9 Palazzo Chiericati

In November 1550, Girolamo Chiericati posted an entry in his ledgers for a sum paid to Andrea Palladio for drawings the architect had produced for his city palazzo at the beginning of the same year.
Work on this building began in 1551, but was suspended in 1557 when Girolamo Chiericati died. Subsequently, Girolamo's son Valerio had only the internal spaces decorated by an extraordinary group of artists that included Ridolfi, Zelotti, Fasolo, Forbicini and Battista Franco.
For over a century, palazzo Chiericati remained a majestic fragment of a building interrupted half way along its fourth bay. The palazzo was eventually completed on the basis of the drawings in Palladio's Quattro Libri at the end of the 17th century.
As an urban residence of the Renaissance period, palazzo Chiericati presents quite an extraordinary novelty, which stems from Palladio's understanding of the site on which it rises. The broad, open space in front of the building - at the edge of the city, and just in front of the river - is a context which creates a sort of ambiguity: at one and the same time, the structure can be seen as a town residence and a rural villa.

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