Project XXXIII (fols. 37v-38r)
This project is a simple variant of Project XXX-XXXI, adapted, as Serlio states, to become a true villa for living in. This explains the abandoning (in the ornamental schema) of the characteristic division between the ground and first floors. Here these two floors are unified by the double Order and the solid and complex modulation of semi-columns and pilasters, culminating in the solution on the ground floor of the multiple column/pilaster solution on the external corners of the portico. And this is a solution which at that date finds a perfect parallel in the Roman architecture of Antonio da Sangallo ‘the Younger’ and Michelangelo. With respect to Serlio’s care with the other details, notably the classically squared triple-vaned windows and the grandiose ‘Serliana’ in the centre of the main roof combined with the clear French tone of the roofs, the result (unfortunately un-built) is of a villa which is one of his best examples of the French/Italian Mannerist language which he is evidently seeking as the end result of Book VI.
[Figure 182 - Serlio Book V, the square/octagonal church]
The larger size of the inhabitable space here, as opposed to the pavilion of XXX-XXXI, is clearly linked to the different purpose of this project. Here there are two symmetrical apartments either side of the usual longitudinal sala/atrium of Venetian origin. The front complex is also different, with the projecting wings and the portico and central terrace only occupying a sixth of the whole depth of the building. Unfortunately without supplying a drawing, Serlio gives information concerning one final Venetian touch present in the sala/atrium, namely Doric pilasters mounted up against the major walls, directly supporting the large, reinforced beams of the ceiling. As such it would have resembled the front part of the atrium of the Venetian Palazzo Cornaro-Spinelli at S. Angelo (in its original state as shown in the figure by Ronzani-Luciolli), an atrium attributed to Sanmicheli and mentioned by Vasari.