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Although Palladio settled in Venice in 1570, becoming Jacopo Sansovino's unofficial successor as municipal architect, he continued to build in Vicenza. At the beginning of the 1570s, commissioned by the Venetian government, he built the official seat of the Venetian military, the Loggia del Capitaniato, in the Piazza dei Signori, Vicenza, opposite his earlier Basilica. The design originally comprised a monumental loggia, probably of five bays, with giant engaged columns, although only three of the bays were completed.
Particularly noteworthy in this building is Palladio's adoption of an unrestrained monumentality, which serves both to emphasize the building's functional importance and to make the parts appear more clearly as elements of a total design. The side elevation is designed as a triumphal arch to commemorate the Venetian victory over the Turks at Lepanto (1571). Otherwise, a tendency towards increasing simplicity is evident. A striking feature is the increasing use of decorative elements on the wall surfaces, which, in their horror vacui, display clear characteristics of Mannerism.
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