Villa del Bene

Villa Del Bene in Volargne di Dolcé is much more than a simple private residence; it is a fascinating historical testimony that recounts the physical, architectural and artistic changes brought about by changes in tastes, family events and social ascent strategies. This villa embodies a complex economic, architectural, political and religious history that continuously redesigned the spaces and roles of the complex between the 15th and 16th centuries.

Like a silent recorder, Villa Del Bene has intercepted the discontinuous flow of events over time, strategically located along the Val d'Adige and the Via Tridentina, which connected Verona to Tyrol. Almost at the watershed between two or more worlds - the Nordic one, the Veneto-Venetian one and the Po valley one - the villa is located on an ancient Roman road, the Claudia Augusta, which later became Tridentine, and stands a few steps away from the Via dell'Adige .

The Villa underwent the first modifications in the fifteenth century with the addition of the portico and loggia, followed by further interventions in the sixteenth century and in the second half of the eighteenth century thanks to the influence of Benedetto Del Bene, who gave the building its current appearance.

Passing the sixteenth-century portal, attributed to the architect and urban planner Michele Sanmicheli, one enters the first courtyard, known as the "Sunday" according to the ancient eighteenth-century denominations, which grants access to the noble and oldest part of the villa. Subsequently, we come across the courtyard of the well, the spatial fulcrum of the villa, and finally a park in place of the eighteenth-century courtyard of the woods.

The pictorial apparatus of Villa Del Bene is enriched by the stories of the Apocalypse in the central hall, while other stories from the Old and New Testaments are represented in the three side rooms. In the loggia, on the other hand, a complex web of pagan and hermetic subjects develops.

In the room of the Apocalypse emerges the seal of the function of public representation that the same room held. Above the door, a winged figure is painted holding the dogal horn, an unusual homage to the Serenissima in the home of a mainland nobleman. Another "political" reference can be seen in the panel depicting the Siege of Jerusalem, in which the enemies of God are represented as Turkish warriors, with turban and scimitar, clearly an allusion to the Venetian-Turkish war.

The authorship of the paintings, although not entirely clear, is attributed to Domenico Brusasorzi and the brothers Giovan Francesco and Giovanni Caroto. The private chapel, on the other hand, houses six ovals painted with a rapid and light style typical of Rococo painters