The Cornaro complex is one of the most important artistic expressions of the sixteenth-century Padua. Arrived in 1968 as a testamentary legacy to the Municipality of Padua from Countess Giulia Giusti del Giardino, née Bianchini d’Alberigo, it is part of the civic museum system. The Cornaro Loggia and Odeon are what remains of a larger complex of buildings and gardens, among the finest testimonies of the Paduan Renaissance and an expression of the cultural interests of its creator: Alvise Cornaro (Venice, 1480/84 – Padua, 1566). A scholar of hydraulics and agricultural entrepreneur, Cornaro was a theorist of architecture, promoter of the figurative arts, and patron of the artists called to work in his “court,” a privileged meeting place of the most illustrious protagonists of the city’s intellectual life. The Loggia, dated 1524, was built based on a project by the Veronese architect Giovanni Maria Falconetto, linked to Cornaro by friendship and a common interest in classical antiquity. Specifically designed for theatrical performances following the growing humanistic interest in ancient theater, it constitutes the first concrete realization in Veneto territory of the Roman-era frons scenae, that is, the stage with a raised base porch, divided by arches and composite pillars, decorated with friezes and closed by a representative backdrop.
Information on the Cornaro Loggia and Odeon
Via Cesarotti, 37
35100 Padua (Padua)
https://padovacultura.padovanet.it/homepage-6.0/2004/03/loggia_e_odeo_cornaro_2.html
Source: MIBACT
