Villa Nani Mocenigo in Canda. Critical Reinterpretation of the Construction and Trasformation Phases of the Building

Abstract

Villa Nani Mocenigo in Canda represents one of the most important works of architecture of the alto-Polesine, but, at the same time, one of the least noted historiographically. The villa, in the centre of a large complex comprising a park and service buildings, is distinguished by its exceptional position along the banks of the Canalbianco and by its architecture. From the earliest studies carried out, two important construction phased have come to light: the first, performed in the second half of sixteenth century, and a later expansion, contemporary with the new southern façade, whose features suggest a later period of construction dating to the eighteenth century. Such assessments, pervasively accepted in the subsequent literature, are not fully consistent with the significantly more numerous transformations evidenced by direct analysis. The result of the research presented here aim to offer an historical-critical reading through the vital constant comparison between indirect sources and the direct analysis of the building in its several components. The comprehensive reinterpretation of the construction and transformation phases has widened the field of this research into contextualising historical events, the family who were proprietors, and the craftsmen who laboured there. The result, partly heretofore unpublished, allow the villa to be placed in a wider architectural and historical context than is traditionally presented.