One of the most important treasure of the Venetian Reinassance:
the six rooms frescoed by Paolo Veronese
and the elegant stucco of Alessandro Vittoria
1 Entrance Porch
The Porch (portico) was very important in every day life at the Villa. It provides shelter against rain and heat and a confortable space for various activities.
It is also the quickest way to move from one end to the other of the Villa.
In designing the porches, Palladio looked for inspiration at the ancient Roman monuments, and the proportions of the columns and the arcades contribute to the wonderful elegance of the whole facade.
At both ends, the dovecots were shelter for the pigeons, used in ancient times as means of communication.
The sundials mark the time. The one on the west indicates the hour, the one on the east, called analemmatic dial, at noon points to the sign of the zodiac of the moment thus indicating the month of the year.
2 Cruciform Hall
The frescoes are the explosion of “colorismo veneto” and “trompe l’oeil” (false painted architecture): painted landscapes surrounded by false coloumns and archs, are contrasted and merged by the real ones that you can see out of the real windows.
A page and a little girl welcome Visitors from false doors. Eight figures of feminine musicians play in niches and give harmony to the home.
Spears and flags against the walls ask people to stay in peace.
3 Room of Bacchus
On the ceiling of the room a beatiful sky with soft and serene clouds is the setting where Bacchus is donating to the shepherds a bunch of grapes in a golden cup as a precious and serious gift. On the right, one of the shepherds has already enjoyed a bit of the magic juice and is quietly savouring the joyful music being performed above (or maybe inside?) his head by the flying musician surrounded by the playing puttos.
Grapes and wine have always been a very important fruit of the estate, and are a symbol of abundance and prosperity.
Stucco fireplace by Alessandro Vittoria. The walls are decorated with trompe l’oeil: columns, niches with statues and…portraits in the corners!
Above the door Apollo and Venere.
4 Room of the Tribunal of Love
Near the window, in a corner of the room, a new joking trompe l’oeil: the slippers and a brush forgotten by the painter himself.
On the walls landscapes with vine branches that climb to the vault. Above the door the riches of the Barbaro family.
Over the beautiful stucco fireplace by Vittoria, three players symbolize Harmony.
5 Hall of the Olympian gods
Look up the ceiling, at the balcony, dressed in blue Giustiniana Giustinian, the wife of Marcantonio Barbaro, greets her guests with the nurse and the three sons.
The Seasons are represented upon the lunettes. In the corners the Four Elements and in the octagonal centre the Universal Harmony surrounded by the Olympian gods.
6 Room of the Little Dog
In a shell shaped lunette the Holy Family and Santa Caterina.
7 Portrait of Elena Caliari
The lady with a fan is probably Elena, Paolo Veronese’s wife. Very intersting the perspective effect.
Through the glass the private rooms of the family.
8 Room of the Oil-Lamp
Beside them a real Oil-Lamp ever burning in devotion towards the Holy Family, here called Our Lady of the soup (Madonna della pappa).
9 Self-portrait of Paolo Veronese
The elegant man in hunting dress with his loved dogs is probably the self portrait of the painter.
Through the glass the private rooms of the family.
10 Ninphaeum
The four giants are attributed to Marcantonio Barbaro.
