SCAMOZZI, VINCENZO. - Architect and theorist, b. at Vicenza in 1552, d. at Venice on 7 Aug. 1616.
He perfected the instruction he had received from his father, himself also an architect, within the ambit of the Accademia Olimpica in Rome from 1578 to 1580. On his return, he won the competition for the continuation of Sansovino's Library (1582), thus beginning that career which was so extensive and assured that it made him one of the greatest architects of Europe, called for commissions in Italy and abroad. Scamozzi never belied his origins, tenaciously anchored in the Serlian manner, the fruit of his youthful academic education, to which is owed the intention of gathering in a treatise everything that can and must serve for the formation of the perfect builder. The idea of universal architecture is the last Renaissance compendium on the subject and lays the foundations of Neoclassical theory. Of particular interest is above all the new conception of eclecticism, broadened from the study of the classical ancient and Renaissance architects to the consideration of all construction methods, including the Gothic so greatly abhorred until then. In order to study it Scamozzi made a journey (1599-1600) across Europe, of which there exists (in the Museo di Vicenza) an autograph manuscript account, with drawings of French Gothic cathedrals, intended for the treatise: Libri VI dei Templi, never published.
Scamozzi's thought likewise informs the artist's practical activity, which certainly cannot be called that of a pupil of Palladio, even if chronological and environmental coincidences might suggest so. He acted profoundly in the field of architecture, also as a builder, both at Vicenza and at Venice, where he was a persistent brake on novelties; and also abroad, on English architecture, and in Austria with the project for the cathedral of Salzburg (1606-1607).
Works (limited to the fundamental stages of his style): 1569, project for the Palazzo dei Godi (Vicenza), an exercise still rhetorical; 1574, Villa Verlato at Villaverla and Palazzo Trissino al Duomo (Vicenza) of 1577, the finest thing of his youthful period; 1582, project for the Procuratie Nuove in Piazza S. Marco: more than the façade, the internal arrangement and the courtyards with superimposed loggias are of interest; 1582, funerary monument for the Doge da Ponte, at the Carità; project for the theatre of Sabbioneta (Mantua), a return to the Serlian conception (1590); Villa Contarini at Loregia; 1591, church of the Tolentini (Venice); 1592, Palazzo Trissino al Corso (Vicenza), the artist's masterpiece in its perfect stylistic rigor; 1597, Villa Molino alla Mandria (Padua); 1606-1607, projects for the cathedral of Salzburg, executed by others with modifications; 1609, Palazzo Contarini degli Scrigni on the Grand Canal, very important for Venetian architecture of the later 18th century; 1611, project for the Palazzo Ravaschieri (Genoa), a return to Serlian origins. He also completed, from 1580 to '91, Palladio's «Rotonda», perhaps lowering its dome; and from 1584 to '85 he executed the scenery of the Olimpico, disturbing the spatial equilibrium of the Palladian theatre, which was to conclude at the proscenium. - See pl. 1.
Bibliography10 works
Emilio Lavagnino