoes (of the virtues)23 and the structure itself (stucco on brick) express its Òethical sentimentsÓ through powerful signs.24 The design is clean, crisp, contained, and restrained. It is a sculptural object perched in a field, yet its relation to the landscape is more complicated than this because of its signs. Since Palladio wrote little about this relationship, one must read the signs in the built form.

Figure 8:

The clearest of these signs are the four identical and dominant porticoes. Palladio stated in Quatro Libri that this was done because there were Òfrom every part most beautiful viewsÓ.25 This begins the suspicion that the orientation of the building is outwards: not taking its clues from the site but rather merely looking out onto it.

Figure 9:

At the centre of La Rotonda, under the dome, there is hall which is round in plan. From this central point, the design expands outwards identically in all four directions. While traditionally a temple portico was the climax of a hierarchical journey inwards,26 the fact that there are four identical porticoes suggests the orientation outwards. These temple fronts, of course, evoke sacred classical architecture, but since they correspond in width to the diameter of the central hall, they therefore can be seen as extensions outwards of the central spherical shape. The lines of walls are also extended from the inside to the outside in all four directions.

Figure 10:

Originally, La Rotonda had no ancillary structures to complicate the relationship of the residence to the landscape.27 It is in La Rotonda, then, that the attitude towards landscape is most explicitly unambiguous. Much of the discussion of the common features, therefore, will be generated by consideration of La Rotonda.

Figure 11:

2.3 Villa Badoer, Fratta Polesine, 1554 - 1563
Villa Badoer too reflects a preoccupation with an ideal design which is generated outwards from a central point more than it relates to any specifics of site. Constant28 suggests that RaphaelÕs29 Villa Madama (figure 13) was influential in PalladioÕs design of Badoer. Yet Madama is widely recognized as a Renaissance model of how to intimately relate building and site. To resolve this apparent contradiction, the connection between Madama and Badoer must be investigated in some depth. It is recorded that Palladio studied Villa Madama and Badoer does reflect this influence, but the differences between the two villas reveal something which is relevant to this inquiry.

Figure 12:

Madama, as the plan (Figure 14) illustrates, has a semicircular entry court and open loggia leading through the building to a series of gardens . The entire complex is set laterally into a hillside site with cross-axes which direct the viewer towards a view of Rome framed by the walls, hills, and vegetation. This begins an interdependence between the person experiencing the villa, the building itself, and the landscape which is carried through from the overall plan to the detailing. This intimate relationship starts immediately in the entry court by the nearly equal proportions of wall to ground plane. In the bounded sequence of outdoor and indoor rooms, the walls serve as a gateways from one type of garden to another . The whole is experienced as a interdependent set of coordinated parts with each part simultaneously having its own identity and being an inseparable and harmonious component of the whole. In this organic relationship no one part dominates and the overall effect is that the villa seems to hold together naturally.30
Moreover, in the shape of the buildings with its levels, Madama is harmoniously adapted to fit the conditions of the hillside site. Every nuance of the shape of the landscape has been sensitively reflected by Raphael in the shape of the roof and the plan. In this way, as well, the overall effect is that the villa seems to grow out of the context naturally and sensitively. This is not a style which can be transported effortlessly to any site and therefore is not an appropriate style to be championed by colonizers.

Figure 13:

Palladio visited Madama and was much influenced by it. Figure 14 is PalladioÕs drawing of the floor plan of Madama. Careful examination of this drawing reveals something about PalladioÕs relation to space and landscape. Palladio simplified the spatial relations by collapsing two levels onto one sheet of paper. His plan shows simultaneously both the basement level, with its fishpond and service spaces, and the piano nobile level, with the main entry spaces. Unfortunately, what was lost in this plan was the complex and intimate contextual relationship of the villa to its sloping site.
It seems Palladio was influenced greatly by the Villa Madama -but based more on his own simplified and collapsed plan than by the spatially more complex villa itself. Thus in Badoer one can see that there is an entirely different relationship to landscape and attitude to space. The architectural ordering is absolute and unmodified by the flat Veneto floodplain site. The villa is rigidly bilaterally symmetrical, dominated by the central residential pavilion.

Figure 14:

At Badoer the forecourt is immense in relation to the walls. This makes the ground level and its rigidly symmetrical treatment the dominant surface. This contrasts with Madama where the two surfaces engage in back and forth dialogue as equals. More importantly, whereas MadamaÕs ground plane is bounded by walls, BadoerÕs ground plane is not only dominant but appears to extend infinitely outwards.
Symmetrically on each side of the central pavilion there are the exedra, faced with open loggias. They are like curving arms, which reach out to embrace, define, and colonize this ground surface. Because these arms are so low (close to the ground compared to the main house) they give one the sense of arms which desperately grasp the landscape. It is reminiscent of a doomed body, buried up to its shoulders in a world of unstable quick sand, clenching for its life in an effort to balance itself and thus slow its submersion and consumption by the dark forces of Mother Earth.

Figure 15:

In plan the exedra are quadrants of a circle, as in Madama. But in Badoer the quarter-circles have been pulled apart to make way for the central pavilion. In this way the components have become huskier (as if they had broader shoulders) and physically discrete. Again, unlike Madama where every part is connected and there are smooth transitions from one to the other, Badoer gives an impression of disconnectedness. The pavilion is vertically a step removed from the site by being elevated on a projecting podium and horizontally insulated by these disjointed arms. The dominant pavilion thus is not ÒdirtiedÓ because it keeps nature at arms length.
Furthermore, whereas the junctions between components in Madama are elegant and smooth, the junctions between the central pavilion and the arms in Badoer are awkward. What can also be seen is that the independence of the elements makes for a lack of resolution in massing of the whole from any but a frontal view (Figure 16).

Figure 16:

The spatial attitude represented in Badoer is simple, severe, and consistent with that in PalladioÕs drawings. PalladioÕs concept of space generally was that the ground plane was the important surface to be architecturally ordered. This ground plane was conceived of as something to be ordered, rather than as a part of the natural world to be sensitively listened to or followed. It seems that it was to him a tabula rasa. By elevating the pavilion, Palladio stressed the ideal nature of the ground plane even more. The pavilion represents a new plane from which to survey the now subdued surroundings. The landscape is then ordered using assemblages of objects in rigidly symmetrical patterns. The dominant frontality is reinforced by the rigid axial symmetry and the disjointed arms. The logic of Badoer is the civilzed, rational, mind (which is today recognized as imperfect) imposing absolute order on a subordinate natural world.
2.4 Villa Trissino, Meledo, 1553
The relationship between built form and landscape is most fully elaborated in PalladioÕs monumental but unfinished villa at Meledo (figure 20 - 23). This complex is almost a combination of La RotondaÕs main house (again, a sphere inside a cube) and BadoerÕs built-up base and exedral arms (this time with two arms on each side).13 This villa was designed for the Trissino brothers, who were mercenaries and antiquarians.31 Here the curving and subordinate colonnades Òstructure the approach to the villa and integrate it with its settingÓ.32 Despite a small fraction of it even being built, it was very influential, for example inspiring JeffersonÕs University of Virginia (figure 24).33
2.5 The Other Exedral Villas
The other exedral villa projects, mostly unbuilt or at least unfinished, are only relevant here in so much as their common features corroborate the view that Palladio was more concerned with developing architectural ideas about one theme than relating to unique sites. The villas (Mocenigo14, Thiene15, Thiene16, Pisani17, Saraceno18, and Ragona19) all reflect some or all of the features discussed in section 2.6 to 2.16.
2.6 Absence of Extensive Landscaping in Villas, Drawings, and Writings
Two observations here which are relevant to this inquiry into PalladioÕs design approach and relations to landscape are that the ground plane is virtually ignored in the drawings which we can see today (such as figures 3 - 5, 15 etc.) and that there is little of the extensive landscaping in the villas which one associates with the Renaissance villa.
The drawings published in Quatro Libri include a bare minimum of lines representing the ground level. In both plans and elevations, there is little to describe what interventions are to be done to the site. Within the limited scope of this inquiry, no significant drawings or instructions concerning landscaping were found.
This suggests two possible explanations: first that for some reason the designs went unpublished, unbuilt, or were otherwise unavailable; or second, that Palladio simply did not design the landscape surrounding the villas.
The fact that no drawings were found does not necessarily mean that such drawings do not exist or were never done, simply that if they were done they were not treated as a high enough priority to survive to this day and be published. While the possibility does exist that designs were done but that they did not survive, this is to be deemed unlikely because of the respect and care lavished on most of PalladioÕs drawings.
It may have been simply that it was the convention at that time not to consider the landscape, and therefore no special significance could be attributed to PalladioÕs following this convention. But some other architects of the day, such as Serlio, did occasionally include the ground in drawings (figure 34).34
The fact of the absence of drawings aside, there is also the observation of the absence of extensive landscaping in the villas. For example, besides the Lymphaem of Villa Barboro (figure 35), and the long axial gravelled carriageways of villa Emo (figure 36) and others, there is a comparative absence of the kind of ornamental gardens that one might expect in to find in a Renaissance villa. In comparison with other villas of the day, such as Villa Giulia or Villa dÕEste35 (figure 37), or Villa Medici, none of PalladioÕs villas approach the level of landscaping, design effort, and sheer aerial extent. In fact, what little landscaping that can be seen today was mostly done subsequent to the construction of the villas -for example: villas Rotonda, and Badoer. This suggests that if there were landscaping designs, they were not considered essential or integral to the design at the time.
There is the possibility that landscaping was done but that it has not survived to be recorded in either description or drawings by others. Given the popularity and degree of study applied to PalladioÕs villas this too seems an unlikely possibility. Finally, there is also the possibility that the clientsÕ ran out of money, and as a result (or due to some other reason) did not complete the villa as planned despite their intentions. This was, in fact, the case with many of PalladioÕs ambitious piazzas.36 In some cases only the facade of the piazza was built, but this was not common for the villas. Most were completed, although not all exactly as originally designed -or at least not as they appear in Quatro Libri.
On balance, it appears that the more likely of these possibilities was simply that Palladio was not particularly concerned with extensive landscaping, beyond considerations of siting. This begs the question, then, of what was of highest priority to Palladio -as reflected in the built form of the villas.
2.7 Client Needs
Client needs are project-specific, and therefore potentially distract an architect from the development of architectural ideas and ideals. Few clients give architects (even Palladio) a free hand. Thus certain differences between projects are attributable to client needs. The search for meaning in form then, must take into account client demands. In the case of most the exedral villas (Badoer, Trissino, etc.) there was to be a significant component which was a working farm.37
La Rotonda on the other hand, was not to be a working farm, it was simply a recreational villa. The patron, Canon Paolo Almerico, was an interesting character whoÕs life had its ups and downs.38 Almerica did not want extensive outbuildings to block his views (figure 37): he wanted a place to retire which was an enclave of order. About the needs of this client, Rowe states:
Palladio...amplifies the ideal life of the villa. Its owner, from within a fragment of created order, will watch the maturing of his possessions and savour the piquancy of contrast between is fields and his gardens; reflecting on mutability, he will contemplate throughout the years the antique virtues of a simpler race, and the harmonious ordering of his life and his estate will be an analogy of paradise.39

