Palazzo Chiericati Commentary The Palazzo Chiericati is a rectangular building enfronting a piazza.

Designed as a house for an important Vincenza citizen, it makes a very public front to the square ith open loggias on both the ground floor and the piano nobile. The first floor loggia, raised five feet above the piazza, runs the entire length of the facade in eleven bays. The central five bays pro!ect slightly and are separated from the side bays by columns. Clusters of four columns at each corner of this pro!ection support the main room of the piano nobile, hich pro!ects to the facade, making t o loggias, one on each of its sides, at this level. "n contrast to the front, the ends of the loggias at the sides of the palazzo are alled, ith arched openings flanked by pilasters. Doric and ionic capitals, entablatures ith metopes of disks alternating ith bulls# heads, and deep coffered ceilings richly ornament the loggias. The figures and urns above the cornice ere added in the seventeenth century. The main entrance is centered in the ground floor and leads to a rectangular room hich links to minor rooms symmetrically arranged at each side. These rooms shift in proportion from rectangle to square to rectangle and diminish in size. Directly behind the central entrance room, a vestibule, off of hich stairs on each side lead to the piano nobile, opens to the rectangular courtyard in the back. $ %& The Creator#s 'ords (This fabric has in the part belo a loggia for ards, that takes in the hole front) the pavement of the first order rises above ground five foot* hich has been done not only to put the cellars and other places underneath, that belong to the conveniency of the house, hich ould not have succeeded if they had been made entirely under ground, because the river is not far from it* but also that the order above might the better en!oy the beautiful situation for ards. The larger have rooms the height of their vaults, according to the first method for the height of vaults) the middle$sized are ith groined vaults, and their vaults as high as those of the larger. The small rooms are also vaulted, and are divided off. +ll these vaults are adorned ith most e,cellent compartments of stucco . . . and paintings. . . . The hall is above in the middle of the front, and takes up the middle part of the loggia belo . "ts height is up to the roof* and because it pro!ects for ard a little, it has under the angles double columns. -rom one part to the other of this hall, there are t o loggia#s, that is, on each side one* hich have their soffites or ceiling adorned ith very beautiful pictures, and afford a most agreeable sight. The first order of the front is Dorick, and the second "onick.( +ndrea Palladio. The -our .ooks of +rchitecture. /econd .ook, Chapter """.