Villa Barbaro – Maser

Description

The building of Villa Barbaro di Maser (province of Treviso), the country house of the noble Venetian brothers Marcantonio and Daniele Barbaro, was entrusted to the great architect Andrea Palladio in the mid 1500s.
Palladio adapted his design to the context of the surrounding landscape:  the conjunction of central residence and barchesse is compact and proportionate and the architectural forms harmoniously evoke the rolling hills behind. The facade of the central building, destined for the owners’ residential use, is inspired by classical buildings. The architrave and pediment are, however, decorated by flowing stucco work that frames and highlights the Barbaro family crest.
The garden, once filled with flowerbeds and fountains, slopes down to the road, on the other side of which a wide exedra opens onto the open countryside. Behind the main residential building, a second, smaller, exedra encloses the nymphaeum, a secret garden richly decorated with statues and stuccowork by Alessandro Vittoria which encloses a fountain of spring water. The family church, a small temple inspired by the Pantheon which stands on the road, is an unusual size for a villa, emphasizing the importance and role of the noble landowners.
The villa houses priceless painted decorations by Paolo Veronese: a complex painted architectural framework, creating the illusion of outdoor and indoor spaces which he uses as the setting for mythological stories interspersed with scenes featuring real people, thereby contrasting the symbolic space of the fresco with the real world of the villa and the Asolo countryside.
A farm building set in the vineyards surrounding the villa houses Enrico Luling Buschetti’s collection of carriages.

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