Indeed the following Quatro Libri quotation supports the view of PalladioÕs conception of Almerico's and other clientsÕ needs as being a reinvigoration of Roman virtue, and raising up of the villa to a higher plane:
The ancient sages commonly used to retire to such places, where being oftentimes visited by their virtuous friends and relations, having houses, gardens, fountains and such like pleasant places, and above all their virtue, they could easily attain to as much happiness as can be attained here below. 40

2.8 Specifics of Siting
Siting is another aspect about which Palladio did write some, and one aspect of architecture which is commonly held to be very important. Since many of PalladioÕs villas were on relatively flat land or even reclaimed swampland, siting had very practical considerations. Lowlying land was generally felt to be difficult to drain properly, malaria-infested, and generally unhealthy. This is one explanation for why Palladio tended to chose sites on the tops of small hills (such as La Rotonda and Trissino), where there were any hills at all. In the case of Badoer, Palladio created a one-storey podium upon which he built the villa.41
La Rotonda (figures 38 - 42) is situated on the top of one of several small Òpleasant risingsÓ,42 although there is a somewhat larger hill less than a kilometre away. Palladio writes:
The site is as pleasant and delightful as can be found, because it is on a small hill...encompassed about with most pleasant risings...and therefore as it enjoys from every part most beautiful views...there are loggias made in all four directions.Ó 43

This seems to be PalladioÕs explanation as to why he designed four identical porticoes. Although it is not clear why you need a portico in order to enjoy a view. Palladio also wrote: "most pleasant risings which look like a very great theatre".44 The view of La Rotonda as a hilltop - theatre, and considering the patron's profession suggests another interpretation of the villa's role: that of a lesson. One therefore asks: "what is this lesson?"45
2.9 Shared Formal Qualities: Ideal Forms Re-ordering the Landscape
These points suggest that Palladio did adapt to both client needs and the idiosyncracies of the site, but not to the extent that the design for the various villas would be dramatically different from each other. As one can see from the figures, and as will be developed here, La Rotonda, Trissino, and Badoer, indeed all the exedral villas, have much in common despite different sites and different clients. Combining PalladioÕs approach to the needs of the client with his treatment of the site hint at what is of primary importance here: the conception of the ideal villa in nature.46 It is to be argued here that PalladioÕs sensitivity and variety of design approaches does not negate the principal argument that the overarching concern of Palladio was the development of ideal forms, as revealed by a close examination of the shared formal qualities of the exedral villas.
What are these common characteristics? Before addressing this question in detail, as it pertains to the villas relationship with landscape, a brief overview is appropriate. Firstly, the grouping is called "exedral" villas because they all involve:

(1) exedral arcades (ie. - colonnade on axis, usually semi-circular, which opens symmetrically out into the landscape) These exedra, or cavea, are either real or implied (as in the case of La Rotonda 47). Some had exedral arms designed but not built;
(2) an overarching text concerned with ideal mathematical proportions and classical temple porticoes, specifically Hellenic post-and-lintel loggias48 (see section 2.10);
(3) extremely simple, symmetrical, orderly, and clear floor plan, and a formal layout evocative of church architecture;
(4) hierarchically disposed components articulating the relationship of a principal element to a subordinate landscape;49
(5) this principal element is a symmetrical, raised up, lofty, temple- fronted pavilion (usually the patronÕs residence) bisected by an axial approach to the main entrance (see section 2.11) .
(6) the principal element is rectilinear, sometimes almost cube-like with a central hall, usually round, suggesting another primary volume, a sphere, capped with a dome (see section 3.5);
(7) the design principles, especially the interior floor plan, appear to extend out into the landscape (see section 2.12);
(8) the extent of architectural intervention peters out creating a hierarchy, both in plan (see section 2.13) and in section (see section 2.14);
(9) monumentality, or Imperial in scale, both in terms of ornamentation, and in terms of the hierarchical disposition of programmatic elements (see section 2.15).

Ackerman writes that in many respects, this set of exedral villas was Òwholly his and wholly newÓ.50 The hypothesis here is that Palladio was most concerned with development of certain architectural ideas and ideals -as evidenced by the similarity of design of many of the exedral villas. The importance of these ideas relegates the landscape to little more than a tabula rasa site for the building. But is this view born out by a visual analysis of the commonalities in the villas, or stated differently: what do these villas reflect as being important in PalladioÕs design approach?
2.10 Abstract Geometry, Harmonic Proportions, Symmetry, and Balanced Massing
Rowe discusses the essential nature of Palladio's villas as being "concerned with the logical disposition of motifs"51 according to "mathematical concord".52 Wittkower stresses the extent to which there was a common belief in PalladioÕs day that ideal proportions, such as the perfect numbers (primarily 1, 2 , and 3) and the proportions of the human body, should be the basis for architectural harmony.53 It was felt that if these governed the works of God, they were fit to guide the works of man. In this way the building becomes a microcosm of the larger workings of GodÕs universe. In Alberti's words: "Nature is sure to act consistently and with a constant analogy in all her operations".54 Proportion was seen as a projection of the harmony of the universe.
In "The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa", Rowe lays out an excellent argument concerning one of PalladioÕs principal interests. In PalladioÕs villas the priority is clearly with unmediated abstract geometric harmonies -unlike the churches where there is often a dialectic with organic or curved forms (such as in Redentore).55
In all of the exedral villas, there are hierarchically disposed components which articulate the relationship of a central main house to a subordinated landscape. All of the exedral villas have a principal, central residence which is the dominant feature of the design. This dominant pavilion is where the mathematical proportions are displayed most explicitly.
Each of La RotondaÕs four elevations are identical (Figure 43) and when reduced to their simplest lines (see figure 44) illustrate the golden proportion of:
A:B = B:(A+B)
All the exedral villas have a tripartite order of facade because the central portico breaks up the elevation evenly. Figure 45 shows that in the case of La Rotonda, the porticoes are about half the width of the villaÕs elevation. Since they are symmetrically centred, this creates a 1:2:1 order in elevation and plan -the same proportions as a triptych alterpiece.
Secondary to this main house are the ancillary arms which extend out from each side (although in La Rotonda, the exedral arms are not real, they are only implied by the hills). This hierarchical massing is done in a highly symmetrical fashion with a clear axis of symmetry (or in the case of the bilaterally symmetrical La Rotonda, two clear axes of symmetry). The whole appears balanced because of the size, shape, and visual weight of the various components. In most of the villas the footprint of the tall principal residence is smaller in area than that of the shorter working components.
2.11 Classicism: Motifs, Porticoes
This emphasis on harmonic proportions, symmetry, and balanced massing is part of a larger trend, today known as classicism. This is clearly seen in PalladioÕs ideologicaly-loaded exedral villas because the main houses all have these features plus porticoes similar to ancient temples. In each there is an elevated, symmetrical pavilion with a temple-fronted portico bisected by the axial approach to the main entrance. Palladio was the first to systematically use the classical temple facade on private houses. This was not because it revived ancient house forms but rather in PalladioÕs view, it enhanced the stature of the house because the form of the ancient temple (the house of the gods) was thought to be derived from primitive dwelling types.56
2.12 Design Principles Extending Outwards
These fundamental design principles of harmonic proportions, symmetry, balanced massing, and classicism evident in the villas, are found (but to a lesser extent) applied in the surrounding landscape. The way in which the paths and other landscape features are lined up with the features of the main house gives one the impression that the ordering of the landscape is generated by the ordering of the villa.
For example, in La Rotonda, the centre is a circular hall with the exact centre being located by the fawn floor detail.56A This is the reference point for the entire villa complex. The rectilinearity extends outwards from this point. The extreme biaxial symmetry is associated with this point because here the two axes intersect. The design elements (in plan and section) radiate outwards from this point. Note that in each of the villas there are many sculptures and they always face outwards.
2.13 Radial Gradation of Design Interventions
Another observation concerning PalladioÕs relation to landscape is that the extent of the architectural effort or design interventions on the landscape appears to peter out the further one gets from the villa. In the case of La Rotonda this is suggested by figure 59 in the form of a graph and in figure 60 in the form of a site plan.
The building itself (#1 - 3), of course, as is the case in his other villas, represents the most extensive architectural intervention. Here there is much more in terms of architectural motifs, ornamentation, and sculptures compared with the surrounding landscape. In La Rotonda the extent of interior decoration, sculptures, frescoes, and detailing is remarkable (see figure 51).
There are twelve free-standing sculptures on the roof (see figure 55), four of which correspond to the central axes (which intersect at the centre of the circular hall #1). These four are on the peaks of of the four pedimented porticoes (#3). The eight other roof sculptures are at the corners of these four porticoes. The location (in plan) of these sculptures and the wall of each portico correspond to the diameter of the round central hall. In this way, the sculptures and the porticoes are still integrated with, and could be seen as an extension of, the central hall. These tangential lines (in plan), which correspond to the width of the hall, extend out further in the form of low walls on either side of monumental steps (#4). The porticoes and steps form a transition from inside to outside. In as much as the portico has a roof, a raised up stone floor, and three walls it is partially enclosed. The steps are much more open to the elements. Each short wall is terminated about six meters out from the portico with a free-standing sculpture.
Immediately adjacent to his villas (#5) there are usually paths and garden spaces, the shape and dimensions of which are extensions of the interior walls of the villa. These are often embellished by multiple level changes, monumental steps, small retaining walls, and sculptures, positioned in a way as to also relate to the dominant form and lines of the villa. This is the case in all of the built exedral villas and is highly evident in La Rotonda. The straight, precise, gravelled paths extend outwards along the the lines of the two axes. Between these are rectilinear garden lots and plots of grass arranged in symmetrical patterns. It is not known the extend to which these were designed by Palladio. These seem to complement or even be an extension of the interior plan to such a degree that they may have been a later development. In any case, it seems that their form responds to the demands of the interior or at least they complement the intentions as reflected in the interior planning.
As on gets further away fro the centre of each villa, these garden areas yield to grassed, but still rectilinear areas (#6) -some of which are further defined by retaining walls. In the case of La Rotonda, these landscaped areas correspond roughly to the dimensions of the small hill -about eighty by eighty metres (see cross-section, figure 63).
As one gets further from each of the villas, the number of sculptures, the size of the sculptures, and the elaborateness of the interventions all decrease.57 By #7 on figure 60, there is only a minimum of delineation of forms along the axial paths. Further out still (#8) there are open (but cultivated) fields, with some trees, and further still there would have been forests (#9).
2.14 Hierarchy in Section
In cross-section (figure 63) too, one can see a petering out of the degree of built form. As for the design of La Rotonda and Trissino, the villa itself (#1 -4) is on the summit of a small hill. Sculptured figures are highest closest to the centre (#1), and lower down further away. Beyond the solid volume of the main block (#2), the four porches (#3) generate a transitionary space between it and the open ground. Even within each of these porticoes (figure 63A) there is a transition. There is the large component which has a roof and side walls (3A), each of which are punctured by a large arched opening. In La Rotonda (as built), further out from the centre these walls stop and the last half metre reads not as a wall but as one of the six free standing columns (3B).57A Beyond this there only low walls enclosing the steps (#4), and no roof. Further still from the centre are the intermediary zones which are on the slope of the hill (#5 and 6). The unbuilt upon areas are the lowlands surround the hill (#7 and 8).
Where no natural hill existed, as in Badoer (figures 15 - 19), Palladio built up the land into a kind of podium for the residence component. This not only raised the stature of the villa, it also would protect it against floods.41 This elevated podium intensifies the hierarchical relationship between the principal house and the other components.
From this built-up area outwards, the extent of effort, architectural detailing and quality of materials diminishes. The principal residences are generally stucco on brick, with some cut stone. Lower down are the areas which deal with the dirty secular business of day-to-day cycles such as deliveries (La Rotonda) and work (the other farm villas). These constitute transition zones which are rationalized but to a lesser extent. The ancillary structures are wood -for example in Badoer the exedra are wood merely painted to imitate stone. The field stones used in retaining walls are increasingly rougher the further one gets from the villa. Furthest from the centre are the least raised, least rationalized, areas. While the fields (#7) are cultivated, the forest (#8) is left as raw nature.
As observed in the previous section, there are many level changes in most of the exedral villas and that it is always the case that the dwelling spaces are highest up, the working spaces are lower, and the unbuilt field or forest areas are lowest. There are also transition levels between each of these levels. This was entirely intentional on PalladioÕs part. Like Vitruvius, Palladio compared the dwelling to the human body --not imitating the body but behaving as if it were one.58 The Ònoble, commanding, and beautiful parts were ordained by the Lord to be exposed, and the ignoble but essential working parts were to be hiddenÓ.59 In La Rotonda the working parts were less extensive (not being a working farm) and are limited to a small linear barn (built later) out of sight below the villa (figure 64). In Trissino and Badoer the working parts are curving and subordinate colonnaded ÔarmsÕ (exedra). They can be seen but they are lower and smaller than the central ÒheadÓ.
Importantly for practical reasons, the design of the villa was to respond to the vagarities of the unpredictable economy by being built out from the centre. Just as from a central spine, the units were to be constructed outwards from the facade of the main house in priority sequence rather than attempting simultaneous construction. The notable exception to this rule was Trissino. For some reason, it appears that the east arm (not even the arm but only the ÒwristÓ) was built first. Construction then stopped and this is all that stands of Trissino (figure 22).60
All of this reinforces the perception that Palladio was most focused on the design of the villa itself, and least concerned with the landscaping -and that this was increasingly evident the further one gets from the villa. In each villa, in both plan and section, this same pattern is found.61
2.15 Monumental Scale of Conception
This suggests that order appears to be extended out into the landscape at a large scale. Other Renaissance landscapes had formal parterres which were large and ornamental, yet the villas are not as monumental as Palladio's. For example, Pirro Ligorio's Villa d'Este (figure 37), 1560s. Note the heavy handed and unnatural extent to which nature is controlled. Perhaps it could be speculated that Palladio works at a scale which appears to transcend the immediate surroundings. He appears to be working at an absolute scale in which details of local idiosyncrasies are less important than his architectural ideas.
2.16 Summary of Building--Site Relations
To summarize the contextual implications of these formal building design decisions --ie. how they relate to and order the landscape, certain salient points are reviewed. First, however, a caveat: certainly these are complex, sophisticated buildings and it would not do justice to them by making sweeping and rash generalisations. But having examined the exedral villas certain common points can be made.
Most importantly, the orientation of the villas appears to be outwards, like all of the sculptures and the views. The order of the villas too, appears to be extended outwards into the landscape without regard to the qualities of this landscape. This is reflected in the extending out of the floor plan's walls, dimensions, straight lines, and rigid symmetry. The nature of this order of the villas also has significance in terms of the relation to the landscape. Since the four porticoes of La Rotonda and Trissino correspond in width to the diameter of the central hall, they therefore can be seen as extensions outwards of the central sphere shape. These lines are extended from the inside to outside in all four directions, past monumental stairs, grand walkways, out into the landscape. While many villas at that time reflected a manifestation of order being extended out in one direction, La Rotonda,62 reflects a manifestation of order being extended outwards in a more dramatic way. In this case, it is an example par excellence because all four facades are identical, extending the interior plan out into the landscape in all four directions equally.
The degree of architectural intervention peters out the further one goes from the villa. La Rotonda and Trissino on their hills and the man-made elevated podium of Bodeur are those parts of the projects which are the most raised up, the most ordered (rationalized and symmetrical), and the most precisely crafted. Lower down are the areas are the transition zones which deal with work and are rationalized but to a lesser extent. There is a comparative absence of the type of landscaping one might expect of a Renaissance villa. Furthest from the centre are the unraised, least rationalized, areas: the cultivated fields and the forest, which is left as raw nature.
As well, the multiple use of floor plans in different sites suggests that perhaps Palladio was more concerned with the architectural ideas and ideal he was working on than relating to a particular site.
Finally, we can also discern what is not present: there appears to be no particular orientation with respect to the sun and very few changes appear to be made to adapt to the site.
the symbolism of the cube overpowering the captured or enclosed sphere: representing rationality overpowering nature.
Four secondary questions regarding PalladioÕs villas are also suggested, which will be addressed in the next section:

