Villa Querini, Dalla Francesca - Tiozzo

The villa was commissioned by the Querini family in 1504, after having sold their palace in Oriago to the Moro family. The entire complex remained in the Querini family until the nineteenth century, after which it was subject to many changes of ownership. In 1919 it passed to Amistà Pietro who in 1920 sold it to the Arentina real estate agency, during that period the villa was divided up and the park was partially destroyed and most of the decorative elements were removed. In the second half of the 1900s, the building was purchased by his tenant Alessandro Dalla Francesca and finally the latter's widow gave it to the painter and art historian Clauco Benito Tiozzo and his wife Anna de Liberali.
The structure of the villa has undergone various transformations over the centuries, especially inside, and it was only during the restorations carried out during the second half of the 1900s that attempts were made to recover the original features. The works were started by the Tiozzo family with the economic contribution of the Entity for the Venetian Villas: major dehumidification and reconsolidation interventions were carried out on the wall structure, the roof was repaired, the electrical, water and heating systems were rearranged, and rebuilt the floors, plasters and fixtures. The restoration of the walls, ceilings and the demolition of some false ceilings have brought to light the underlying original frescoes of the portico, of the rooms located to the west of the ground floor and of the stairs. The frescoes are rich in depictions of saints, mythological and sacred scenes. Tiozzo and some other scholars have hypothesized that the works were made after 1527, on the occasion of the marriage of Francesco Querini with Paola Priuli and that their authorship is of the painter Bonifacio de 'Pitati, a pupil of Palma il Vecchio, with the probable collaboration of Schiavone, Tintoretto and Bassano.