Villa Barbaro (Essay Sample)

Villa Barbaro
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Villa Barbaro
The Villa Barbaro is a large villa located in Italy at a village named Maser. It derives its other name, Villa di Maser, from its location. The Villa di Maser is a declared UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was designed by an architect called Andrea Palladio in the late 16th century. The paper shall provide the building’s history and the biography of the architects who built it.
In around 1560, two brothers Daniele Barbaro, a Patriarch of Aquileia, and Marc’antonio Barbaro, asked a notable architect and friend, Andrea Palladio, to design a house for them. Andrea Palladio worked with the brothers’ input to come up with the final design of the villa. The Barbaro brothers enlisted the craftsmanship of designers, Paolo Veronese, who was responsible for coming up with paintings for the interior of the villa and Alessandro Vittoria inspired some of the sculptures and decorations of Villa Barbaro. The design of the building happened when the inhabitants of Venice experienced a decrease in the revenue sourced from sea transport, therefore, the need for alternative economic activities. The villa was, therefore, for prestige and an extension to their farms. The house passed through several owners and, as from 1934, it is occupied by the descendants of Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata, who bought it.
Andrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an Italian architect born in Padua on 30 November 1508. He initially went by the name Andrea Di Pietro Della Gondola. He got an apprenticeship as a stone-cutter in Padua in the workshop of Bartolomeo Cavazza at the age of 13. Palladio later left the shop after 18 months and relocated to Vicenza.
Giorgio Trissino took note of Palladio’s craftsmanship while working as a stone mason, went on to guide his skill development and granted him the opportunity to study architecture in Rome where he drew inspiration from the works of Vitruvius. Although Palladio designed palaces, churches, and villas, it is his exquisite style of villa design that won him accord, with the Palladian style named after him at around 1541. His villa design was aimed at making comfortable homes for the wealthy families who also practiced farming.
His most notable works are the Palladian vi...