Possibly it was bad form, on a visit to a winery in
Italy, to be talking about how wonderful Richmond, Virginia is: the
spectacular river, the friendly neighborhoods, the beautiful
architecture. “It’s a shame so many of the old buildings were burned as
the Civil War ended,” I said.
My host stopped me.
“How old?” he asked politely.
Ah, yes. Even I, the yakker, could detect the note of remonstrance in
his question.
“1700s,” I mumbled into my glass of wine, and stopped talking.
I was in Vicenza, after all, in the 500th anniversary year of the
architect Andrea Palladio’s birth. His villas dot the countryside, and
his churches and palatial residences are scattered thickly throughout
Vicenza’s city center, often next to structures that have been standing
since 1408, 1308 and earlier. In the States, our buildings are no more
old than ripened grapes are wine.
Westward Expansion
Vicenza is an easy drive or train ride west from Venice. In the heart of
the Veneto region of Italy, it is known for asparagus, wine, gold, and a
poor stonecutter who became the most sought-after architect of the
northern Italian Renaissance and whose architectural principles of
proportion and function have spread over the world.
Palladio’s skill as a stonecutter led him to opportunities to design
residences for noblemen who wanted to show they were hip to the renewed
interest in classical Rome. Based on his meticulous measurements of
Roman ruins and infused with his own vision, Palladio’s designs reflect
the order and beauty of an ideal world, yet were supremely functional
for his clients. In essence, he updated Roman design for the 16th
century.
In the city of Vicenza, he was often called upon to incorporate an older
structure into a new, larger home or public building with columns and
loggia, elegant covered porches.
In the surrounding countryside, where Venetian merchants were looking to
diversify their income away from the competitive sea trade, Palladio
designed villas that harmonized the farming functions of the estate with
his clients’ desire to have a suitably grand country home.
“Four Books” for Posterity
If Palladio had only been a great architect, he may well have been
forgotten outside of Italy. But he was driven by larger goals.
“Palladio wanted to be thought of as not just an architect, but also an
artist, a writer, a humanist,” said Guido Beltramini of the Centro
Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio (CISA) in
Vicenza.
In 1570, Palladio published “The Four Books of Architecture,” a
collection of many of his building plans with commentary. It is,
ultimately, a treatise on the vital role that design plays in everyday
life.
From Vicenza to Virginia
Without Palladio, Vicenza would be just another little Italian city—and
even so, in Italy beautiful old buildings are more common than
battlefields in Virginia—but its connections with our state are notable.
Thomas Jefferson, for instance, considered “The Four Books” his
architectural Bible. Monticello’s original design was based on
Palladio’s drawings of his Villa Almerico, which sits just outside
Vicenza. “La Rotunda,” as it is known, is owned by the retired head of
the historic preservation program at the University of Virginia.
Of the many structures in Virginia with Palladian links (see sidebar,
“Italian Dressing”), a few are based directly on Palladio’s designs;
others are based on designs by his 18th-century British devotees whose
own books on architecture also were used by Virginians in the late 1700s
and early 1800s. The Age of Reason found Britons and Americans eager to
emulate the Romans, just as Italians had been in Palladio’s time.
Wine and Song
Between Monticello and Montpelier (itself bearing Palladian
characteristics) sits Barboursville Vineyards. Don’t be fooled by its
historic Virginia name—it’s owned and operated by the Zonin family.
Although the Zonins now operate in seven Italian regions, their original
winery is just outside Vicenza in the town of Gambellara.
During my visit in June, family gardens in Gambellara were lush with
green beans, cabbages, tomatoes and bright green zucchini plants with
orange flowers open to the sky. Swallows darted above the roadside
grasses, racing each other to grab insects.
At the winery, we tasted a sparkling white wine, the specialty of the
estate, and a red wine. Our guide, Alessandra Zorzo, took us on an
informative tour of the cellars and a small museum dedicated to
grape-growing, wine-making, and the Zonin estates.
All Zonin wines are made at the same vineyard where the grapes were
grown. The family believes that local soils and climate are an important
influence on the character of each wine, said Zorza, and these factors,
combined with the vinting process, let each wine sing with its own
voice.
“When all wines start to taste the same, it is the death of wine,” she
said.
Zonin wines are alive and well in Virginia. The winery’s most celebrated
wine is its Octagon, named for the shape of a room in the ruins on the
estate. The Barbour family’s home, which burned down in 1884, was
designed by Jefferson, who was—as you can guess—following Palladian
principles. According to Zorza, that connection clinched the decision
for the Zonins as they deliberated in 1976 what property to buy in
Virginia. And the name of the restaurant there? Palladio.
The Great Exhibition
To celebrate Palladio’s 500th birthday, Vicenza is preparing an exhibit
to “show the mystery of this strange story” of a boy from a humble
family rising to immortality, said CISA’s Beltramini, co-curator of the
exhibit.
In addition to showing 86 of Palladio’s original drawings, they have
gathered related drawings and paintings, including works by Raphael, El
Greco and Titian. The exhibit will include coins, manuscripts, scale
models and more.
