Loggia and Odeo Cornaro

The Loggia and Odeo Cornaro are two Renaissance buildings, built in the 16th century for the humanist Alvise Cornaro and hosting theater and music performances, locate in via Cesarotti 37 in Padua, region of Veneto, Italy. They are now part of the city's museums.

Loggia Cornaro with adjacent Odeo on right
Facade of Odeo Cornaro

History

The entrepreneurial Alvise Cornaro (circa 1480–1566) built these two buildings as part of what appears to be Villa di delizia (villa of delights) in land and gardens belonging to Cornaro.[1] This land would have then been located at the edge of the city limits. Cornaro commissioned the buildings from the architect Giovanni Maria Falconetto, who completed the Loggia in 1524. Putatively the two story building with an ground floor loggia with was used for dramatic theater. To the side of this structure, is the Odeo, or Odeum, which has a central octagonal room frescoed with marine motifs and grotteschi, and ringed by niches. The facades of buildings have their original sculptures. This latter, also called the Rotonda di Padova structure is said to have been influential in the inspiration of Andrea Palladio's Villa Capra near Vicenza.[2]

The area was a larger complex of structures no longer extant. It was donated to the city of Padua by the Countess Giulia Giusti del Giardino, formerly Bianchini d'Alberigo.[3]

References
  1. The term villa di delizia was used by Marcantonio dal Re in his 1743 compendium on Villas in Lombardy Ville di delizia, o siano palagi camparecci nello stato di Milano con espressevi le piante, e diverse vedute delle medesime, Volume 1.
  2. Dizionario delle belle arti del disegno, Volume 1, By Francesco Milizia, Milan (1802) page 238.
  3. Padua commune cultural website.

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