(1) TEXT: What is meant by the use of a classical temple portico as a villa facade? (appropriation of spiritual consciousness & converting it to glorify secular authority, wealth, power)
(2) Subtext: What are the formal associations with the design, and further what are the other associations: archaeological, symbolic, cultural, political, ideological, and emblematic (Fortuna, specifically Palestrina and Pincian Hill Temples)
(3) Subtext: What is meant by the extension of this order outwards? (axes suggest control, subordination, extension, and colonialism)
(4) Subtext: What is meant by the extreme symmetry? (single-minded view of what is right)

3. Associations with these Formal Qualities
To more fully understand the building in its landscape and address the question of Òwhat is meantÓ by the relationship between the two, it is necessary to look beyond the built forms in the context of their immediate surroundings and examine the broader context of culture, iconography, politics, history, socio-economics, and power-relations of the day. The principal question, therefore, is: what can be learned from the broader context to illuminate this field of inquiry.
3.1 PalladioÕs Reception, Duplication, & Interpretation: What was Kept?
A cursory view of the positive reception, the extent of the duplication, and multiple interpretations of PalladioÕs villas suggest an ideologically charged subtext may underlay the main text of revivalism.63 Neo-Palladianism took off in many nations, especially in centralized states where a certain kind of rationality was put above all else --societies where Renaissance concepts of rationalism were held up as revolutionary ideals. Three examples in particular: country homes of eighteenth century English squires,64 such as Chiswick and Foots Cray Place (figures 69, 70), American plantation owners of the 1780s, such as JeffersonÕs competition entry for PresidentÕs house (figure 71) and Monticello (figure 72),65 and authoritarian architecture of the nineteenth and twentieth century.66
The clients for these buildings, even the rural ones, were people whose wealth was tied to the land, but who were not farmers --they were educated urbanites with Humanist tendencies. What did they choose to keep from the original Palladian villas in these copies? They chose to keep the classical portico, the harmonic proportions. the orderly approach to organizing the landscape, the extension out into the landscape of the floor plan, a main central residence with ancillary arms extending out from each side, and symmetrical massing with a dome over a rectilinear body.
Benjamin suggests that some light can be shed on the original by examining how others reinterpreted it.67 Having determined what was kept, this can now be used as clue to guide the focus for further inquiry into the associations with the observed forms: classicism was kept --------> 3.2 Classicism... approach to nature -------> 3.3 ... Attitude to Environment exedral arms kept --------> 3.4 Formal Influences... cube and sphere kept -------> 3.5 Cube Enclosing Sphere...
3.2 Classicism as Naturalized Power: the Order of Nature
We have seen the extent to which Palladio employed systems of proportion and classical motifs. The dominance of these aspects of his designs stand out as the first text one reads in the villas. Rowe argues that by using Òproportion as a projection of the harmony of the universe, its basis both scientific and religious -was quite unassailable; and Palladio could enjoy the satisfactions of an aesthetic believed to be entirely objective.Ó68 Zerner argues that use of ancient spiritual motifs is an attempt to gain in power by appropriating the perceived authority of Greek and Roman forms.69 He suggests that the persistence of the perceived authority is because it is believed that these forms are grounded in nature -but not the visible and kaotic nature of the forest, but the unseen underlying orderliness. This was originally a Hellenic concept and PalladioÕs exedral villas use porticoes which are more Hellenic.70 The concept comes up again in Vitruvius writing about architecture not imitating the body but behaving as if it were one.71 Ackerman72 states that Palladio believed that his principles of design derived from externally valid natural laws. With respect to this "external validity", Zerner asks:
"What should be better for a power in place than to make us believe that it is not simply there by an act of force, but that its authority is inscribed in nature herself?"73

