Palladio was often celebrated as an architect of economy as he was cleverly able to achieve the aesthetic which appeased his upper class patrons by selectively using luxurious materials. In the case of Villa Barbaro, built of rough brickwork coated with stucco, this allowed for the simulation of marble without the use of the sumptuous stone (Ackerman & Massar, 1974).
Palladio was able to describe the elements which determine the usability of certain prevalent materials in his Four Books of Architecture. Relevant to Villa Barbaro are his descriptions of the uses of stone and sand to make bricks as well as lime. Natural stone is extracted from quarries. The stone can be categorized into fine-grained or soft and fragile. Fine-grained stone must be worked with soon after its extraction as its exposure to air will cause it to harden. Alternately, soft and fragile stone is suggested to be mined in the summer as it will not have been weathered by wind, rain, and frost. Once it has been mined it must be left outside and is unusable for at …show more content…
According to the Architectural Publication Society (2012), the pioneered way of creating stucco was made of a mixture of “gypsum, chalk, Greek pitch, wax, and pounded bricks”. The stone, lime, which is incorporated within this mixture must have certain qualities. As stated by Palladio (1996) it must be dry, free of moisture, homogenous in matter, and crumble easily. These characteristics along with being the whitest and cleanest can be found in matter gathered from rivers and torrents (pebbles and cuocoli). These stones prove to be the best for plastering. In addition, by the invention of Seb. del Piombo a plaster made of mastic, pitch and quicklime prevented the oil colours on the wall from changing. The stucco marble is applied “up to 1.5m thick then ground and smoothed up to eight times and finally oiled, polished, then waxed” (Tegethoff,
Palladio was able to describe the elements which determine the usability of certain prevalent materials in his Four Books of Architecture. Relevant to Villa Barbaro are his descriptions of the uses of stone and sand to make bricks as well as lime. Natural stone is extracted from quarries. The stone can be categorized into fine-grained or soft and fragile. Fine-grained stone must be worked with soon after its extraction as its exposure to air will cause it to harden. Alternately, soft and fragile stone is suggested to be mined in the summer as it will not have been weathered by wind, rain, and frost. Once it has been mined it must be left outside and is unusable for at …show more content…
According to the Architectural Publication Society (2012), the pioneered way of creating stucco was made of a mixture of “gypsum, chalk, Greek pitch, wax, and pounded bricks”. The stone, lime, which is incorporated within this mixture must have certain qualities. As stated by Palladio (1996) it must be dry, free of moisture, homogenous in matter, and crumble easily. These characteristics along with being the whitest and cleanest can be found in matter gathered from rivers and torrents (pebbles and cuocoli). These stones prove to be the best for plastering. In addition, by the invention of Seb. del Piombo a plaster made of mastic, pitch and quicklime prevented the oil colours on the wall from changing. The stucco marble is applied “up to 1.5m thick then ground and smoothed up to eight times and finally oiled, polished, then waxed” (Tegethoff,