Villa Caldogno

Caldogno Vicenza (1542) In 1541 Losco Caldogno, a Vicentine aristocrat and busy silk merchant, inherited a farm complex and numerous fields at Caldogno, a few kilometres north of Vicenza. Since he was bound by close family ties to patrons of Palladio such as the Muziani and (later) the Godi, Caldogno quite likely commissioned Palladio to remodel the farmyard complex. We have no precise information on the dating of the intervention: it is only possible to fix the beginning of works to 1542, to note that the house was certainly habitable in 1567, and that the date “1570” inscribed on the facade probably indicates the end of the decorating campaign.

There are no documents to prove Palladio’s paternity of the villa, nor is it included in the Quattro Libri. The plan is very simple and the rooms are not perfectly proportioned, but very probably this results from the reuse of pre-existing walls. However, analogies with works like the Villa Saraceno or Villa Muziani, especially for the back facade, are decisive in attributing the Villa Caldogno to Palladio.

In the seventeenth century a terrace and two corner towers were added to the back elevation.

Around 1570 Giovanni Antonio Fasolo and Giovanni Battista Zelotti painted frescoes in the two larger left-hand rooms, transforming the interior spaces into a splendid architectural stage-set.

Façade (photo Guidolotti 1997)
 

Back front (photo Guidolotti 1997)

Central hall (photo Guidolotti 1997)
 

Plan (Bertotti Scamozzi 1778)
 

Section (Bertotti Scamozzi 1778)