Villa Almerico Capra (La Rotonda) was commissioned from Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) in 1566 by the canon Paolo Almerico. It was intended as a suburban residence on the outskirts of Vicenza and is considered an icon of Palladian design. The project consists of a square plan organized symmetrically around a circular hall: the rotunda. The building is accessed on all four sides via identical temple-front porticoes, each occupying the centre of a façade. Although inhabitable from 1569, the building was not fully completed until the early seventeenth century under the supervision of architect Vincenzo Scamozzi (1548-1616). In 1593, it was acquired by the brothers Odorico and Marco Capra.

This drawing depicts a plan of the principal floor (piano nobile) of Villa Almerico Capra. It shows the rotunda at the centre of the composition; the salons, bedrooms and reception spaces disposed along the building’s perimeter; and the 4 porticoes facing the outdoor. Between the rotunda and the perimeter rooms, four triangular staircases give access to the attic level and to the service floor below. In the upper and bottom centre of the sheet, the flights of stairs leading onto the piano nobile have been omitted for layout purposes.

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.