20 Villa Trissino at Cricoli

Tradition holds that right here the Vicentine noble Giangiorgio Trissino met the young mason Andrea di Pietro. Second-guessing the youth's talent, Trissino took charge of his training, introduced him into the Vicentine aristocracy and, in the space of a few short years, transformed him into the architect who bore the aulic name of Palladio.
Trissino did not demolish the pre-existing building, but redesigned it to give priority to the principal facade facing south. This gesture was a sort of manifesto of membership in the new constructional culture based on the rediscovery of ancient Roman architecture.
The two-storey, arcaded loggia was directly inspired by Raphael's facade of the Villa Madama. Inside, the sequence of lateral rooms, which differ in dimensions but are linked by a system of inter-related proportions (1:1; 2:3; 1:2), creates a matrix which would become a key theme in Palladio's design method.
Building works had certainly been concluded by 1538.

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