Palazzo Iseppo da Porto

Contrà Porti preserves Palladio's palace for Iseppo da Porto, begun around 1546 after his brothers-in-law started their own residence nearby. Its seven-bay Ionic piano nobile rises over a rusticated ground floor; a four-column atrium lies behind the portal.

Why it matters

Iseppo, or Giuseppe, da Porto was a prominent civic figure who married Livia Thiene in the early 1540s. Her brothers Adriano and Marcantonio had begun their palace nearby in 1542, prompting a comparable project for Iseppo. Begun around 1546 and completed by 1552, the building reflects Palladio's development after his 1541 journey to Rome and his reinterpretation of Bramante's Roman house model. It was published in the Quattro Libri and is one of Vicenza's World Heritage components.

What to notice

The façade has three levels: a gently rusticated ground floor with lunetted windows and mascarons in the keystones; a seven-bay piano nobile of Ionic semicolumns and aedicule windows beneath alternating pediments; and an attic. Statues of Iseppo and his son Leonida in Roman dress crown the entrance axis and are attributed to the circle of Lorenzo Rubini. Beyond the portal is an atrium of four columns carrying a cross vault. Palladio's published design shows two blocks connected by a large courtyard, but only the street block was built.

Context and history

The palace was habitable by December 1549, although the façade was then less than half complete; it was finished in 1552. Two rooms beside the atrium received frescoes by Veronese, including Domenico Brusasorzi's Fall of the Giants, with stuccoes by Ridolfi. In the eighteenth century, Tiepolo painted the great hall. Much of this decoration was later detached, and some works are now in the Seattle Art Museum. The building's subsequent use as offices and residences continued its private history.