Palladian architecture

• 1. Origins And Andrea Palladio

  ›

  Andrea Palladio was born in Padua in 1508, the son of a stonemason. He studied Roman buildings and the writings of Vitruvius from 80 BC to shape his own architectural vision. His early work drew inspiration from Donato Bramante and Raphael, who were active during the Renaissance period. Palladio sought to create an architectural style that used symmetry and proportion to emulate the grandeur of classical buildings. His surviving structures are located in Venice, the Veneto region, and Vicenza. These include villas and churches such as the Basilica del Redentore in Venice. Palladio recorded and publicized his work in the 1570 four-volume illustrated study titled I quattro libri dell'architettura. This treatise followed the approach defined by Vitruvius and his 15th-century disciple Leon Battista Alberti. They adhered to principles of classical Roman architecture based on mathematical proportions rather than the ornamental style of the Renaissance. Palladio's villas were designed to fit with their setting. If built on a hill like Villa Almerico Capra Valmarana, façades were of equal value so occupants could enjoy views in all directions. Porticos were built on all sides to enable residents to appreciate the countryside while remaining protected from the sun. Sometimes he used a loggia as an alternative to the portico. This is simply described as a recessed portico or an internal single storey room with pierced walls open to the elements. Occasionally a loggia would be placed at second floor level over the top of another loggia, creating what was known as a double loggia. Loggias were sometimes given significance in a façade by being surmounted by a pediment. Villa Godi's focal point is a loggia rather than a portico, with loggias terminating each end of the main building.

• 2. Venetian Window Motifs

  ›

  Palladian, Serlian, or Venetian windows are a trademark of Palladio's early career. There are two different versions of the motif: the simpler one is called a Venetian window, and the more elaborate a Palladian window or Palladian motif, although this distinction is not always observed. The Venetian window has three parts: a central high round-arched opening, and two smaller rectangular openings to the sides. The side windows are topped by lintels and supported by columns. This is derived from the ancient Roman triumphal arch, and was first used outside Venice by Donato Bramante. It was later mentioned by Sebastiano Serlio from 1475 to 1554 in his seven-volume architectural book Tutte l'opere d'architettura et prospetiva expounding the ideals of Vitruvius and Roman architecture. It can be used in series, but is often only used once in a façade, as at New Wardour Castle, or once at each end, as on the inner façade of Burlington House. Palladio's elaboration of this normally uses a larger or giant order in between each window. He doubles the small columns supporting the side lintels, placing the second column behind rather than beside the first. This was introduced in 1537 in Venice by Jacopo Sansovino and heavily adopted by Palladio in the Basilica Palladiana in Vicenza where it is used on both storeys. The openings in this elaboration are not strictly windows as they enclose a loggia. Pilasters might replace columns as in other contexts. Sir John Summerson suggests that the omission of the doubled columns may be allowed, but the term Palladian motif should be confined to cases where the larger order is present. Palladio used these elements extensively for example in very simple form in his entrance to Villa Forni Cerato. It is perhaps this extensive use of the motif in the Veneto that has given the window its alternative name of the Venetian window. According to James Lees-Milne, its first appearance in Britain was in the remodelled wings of Burlington House London. The immediate source was in the English court architect Inigo Jones's designs for Whitehall Palace rather than drawn from Palladio himself. Lees-Milne describes the Burlington window as the earliest example of the revived Venetian window in England.

• 3. English Palladian Revival

  ›

  During the 17th century many architects studying in Italy learned of Palladio's work and on returning home adopted his style leading to its widespread use across Europe and North America. Isolated forms of Palladianism throughout the world were brought about in this way although the style did not reach the zenith of its popularity until the 18th century. An early reaction to the excesses of Baroque architecture in Venice manifested itself as a return to Palladian principles. The earliest neo-Palladians there were the exact contemporaries Domenico Rossi from 1657 to 1737 and Andrea Tirali from 1657 to 1737. Their biographer Tommaso Temanza proved to be the movement's most able proponent. In his writings Palladio's visual inheritance became increasingly codified and moved towards neoclassicism. The most influential follower of Palladio was Inigo Jones who travelled throughout Italy with the art collector Earl of Arundel in 1613, 1614 annotating his copy of Palladio's treatise. The Palladianism of Jones and his contemporaries and later followers was a style largely of façades with the mathematical formulae dictating layout not strictly applied. A handful of country houses in England built between 1640 and 1680 are in this style. These follow the success of Jones's Palladian designs for the Queen's House at Greenwich the first English Palladian house and the Banqueting House at Whitehall the uncompleted royal palace in London of Charles I. Palladian designs advocated by Jones were too closely associated with the court of Charles I to survive the turmoil of the English Civil War. Following the Stuart restoration Jones's Palladianism was eclipsed by the Baroque designs of such architects as William Talman Sir John Vanbrugh Nicholas Hawksmoor and Jones's pupil John Webb.