The exhibit will be shown in the Palazzo Barbaran da Porto, one of
Palladio’s works from 1569 in the center of Vicenza. It runs September
20, 2008 to January 31, 2009, then travels to London. Plans for a third
venue, possibly in Washington, D.C., are being finalized.
Walk Through History
The significance of the exhibit is without doubt. Yet all of Vicenza and
the surrounding countryside is a living exhibit of Palladio’s works and
influence.
A walking tour of the city center, which is closed to motorized
vehicles, is an enlightening way to start a visit. The Vicenza tourist
information office supplies professional guides on Saturdays. You can
also choose one or more self-guided walking routes, accompanied by a
good booklet in English, which also contains driving tours of the
country villas.
If you’re in Vicenza for the art, fit in a visit to Palazzo Thiene.
Because it is a working bank, tours are only by appointment on
Saturdays, but they’re worth it. Besides the chance to admire Palladio’s
beautiful lines, you’ll see restored frescos everywhere, a collection of
coins dating back to the ninth century, two of the most monstrously odd
fireplaces you’ll ever encounter, and an attic art gallery.
The Villa Life
Plenty of newer buildings—from the 1700s, for example—are worth a stop
as well. The gorgeous Villa Cordellina Lombardi was completed around
Jefferson’s time, but its architect deliberately used a Palladian
design.
We arrived at the villa on a quiet Thursday morning. The sky was bright
enough that we had to squint as our guide pointed out the “Romeo” and
“Juliet” castles on the hills above. (Shakespeare stole his story from a
book written by Vicenza-born Luigi da Porto.)
Our tour was informative yet not overwhelming; relaxed yet not
lengthy—like an Italian supper on a summer evening, set on a
Palladian-style porch overlooking the countryside.
As we stepped onto the porch, our guide helped us imagine tables being
brought out for food, a breeze drifting across the garden and through
open doors and windows.
“When you come to a villa, you never have to rush in,” she said. “You
have to stop and look back.”
So we did. We looked back at the villa’s formal garden with its potted
lemon trees, back at the green fields of corn and grapevines, and the
hills beyond. It was like looking back in time, back when what is old
was new.
Angela Lehman-Rios is editor of Fifty Plus.
Italian Dressing
Andrea Palladio is closer than you think. The
Virginia Center for Architecture has created an exhibit to tell the
story of the man and his far-reaching influence.
The show also will highlight four historic Virginia structures:
Monticello; Mount Vernon; Battersea, in Petersburg; and Mount Airy, in
Richmond County. It will include original paintings and sketches
inspired by visits to Palladian sites in Italy.
The Center is sponsoring a tour to Vicenza in October, but the trip has
proved so alluring that it filled by early June.
“Italian Dressing:
Palladio and American Classicism” runs June 26 to
October 5 at the Virginia Center for Architecture, 2501
Monument Avenue in Richmond. Admission is free.
See
www.virginiaarchitecture.org
or call (804) 644-3041 for details.
Vicenza Vacation
With the possible exception of art historians,
preservationists, and our charmingly tireless tour guide of Vicenza’s
center city, most people can take in only so many enormous old buildings
before they start feeling small and ephemeral.
Luckily, Vicenza and its environs have plenty of other entertainment.
Besides my winery visit, I also enjoyed:
• seeing jewelry, wood carvings, ceramics and more at
ViArt, a museum dedicated to the work of contemporary Vicenza-area
craftspeople.
•choosing flavors of gelato—the basil was an outright
pleasure—and eating my cone while window-shopping and people-watching
along the Corso Palladio.
•shopping. Technically, this is not true, because I
did my shopping in the Venice airport. But if you’re a true shopper,
you’ll love the options in downtown Vicenza: clothing and shoes—this is
Italy, after all!—purses, pipes, fine pens and much more.
•eating. Go with an open mind, forget the baths of
red sauce. Expect an emphasis on seasonal produce and a greater variety
of fish preparations than you’ll ever encounter in an Italian restaurant
over here. Most exciting of all, during the Palladian celebrations, many
restaurants are offering a menu inspired by the foods of the 1500s. For
instance, instead of potatoes—a New World product—the Jerusalem
artichoke offers a mild, yet more flavorful alternative.
Furthermore, I can’t wait to go back so I can:
•attend a concert or opera performance in the Teatro
Olympico.
•check out the thermal springs and drive through the mountains west of
Vicenza.
•drink an espresso at the restaurant in Juliet’s castle, then see a play
in Romeo’s castle.
•visit Museo dei Cuchi to see (but not hear) 10,000 sculpted clay
whistles from around the world.
And don’t leave yet! There are golf courses, ski
slopes, discos, spas and numerous other delightful diversions.
On the Web, see
www.palladio2008.info for extensive English-language information
about the Palladian celebration, including three- and four-day packages.
The tourist board site, www.vicenzae.org, is only in Italian. If you’d
like to arrange a tour through a U.S.-based tour provider, try Select
Italy at (312) 664-4200.
