Palladio Education Guide 418

8/8/2019 Palladio Education Guide 418

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ANDREA PALLADIOHIS LIFE AND LEGACY

This guide is given out free to teachers and full-time students with an exhibition ticket

and ID at the Education Desk and is available to other visitors from

the RA Shop at a cost of 3.95 (while stocks last).

Visit the Architecture Space to see

Palladio: Through the Eyes of Contemporary Architects


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INTRODUCTION

There is a certain magic about standing in a building by Andrea Palladio

(150880), whether it is one of his country villas designed for the Venetian

nobility or the arcade he created around the Basilica in Vicenza, a city with

which his name is now synonymous. He took the classical ancient Roman

architecture and used it to create a new, modern style. Even when he

created grand and magnificent buildings for his wealthy patrons, the spaces,

despite their size, maintain a human quality through their simple forms,

scaled to ensure that the dimensions are always elegantly proportioned.

Working throughout the Veneto, a region in north-eastern Italy centred on

Venice and encompassing the cities of Verona, Vicenza and Padua, he

brings the beautiful light of the region into all his buildings. His fame first

came through these buildings, but quickly spread internationally when he

published I Quattro Libri dellArchitettura(The Four Books of Architecture,

1570), a seminal book that used words and images in such a masterful way

as to create an architectural pattern-book that has been followed by

admirers for over 400 years. This exhibition celebrates the 500th

anniversary of the birth of this great architect.

During his forty-year career, Palladio was able to design an

exceptional number of buildings, aided by his practical approach to design

and construction, revolutionary kit of parts, and amenable personality.

As hisbiographer, Paolo Gualdo, said in 1616:

Palladio was a most able and attractive conversationalist so that he gave the most

intense pleasure to the gentlemen and aristocrats with whom he dealt. The same is

true for the workmen he used whom he kept constantly cheerful, treated them with

so many pleasant attentions they all worked with the most exceptional good cheer.

He eagerly and lovingly taught them the best principles of the arts in such a way that

there was not a mason, stone cutter or carpenter who did not understand the

measurements, elements and r ules of tr ue architecture.

The secret to Palladios personality can be found in his formative years.

Unlike Bramante (14441514), Raphael (14831520) and Michelangelo

(14751564), who came to architecture from the visual arts, Palladio

trained as a stonemason.

FROM STONEMASON TO ARCHITECT

Palladio was born in Padua in 1508 during one of the greatest creative

periods in Western European cultural history, the Renaissance. The son

of a miller and minor businessman, Palladio, encouraged by his godfather,

was apprenticed as a stonemason at the age of thirteen. In 1524 he moved

to Vicenza, a city on which he would leave his mark: firstly with his work

as a stonemason and later through his architectural legacy. He was an

accomplished stonemason and although not well educated, he was bright

and receptive. Palladio would have worked on building sites similar to the

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Main Galleries

31 January 13 April2009

An Introduction to the Exhibition

for Teachers and Students

Written by Kate Goodwin

For the Education Department

Royal Academy of Arts

This exhibition has been organised by the

Royal Academy of Arts, London,

and the Centro Internazionale di Studi di

Architettura Andrea Palladio, Vicenza,

with the collaboration of the

Royal Institute of British Architects, London.

FRONTCOVER

Andrea PalladioFaade of the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice 1990. Photo Scala, Florence

BACKCOVER

Andrea PalladioPlan of the Villa Capra, known as La Rotonda, VicenzaEngraving reproduced in I Quattro Libri dellArchitetturaVenice, 1570, II, p.19

Designed by Isambard Thomas, London

Printed by Tradewinds Ltd

ANDREA PALLADIOHIS LIFE AND LEGACY


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Plan

A drawing of a building

made to scale, usually seen

from above to show the floor

layout or horizontal plane.

Elevation

A drawing of a building

made to scale that

represents its faade or

vertical plane.

Cat. 152

Leandro da Ponte,

called Bassano

The Tower of Babel,

c.1600

Oil on canvas

136.5 x 189.2 cm

The National Gallery, LondonBequeathed by Lt.-Col. J. H. Ollney,

1837Photo The National Gallery, London

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one shown in The Tower of Babel(cat. 152), carving stone like the young

man in the lower-left corner of the painting, alongside those sieving

sand, mixing cement and erecting wooden scaffolds to reach the top

of the buildings.His life would change forever at the age of30when he became the

protg of Giangiorgio Trissino (14781550), an influential scholar, poet

and writer of tragic plays, and as Palladio described one of the most

illustrious men of our time. Trissino was also an amateur architect and

popular legend asserts that the pair met when Palladio worked on the

construction of Trissinos villa. Trissino took the talented Andrea di Pietro

della Gondola, as he was known at the time, gave him the name Andrea

Palladio after a divine angelic fictional character in one of his epic plays,

and set about educating him alongside the sons of the local noblemen.

