The villa was designed and built in the 1540s for the Venetian Taddeo Gazzotti and, like a number of Palladio's buildings, it incorporates a pre-existing structure. In 1550, before the building was completed, Gazzotti was facing financial problems and sold the villa to
Girolamo Grimani. The body of the building rests on a base, from which it is divided by means of a ledge which runs along the entire width of the facade. On the one hand, this serves to protect the working areas from damp, but on the other hand, it also raises the villa above the surrounding landscape. This use of a base is to be found in a number of Palladio's villas, but it was not his invention;
Giovanni Maria Falconetto placed the Villa Vescovile in
Luvigliano, which was begun in 1534, on a base. Villa Gazzotti pianta Bertotti Scamozzi 1778.jpg|Floor plan, drawn by Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi, 1778 Villa Gazzotti (23548261).jpg|Cross section (Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi, 1778) Along with this adoption of contemporary architectural thinking, the Villa Gazzotti also shows what was in the Venetian territories a new way of treating wall surfaces. It is not the closed parts of the facade, but the open loggia which takes up the dominating position on the villa's facade. Beyond this, the way in which Palladio treats his facade makes it clearly recognisable that it is his intention to give the wall surface plastic structure. Eight pilasters with
Composite capitals that project gently from the surface of the wall divide the facade into eight vertical rhythms. At the same time, the central part, distinguished by its three-fold arcade, is offset slightly from the rest of the facade. The windows are connected firmly to the body of the building by means of a lower window ledge which runs along the entire width of the facade and is offset along with pedestals of the
pilasters. In contrast to the
Villa Godi and the
Villa Piovene, the windows are no longer merely perforations in the wall, but through their plastic profiles and the protruding triangular gables at their tops have become independent structural elements on the facade. Even though Palladio endeavoured to open up the wall, which is usually seen as a border, the facade of Villa Gazzotti still has a lot of unshaped wall surface above the windows. Nonetheless, the multiple layering of the wall by means of the arrangement of pilasters, window profiles and triangular gables is a clear indication that Palladio is now endeavouring to model and shape the massive body of the building derived from
Venetian two-towered buildings through the use of a plastic structure and wide openings. The capitals, which conclude the pilasters, carry a multiple offset and variously-terraced
entablature. The villa is currently in need of
restoration, particularly the exterior
stucco which has peeled to expose the underlying
brickwork. The restored
Villa Saraceno is an example of how impressive restored stucco can look. ==See also==