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Villa Foscari

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Villa Foscari is a patrician villa in Mira, near Venice, northern Italy, designed by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio.

It is also known as La Malcontenta, a nickname which it received when the spouse of one of the Foscaris was locked up in the house because she allegedly didn't live up to her conjugal duty.
This villa is located along the Brenta canal. Its construction was commissioned by Nicolo and Luigi Foscari, members of a patrician Venetian family that produced many doges. The house was built between 1550 and 1560 and lies on a massive pedestal, characteristic for the villa construction of Palladio.

The interior of the villa is richly decorated with frescos by Battista Franco in the Salon of the Giants in a style similar to the work of Giambattista Zelotti, a painter of grotesques and landscapes that can be reconstructed or at least visualized from the descriptions of Ridolfi. Mythological scenes alternate with Allegories of the Arts and Virtue, with the usual references to villa life symbolized by Astraea showing Jove the pleasures of the Earth. The villa was mainly used for official receptions, such as that given for Henry III of France in 1574.