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Designed by Andrea Palladio, the Villa Pisani at Montagnana was the country residence of a Venetian nobleman, Francesco Pisani. Unusually, its design combines features of both villa and palace architecture, and it challenges the conventional view of a villa as subsidiary to the urban palace, the true seat of an elite family. In this book, Johanna D. Heinrichs offers the first comprehensive study of the Villa Pisani, providing a critical analysis of Palladio's hybrid design, the villa's original setting and uses, and the preoccupations of its patron. Heinrichs argues that the Villa Pisani served as the owner's principal residence. She also shows how a microhistorical approach can provide new insights about a familiar Renaissance building type and about the theory and practice of a canonical architect. Based on scrutiny of original documents and visual sources, Heinrichs's study is supported by a rich illustration program composed of photographs, plans, maps, and digital reconstructions.
‘Venetian patrician Francesco Pisani’s villa-palace in Montagnana designed by Andrea Palladio was a hybrid expression of both urban and rural purposes and was the centerpiece of Pisani’s territorial and residential itinerary. The reader follows Johanna Heinrichs’s engaging account of this peripatetic patron from his rented accommodations in Venice to his Monselice ‘stop-over villa’ to the rich life of the agricultural seasons and cultural activities entertained at home in Montagnana - ‘a home and business, a place of leisure and hospitality.’ She also connects architectural features and functions to its US heritage in colonial and modern buildings, making this volume of interest to an audience for both Renaissance and Palladian studies and the classical tradition in architecture.’
Tracy E. Cooper - Professor of Art History, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University
‘Was Palladio’s Villa Pisani at Montagnana conceived as a villa or a palace? Was it a working farm or a rural retreat? Johanna Heinrichs looks at the villa through a series of different lenses to address these puzzling questions. Based on pioneering research, her fluently written book paints a vivid picture of the life and concerns of the patron, and it hardly comes as a surprise that Palladio was present at Francesco Pisani’s deathbed.’
Deborah Howard - Professor Emerita, University of Cambridge
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