Palazzo del Capitaniato

Concept and style

When one compares the Gothic arches of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice with the loggias of Palladio's Basilica, inspired by the classical language of ancient Rome (and even more if one compares the 16th-century (Cinquecento) palazzi of Vicenza with those on the Grand Canal), the Vicentines’ desire to emphasise their cultural autonomy from the architectural models of La Serenissima becomes quite clear. Nevertheless, twenty years later, when the Citizen Council commissioned for the same piazza the refacing of the official residence of the Venetian Captain (the military head in charge of the city on behalf of the Venetian Republic), it would again fall to Palladio to undertake the work, and the contest, if any, was between two extraordinary architectures rising one in front of the other.

It is extremely rare for any architect to have the opportunity to intervene twice in the same place, after an interval of twenty years. The young architect of the Basilica, then still under the supervision of Giovanni da Porlezza, had by now become the celebrated creator of several important buildings: churches, palaces and villas for the dominant élite of the Veneto. Palladio chose not to have the two buildings converse: against the purism of the Basilica's double-storey arcades, we find the Loggia's colossal engaged Composite columns, and while the Basilica was executed in white stone and devoid of decoration (if one ignores the design of architectural elements like the frieze, keystones and statues), the Loggia abounds in rich stucco decorations.

Both the use of the giant order and this decorative richness are twin traits peculiar to Palladio's architectural idiom in the last decade of his life. However, the chromatic contrast between the white of the stone and the red of the brick (even though desired by Palladio in the Convento della Carità in Venice) is only the product of the original surfaces’ degradation: ample remains of the light stucco which once covered the bricks are still quite visible, just below the great Composite capitals. …