IL PATRIMONIO ARCHITETTONICO E SCULTOREO DEL GIARDINO DELLA CASA DI ANNIBALE MAGGI DA BASSANO A PADOVA

Adriano Rabacchin, Enrico Pietrogrande, Alessandro Dalla Caneva

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Edile, Ambientale - Università di Padova

adriano.rabacchin@unipd.it; enrico.pietrogrande@unipd.it; alledaca@libero.it

ABSTRACT

This work concerns the architectural and sculptural restoration in the garden of “Casa degli Specchi” in Vescovado street in Padua. The palace, designed by Annibale Maggi from Bassano in the early sixteenth century, was an important reference for the fervent humanist spirit that animated the city of Padua. The courtyard and garden were ideal spaces for the placement of several marble sculptures and for a rich epigraphical collection. At the end of the garden, that today has the same size, still stands a classical architecture. There is in the center a big statue of Hercules with the hell dog Cerberus. The court and the garden were also an ideal background to a part of the rich lapidary, the result of antiquarian activities of three generations. The stones, macaws, tombstones, and cinerary urns were disposed on the facade of the palace, in the entrance hall and in the large garden where, scattered among the trees and plants, along the paths and the boundary walls, carry out a situation particularly appreciated by the refined aesthetic sensibilities of collectors. The following text concerns the recent works made to enhance the garden by the heritage stone that had been ordered there.

Key-words: lapidary, Hercules, Humanism, collector, garden.