This is comparable to deification, or appropriating spiritual authority by turning a social construct into a deity. In this case, it is a type of reification, or appropriating the authority of nature by ascribing a socially constructed reality to a natural thing. The is architecture trying to represent not the appearance of nature, but the underlying principles of nature.74
Having established PalladioÕs use of proportions and classical motifs as an overarching motivational text, the question is then: specifically which ancient buildings were the source of influence?
3.3 Renaissance Context of Attitude to Environment
It is this subtext which is most amenable to interpretation, and is seen very differently from a Renaissance and a modernist perspective. Figure 73 illustrates the difference between the sixteenth century and twentieth century conceptions of relations to Earth in terms of where insight is sought. On the left is the Renaissance conception: insight is sought upwards, in the heavens where one is closer to God. There is to be found an ordered, rational, paradise, represented by primary shapes which are thought to be perfect -especially the sphere. These spheres of heaven were thought to resonate harmonically. Thus mathematical proportions were seen as the unseen but underlying quality of reality. What one does see, the kaotic or raw nature such as a forest, is unredeemed nature. Even lower than this, furthest from God, is hell underground.
On Earth, the closest that man can come to this is the ideal city: an idealized Jerusalem. As an aspiration, what man can do is to try to make Earth more like heaven in microcosm. The hierarchy of Kings and Priests over the people parallelled God over the angels. Making landscape more ordered was seen as a redemptive process of raising it up to an abstract higher nature. By structuring straight lines and primary shapes which are permanent and stable, architects would depart from the irrational, unstable, changing, vagaries of the lower raw nature.
This is the reverse of most twentieth century perspectives. The dominant paradigm since Milton and Blake has been that the skies represent a distant, obtuse God; Kings and the religious priesthood represent an oppressive evil; and the ordering of landscapes is seen as a pathological attempt at control which is destroying the planet. Thus insight is sought downwards into the depths of real nature: the Byronic hero; the revolutionary artist questioning authority and conventions; and the architect looking to nature for inspiration. Frye describes this reversal as an ironic displacement of myth.75 It is in the light of this clarification of the difference between our perspective and the Renaissance paradigm that this inquiry views Palladio's work.
3.4 Formal Influences: Palestrina and Pincian Hill Temples of Fortuna
Burroughs76 and others77 have proposed that the exedral villas share the same source of classical inspiration, and Òcan be set in a line of descent from a common sourceÓ of antiquarian precedent -namely two Roman temples.78 In fact, Burroughs suggests that "this particular combination of motifs, legitimized by ancient precedent, preoccupied Palladio in the 1550s, especially after his return from Rome in 1554".79
Before turning to the ruins which influenced Palladio directly, it necessary to touch base with the ruins which are seminal and certainly inform the paradigm of a Renaissance architect concerned with adapting ancient forms or even revitalizing classicism. Palladio incorporated elements which in Greek and Roman practice would have been found only in public buildings, for example Rowe discusses how the Imperial thermae and Hadrian's villa also would have been "at the back of his mind".80 Also requiring mention are the Pantheon;81 the baths at Agripa;82 and San Stefano (figure 74),83 with its four porticoes and biaxial symmetry.
Historically behind these, however, were the Greek hilltop temples, such as the Parthenon.89 Note that the portico is used as the climax for processions up the hill. As Heidigger argues, these temples were gathering places which drew people in, but were not concerned with extending expressions of power outwards.84 The disposition of elements is not structured to re-order the landscape. This contrasts with what we have seen of PalladioÕs villas, which do impose an ordering onto the landscape, --and not any ordering, it is the order of the rigidly orthogonal interior plan which is extended outwards.
It is recorded that Palladio visited Palestrina several times dating back to 1547.85 PalladioÕs fanciful or ideal reconstruction of this Roman (but Hellenistic - style) Temple of Fortuna (figure 75) clearly shows a symmetrical temple complex peaked by a domed tempeito with four identical porticoes -similar to La Rotonda.
A second and similar source, another Temple of Fortuna,86 this one at Pincian Hill, Rome, is treated by Burroughs as significant, but is less well documented. Multiple but indirect evidence to link Palladio to knowledge of this ruin is therefore cited.87 Note that this complex too was thought to include exedra, terracing, an axial approach, all culminating in a four-porticoed tholos, or tempietto, with a Pantheon-like motif. Interestingly, these more tenuous connections reveal certain aspects which speak to the issue at hand: the villas relationship to nature.88
3.5 Cube Enclosing Sphere: Fortuna Stabilis and Stable Fortune
Described in the most simple of forms, Palladio used cubes enclosing spheres. This combination of forms has many associations which would have been known to Palladio. The images of the Cult of Fortuna were important emblematically in the 1550s.89 At this time, a short-cut to being a humanist scholar was to use the newly published illustrated classics, such as AlciatiÕs Emblematia (1531) which detailed amongst others, the symbolisms of Fortuna. Fortuna is always represented as a woman with wings on a sphere, representing her instability.90 Three such images are shown (figures 76 - 78).91
It was also believed that Nature operates in accordance with
Fortune.92 This is stated in GiraldiÕs book on myth, published in 1548.93 The official Roman religious calendars included many references to the cult of Fortuna, and this was known to antiquarians in the Renaissance.94
Burroughs suggests that for political reasons the record of this ancient cult grew in general importance in the 1550s for several reasons. Pope Julius IIIÔs own personal ÔimpresaÕ associated with controlling fortune. The image is of the male Occasio shearing off the locks of Fortuna while standing on a cube (figure 78).95 Since locks represented her instability and fickleness, the symbolism is that Òdecisive action converts fortune into...an allyÓ.
Renaissance people were preoccupied with the metaphorical interpretation of primary solids.96 There are many meanings associated with these, as summarized below (figure 79). Figure 79: Associations with Sphere and Cube97 ________________
infinite finite, virtue untamed nature reason, man-made non-manisfest essence manifest essence interior cause, fate/Fortune exterior cause all-encompassing things encompassed sky, heaven(s) four directions centre ________________

Several scholars suggest that amongst these, the most common and most important symbolism with the sphere was that it represented fickle Fortune or untamed nature.98 Palladio would certainly also have been very familiar with the associations of the cube. For example, Vitruvius wrote about the moral and philosophical meaning arising from the cubeÕs ability to stand firm on whichever of its faces it may come to rest.99 The cube also represented wisdom, truth, and even manÕs control.100 Of concern here is the image of a cube enclosing or supporting a sphere --which was a common theme in the Italy of the 1550s.101 While the combination of the cube and the sphere (figure 80) may appear at first to be an oxymoron, during the Renaissance there was great concern about the reconciliation of such contrasting essences.102 The soul imprisoned in a material world (Neoplatonism) was one common interpretation and another was nature and rationality.
The sphere stabilized by the cube, personified by the theme of Fortuna stabilized by Roman virtue, was commonly associated with Roman success -and even the mission of Rome itself.103 For example, in On the Fortune of the Romans Plutarch writes of Fortuna casting aside her unstable sphere when she arrives in Rome, and laying down her wings as if to stay.104 She thus becomes ÒStabilis FortunaÓ (or Stable Fortune) seen in figure 77.105 Thus Stabilis Fortuna was generally associated with the City of Rome. Stabilis Fortuna was also used throughout the Veneto as family emblems, and is found carved onto buildings (figure 81). Stabilis Fortuna was a major symbol for an important goal of the period -namely to bring stability to an unstable world.
Perhaps most revealing of the theme being developed here was the motto of one of PalladioÕs publishers: ÒVirtue duce, comite fortunaÓ.106 His emblem on his books was a gryphon on a cubic block to which is chained a winged globe. This represented wisdom harnessing fortune and nature (figure 82).
Burroughs makes several arguments for connections between La RotondaÕs site and Pincian Hill. The small hills, forming an implied exedra, connects La Rotonda to the Pincian Temple because the substructures were all in ruins by the time of the Renaissance and the exedra likely looked like natural landforms.107 The Pincian Hill or Collis Hortulorum (Hill of Gardens) was used for open air festivities --as was the site of La Rotonda. Thus there are both formal and topographical associations between the two sites.
Beyond these connections, and similarities of form (four porticoes), Burroughs evokes the simplification of La Rotonda as a sphere within a cube to make the connection with not only the Temple of Fortuna but also with the concept of Fortuna Stabilis itself. It is possible that the personal suffering of the vagaries of fortune, led Almerico to be preoccupied with the concept and through his retirement villa sought control over it.108 Burroughs therefore suggests iconographical resonances between AlmericoÕs intentions and concepts of Fortuna Stabilis 109 which evokes an image of La Rotonda as a cube stabilizing or imprisoning a sphere (figure 83).
There is also the whole area of analysis that will not be opened up here: namely the ideological perspective of classical analysts such as Kampen who argue that classical modes were used to assert rational (ÓmasculineÓ) norms of morality.110 Indeed the Renaissance was a time of assertion of the domination of males (seen as representing higher rationality) over females (seen as representing lower or Earthbound creatures because of their connections with natural cycles and childbirth).
There are also religious and social associations with the need to stabilize fortune. This was a time of great insecurity and anxiety in Europe -especially for the Church. There was rapid change away from the secure stability associated with the Medieval period. Knowledge, power, and authority no longer rested only with the priesthood. ManÕs place in the scheme of things was questioned. As a strict Catholic, Palladio, would not have questioned the ChurchÕs authority and would have sought stability. Bringing the church architectural forms to domestic architecture would have to him meant bringing God into the security of the home. It could be speculated that he likely would not have had problems with appropriating the authority of the Church in this way.
It is no coincidence that the last part of The Merchant of Venice (Venice being the home of mercantile capitalism and risk capital enterprises) takes place in the garden of a villa -which could have been a Palladian villa.111 The play is about fortune and justice: the former setting reflecting fortune and the latter justice -or fortune stabilized.
This suggests the last association between Palladio and stabilized fortune: that of stable fortune as a socio-economic goal. The wealthy merchants of Venice, such as PalladioÕs patrons, were preoccupied with risk and instability --but never more so than in the 1550s. While vast fortunes had been made by Venetian maritime capitalists in the fifteenth century, the long prosperous mercantile economy was collapsing and these fortunes were being lost to the vagarities of the sixteenth century. This was a period of insecurity, bank failures, inflation, foreign competition, threats of invasion, and almost constant war, 112 as is reflected by (figure 84) Bruegel Õs Triumph of DeathÓ (1562) which illustrates the Òreal state of affairs.Ó113
The rich were driven to transfer wealth to the countryside, and this is why they were building villas. Architects, such as Palladio, were suddenly in the 1540s being hired to build villas because rich capitalists were desperate to find a more secure stable investment for their financial fortunes. This was the whole raison dÕetre for the villas. Prior to this, the switch to land-based wealth was precluded by war, occupation by foreign armies, the swampy nature of the terrain, malaria associated with the countryside, low land values, inefficient Medieval farming methods, and low demand for agricultural products.
But by the mid-sixteenth century these swamplands were being drained. Palladian villas were often on such reclaimed land. The Pisani, Badoers, and Emos wanted to live close to their new land-based investments. They wanted an architect who would build structures which both supported the utilitarian needs of the new type of farm, and also reflected their urbane, cultivated, classical tastes. They were harnessing the untamed nature of the Veneto with their rationality, economic power, and new technology. Venetians were also more concerned than country people with visual continuity and symbolism in buildings. It stands to reason that they would have wanted a unified built form that reflected this desire for Stabilis Fortuna.
In summary, there appears to have been a convergence of formal, political, archaeological, emblematic, political, religious, economic, and land development interests for an emphasis on stabilized fortune (nature) or symbolicaly Stabilis Fortuna in the Venito countryside of the 1550s, as summarized in figure 85 below.114
Figure 85: Summary of Associations between Palladio's situation and stablized fortune
___________________________________________________________

formal (extending control out into the environment expressed by the form in many ways, for example: Palladio's floor plans extending out into the landscape, use of discrete programmatic elements, hierarchical spatial layering, and subordination of landscape as a tabula rasa for the non-contextual placement of symmetrical assemblages);
archaeological (Temples of Fortuna as main antiquarian precedents);
symbolic (PalladioÕs use of primary forms: cube enclosing the sphere);
cultural (connections with RomeÕs mission being to rationalize the world);
religious(connections with Catholic absolutism's appropriation of spiritual authority);
emblematic (connections with personal impresa of ÒFortuna StabilisÓ);
ideological (Renaissance preoccupation with supremacy over nature);
political (control as response to VenetoÕs autonomy & survival threatened);
economic (switch from mercantilism to land development in the Veneto);
and financial (terra firma investments to make their fortunesÕ stable).
___________________________________________________________
Quincunx
Also of symbolic significance here is the quincunx: the five points indicating the four corners of a square and the centre. Rotonda in plan clearly is suggestive of this Renaissance symbol. Thomas Brown discussed the significance of this symbol as
Higher Nature Seek higher nature: no higher ground, during FortunaÕs flood, is to be found. Yesterday, this dayÕs forms did prepare, what future forms must we now beware? David Fletcher

