Villa Foscarini Rossi

Villa Foscarini Rossi is a late-Renaissance residence on the Brenta in Stra. Built for the Venetian admiral Jacopo Foscarini, it combines a sober manor house with a richly decorated Foresteria, or guest house.

Why it matters

Work on the villa began in the final years of the sixteenth century and was completed around 1602. The museum's curators attribute the design of the manor house to Vincenzo Scamozzi. The complex preserves an important example of Venetian country-house culture along the Brenta, with later layers added by successive owners.

What to notice

The manor house has a restrained exterior, while the Foresteria opens into a large central hall with two wings and a portico. Its fresco decorations, completed in 1652 for the marriage of Gianbattista Foscarini and Chiara Soranzo, combine Domenico de' Bruni's perspective architecture with allegories by Pietro Liberi. De' Bruni's signature and the date appear on cartouches high on the east and west walls. The designer of the Foresteria has not been securely identified; the operator names either Scamozzi or Francesco Contini.

Context and history

Jacopo Foscarini died in 1603, soon after the villa's completion. His descendants commissioned the Foresteria's fresco cycle in 1652. Marco Foscarini, a later member of the family, was elected Doge of Venice in 1762. The main residence later passed to the Garzoni and Negrelli families, who renovated it in 1838. An Allied bombing raid damaged the Foresteria's right wing in 1943. Luigino Rossi acquired the complex in 1989 and began its restoration; the shoe museum opened in 1993, and LVMH acquired the complex in 2003.