34 & 
THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
THE PISANI PALACE AT STRA AND THE MALCONTENTA 
VILLA ON THE BRENTA, VENICE. 
T he Villa Palace of the Pisani at Stra was built about 1740, so that it is a late work, 
built in the century which marked the decline of Venice as a great state. Standing at 
a bend of the Brenta, the long fa9ade faces an open space, roughly oval in shape 
(F'g- 35 ‘‘^)- The park walls stretch round behind in long curves broken by gateways, 
features of fantastic outline, which are placed on the internal axis lines of the lay-out of 
the great garden court. The Palace has all the merits and defects of the style. It is 
grandly conceived and well planned, but the adjustment of the columnar architecture is 
extremely careless, and the details, whether of architecture or sculpture, are of an indifferent 
character. 
It IS all immensely effective, like the great ballroom upstairs, with its Tiepolo 
ceiling and painted baroco architecture ; it is, in truth, the back scene of a theatre." 
* Thi.s work was painted in 1762, and it has for its subject the Glory of the Pisani. 
357. — THE PISANI PALACE AT STRA, ON THE BRENTA : THE CENTRE FEATURE OF THE FACADE. 
