Façade

Giulio articulated the three outer fa�ades with a rhythmic sequence of distinct groups of forms, unified by his use of a Roman Doric order probably derived from the ancient Basilica Emilia in Rome. This order embraces the ground story and a mezzanine for servants and storerooms. A feeling of tension and compression is created by the unusual rustication. While the second story is rusticated in flat, Albertian blocks like those of Peruzzi’s Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne, the windows and arches of the first story are so heavily rusticated that their quoins and archivolts seem to expand as if they are about to devour the elegant architecture surrounding them. This conflict has been described as a titanic struggle of formlessness against form.

View the ground plan of Palazzo del T�, Mantua.