4. Interpretation of Building-Site Relations in Exedral Villas
4.1 Perspective versus Scenographic Space
4.6 Ordering of Space in La Rotonda: Extending Control into the Landscape
Palladio states that there were views outwards in all four directions, therefore four loggias. 57 The four temple porticoes, of course, evoke sacred classical architecture but since they correspond in width to the diameter of the central hall, they therefore can be seen as extentions outwards of the central sphere shape. These lines are extended from the inside to outside in all four directions, past grand stairs, walkways, out into the landscape.
It is this extending outwards into the landscape of the imagery of the captured sphere along the orthogonality of the enclosing cube, which defines the essential quality of the relationship of the building to the landscape. the hierarchicl qualities of the organization suggest the subordination of the site to the idea of the order of the building. While many villas at that time reflected a manifestation of control being extended out in one direction, La Rotonda29, reflects a manifestation of control being extended outwards in a more dramatic way. In this case, it is an example par excellance because all four facades are indentical, extending the interior plan out into the landscape in all four directions equally. The central argument, is that Stabilis Fortuna and the formal attributes of the Temple of Fortuna, are connected toconcepts of control: control over nature / environment in terms of subordination of the landscape, and more broadly in terms of control over fate. After all, the conquest of nature was an essential goal of the Renaissance.
Raport with nature, but with possession at its core. Connection with change from merchant economy to landed possessions. __________________________________________________________________

After characterizing the society from which Palladio came, this paper addresses with the questions of space and landscape. What type of space and what type of attitude toward site are represented in PalladioÕs work -especially his villas? What explains this particular approach? What were the reasons behind it catching on and having such an impact architecturally? In addressing these questions, a process of both literary and visual investigation is employed.
4.7 Architectural Ordering
The type of architectural ordering, associated with the extreme manifistations of a scarcity culture, is characterised by extreme formal symmetry (Figure 19), orthogonality (straight lines and right angles), (Figure 20),
It is important to note here, that Palladio lived in a time of revival of ancient architecture. To all of the architects prior to 1700, classical was classical and there was no distinction recognized between Ancient Greek and Roman. Since Stewart and Paston9, however, we know that there were significant differences. One difference which is relevant here is that the Greek temples were very much designed with the landscape in mind. Their forms and positioning were subtle, often leaving residual spaces which were not consistant with any formal axial, or controlled space. The Roman, however, was entirely formal and axial. The dominance of the their orthogonality extends into the landscape without accommodating its subtleties. This connects to the Romans being an extreme example of a scarcity-type culture. Palladio, being from northern Italy was more influenced by the Roman model. Palladio then, was both brought up in a Renaissance, control-oriented, scarcity culture, and was reviving the architectue of a ancient, control-oriented, scarcity cuture. (Figure 21)
Many suggest that Palladio took this orthogonal and control approach to an extreme as part of a Neo-Platonic ideal.10 Until recently, the scholarly literature 11 focused on this search for an ideal and ignored complexities and variations in Palladio's work. Contemporary scholars 12 seem to give more credit to the variety of Palladio's work. Therefore, perhaps a safer way to characterize PalladioÕs approach is to state that he as interested both in a formal ideal and in investigating variations on architectural themes. Nevertheless, his body of work all had in common certain generic characteristics, including one type of architectural ordering of the landscape.
4.8 Relations to Landscape of Different Types of Architectural Ordering (Organic and Formal Types of Architectural Ordering)
This formal type of architectural ordering suggests a certain way of relating to the environment, and a certain attitude toward space (Figure 22). Many examples could be put forward which suggest a natural, contextual, approach to building on and of Earth. Huron longhouses (Figure 23), F.L.Wright houses (Figure 24), (Figure 25), all illustrate different ways in which design can be derived from nature. Such an approach, which is in harmony and engages in a dialogue with its landscape could be called organic.
Palladio (Figure 26), however, represents a different apporach. It is to be argued here that PalladioÕs buildings do not relate intimately to their site; -rather, the order put forward is of entirely of human manufacture (Figure 27). Wittkower discusses the image of the Palladian villa as a freestanding object.13 The logic is that of the imposition on the natural world of the human mind (Figure 28). The conquering of nature by civilization is reflected in the willfull and unyielding characteristics of the architecture (Figure 29). It is noteworthy that in his books, PalladioÕs illustrations of his projects often differ considerably from the executed building. He would idealize site irregularities and revise designs to better reflect the ideal. This further suggests his rejection of the real, natural world in favour of the ideal and the abstract. To investigate this supposition, contrasts could be made between Palladio and the many organic styles just mentioned. However, perhaps it would be more useful to draw a contrast between two buildings closer in time and space.
5. Conclusions: Architecture as an Enclave of Higher Nature
A visual analysis of La Rotonda and other exedral villas has revealed an ideologically-charged, ideal, and mathematical approach to this Òobject in the landscapeÓ. The villa claims and dominates the site through its outward orientation and its extending concentrically the spatial order of its interior floor plan. The way this is done reflects a scenographic sense of space where an unbounded ground plane dominates. The significance of this innovation was that it reinvigorated the role of a building as an enclave of order and stability at a time when society was suffering the vagaries of unstable politics, economics, and spiritual belief. To what purpose was the landscape re-ordered? Since the re-ordering was done employing (what was considered at that time to be) the underlying fundamental principles of nature herself, namely the harmonies of primary solids, mathematical proportions, symmetry, and balance, it is speculated that Palladio was re-ordering and re-integrating the landscape to raise it up to a higher nature, a balanced and stable nature, a redeemed (closer to God) nature.
That La Rotonda (and the others) aimed to stabilize an otherwise unbalanced raw nature is reflected in the way they formally and associatively recall Fortuna Stabilis through the Temples of Fortuna at Palestrina and the Pincian Hill. As such, the villas represent control over Fortune or nature symbolically by the cube enclosing the sphere. To achieve this idealized stabilization or redemption the actual site has had to have been reduced to a subordinated context which did little to influence the form of the villa. This is not to suggest that Palladio was insensitive to the site or clientsÕ needs, but rather that his concerns for absolutes were a higher priority. A contributing reason for the popularity of Palladianism may have been the power that comes with such an absolute and monumental application of Ònatural orderÓ to subjegate nature. The villas of Palladio could be seen as metaphor of the modern project of the conquest of nature.
Just as the stars over the Venito garden at the end of The Merchant of Venice restructured the world in a merciful way into a just order, PalladioÕs sculpting ideal villas based on natureÕs underlying harmonies was intended to create enclaves of order which would redeem a troubled land -and did indeed have a profound influence on the world.
Epilogue
While the intentions to raise up nature may have been spiritually noble, the hubris and unsustainability of this colonialism toward landscape is more evident when the same type of attitude is misapplied globally. It may not have been coincidental that the popularity of the the Palladian style corresponds with periods of colonialism. When one people extended their military control over other people and their lands, they also extended outward into that new context their hierarchies, their God, their King, their laws, their customs, - in short: their order. This included their architectural order. Palladianism, with its power, control, and subordination of landscape, complemented and justified what they were doing on the larger scale. The microcosm of the villa civilizing (colonizing) its landscape according to its aesthetically correct sense of ÒnaturalÓ order, complemented and justified colonizers pathologically extending their politically correct control and sense of order across continents. Just as Palladio saw the landscape in need of redemption, colonizers saw indiginous cultures and lands as kaotic and worthless. Because the Palladian style includes a self-evident geometric regularity and symmetry, it immediately overpowers more subtle natural messages and conveys unopposed to the viewer the singular qualities of its absolute orthogonal order. The clarity of this message is matched by the relentlesss strength of the imposed command over the landscape. The villas of Palladio could be seen as metaphor of the modern project of the conquest of not only nature, but also of non-Western peoples. Because the Palladian style connected back to a glorified Roman world it also gave legitimacy and civility to an otherwise bloody conquest. For one thousand years European powers had sought to be legitimized by being the successors of Rome and thus its authority. The Palladian style therefore played a role in such historically important developments, as well as being of importance in and of itself.
The general form and building-site relations have been copied many times around the world, especially during expansionist periods. It is speculated that a contributing reason for the popularity of Palladianism is its associations with control and subordination.
raising up the visible world closer to God and the perfect order of heaven through the fundamental re-ordering and re-integration of the build world. This was intended to be accomplished through designing with close attenion being paid to the underlying rational mathematical order -specifically harmonic proportions, symmetry and axiality.
Whereas today we see the complexities and interdependence of some built form as an analogy to nature, in PalladioÕs time to make built form reflect nature meant simplicy and harmonic poroprtions.
This monumental classicism is associated with power, authority, and absolutism. But it is also associated with the representation of the underlaying principles of nature. In this way, the power of the builidingsÕ form is aimed at being attributed to, and externally validated by, a natural source. Naturalization of power relations is one way to see this, but the term reification expresses better the concept. While this reification is the text, there is also a less self-conscious subtext about control, which may have been part of the zeitgeist and not PalladioÕs intentions. This need for control may have been engendered by the insecurities of the mid-sixteenth century (after centuries of prosperity). It is reflected in PalladioÕs unbounded scenographic concept of space, which may have related to some architect's preoccupations with military formations and generally manÕs control over Fortune (or nature).
The inquiry here is to read both the text and subtext of a number of Palladio's projects which share certain formal (or content) preoccupations,The grouping is called ÒexedralÓ projects because they all involve certain formal qualities -including exedral arcades. These are:

(1) the complex includes exedra ie. - collonade on axis, usually semi-circular, which opens symmetrically out into the landscape; These exedra, or cavea, are either real (left) or implied (as in the case of La Rotonda right). Some had exedra designed but not built.
(2) Text: classical temple porticos, specifically Hellenic post-and-lintel loggias. This particular pediment and loggia form was actually rare from a Renaissance perspective --although weÕre quite familiar with it today.
(3) formal layout evocative of church architecture
(4) .hierarchically disposed components articulating the relationship of a principle element to a subordinate landscape. 10
(5) this principle element is a symmetrical, raised up, lofty, temple-fronted pavilion (usually the patronÕs residence) bisected by an axial approach to the main entrance.
(6) the principle element is almost cube-like, usually with a dome.
(7) monumentality, or Imperial in scale, both in ornamentation, and the disposition of programatic elements.
In this regard, there are a number of points that I would make:

(1) My first point is that order appears to be extended out into the landscape at a large scale. Palladio does not even bother to include designs for the surroundings in his drawings. --or any surroundings at all for that matter. Other Renaissance landscapes had formal parterres which were large and ornamental. For example, on the right is Pirro LigorioÕs Villa dÕEste, 1560s. Note the heavy handed and un-natural extent to which nature is controled. I would suggest that Palladio works at a scale which appears to transcend the immediate surroundings. He appears to be working at an absolute scale in which details of local idiosyncracies are less important than his architectural ideas.
(2) the floor plan appears to me to be extended outwards into the landscape withoregard to the qualities of this landscape; Not to give away my ending too much, but my hypothesis is that this is a subtext which I will try to link with the symbolism of the cube overpowering the captured or enclosed sphere: representing rationality overpowering nature.
(3) monumental formal steps lead up to the main house, and up and away from the ground plane
(4) rigid symmetry about an axis, and in the case of some, a biaxial symmetry.
(5) sculpture face out into the landscape.
(6) the multiple use of floor plans in different sites suggests that perhaps Palladio was more concerned with the ideal he was working on than relating to a particular site.
(7) Finally, we can also discern what is not present: -- there appears to be no particular orientation with respect to the sun; -- and very few changes made to adapt to the site.

