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Elevation and plan of Palazzo Chiericati, Vicenza

Drawing
mid 18th century (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The drawing shows an elevation and a plan of the ground floor portico of Palazzo Chiericati, built from 1551 after the design of Andrea Palladio (1508-1580). Commissioned by Girolamo Chiericati in 1550, the Palace is located in the south-eastern outskirts of Vicenza and is one of Palladio’s most individual designs. The elevation depicts the palace’s principal feature: the monumental two-storey loggia facing the suburban Piazza dell’Isola and the Bacchiglione river beyond. The façade of Palazzo Chierichati consists of a high plinth with two superimposed orders: at the ground level, an eleven-bay portico with free-standing columns of the Doric order. Above, a solid wall with openings framed by engaged Ionic columns on pedestals,with loggias left and right. A plan of the ground floor portico is depicted in the bottom centre of the sheet.

After the death of Girolamo Chiericati in 1557, construction works halted. The palace was completed at the end of the 17th century according to Palladio’s design in the Quattro Libri (The Four Books on Architecture).

The drawing belongs to a set of 66 measured drawings of Italian Renaissance and Ancient Roman architecture which the V&A purchased from Edwin Parsons in 1886. The Parsons set may belong to a larger series of over 700 architectural drawings scattered in English and international collections formerly owned by the British Consul at Venice, Joseph Smith (1682-1770). A proponent of Palladian architecture, Smith began collecting measured drawings of classical and Renaissance architecture from the early 1740s. Today, most of this material exists in a series of bound volumes at the Royal Collection (where the Admiranda Artis Architecturae Varia is kept) and at the British Library (which holds the three-volume Admiranda Urbis Venetae), as well as in loose sheets scattered in collections across Europe and North America including the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

The author of these drawings is unknown. However, their style and subject matter suggests the involvement of the Venetian architect, painter, engraver and theorist Antonio Visentini (1688-1782). A member of the Venetian Academy since its foundation in 1755, Visentini was affiliated with Smith and executed a vast number of architectural drawings for the British Consul as well as for a broader British collector base. Most of these drawings are scaled in English feet and consist of simplified plans and elevations of exemplary Italian architecture. Often produced as a series, the drawings were purchased by British Gentlemen to be included in their libraries and collections. The present drawing forms part of this material. The drawing is not signed by Visentini, but may have been produced by one of Visentini’s workshop members or pupils or by an unknown draughtsman working in the style of Visentini.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleElevation and plan of Palazzo Chiericati, Vicenza (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Pencil, pen and ink with brown wash on paper
Brief description
Elevation and plan of Palazzo Chiericati, Vicenza, Italy, mid 18th century (made)
Physical description
Elevation and plan of Palazzo Chiericati in Vicenza, in pencil, pen and ink with brown wash, on paper. The drawing, in a landscape format, depicts the façade of the building seen from Piazza dell’Isola with a plan of the ground floor portico below. A linear scale in English feet is inscribed in pen in the bottom centre of the sheet.
Dimensions
  • Length: 490mm (Note: Measurements taken at the opening of the mount)
  • Width: 360mm (Note: Measurements taken at the opening of the mount)
Marks and inscriptions
  • Linear scale in English feet inscribed in pen in the bottom centre of the sheet.
  • ‘Vicenza, Museo Civico’, inscribed in pencil in the lower right in another hand.
  • ‘1’, inscribed in pencil in the upper right in another hand.
Object history
The object was purchased from Edwin Parsons in 1886 as part of a collection of 66 drawings of Italian Renaissance and Ancient Roman architecture. Edwin Parsons was a dealer in books, prints and drawings. He was the founder of Edwin Parsons & Sons (1850-1950s) at 45 Brompton Road SW7. Parsons had a notable client base reportedly including the writer William Makepeace Thackeray, Sir John Pierpoint Morgan (of J.P. Morgan), and Napoleon III.
Production
The drawing depicts the elevation of Palazzo Chiericati in simplified form omitting the metopes and triglyphs of the Doric entablature over the first order, and the statues surmounting the entablature of the second order. Palladio’s designs for the palace are included in his I quattro libri dell'architettura (The Four Books On Architecture).

An elevation of Palazzo Chiericati executed in the manner of Visentini exists as a loose sheet at the Royal Institute of British Architects (SD40[210]).
Subjects depicted
Summary
The drawing shows an elevation and a plan of the ground floor portico of Palazzo Chiericati, built from 1551 after the design of Andrea Palladio (1508-1580). Commissioned by Girolamo Chiericati in 1550, the Palace is located in the south-eastern outskirts of Vicenza and is one of Palladio’s most individual designs. The elevation depicts the palace’s principal feature: the monumental two-storey loggia facing the suburban Piazza dell’Isola and the Bacchiglione river beyond. The façade of Palazzo Chierichati consists of a high plinth with two superimposed orders: at the ground level, an eleven-bay portico with free-standing columns of the Doric order. Above, a solid wall with openings framed by engaged Ionic columns on pedestals,with loggias left and right. A plan of the ground floor portico is depicted in the bottom centre of the sheet.

After the death of Girolamo Chiericati in 1557, construction works halted. The palace was completed at the end of the 17th century according to Palladio’s design in the Quattro Libri (The Four Books on Architecture).

The drawing belongs to a set of 66 measured drawings of Italian Renaissance and Ancient Roman architecture which the V&A purchased from Edwin Parsons in 1886. The Parsons set may belong to a larger series of over 700 architectural drawings scattered in English and international collections formerly owned by the British Consul at Venice, Joseph Smith (1682-1770). A proponent of Palladian architecture, Smith began collecting measured drawings of classical and Renaissance architecture from the early 1740s. Today, most of this material exists in a series of bound volumes at the Royal Collection (where the Admiranda Artis Architecturae Varia is kept) and at the British Library (which holds the three-volume Admiranda Urbis Venetae), as well as in loose sheets scattered in collections across Europe and North America including the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

The author of these drawings is unknown. However, their style and subject matter suggests the involvement of the Venetian architect, painter, engraver and theorist Antonio Visentini (1688-1782). A member of the Venetian Academy since its foundation in 1755, Visentini was affiliated with Smith and executed a vast number of architectural drawings for the British Consul as well as for a broader British collector base. Most of these drawings are scaled in English feet and consist of simplified plans and elevations of exemplary Italian architecture. Often produced as a series, the drawings were purchased by British Gentlemen to be included in their libraries and collections. The present drawing forms part of this material. The drawing is not signed by Visentini, but may have been produced by one of Visentini’s workshop members or pupils or by an unknown draughtsman working in the style of Visentini.
Bibliographic references
  • McAndrew, John. Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects: Antonio Visentini. Farnsborough: Gregg, 1974. 130p., ill. ISBN 0576159999.
  • Modesti, Paola. I disegni architettonici di Antonio Visentini (1688-1782): un corpus autografo inedito e una produzione con un’etichetta da riconsiderare. In: Alessandro Bordini and Giovanna Curcio, eds. Porre un limite all’infinito errore.’ Studi di storia dell’architettura dedicati a Christof Thoenes. Rome: Campisano, 2014. pp. 191-208, ill. ISBN 8888168524.
  • Vivian, Francis. The Consul Smith Collection: masterpieces of Italian drawing from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle : Raphael to Canaletto. Munich: Hirmer, 1989. 200 p., ill. ISBN 3777452505.
Collection
Accession number
D.1454-1886

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
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