Virtual Reconstruction of Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico

Project start date: 2003-08

Project end date: 2010-08

The Teatro Olimpico at Vicenza, Italy - still existent and well preserved - was built in 1580-85 for the local Accademia Olimpica (founded in 1556) on a plot provided by the city council. It was the first permanent theatre to be built in Europe since antiquity. The stage, which resembles a façade of a Renaissance palace, and the semi-oval sitting area were designed by the architect and founding member of the Accademia, Andrea Palladio (1508-80). He died soon after the work began; his son, Silla took over. The stage is decorated with sculpure in relief and numerous statues placed in and above pedimented niches, above the arches and cornices. The illusionistic street vistas that can be seen through the central arch of the stage and side doorways are the work of Vincenzo Scamozzi (1552-1616). The vistas radiate in five directions, each imitating a perspective of receding houses. They were constructed of timber for the opening performance of Sophocles's Oedipus rex on 3 March 1585 and have remained a permanent feature ever since. The Teatro Olimpico was inspired by the architecture of ancient Roman theatres and the study of Vitruvius. It represents some of the ideas for an ideal city developed by Scamozzi and his master Palladio. Palladio elaborated upon these ideas in his treatise Quattro libri dell’ architettura, published in Venice in 1570, while those of Scamozzi are known from L'Idea dell'architettura universale of 1615. The Teatro Olimpico and other architecture by Palladio and Scamozzi in the Veneto region have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994.