To get this subtext into focus, it is neccessary to look beyond the building in the context of its immediat landscape, and examine the broader context of culture, history, iconography,politics, and power relations of the day. The principle question therefore is: What can we learn from the broader context that would illuminate this subtext?
Four secondary questions regarding PalladioÕs villas are also suggested, which will be addressed in the next section:

(1) TEXT: What is meant by the use of a classical temple portico as a villa fascade? (appropriation of spiritual consciousness and converting it to glorify secular authority, wealth, power)
(2) Subtext: What are the formal associations with the design, and further what are the other associations: archaeological, symbolic, cultural, political, ideological, and emblematic (Fortuna, specifically Palestrina and Pincian Hill Temples)
(3) Subtext: What is meant by the extention of this order outwards? (axes suggest control, subordination, extention, and colonialism)
(4) Subtext: What is meant by the extreme symmetry? (single-minded view of what is right)

The dominance of these temple porticoes stand out as the first text one reads in the villas. Zerner argues that use of ancient spiritual motifs is an attempt to gain in power by appropriating the perceived authority of Greek and Roman forms. XX He suggests that the persistance of the perceived authority is because it is beleived that these forms are grounded in nature.
This is comparable to deification, or appropriating spiritual authroity by turning a social construct into a diety. In this case, it is a type of reification, or appropriating the authority of nature by ascribing a socially constructed reality to a natural thing. The is architecture trying to represent not the appearance of nature, but the underlying princples of nature.XX
The Palestrina drawing clearly shows a symmetrical temple complex peaked by a domed tempeito with four identical porticoes A second and similar source, another Temple of Fortuna, this one at Pincian Hill, Rome, is treated by Burroughs as significant.

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Higher Nature Seek higher nature: no higher ground, during FortunaÕs flood, is to be found. Yesterday, this day's forms did prepare, what future forms must we now beware? David Fletcher

1. Introduction: A Circular Field of Inquiry

1. Dawson translated these four verses (75 to 79) from the 1510 Latin poem by Charles de Bouelles (entitled ÒHecatodia de nihiloÓ ) as follows:
Its All fills nothingness, abolishes emptiness, Pervading with its mass all the places of ether, Hence comes that every infinitesimal part of space Of its own universe is the centre and mark. source: DawsonÕs translation of Poulet (1961), p.6. Note: the works of both Charles de Bouelles and his mentor Nicolas of Cusa were well known by literate Italians of the sixteenth century.

2. Fletcher notes from Payne lecture 3 Oct. 1996: "another nature" was stated as part of Palladio's "definition of architecture".
3. Chapman's translation of Ovid's poem "Banquet of Sense". source: Dawson's translation of Poulet (1961), p. 357.
4. quotation from Pic de la Mirandole's De Dignitate (1520). source: DawsonÕs translation of Poulet (1961), p 7.
5. p. 103 source: DawsonÕs translation of Poulet (1961), p. 357.
6. translation of: Humanitatis extat virtus omnia ex se explicare intra regionis suae circulum, omnia de potentia centri exerere. from Nicolas of Cusa's De Conjecturis, (1490) Lib. II cap. XIII, Opera, ed. Lefevre D'Etaples, t. I. source: Dawson's translation of Poulet (1961), p. 357.
7. The story of ÒPandostoÓ is better know to us today as A Winter's Tale, (1611) by Shakespeare (1564 to 1616). In fact, many of Shakespeare's stories, morals, and metaphors were re-worked ones commonly known to Italian scholars of PalladioÕs day. The plot line was also published under the title The Triumph of Time in 1588 by Robert Greene (1560 - 1592). It is the story of the competition between two kings and the jealousy which leads to their downfall. The saving of the heir (the KingÕs daughter Perdita) from the desert redeems them. It is about the reordering of nature: "It appears on the surface that the Prince graft onto old stock -the wild onto --turned to second nature" transforming nature into higher nature. source: Shakespeare's Complete Plays and Poems, ed. William Allan Neilson and Charles Jarvis Hill, Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1942. __________________________________________________________

2. Visual Analysis of Formal Qualities
2.1 The Exedral Villas: Variations on a Theme

8. This does not mean that an understanding of the exedral villas as individual cases should be sought in terms of the type (which would be reductionism), but rather and understanding of the type is to be sought by examining individual villas. Palladio himself, in examining Roman ruins was branded with just such reductionism by his friend Ligorio when he accused him of being: ÒLÕinnormatore delle antichitaÓ (or ignorant of antiquity). Burroughs, p. 81.
9. Palladio used the classical temple facade not because it revived ancient house forms, but rather in Palladio's view, it enhanced the stature of the house. The form of the ancient temple (the house of the gods) was stated in his Quatro Libri (1570) Dover edition p. ... to be originally derived from primitive dwelling types.31
10. The grouping of villas under the term ÒexedralÓ has been used by such historical scholars as Puppi, p. 385; Burns, p. 250 -251; Semenzato, p. 12; and Sgarbi, p. .
11. Villa Rotonda, at Valmara, outside of Vicenza, 1565. Ackerman thought that it dated from the mid 1550s like the other exedral villas. While the date of design and construction of Villa Rotonda is contentious, it seems likely that it was built in the mid 1560s but likely designed or at least discussed with the client, Paolo Almerico, much earlier -perhaps as early as 1553. At this time there was a major open air celebration on the site --which Palladio may have attended. Puppi argues that La Rotonda is a latter project, and so if one accepts that Puppi supersedes Ackerman, the date should be given as mid 1560s -- but not finished until much latter by Scamozzi. (see figures 1,3, 6 - 12, etc.).
12. Villa Badoer, at Fratta Polesine, just southwest of Rovigo. 1554 - 1563 -but it was virtually completed by 1556. (figure 4 is from plate 31. Quatro Libri Dover edition).
13. the unfinished monumental Villa Trissino, at Meledo; near de Sarego near Vincenza, 1553. (figure 5 is from plate 43 Quatro Libri Dover edition) --not to be confused with the Cricoli villa, also for the Trissinos. The little that was built appears in figure 22 and this was extrapolated using the drawings to build the model illustrated in figures 21 and 23.
14. the nonexistent villa Mocenigo at Dolo, 155 . (Figure 25 is as it appeared in plate 45 Quatro Libri, Dover edition). It seems that this project was never built. Note the double exedra, and the interior courtyard.
15. Villa Thiene near Quinto Vicentino (Vincenza), 1545. Figure 26 (plate 45 Quatro Libre Dover edition) plan of Villa Thiene. (note: same family as the Palazzo Thiene, Vincenza) Source:
16. Villa Thiene near Cicogna, 1550, (figure 27 is from plate 47 Quatro Libri Dover edition) of which little of PalladioÕs design remains or was ever constructed (note: same family as the Palazzo Thiene, Vincenza). Figure 28 illustrates what remains today.
17. Villa Pisani, at Bagnolo di Lonigo, (Vincenza) 1542. (Figure 29 as it appears in plate 30 Quatro Libri , Dover edition, and as it was built is illustrated in figure 30 ). This appears to not have the theme fully developed and was not built as it appeared in the Quatro Libri.--note: not to be confused with Villa Pisani near Padova.
18. Villa Saraceno, right, near Finale di Agugliaro (Vicenza) 1545. Figure 31 is the plan of Saracento, as it was published in plate 39 Quatro Libri Dover edition. This, too, appears to not have the theme fully developed and it was not built as it appeared in the Quatro Libri. See figure 32 as it appears today.
19. Villa Ragona, (figure 33 as it appeared in plate 40 Quatro Libri Dover edition) which was (at most) partly executed and then destroyed. 47. Ackerman (19..) (p. 31) 2.2 Villa Almerico - Capra (La Rotonda), Vicenza, 1565
20. Paulo Almerico was the patron who commissioned Palladio. His son was the second owner, who then sold La Rotonda to the Capra family. The Capras added much to the villa, including the ScamozziÕs long ancillary structure (called the barchessa), the dome (also by Scamozzi), and many of the interior sculptures.
21. La Rotonda being copied many times is documented in
22. Wittkower, p.
23. La RotondaÕs frescoes of the virtues (see figures 51, 66) were by many artists, including Alessandro Maganza. Some of the full size plaster sculptures were by Agostino and Virgilio Rubini. Source: Prinz (p. ).
24. The signs of La Rotonda discussed by 120 Prinz. and Burroughs, p. 90. 25. Palladio Quatro Libri (1570) Dover edition p. 41.
26. Heidegger (p. 26) discussed the orientation of Greek temples inwards, suggesting a sense of community.
27. Originally there were no ancillary structures planned for La Rotonda because Rotonda was intended for Paul Almerico (client and first owner) simply as a country recreational residence, unlike all the other Palladian villas which were working farms. It therefore did not need large barns, storage areas, or other ancillary structures. The small support structure that exists today, called "barchessa" is hidden below grade and was built by Vincenzo Scamozzi for the Capra family (third owner of La Rotonda). 2.3 Villa Badoer, Fratta Polesine, 1554 - 1563
28. Constant, (1985) p. 6.
29. Villa Madama, Rome, (figure 13) was designed by Raphael in 15...
30. Constant, (1985) p. 8. 2.4 Villa Trissino, Meledo, 1553
31. Burroughs, p. 67.
32. Burroughs, p. 66, and Burns, p. 196.
33. The influence of Trissino can be seen in: BerniniÕs Piazza di San Pietro, Rome. JeffersonÕs University of Virginia (figure 24) Vanbrugh's Blenheim Castle, England. Le VauÕs College des Quatre Nations, Paris. 2.5 The Other Exedral Villa 2.6 Absence of Extensive Landscaping in Villas, Drawings
34. This drawing (figure 34) is by Serlio in his "Ten Books of Architecture".
35. Villa dÕEste by Pirro Ligorio in Tivoli, 1560s shows a heavy-handed subordination of the landscape and extensive manipulation.
36. None of PalladioÕs ambitious piazzas were completed during his lifetime. In some cases only the facade of the piazza was built. Ackerman (p. 81) states: Ònot one of PalladioÕs private patrons finished more than half of a palaceÓ. 2.7 Client Needs
37. Badoer is introduced by Palladio in Quatro Libri Dover edition p. 49. Trissino is introduced by Palladio in Quatro Libri Dover edition p. 51.
38. He was successful at the Papal Court and became became very wealthy. But he was accused of murder and imprisoned for two years. He was released after his innocence was recognized, but had lost much of his wealth. Almerico build his wealth back up again but still feared the inquisition. Partly because of his own personal suffering of the vagaries of fortune, it would not be surprising if he was preoccupied with the concept and through his retirement villa sought control over it. Burroughs therefore suggests iconographical resonances between AlmericoÕs intentions and concepts of Fortuna Stabilis. Source: Burroughs, p. 84.
39. Rowe, p.3
40. Palladio, Quatro Libri Dover edition, p. 46. La Rotonda was known to be intended as simply a recreational villa by Quatro Libri, page. Many of PalladioÕs clients (such as the Trissinos and the Thienes) were condottierri, (mercenaries) who had made fortunes fighting for Kings (either France or the German Emperor). This suggests a connection, at least a professional one, between PalladioÕs clients and Neo-Palladian clients. For example, American plantation owners were often also military men (and slave owners) and also often built only a Palladian facade. within two years). 2.8 Specifics of Siting
41. Palladio, Quatro Libri, Dover edition, p. 49. BadoerÕs podium raised up the villa, and this also provided protection against flooding.
42. Palladio, Quatro Libri Dover edition, p. 41.
43. Palladio, Quatro Libri Dover edition, p. 41.
44. Palladio, Quatro Libri Dover edition, p. 41.
45. The view of Rotonda as a hilltop - theatre suggests another interpretation of the villas role: that of a lesson. One therefore asks: Òwhat is this lesson?Ó This suggests another formal link to Roman motifs discussed earlier, this time to the ancient Theatre of Verona. As in his reconstruction drawing of this theatre (figure 91), the top includes four identical porticoes. 2.9 Shared Formal Qualities: Ideal Forms Re-ordering the Landscape
46. Rowe, p. 4.
47. Burroughs, p. 76 discusses how the hills around La Rotonda can be interpreted as an implied exedra.
48. The four porticoes of La Rotonda are based on the portico of Octavia in Rome and are of a Hellenic style. Today we are very familiar with this particular style of pediment an loggia, but in Renaissance Italy it was actually rare. 39
49. Burroughs, p. 75.
50. Ackerman, p. 40. 2.10 Abstract Geometry, Harmonic Proportions, Symmetry, & Balanced Massing
51. Rowe, p. 4.
52. Rowe, p. 8. and http://calligrafix.co...net/harmony/pr. In Quatro Libri, Palladio suggested a set of Òseven of the most beautiful and harmonious proportions to be used in the construction of roomsÓ. These are illustrated in figure 92 below. Source: http://calligrafix.co...net/harmony/pr Figure 92: PalladioÕs Use of Geometric Dimensions 1. Circle 2. Square _____ 1:1 3. The diagonal of the square _____ 1:1.414...etc. 4. A square plus a third _____ 3:4 5. A square plus a half _____ 2:3 6. A square plus two-thirds _____ 3:5 7. Double square _____ 1:2 Note that the only one which is complicated (ie. 1.414...etc. is an irrational number) is the third. Because of the irrational relationship between the square and its diagonal seems to give a glimpse of a kind of order which is not resultant from (or dependent on) rational numbers, but appears to indicate a ÒmetaphysicalÓ cause, it has in the past been held by architects and artists to have special significance. Its appearance in the underlying geometry of the Squared Circle was thought to echo or symbolise the ÒdialogueÓ between the Heavens and the Earth, Essence and Form, the Infinite and the Finite. Such geometric relationships were also thought to reflect the Musica Mundana, the Music of the Spheres -the sound of the Cosmos in harmony. Sources: Alberti, 1775. Critchlow, 1979. Plato, The Timaeus, Wittkover, 1949.
53.Wittkower, p.
54. Alberti, 1755, Ten Books on Modern Architecture, Dover edition translated by Giacomo Leoni, p. 196. 55. In PalladioÕs Redentore church, Venice there is a dialectic with organic or curved forms. Source: 2.11 Classicism: Motifs, Porticoes 56. Palladio, Quatro Libri Dover edition, p. 41. Note: the four porticoes of La Rotonda are based on the portico of Octavia in Rome.
2.12 Design Principles Extending Outwards

