15.3.11

RANDOM OBSERVATION # 2


SUBLIME:

Villa Emo at Fanzol di Vedelago, Italy, designed in 1559 by Andrea Palladio


RIDICULOUS

For the very definition of 'lipstick on a pig, please click HERE


 R.I.P.  Andrea Palladio.  You must be rolling in your grave.


For an interesting essay about Palladio's use of  the Golden Proportions, click HERE

14 comments:

The Ancient said...

Well, at least now we know what happened to those Emo kids from the Eighties. (They got subprime mortgages!)

P.S. I'm idly wondering how many dozen barrels of caulk would go into "the finishing details" of such a masterpiece.

magnus said...

I'll bet that the original Villa Emo didn't have a "Grand Foyer", "Game/Media Room", "Retreat" or even a "Bonus Room". And everyone thinks that that Palladio guy is such a hot architect.

I think that a mistake was made in naming the modern version. Shouldn't it be "Villa Elmo" after the dearly beloved Sesame Street character? I'll bet you that Elmo is better constructed than his "Villa".

The Devoted Classicist said...

It is amazing how many people would readily spend $4,950 for a disc of construction drawings for this second house and be thankful of what they thought to be a bargain. I swear on the FOUR BOOKS OF ARCHITECTURE by Palladio to start my own house plan service!

Raina Cox said...

My interiors shop was located smack in the middle of McMansionville. I was regularly regaled with my customers' building stories and including mentions of their "Palladium" windows.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Ancient, mentally walking through that floor plan, with all its grand ideas, and bad circulation, I was just agog. Agog.

Magnus, see above. LOVE Villa Elmo.

Devoted, it actually pains me that I'm being so mean about someone else's (in ancient's phrase) sincere good intentions, but yea gods that thing is bad. There ought to be a law against taking the name of Villa Emo in vain.

Raina, I've been thinking for some time of doing a real estate broker lingo post---'Palladium' windows being one of the best...("And live, from the Palladium Window in
Basking Ridge NJ...")

The Down East Dilettante said...

PS Devote: 'Swear on the Four Books of Architecture'. Good one. I await your mail-order plan business.

Now that you mention it, I'm thinking of getting a draftsman to polish up some of my childhood house drawing---frankly mine have the 'Villa Elmo' beat.

The Devoted Classicist said...

D.E.D., I think knowing the difference between "columns" (round) and "pillars" (square) should be a requirement of a real estate, and every other building related, license. Also, I wish realtors would not call every finished attic a "ballroom", and every pre-WWII garage a "carriage house". But you might want to add to your list the reference to a drive-through carport as a "porter coacher".

Dad Is A Bully said...

I can just see this dump furnished in wall-to-wall Dunk & Fife furniture, too. The great unwashed will always be gullable to their trailer-park, television informed schemes of grandiosity...and did you see no fewer than THREE staircases...whew! What about a mass intervention from the taste police?

Anonymous said...

Came here to say something along the lines of "well, at least it's a respite from the neo-federal piles and faux chateaux sprouting up in former cornfields all over America" but Sweet Christmas, that is foul.

Nick Heywood said...

Oh, that pesky gag reflex ...

Decor Arts Now said...

Awful.

home before dark said...

Maybe the "remake" should be St. Emo's Fire.

Anonymous said...

Jesus Christ! (Spoken like Christina Crawford)

Topaz said...

Thank you for that link. I'm in the market for plans for a "Starter Castle" and now I know where to find them.