Marcantonio Barbaro (Venice, 1518 – 1595) was an Italian politician and diplomat for the Republic of Venice.

He was born in Venice into the aristocratic Barbaro family, a prominent Venetian family among the most influential of the era. His father was Francesco di Daniele Barbaro and his mother Elena Pisani, the daughter of the banker Alvise Pisani and Cecilia Giustinian. His elder brother was Daniele Barbaro, an important humanist and religious figure.

Marcantonio studied at the University of Padua. He was then recruited as a diplomat by the Serenissima (the Republic of Venice), first in France and then appointed ambassador in Constantinople. Here he had the onerous task of negotiating the 1573 peace treaty, in which Venice lost Cyprus despite the victorious Battle of Lepanto two years earlier.

When Francesco died, Marcantonio and his elder brother Daniele Barbaro inherited a palace, the Barbaro family country villa, in Maser. There was already a villa there, but the two brothers, thanks to their wealth, had a new one built, designed by architect Andrea Palladio. Villa Barbaro is one of the most notable examples of Venetian Villas, the country houses of the noble Venetian families in Treviso, Vicenza, Venice, and particularly, in the Riviera del Brenta. The villa complex, which also includes a small Palladian chapel, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.

It was actually the two Barbaro brothers, who suggested the name of Palladio for the realization of the church of Santissimo Redentore in Venice. Marcantonio had four children from Giustina Giustinian. One of them, Francesco, became Patriarch of Aquileia, while Alvise married Jacopo Foscarini’s daughter.

Source: wikipedia.it (https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcantonio_Barbaro); www.genmarenostrum.com: libro d’ oro della Nobiltà Mediterranea.