56A. Figure 51 shows that on the floor of the very centre of the central hall of La Rotonda is a grate. This grate, located beneath the dome (which was open for some time in the late sixteenth century until Scamozzi completed the dome) served to drain away the rain water in the same way as the impluvium in a Roman house. The grate has the image of a fawn with a grotesque face, based on a Roman relief.
2.13 Radial Gradation of Design Interventions

57. In Villa Barboro the sculptures on grade also all line up with the edge of the central portico. They form lines on either side of a central path that leads out from the main entrance (see figure 32). A simple numerical analysis of the sculptures illustrates this petering out clearly. The Quatro Libri design calls for nine large sculptures on the roof. While these were not built, there are many sculptures, including the nymphaem, within five metres of the villa. Within the next ten metres there are two more sculptures -also on podiums but smaller and not raised up on an elevated platform. Further out still are additional sculptures, but they are smaller, less elaborate, and the distances between them are increasingly large. 2.14 Hierarchy in Section 57 A. Note the discrepancy at the corners of the porticoes between the Quatro Libri published plan (figure 53) and the real (as built) La Rotonda (real plan shown in figure 46 and 47 and real section in figure 43). The Quatro Libri plan shows the wall of the porch extending all the way out to make the corners a kind of extended pilaster. As is visible in photographs (see figures 52, 55 and 57) there is, in fact, a free standing, detached column on each corner.
58. from Fletcher notes on Payne lecture, 26 Sept. 1996: Vitruvius stated that the human body is the core of architecture: structure does not imitate a body but rather behaves as if it were one. 59. Ackerman, p. 60. Trissino 61. Villa Barboro was discussed above (see 57). Villa 55 2.15 Scale of Conception 2.16 Summary of Building--Site Relations 62. La Rotonda 29???? 3. Associations with these Formal Qualities 3.1 PalladioÕs Reception, Duplication, and Interpretation: What Was Kept? 63. 64. Chiswick, England, (figure 69) Foots Cray Place, England, (figure 70) designed by Isaac Ware, ca.1754. IcKworth, Suffolk, England, begun 1792, by Sands and Hervey Kendleston Hall, Derbyshire, England, by Payne and Adam, 1780s Ballyscullion, Ireland, late 18th century. 65. JeffersonÕs competition entry for the U.S. PresidentÕs house, 1792, (figure 71 is taken from Palladio in America, p. 115) JeffersonÕs home called Monticello, built 1768 - 1809, Albemarle County, Virginia. (figure 72 is taken from Palladio in America, p. 112) 66. ÒAuthoritarianÓ architecture or revivalist architecture 67. In the chapter on Beaudelaire, in Illuminations, Walter Benjamin discusses the importance of the translator and what can be learned through an examination of the translation. 3.2 Classicism as Naturalized Power: the Order of Nature
68. Rowe, p.8.
69. Zerner p. 35
70. It was originally a Hellenic concept that classical forms were grounded in nature. PalladioÕs exedral villas use porticoes which are more Hellenic. Source:
71. Vitruvius
72. Ackerman p.80
73. Zerner, p. 36
74. architecture representing the underlying principles of nature discussed in Wittcover. 3.3 Renaissance Context of Attitude to Environment: the Nature of Order
75. Frye, pp. - 75A. Frye, p. 3.4 Formal Influences: Palestrina and Pincian Hill Temples of Fortuna 76. Burroughs, p. 65. 77. Others writing about the classical inspirations and antiquarian precedents for the exedral villas include: Ackerman, Palladio: the Architect and Society, (1977), p. 171-177; Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism, (1949); Puppi, p. 32. 383; Burns, p. 250, and Semenzato, p. 12. 78. Burroughs, p. 65. 79. Burroughs, p. 67.
80. Rowe. p. 13, referring to HadrianÕs villa at Tivoli. 81. Pantheon, Temple in Rome, which Palladio drew many times. 82. the Roman baths at Agripa, which Palladio drew many times.
83. San Stefano, a second century church in Rome (see Figure 74) 84. Heidigger argues in ______________, these Greek temples were gathering places which drew people in, but were not concerned with extending expressions of power outwards. 85. Burroughs (p. 80) states that it is recorded that Palladio visited Palestrina (as fancifully imagined by Palladio, figure 75) and Tivoli several times dating back to 1547. Praenestae (the Roman name) dates back to 194 B.C.
86. Today we know much more about both the Praenestae and the Pincian Hill sites. Ligorio may have been wrong in interpreting the complex as a t Pincian Hill as a Temple of Fortuna, but in the 1550s it was generally accepted as such. Burroughs, p 82.
87. While the Roman temple complex on the Pincian Hill were in ruins by the Renaissance, and not fully understood, according to Burroughs (p. 67 and 82) 16 --90 they were likely also seen by Palladio, or at least Palladio discussed them with Ligorio (PalladioÕs friend and fellow antiquarian) who had studied them extensively. Source: Burroughs p. 80 and Puppi. 17 --91 Burroughs, p. 80. The relationship between Palladio and Ligorio is discussed further by Puppi. (see note 79) The most important connections which link Palladio to the Pincian Hill (see Figure ___) have to do with: (1) Both PalladioÕs friend Barboro 30 - 101 and the Pope had land on the Pincian Hill: the PopeÕs Villa Giulia, by Vignola, 102 Amannati, dates from 1550 to 1555. (2) other close connections between a number of PalladioÕs clients and (3) In any case, the area was a focus of attention during the 1560s and 1570s because the Cardinal Ferdinando de Medici planned to build a complex of stairs, terraces, and waterworks to connect his villa on the Pincian Hill to the city below.103 These were eventually done, and re-done, and today are known as the Spanish Steps (dating from 1721--5).
88. Burroughs (p. 67 and 82) suggests that the poor state of preservation of these ruins invited free reconstruction in the light of related structures and types. Palladio may have taken licence in linking the exedra to the hillside monument surmounted by the tempieto. In any case, the fact that the hillside exedra was in ruins to the extent that one might mistake it for a natural landscape feature, is connected to the view that Palladio considered the natural hills surrounding La Rotonda as a type of implied exedra. 3.5 Cube Enclosing Sphere: Fortuna Stabilis and Stable Fortune Fortuna Stabilis in the 1550s
89. Burroughs, p. 77. The oracle of the cult of Fortuna was at Palestrina, was introduced to Rome during the crisis of the Punic Wars. The Romans believed that Rome owed its success over Carthage and its success in empire building to Fortuna. 90. Burroughs, p. 86. 91. Figure 76, the image of Fortuna, painted by Reni (1623) is taken from Jacobs, Mythological Painting, Mayflower, New York (1979), p. 16. Figure 77, the image of Stablis Fortuna from Achille Bocchi, Symbolicarum quaestionum... (1555), p. 50 is taken from Burroughs, p. 86. Figure 78, the of the impressa of Pope Julius III.
92. According to Burroughs, p. 84, it was believed in Renaissance Italy that Nature operates in accordance with Fortune.
93. GiraldiÕs book on myth, published in 1548, described in Burroughs, p. 84, note # 98. 94. The official Roman religious calendars included many references to the cult, and this was known to antiquarians in the Renaissance, according to Burroughs, page 80, and 95. Burroughs, p. 77 describes Pope Julius III (1549 to 1555) as having had a personal impresa (figure 78) which had the image of the male Occasio shearing off the locks of Fortuna while standing on a cube. Since locks represented her instability and fickleness, the symbolism is that Òdecisive action converts fortune into...an allyÓ . This theme appears prominently in the frescoes of Villa Giulia, located on the Pincian Hill, which Palladio surely would have known. source: J. Gere, ÒThe Decoration of the Villa GiuliaÓ Burlington magazine XVII 1965, p. 200 - 202. and Vasari, G. ÒLe vite dei piu eccellenti pittoriÓ ed. G. Milanesi. Stable Fortune and the Symbolism of the Cube Enclosing a Sphere
96. Burroughs discussed the fact that Renaissance people were preoccupied with the metaphorical interpretation of primary solids. Of concern here is the image of a cube enclosing or supporting a sphere --which was a common theme in the Italy of the 1550s.
97. Figure 79: Associations with Sphere and Cube is a synthesis of several sources, including: http://calligrafix.co...net/harmony/pr
98. It was a common symbolism that the sphere represented fickle Fortune or untamed nature, or unpredictability, or the feminine. Valeriano P. Bolzani, Hieroglyphica, Lyons, 1602 (New York, 1976), p. 413, notes that the association with Fortune is by far the most common resonance of the sphere during the Renaissance. Source: Burroughs, p. 85, note # 101.
99. Palladio would certainly have been very familiar with the associations of the cube. For example, Vitruvius wrote about the moral and philosophical meaning arising from the cubeÕs ability to stand firm on whichever of its faces it may come to rest. Burroughs, p. 86
100. The cube represented wisdom, virtue, truth, reason, or even manÕs control. source: Burroughs, p. 86.
101.
