Villa Rotonda

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Originally uploaded by steviwonderful

Villa Rotonda
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Upon arriving at the Villa Rotonda, I was instantly filled with excitement and anticipation, this was a building I had heard a great deal about from teachers, artists and the whole group of architecture students who were traveling around with us. The impressive structure was barely visible from the walkway where we were dropped off. As you made your way up the path, you can see Romanesque sculptures that line up on either side of you, almost leading the way. My first unobstructed view reveled just how large and perfectly symmetrical the building in front of me was. The only variations to the building were the five sculptures that were situation at the corners and top point of the roof. After the walk up to the building, up the stairs and through the columns, you are greeted by a very ornate and beautifully decorated entranceway, and beyond that a dome that extends up past the preexisting roof. I had to resist my urges to climb over the railing and stand that the center point of the room just to get the best possible view of the dome itself. If you were able to stand at the center point, every direction that you looked would have been almost exactly the same. The floor plan was set up in such a way that eight perfectly sized rooms surrounded the center room, containing the dome. The set up of the rooms was the thing that impressed me the very most.
Palladio, the architect used the idea brought forth by Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian man, the mathematical practice of measuring everything in groups of seven units. Palladio was very mathematical when creating the floor plan; he wasted no time or effort on the decorations of the adding of flourished. He realized on the perfection of the architecture and the mathematics behind it to grab your attending and leave you with a sense of awe and amazement. The interior outshines the exterior with its structure and floor plan that is as close to perfect as any architect could have gotten at the time. When walking around the inside of the Villa Rotonda it can be very easy to get distracted by the colorful trinkets, detailed frescos and the ornate furniture. You much keep in mind how Palladio would have preferred his work to be seen and admired, plain and simple, no color or any other additions. Only when you are able to look past all the fluff are you able to see the Rotonda in all its glory.
All together I felt that this awe-inspiring building has lived up to its name and impressed and completely blew me away!