• 4. Neo-Palladianism And Country Houses

  ›

  The Baroque style proved highly popular in continental Europe but was often viewed with suspicion in England where it was considered theatrical exuberant and Catholic. It was superseded in Britain in the first quarter of the 18th century when four books highlighted the simplicity and purity of classical architecture. These included Vitruvius Britannicus published by Colen Campbell in 1715 of which supplemental volumes appeared through the century. I quattro libri dell'architettura by Palladio himself translated by Giacomo Leoni and published from 1715 onwards also influenced the movement. On the Art of Building by Leon Battista Alberti translated by Giacomo Leoni and published in 1726 added another layer of theoretical support. The Designs of Inigo Jones... with Some Additional Designs published by William Kent in two volumes in 1727 further spread the aesthetic. A further volume Some Designs of Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent was published in 1744 by the architect John Vardy an associate of Kent. The most favoured among patrons was the four-volume Vitruvius Britannicus by Campbell. The series contains architectural prints of British buildings inspired by the great architects from Vitruvius to Palladio at first mainly those of Inigo Jones but the later works contained drawings and plans by Campbell and other 18th-century architects. These four books greatly contributed to Palladian architecture becoming established in 18th-century Britain. Campbell and Kent became the most fashionable and sought-after architects of the era. Campbell had placed his 1715 designs for the colossal Wanstead House near to the front of Vitruvius Britannicus immediately following the engravings of buildings by Jones and Webb as an exemplar of what new architecture should be. On the strength of the book Campbell was chosen as the architect for Henry Hoare I's Stourhead house. Hoare's brother-in-law William Benson had designed Wilbury House the earliest 18th-century Palladian house in Wiltshire which Campbell had also illustrated in Vitruvius Britannicus.

• 5. Transatlantic Colonial Architecture

  ›

  Palladio's influence in North America is evident almost from its first architect-designed buildings. The Irish philosopher George Berkeley who may be America's first recorded Palladian bought a large farmhouse in Middletown Rhode Island in the late 1720s and added a Palladian doorcase derived from Kent's Designs of Inigo Jones 1727 which he may have brought with him from London. Palladio's work was included in the library of a thousand volumes amassed for Yale College. Peter Harrison's 1749 designs for the Redwood Library in Newport Rhode Island borrow directly from Palladio's I quattro libri dell'architettura while his plan for the Newport Brick Market conceived a decade later is also Palladian. Two colonial period houses that can be definitively attributed to designs from I quattro libri dell'architettura are the Hammond-Harwood House 1774 in Annapolis Maryland and Thomas Jefferson's first Monticello 1770. Hammond-Harwood was designed by the architect William Buckland in 1773, 1774 for the wealthy farmer Matthias Hammond of Anne Arundel County Maryland. The design source is the Villa Pisani and that for the first Monticello the Villa Cornaro at Piombino Dese. Both are taken from Book II Chapter XIV of I quattro libri dell'architettura. Jefferson later made substantial alterations to Monticello known as the second Monticello 1802, 1809 making the Hammond-Harwood House the only remaining house in North America modelled directly on a Palladian design. Jefferson referred to I quattro libri dell'architettura as his bible. Although a statesman his passion was architecture and he developed an intense appreciation of Palladio's architectural concepts.

• 6. European Expansion And Irish Style

  ›

  The rise of neo-Palladianism in England contributed to its adoption in Prussia. Count Francesco Algarotti wrote to Lord Burlington to inform him that he was recommending to Frederick the Great the adoption in his own country of the architectural style Burlington had introduced in England. By 1741 Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff had already begun construction of the Berlin Opera House on the Unter den Linden based on Campbell's Wanstead House. Palladianism was particularly adopted in areas under British colonial rule. Examples can be seen in the Indian subcontinent; the Raj Bhavan Kolkata formerly Government House was modelled on Kedleston Hall while the architectural historian Pilar Maria Guerrieri identifies its influences in Lutyens' Delhi. In South Africa Federico Freschi notes the Tuscan colonnades and Palladian windows of Herbert Baker's Union Buildings. During the Palladian revival period in Ireland even modest mansions were cast in a neo-Palladian mould. Irish Palladian architecture subtly differs from the England style. While adhering as in other countries to the basic ideals of Palladio it is often truer to them. In Ireland Palladianism became political; both the original and the present Irish parliaments in Dublin occupy Palladian buildings. The Irish architect Sir Edward Lovett Pearce from 1699 to 1733 became a leading advocate. He was a cousin of Sir John Vanbrugh and originally one of his pupils. He rejected the Baroque style and spent three years studying architecture in France and Italy before returning to Ireland.

• 7. Decline And Modern Legacy

  ›

  By the 1770s British architects such as Robert Adam and William Chambers were in high demand but were now drawing on a wide variety of classical sources including from ancient Greece so much so that their forms of architecture became defined as neoclassical rather than Palladian. In Europe the Palladian revival ended by the close of the 18th century. In the 19th century proponents of the Gothic Revival such as Augustus Pugin remembering the origins of Palladianism in ancient temples considered it pagan and unsuited to Anglican and Anglo-Catholic worship. In North America Palladianism lingered a little longer; Thomas Jefferson's floor plans and elevations owe a great deal to Palladio's I quattro libri dell'architettura. The term Palladian is often misused in modern discourse and tends to be used to describe buildings with any classical pretensions. There was a revival of a more serious Palladian approach in the 20th century when Colin Rowe an influential architectural theorist published his essay The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa 1947 in which he drew links between the compositional rules in Palladio's villas and Le Corbusier's villas at Poissy and Garches. Suzanne Walters' article The Two Faces of Modernism suggests a continuing influence of Palladio's ideas on architects of the 20th century. In the 21st century Palladio's name regularly appears among the world's most influential architects. In England Raymond Erith from 1904 to 1973 drew on Palladian inspirations and was followed in this by his pupil subsequently partner Quinlan Terry. Their work and that of others led the architectural historian John Martin Robinson to suggest that the Quattro Libri continues as the fountainhead of at least one strand in the English country house tradition.