Villa Almerico (Villa Rotunda), from I quattro libri dell'architettura di Andrea Palladio (Book 2, page 19)

Andrea Palladio

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of the best-known and often copied villas of the Renaissance, the Villa Americo (1566–69), originally built for Monsignor Paolo Americo and completed by Vincenzo Scamozzi, still overlooks the vineyards and farmlands outside Vicenza. Following the precepts described by Alberti in De re aedificatoria (first edition, 1485) and in turn based on classical Vitruvian theories, the villa is beautifully perched on a hilltop, its appearance reminiscent of a Greek temple rather than a private country residence. Also known as the Villa Rotonda, the building is four-square and bilaterally symmetrical, centering upon a round, domed hall, its facades accentuated with a hexastyle, projecting temple-front portico on all four sides. As the domestic retreat of a gentleman, it ignores many of the properties of Palladio's designs for working villas such as the granary on the second floor. Villa Rotonda demonstrates Palladio's mastery in crystallizing classical ideals of geometric form, absolute symmetry, and harmonic proportion in plain, dignified designs.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art