Vincenzo Scamozzi

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Vincenzo Scamozzi.

Vincenzo Scamozzi (September 2, 1548 - August 7, 1616) was an Italian architect and a writer on architecture, active mainly in Vicenza and Venice area in the second half of the 16th century. He was perhaps the most important figure there between Andrea Palladio and Baldassarre Longhena, Scamozzi's one pupil.

Scamozzi was born in Vicenza. His father was the surveyor and building contractor Gian Domenico Scamozzi; he was Scamozzi's first teacher, imbuing him with the principles of Sebastiano Serlio. Vincenzo visited Rome in 1579-1580, and then moved to Venice in 1581. In 1600 he visited France and left a sketchbook record of his impressions of French architecture that first saw the light of day in 1960.^[1]

Scamozzi's influence spread far beyond his Italian commissions through his treatise, L'Idea della Architettura Universale ("The Universal Idea of Architecture"), which is the last of the Renaissance works on the theory of architecture. It was published with woodcut illustrations at Venice in 1615. Scamozzi depended for sections of his treatment of Vitruvius to Daniele Barbaro's commentary, published in 1556 with illustrations by Palladio;^[2] he also discussed issues of building practice. Such treatises were becoming a vehicle for self-promotion, and Scamozzi included many of his own plans and elevations, as built, as they should have been built, and as idealized projects. Scamozzi knew the value of publicity distributed through the established channels of the book trade.

Previously, his first book had been a quickly cobbled together illustrated commentary on the ruins of Rome, assembled in "the space of a few of days," according to his preface, and the woodcut images were stock productions that already existed. Over half were copied from a volume by Hieronymus Cock that appeared in the 1550s.

His major book came out too late to influence his own success; he died the following year. Scamozzi's practice is as much the source of the neo-Palladian architecture that was introduced by Inigo Jones as Andrea Palladio's own example. Rudolf Wittkower called him "the intellectural father of neo-classicism".^[3]

[edit] Chronology of works

All but one of the following works are in Italy:

1568-1575: Villa of Girolamo Ferramosca, Barbano di Grisignano di Zocco (Province of Vicenza) (with Gian Domenico Scamozzi)
1569: Palazzo Godi, Vicenza (project, altered during later execution)
1572-1593: Palazzo Thiene-Bonin, Vicenza
1574-1615: Villa of Leonardo Verlato, Villaverla (Vicenza)
1575: Palazzo Caldogno, Vicenza
1575-1578: Rocca Pisani (Vettor Pisani Villa), Lonigo (Vicenza)
1576-1579: Trissino-Trento (Pierfranceso Trissino Palace), Vicenza (with Gian Domenico Scamozzi)
1580: Villa of Francesco Priuli, Treville di Castelfranco Veneto (Province of Treviso) (north wing)
1580-1584: Villa Nani Mocenigo, Canda (Province of Rovigo)
1580-1592: Villa Capra "La Rotonda", near Vicenza (completed construction of Andrea Palladio's structure for Mario Capra, and added stables, not completed until 1620)

Villa Molin at Mandria, south of Padua.
1581-1586: Church of San Gaetano Thiene, Padua
1581-1599: Procuratie Nuove, Piazza San Marco, Venice (continued with a different interior design by Francesco Smeraldi and completed in 1663 by Longhena)
1582: Palazzo Cividale, Vicenza [attributed]
1582-1591: Library of San Marco, Venice (completion of Jacopo Sansovino's design)
1584-1585: Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza (remodeling of structure designed by Andrea Palladio, wooden scene)
1587-1596: Library of San Marco, Venice (the vestibule, Antisala)
1588: Villa Cornaro, Poisolo, Treville di Castelfranco Veneto (Treviso) (reconstruction)
1588-1590: Theater for Duke Vespasiano Gonzaga, Sabbioneta (Province of Mantova)
1590: Villa of Girolamo Contarini, Loreggia (Padua) (revised in construction)
1590-1595: Church of San Nicolò da Tolentino, Venice
1591-1593: Statuary of Venice Republic (museum), Venice
1591-1594: Monastery of San Gaetano Thiene, Padua
1591-1595: Villa of Girolamo Cornaro, Piombino Dese (Province of Padua) (completion) [attributed]
1591-1597: Villa Duodo and Chapel of San Giorgio, Monselice (Padua)
1592-1616: Palace of Galeazzo Trissino al Corso, Vicenza
1594-1600: Villa of Valerio Bardellini, Monfumo
1596: Villa of Girolamo Ferretti on the River Brenta, Sambruson del Dolo (Venice)
1596-1597: Villa of Girolamo Cornaro, Piombino Dese (Padua) (stable)
1597: Villa Molin, Mandria, (Padua)
1597: Villa Priuli, Carrara (Padua)
1597-1598: Villa Godi, Sarmego di Grumolo delle Abbadesse (Vicenza)
1601: Palazzo del Bò, Padua (university facade)
1601-1606: San Giacomo di Rialto, Venice (altar of Scuola degli Orefici; with Girolamo Campagna)
1601-1636: San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti Church and Hospital, Venice
1604-1612: Cathedral of Sts. Rupert and Virgil, Salzburg, Austria (completed in 1614-28 by Santino Solari)
1605: Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice (sacristy door; with Alessandro Vittoria)
1605-1616: Villa Duodo, Monselice (Padua) (six chapels for Via Romana)
1607-1611: San Giorgio Maggiore (church), Venice (completion of Palladio's facade)
1607-1616: Villa Cornaro al Paradiso, Venice (twin pavilions)
1609: Domenico Trevisan Villa, San Donà di Piave
1609-1616: Palazzo Contarini degli Scrigni, San Trovaso on the Canal Grande, Venice
1614: Palazzo Loredan Vendramin Calergi, Venice (east wing; demolished in 1659 and rebuilt in 1660)

[edit] Notes

^ Franco Barbieri, ed. Taccuino di Viaggio da Parigi a Venezia (Venice/Rome:Istituto per la Collaborazione Culturale).
^ Inigo Jones' library included Palladio, Scamozzi and Barbaro on Vitruvius.
^ Wittkower, reviewing Franco Barbieri, Vincenzo Scamozzi (Verona/Vicenza:Cassa di Risparmio) in The Burlington Magazine 95 No. 602 (May 1953), p. 171.