Exterior view

Baldassare Peruzzi, one of the leaders of the High Renaissance in Rome, succumbed to Mannerism in the extraordinary Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne. Built at a point where the narrow street curved, the façade would only have been visible in segments as the observer walked by (today the widened street allows the complete view). Peruzzi's design takes full advantage of this difficult setting; the sequence of supports as the spectator passed the palazzo - pilasters, single columns, paired columns, entrance, paired columns, single columns, pilasters - would have created an experience in time as well as in space.

Peruzzi chose a Tuscan order deprived even of triglyphs so that the eye is led around the bend without interruption. From street level, the windows of the piano nobile, each on its broad podium, must have seemed to move around the bend in a regular rhythm, while the third and fourth stories float in the rusticated wall, their window frames decorated with moldings and scrolls.

View the ground plan of Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne, Rome.