
















Villa Valmarana "ai Nani" in Vicenza
Progetto
Restoration of monumental complex
Location
Vicenza
Project year
2002-2017
Client
Private
Surface
2600 mq + 34000 mq of park
Villa Valmarana extends over part of the ridge of the hill bordering the so-called ‘valley of silence’, which begins with the sanctuary of the Madonna di Monte Berico and ends towards the plain with the Villa Capra called ‘La Rotonda’ by Andrea Palladio, the last offshoot of the hills towards Vicenza. Known as the ‘Villa Valmarana ai Nani’ because of the strange series of sculptures representing dwarfs resting on the boundary wall, the villa is universally famous for one of the most important painting cycles by the Venetians Gianbattista (1696-1770) and Giandomenico Tiepolo (1727-1804).
An intense, continuous and very significant architectural programme, partly attributed to Francesco Muttoni (1667-1747), gave rise to the entire complex of buildings, raised at different times, that make up the villa complex (Palazzina, Foresteria, Stables and Chapel), immersed in a setting of gardens, terracing and woods.
A maintenance programme begun in 2002 and carried out in functional stages, requiring a considerable financial investment, allowed the integrity of the entire complex to be safeguarded and its use as a residence and museum.
The work on one hand involved the conservative restoration of the buildings (roofs, floors, plaster, stone elements, statues, frescoes) and the diagnosis and consolidation of the Chapel, which had serious problems of structural instability (2002-2012), while on the other important architectural and furnishing projects aimed at highlighting the different buildings were developed and completed.
WORKS 2002-2017
Originally accommodation for guests, the Foresteria (attributed to Francesco Muttoni) is certainly a very striking area thanks to the linear sequence of the rooms, the decorated and painted ceiling, and the paving in antique terracotta alternating with a precious Venetian terrazzo in the rooms frescoed by the Tiepolo.
The rooms on the basement floor and the former granary in the attic were largely unused, apart from a small area used as accommodation for the custodian. The charming enfilade of arches between the rooms of the cellar and the geometrical grandeur of the granary trusses suggested an architectural and furnishing detail design that has revived the new residence (2004-2007), in particular in the study of the connection and partitioning of the rooms. A fitted wall makes up the hub of the living area, divided into a series of elements on an imaginary pathway that from the library with its integrated seating leads to the crowning of the gallery, access point to the elevated library. The double height theme reappears on the ground floor, with a series of mezzanines in the sleeping area, with due regard for the different existing heights.
A refreshment area has welcomed visitors on the piano nobile since 2011 for a brief pause during the visit to the entire monumental complex, introducing them to the splendid terrace that faces onto the Stables.
Situated to the south on a lower level than the Foresteria and the Palazzina, the Stables date from about 1735-1736 when Francesco Muttoni formulated a pronaos on the monumental north elevation with ashlared stone cornices and a pediment on the central forepart. The interior consists of a large, entirely vaulted, double height space divided into three aisles by columns. The upper floor, also accessible from the road, contains an apartment created in the 1960s and mainly used as a summer residence by the owners. Carlo Scarpa lived here for many years, using the vaulted space on the ground floor as his studio.
In recent years (2009-2010) the Stables have been the object of a series of localised internal maintenance works and restoration of the stone elements and plaster, which have allowed confirmation of what had already been assumed by some historians: Muttoni worked on an already existing building adding the pronaos and defining the vertical connections.
Frescoed mainly by Giambattista Tiepolo, it overlooks the entire complex, becoming the ordering element of the complex geometry drawn by the gardens, terracing and enclosed by the boundary wall with its dwarfs and monumental gates. The piano nobile with two big terraces at the same height as the boundary wall offers a splendid view of the surrounding countryside, largely well conserved on the hill side.
The main aim of the just completed architectural project (2015-17) was to adapt the areas and services for receiving the increasingly large number of visitors and guests in the villa.
The new layout of the second floor apartment concentrates the services in central part and allows good flexibility in the arrangement of the spaces.
The recovery of the decorative apparatus in the rooms on the piano nobile has brought back to light previously hidden precious elements (the sinopie in the main room facing south and a delicate marmorino floor with decorations and designs of braziers in the north bedroom).
The spaces used for storage at the service of the villa on the ground floor now accommodate the rooms for managing the complex, which hosts events such as parties and weddings (the big kitchen available for catering) and is a museum of itself (the bookshop and the immersive room, a new conception space in which one finds oneself at the centre of the show, completely immersed in the story).
Attributed to Girolamo Albanese (1584-1663) and Antonio Pizzocaro (1605-1680), its elevation – dominated at the centre by the big Capra coat of arms within a lavish stucco frame – is enlivened by four Ionic semi-columns on a high plinth supporting a triangular pediment. The interior is bare with four big symmetrical windows on the side walls.
After close analysis of various feasibility studies, the most natural function of the chapel to replace the religious one, now less called for, was residential. The design choices (2013-2014), a perfect synthesis of architectural sensitivity and attention to furnishing detail, characterise the large space of the single hall with ‘site specific’ furnishing elements, first of all the metal and partly glazed mezzanine that, uniting the functions of the residence, with the common areas below and the bedrooms above, maintains the unity of the space and at the same time recalls the characteristic elevated choir, usually placed near the entrance of a church.
A completely glazed double door entrance offers a splendid view of the Rotonda, whose entrance facade is perfectly in line with the Valmarana Chapel, which was originally part of that complex.
The gardens and woods that surround the villa not only require constant maintenance, but have also been the object of some special operations over the years, such as the felling of some trees at the end of their lifecycle or struck by storms and so in a precarious condition, and the replacement of two rows of yoke-elms, affected by rot of various origin, along the avenue that leads from the ‘Triton’ to the back of the Palazzina.
In 2001-2002, and then in 2010, some restoration works gave back the original splendour to the small sculptures in local calcareous stone from the Berico hills, positioned on the boundary wall on the road side of the Palazzina. The group of figures, made up of seventeen dwarfs and six female divinities, made the complex famous as the Villa Valmarana ai Nani.
In 2017 the false architecture that decorates the architectural structure of the Scenic Wing looking over the valley of silence and the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Monte Berico on the west side of the villa was brought back to light: in the centre, above the fountain, two twisted tritons supported by three putti and on the right a lady looking out from a balcony. Chemical studies and the painting technique suggest that the work may be by Giandomenico Tiepolo; an attribution that is currently being checked.