Photo of "La Rotunda" by Pino Guidolotti, Instituto Regionale Ville Venete Archive

By Mary Abbe

The villa designs of Italy's most celebrated Renaissance architect, Andrea Palladio (1508 - 1580), will be celebrated with a photo show opening Jan. 17 at the University of Minnesota. Inspired by the ruined temples and civic buildings of ancient Rome, Palladio took their measurements (literally) and applied them to designs for urban villas, elaborate farmsteads, churches and other structures in Venice and Vicenza, his hometown on the Venetian mainland.

His published drawings became source-books for architects and builders throughout Europe, England and later the United States. Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of the four-volume set and loosely modeled his own country home, Monticello, after "La Rotunda," a Palladian summer house in the hills near Vicenza. Co-sponsored by the University's architecture department and the Italian Cultural Center of Minneapolis, the exhibit features photos and descriptions of villas from the Veneto region.

(Preview reception, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m., Jan. 16, free. Talk by architectural historian Leon Satkowski, 7 p.m., free. Rapson Hall, 89 Church St. S.E., University of Minnesota campus, Minneapolis. Open 9 a.m. through 8 p.m., daily. Exhibit runs Jan 17 - March 7, free. 612-626-3638 or www.1.umn.edu/twincities/maps/rapsonh; 612-298-2223 or www.theitalianculturalcenter.org)