The Villa Barbaro at Maser was built around the 1560's by Andrea Palladio for his friendsthe Barbaro brothers MarcAntonio and Daniele. In particular, Daniele Barbaro played a major role in the life of Andrea Palladio in his latter part of his career.

The Villa Barbaro at Maser, although one of the most visited of the Palladian villas is probably the least typical of the villas constructed by Palladio.

The Villa Barbaro at Maser, reminds us of the demands and problems that architects of all periods of history have had to suffer through from time to time. Andrea Palladio's architectural prowess was certainly compromised by this project.

Firstly, because the new villa was to be built over a pre-existing building, Palladio struggled adapting his new building to the framework of the pre-existing structure.

Secondly, the chief patron Daniele Barbaro had studied architecture at university and wanted to play a major role in the design of the Villa Barbaro at Maser. In fact, when Palladio later wrote in his four books of architecture, " architecture seems to be something that everyone seems to think they know something about", he was probably referring in-directly to his friend Daniele Barbaro.

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