102. The Renaissance concern for the reconciliation of contrasting essences is discussed in Doren, A. ÒFortuna im Mittelalter und in der RenaissanceÓ in Vortrage der Bibliothek Warburg, I, 1922, p. 71 and Wittkower, ÒChance, Time and VirtueÓ Journal of the Warburg & Courtauld Institutes, I, 1937, p. 313. Source: Burroughs, p. 85, note # 102.
103. Burroughs, p. 85. 104. Plutarch, On the Fortune of the Romans quoted in Burroughs, p.86, note # 109. See also Plutarch Moralia and Jones, C. P. Plutarch and Rome, Oxford 1991. p. 67. Hecscher also discusses the history of Fortune imagery: Heckscher, W. S. ÒGoethe im Banne der SinnbilderÓ Jahrbuch der Hamburgischen Kunstsammlungen, VII, 1962, p. 38 - 45. also: Rosenblum, R. Transformations in Late Eighteenth Century Art, Princeton, 1967, p. 150.
105. The source of figure 77 is Burroughs, p. 86, reproduced from Achille Bocchi, Symbolicarum quaestionum... (1555), p. 50.
106. Burroughs, p. 85: the motto of Gryphius of Lyons, one of PalladioÕs publishers, was ÒVirtue duce, comite fortunaÓ (virtue brings good fortune). His emblem, (figure 82) to be found on his books, was a gryphon on a cubic block to which is chained a winged globe (representing wisdom harnessing fortune and nature).
107. Burroughs, p. 80.
108. Canon Paolo Almerico was successful at the Papal Court and became became very wealthy. But he was accused of murder and imprisoned for two years. He was released after his innocence was recognized, but had lost much of his wealth. Almerico build his wealth back up again but still feared the inquisition. Partly because of his own personal suffering of the vagaries of fortune, it would not be surprising if he was preoccupied with the concept and through his retirement villa sought control over it. Burroughs therefore suggests iconographical resonances between AlmericoÕs intentions and concepts of Fortuna Stabilis. Source: Burroughs, p. 84.
109.
110. Kampen, Natalie. Religious / Spiritual Associations
111. Venice was the home of mercantile capitalism and risk enterprises. This symbolic association with Venice is featured prominently in ShakespeareÕs Merchant of Venice. Fortune Stabilized (economically and financially)
112. Ackerman (p. 17) and many other sources (such as ) discuss this period of history. At this time Western European powers were expanding. They saw this as their divine right along with the mission to conquer and exploit the Earth for profit. At the same time the Venetian empire was collapsing. Venetian banks were failing due to inflation caused by the influx of gold from across the Atlantic. While the large empires of Portugal and Spain were growing rich and powerful, the small city states, such as Venice, were in decline. Western European businesses were suddenly challenging VeniceÕs traditional caravan trading monopolies in the East by sea. These powers threatened Italy economically from the West. Meanwhile the small fast English ships had taken over the Mediterranean from the large and vulnerable Venetian ships. With obsolete ships, Venice was not only economically doomed but appeared militarily indefensible. From the East the Muslim Turkish army was advancing steadily and was expected to be at the doors of Venice by the 1560s. (Ackerman 48-50) -Constantinople fell in 1453. -Greece 14... -the rest of the Balkans 14... -sack of Rome in 1527 by the French -siege of Naples and Florence -famine, plague The rich were driven to transfer wealth to the countryside, and this is why they were building villas. Architects, such as Palladio, were suddenly in the 1540s being hired to build villas because rich capitalists were desperate to find a more secure stable investment for their financial fortunes. This was the whole raison d'etre for the villas. Prior to this, the switch to land-based wealth was precluded by war, occupation by foreign armies, the swampy nature of the terrain, malaria associated with the countryside, low land values, inefficient Medieval farming methods, and low demand for agricultural products. With population growth due to refugees fleeing back to Venice from the collapsing empire, food when up in demand and price to the point where new farming techniques could be introduced. They switched from unprofitable cereals to new corn crops. This agricultural revolution was orchestrated not by local feudal gentry but by the business men of Venice. In 1556 the Venetian senate passed a bill creating the Board of Uncultivated Land to co-ordinate development. Land prices grew making the draining of swamps profitable. Palladian villas were often on such reclaimed land. The Pisani, Badoers, and Emos wanted to live close to their new land-based investments. They wanted an architect who would build structures which both supported the utilitarian needs of the new type of farm, and also reflected their urbane cultivated, classical tastes. They were harnessing the untamed nature of the Veneto with their rationality, economic power, and new technology. Venetians were also more concerned than country people with visual continuity in buildings. It stands to reason that they would have wanted a unified built form that reflected this desire for Stabilis Fortuna.
113. Time of insecurity reflected in Brugel's "Triumph of Death" (1561 - 62). Source: Bulllock, Alan. The Humanist Tradition in the West, Norton, New York. 1985. p. 42.
4. Interpretation of Building-Site Relations in Exedral Villas
4.1 Perspective versus Scenographic Space
115. Constant
116. Constant
117. Palladio, Quatro Libri plate 13 and p.41.
118. Constant, p.
119. Constant, p.
120. Constant,
p. 121. Argan . Burns, p. 110, notes PalladioÕs own assertion that his interest in military matters dated back to his close association with the Trissino brothers (who had both died by the mid-1550s). Hale, Andrea Palladio, Polybius and Julius Caesar, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XI, 1977, pp. 240 - 255. discussed PalladioÕs studies of Roman military practices, especially his unpublished studies of the Roman military historian, Polybius.
122. Palladio supervised the execution of the illustrations for the book II Commentari di C. Giulio Cesare (1575) (see Figure 73) which were done by his sons Leonida and Orazio. This view is further supported by Burroughs, and also Burns who sugests (p. 67 note 29) that a major source of PalladioÕs exedral motif was the Polybian Roman army camp as reconstructed by Serlio and others. See also: P. Marconi, ed. La Citta come forma simbolica: studi sulla tehoria dell Ôarchitettura nel rinascimento, Roma, 1973, pp 219 - 220.
123. Argan quoted in Constant, p.
124. Constant, p. 4.2 Architectural Ordering of Space / Landscape
125. Stewart and Paston
126. Until recently, the scholarly literature focused on this search for an ideal and ignored complexities and variations in PalladioÕs work. This search for the ideal was discussed in Ackerman,
127. Contemporary scholars seem to give more credit to the variety of Palladio's work.
128. Wittkower, p.
129. Fletcher notes from Payne's lecture of Oct. 1996.

HIGHER NATURE

the Order of Nature and the Nature of Order in Palladio's Exedral Villas

by David Fletcher 13 Jan. 1997

(presented 5 Dec. 1996) for Prof. Alina Payne U. of Toronto Fine Art History dept. FAH 1222F "Andrea Palladio: Theory and Practice"

Abstract

Contents

1. Introduction: A Circular Field of Inquiry

2. Visual Analysis of Formal Qualities of Exedral Villas

3. Associations with these Formal Qualities

4. Interpretation of Building-Site Relations

5. Conclusion: Architecture as a Higher Nature

1. Introduction: A Circular Field of Inquiry

2. Visual Analysis of Formal Qualities of Exedral Villas

2.1 the Exedral Villas: Variations on a Theme

2.2 Villa Almerico-Capra (La Rotonda), Vicenza, 1565

2.3 Villa Badoer, Fratta Polesine, 1554 - 1563

2.4 Villa Trissino, Meledo, 1553

2.5 The Other Exedral Villas

2.6 Absence of Extensive Landscaping in Villas, Drawings, and Writings

2.7 Client Needs

2.8 Specifics of Siting

2.9 Shared Formal Qualities: Ideal Forms Re-ordering the Landscape

2.10 Abstract Geometry, Harmonic Proportions, Symmetry, and Balanced Massing

2.11 Classicism: Motifs, Porticoes

2.12 Design Principles Extending Outwards

2.13 Radial Gradation of Design Interventions

2.14 Hierarchy in Section

2.15 Monumental Scale of Conception

2.16 Summary of Building--Site Relations

3. Associations with these Formal Qualities

3.1 PalladioÕs Reception, Duplication, & Interpretation: What was Kept?

3.2 Classicism as Naturalized Power: the Order of Nature

3.3 Renaissance Context of Attitude to Environment

3.4 Formal Influences: Palestrina and Pincian Hill Temples of Fortuna

3.5 Cube Enclosing Sphere: Fortuna Stabilis and Stable Fortune

4. Interpretation of Building-Site Relations in Exedral Villas

4.6 Ordering of Space in La Rotonda: Extending Control into the Landscape

4.7 Architectural Ordering

4.8 Relations to Landscape of Different Types of Architectural Ordering (Organic and Formal Types of Architectural Ordering)

5. Conclusions: Architecture as an Enclave of Higher Nature

Epilogue

2. Visual Analysis of Formal Qualities

2.12 Design Principles Extending Outwards

2.13 Radial Gradation of Design Interventions

4. Interpretation of Building-Site Relations in Exedral Villas

the Order of Nature
and the Nature of Order
in Palladio's Exedral Villas

by David Fletcher
13 Jan. 1997

(presented 5 Dec. 1996)
for Prof. Alina Payne
U. of Toronto Fine Art History dept. FAH 1222F
"Andrea Palladio: Theory and Practice"