HOMMAGE TO VINCENZO SCAMOZZI.
Take a look at Giovanni's new book "Vincenzo Scamozzi (1548-1616)" published on February 2014.
Vincenzo Scamozzi (1548-1616) was one of the most famous architect in Venetian architecture, though he will never escape from the shadow of Andrea Palladio (1508-1580). Scamozzi was the son of Giandomenico Scamozzi (1526-82), who was a practitioner of good accomplishment. Thanks to Scamozzi, many of the structures designed by Palladio but not completed by the time of his death in 1580 were faithfully executed. Examples include the Teatro Olimpico and La Rotonda at Vicenza. On finishing the Teatro Olimpico he designed the famous perspective scenes. In 1615 Scamozzi collected his architectural theories in his treatise L'Idea dell'Architettura Universale (The Idea of Universal Architecture). Scamozzi died on August 1616 in Venice.

THE ROCCA PISANA. In 1576, Vettor Pisani chose a hill next to the village of Lonigo to build a country house. He didn’t call Andrea Palladio, who 20 years earlier designed the Villa Pisani at Bagnolo but approved the design of a young 28 years old architect, Vincenzo Scamozzi. This villa, the Rocca Pisana, which stands out of the horizon splendid and solitary, was built on the top of a gently rising hill. The exterior it has a perfect square shape. The Rocca is different from any other villa in the Veneto region. In fact it was not conceived or furnished as a home to live in but rather as a country retreat for the idleness of long afternoons and for relaxing in summer and autumn evenings. The exterior is very like the Palladian style. Its dome and pronao with ionic columns remind us of the Rotonda, but the quite unusual relationship and layout of the internal rooms makes it a work of great originality. The Rocca Pisana is the most unique, interesting and fascinating of the Scamozzi’s villas, and the most well known, particularly because it is similar to the Rotonda, but it differs from the Rotonda which on the opposite has grandiose pronaos and is open to welcome the surrounding countryside. Length of the Rocca, 24,70 meters.

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