an exhibition at the

national building museum september 2, 2010 through January 9, 2011

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About usThe National Building Museum explores the world we build for ourselves—from our homes, skyscrapers, and public buildings to our parks, bridges, and cities. Through exhibitions, programs, and publications, the Museum seeks to educate the public about achievements in architecture, design, engineering, urban planning, and construction.

national building museum401 F street nW Washington, dC 20001202.272.2448 / www.nbm.orgRed line metro, Judiciary square

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Palladio and His Legacy: A Transatlantic Journey is organized by the Royal Institute of British Architects Trust, London, in association with the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio, Vicenza, and is presented in Washington, D.C., in partnership with the National Building Museum.

curatorial team: Charles Hind and Irena Murray, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) British Architectural Library; Guido Beltramini, CISA Palladio; and Calder Loth, Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Coordinating curator for the National Building Museum: Chrysanthe Broikos.

plaster models specially created and loaned by Timothy Richards of Bath, England, and bas reliefs by Ivan Simonato.

support for the traveling exhibition is provided by the Richard H. Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust, Regione del Veneto, British Architectural Library Trust, Dainese, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Center for Palladian Studies in America, Inc., William T. Kemper Foundation, Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Andrew D. Stone, and Richard Wernham and Julia West, among others.

support for the presentation of the exhibition and associated educational programs at the National Building Museum is provided by Federazione Veneta BCC, Isabella del Frate Rayburn, Maurice Kanbar, and Leo A. Daly III, FAIA, RIBA, among others.

in addition, the national building museum is extremely grateful to the Embassy of Italy for its invaluable assistance, and to Anne Kriken Mann as well as the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) for their special support.

cover: Conjectural portrait of Andrea Palladio, c. 1715. Engraved after Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734). overleaf: Frontispiece to Andrea Palladio’s I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura (The Four Books on Architecture), 1570. Unless otherwise noted, all drawings by Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). All brochure images courtesy RIBA British Architectural Library.

on both sides of the Atlantic. The spread of Anglo-Palladianism in America was due, in large measure, to the accessibility and popularity of these practical English guides. Three of America’s most iconic homes—the White House, Mt. Vernon, and Monticello—owe such publications a debt. Monticello features the two most significant Palladian innovations found in the southern colonies (and states): the temple-fronted portico and the five-part house plan with its central block, flanking pavilions, and connecting wings.

monticello’s architect, thomas jefferson (1743–1826), was Palladio’s foremost American disciple. He owned multiple copies of The Four Books and imaginatively integrated its plates with other sources. In Book Four, which featured Palladio’s reconstructions of Roman temples, Jefferson first encountered the inspira-tion for his most influential architectural work, the Virginia State Capitol. Begun in 1785, the Capitol (modeled on the Maison Carrée in Nîmes, France) marked the birth of the Classical Revival in America and established the precedent of designing the nation’s public buildings in this style. Palladio’s treatise remained an authoritative resource for architects designing the most ambitious, classically inspired buildings of the “American Renaissance” which began after the Civil War and flourished well into the 1930s.

the drawings on view span Palladio’s approximately 40-year architectural career, from the late 1530s to 1577. They reveal his commit-ted, long-term engagement with ancient Roman architecture, his ability to synthesize lessons learned, his genius for constant innovation, and his capacity to clearly communicate through drawings. In turn, the exhibition also shows how his message was disseminated in England and, finally, how Palladianism was adopted in America.

the late italian renaissance master Andrea Palladio (1508–1580) is the most influential architect of the last 500 years. His architec-ture synthesized the lessons of the ancient Romans with the achievements of his predecessors and contemporaries, including Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Palladio’s mastery of the classical orders, proportion, and harmony was unparalleled. His projects in Venice and the surrounding region—known as the Veneto—set new standards in design and redefined the potential of the art form, especially for domestic structures. Palladio’s legacy was secured in 1570 with the publication of his I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura (The Four Books on Architecture). One part theory, one part portfolio, and two parts archaeology, this work has had a more profound impact on the built world than any architectural treatise before or since.

in america, to an even greater extent than in Europe, the illustrations and words of Palladio have left an enduring legacy: classical forms have been appropriated and incorporated into the mainstream of architectural expres-sion. By liberally applying the signature motif of ancient temples, the columned portico, to the residential realm, Palladio forever elevated the potential of the humblest home. His five-part schemes linking a primary residence and its accessory farm structures into a symmetrical and cohesive composition became models for how to organize plantations, or nearly any group of related structures. Furthermore, his comprehensive reconstruction drawings of Roman temples inspired the design of our temples to democracy—the nation’s public buildings—in the monu-mental classical style.

this exhibition features drawings and books from the peerless Palladio col-lections of the Royal Institute of British Architects, which were a gift from the 8th Duke of Devonshire in 1894. These works were collected by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694–1753), who returned from a 1719 visit to the Veneto with a cache of Palladio’s drawings. Two years later he acquired another group of drawings that had already been in England for over a century, originally purchased by Inigo Jones (1573–1652) on a tour of Italy in 1614, just 34 years

after Palladio’s death. Through Jones, who was Surveyor of the King’s Works from 1615 to 1643, the tenets of Renaissance architecture—as largely understood through Palladio’s drawings and I Quattro Libri —spread to England.

though jones’s palladianism, also known as Anglo-Palladianism, became the foundation for most English architecture of the 17th century, the first complete English translation of I Quattro Libri (from French) was not available in London until 1720. In the two decades following the appearance of this watershed publication, edited by Giacomo Leoni, three additional English translations of The Four Books appeared. Two of the three were at least partially subsidized by the leading promoter of Anglo-Palladianism at the time, Lord Burlington.

concurrently, inexpensive pattern books, for use of builders or carpenters, reprinted the more easily copied elements of the treatise which then became commonplace in 18th- century, neo-Palladian, domestic design

Measured drawing of the Arch of Jupiter Ammon, Verona, c. 1540.

Design for a palace, possible the Palazzo Poiana, Vicenza, early 1540s. Andrea Palladio (1508–1580) and Vicenzo Scamozzi (1548–1616).

Design for the Villa Repeta at Campiglia, early 1560s. Villa Rotonda, Vicenza. From Edward Hoppus and Benjamin Cole’s English edition of Andrea Palladio’s I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura published as Andrea Palladio’s Architecture (1732–1735 ).