With his new name and elevated status, the young Palladio absorbed

everything his mentor introduced him to. Having had no formal classical

education, Palladio was directed by Trissino towards specific areas of

knowledgearchitecture, engineering, ancient topography and military

science.

Trissino guided him in the study of Vitruvius (first centurybc),

the author of the first and only surviving book on architecture from

classical antiquity,De Architectura(The Ten Books on Architecture), which

specified that a building must be strong, durable, useful and beautiful.

Vitruvius defined the first three architectural ordersDoric, Ionic and

Corinthianeach identified in relation to what he saw as the greatest work

of artthe human body. He also defined the Vitruvian Man, the human

body inscribed in a circle and a square representing perfect proportion,

I set myself the task of

investigating the remains of

the ancient buildings and

finding they are much

worthier of study than I had

first thought. I began tomeasure all their parts

minutely and with the

greatest care.

Andrea Palladio,

Quattro Libri, 1570

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most famously depicted in a drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci (14521519).

In some ways, Palladios education under Trissino was bookish and

antiquarian, and although he learnt much from Vitruviuss ideas of

proportion, it was his first visits to Rome that paved his way to becoming

a great and mature architect.

ROME

His first visit to Rome with Trissino in 1541 introduced Palladio to the

ancient Roman ruins first hand, which he knew previously only from

drawings in the workshops where he practised in the 1530s. The experience

of seeing the actual ruins inspired him to measure, survey and record

accurately what he found on site. He went as far as to correct his own

earlier drawings made in the Vicenza workshop by overlaying his accurately

observed details, as seen in the drawing of the Arch of Titus (cat. 25). He

would return to Rome on several subsequent tripsand the ancient r uins

would continue to provide stimulation and help find solutions for spatial

dilemmas.

Palladios arrival in Rome came at a ti me when it was being

transformed into a great Renaissance city in which art and architecture

flourished. Palladio saw and studied the work of the modern Roman

architects who had been so instrumental in this change. For example,he had the opportunity to witness the construction and development of

Bramantes St Peters Basilica (15061626) on his many visits to the city.

Palladio, like the modern Roman architects, was able to combine

Vitruviuss classical orders with a knowledge gleaned from his surveys

of how they had been used in practice in ancient Roman architecture.

DEVELOPING AN ARCHITECTURAL LANGUAGE

Palladio, however, was able to take the ideas of the modern Romans

further, forging a new understanding and use of the classical ideals by

developing his own language of architecture with a standard series of

overall types or kit of parts. He was blessed with a considerable numberof commissions that had relatively similar briefs, which both enabled and

in some ways required him to establish a degree of standardisation. His

buildings therefore drew on a fixed number of rules that create what he

felt were near-perfect forms dictated by desirable proportions. He

developed a formula that he would use repeatedly in designing both the

plans and elevations. The designs were symmetrical, with suites of rooms

(usually three) laid on either side of a central entry space. For Palladio it was

important that the length, width and height of all these rooms be governed

by his own proportional system, both in themselves and how they related


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Fig. 1 While Palladios

visits to Rome matured

his architectural thinking,

he learnt the practicalities

of being an architect

working as Giulio Romanos

(14991546) on-site

assistant at the Palazzo

Thiene (begun 1542).

Palladio was largely

responsible for the palazzos

execution, dealing with the

patrons and builders to see

the design realised. The

Thiene family was at the

very height of Vicentine

society, with aspirations to

be independent rulers. Had

their palazzo been

completed, it would have

been one of the grandest in

northern Italy. Palladio tookover the project on

Romanos death, but other

than some subtle changes to

the faade and courtyard, he

did not alter it significantly.

The influence of this

building and its association

with Palladio comes from

this drawing from the

Quattro Libri in which he redraws the elevation and the plan showing what

he considered to be a more ideal solution to the buildings construction,

better addressing the street and w ith classical proportions. The entranceloggia onto the main street, which was never realised, became, through its

publication in theQuattro Libri, the model for theporte-cochre(the arcaded

entrance portico of palaces and theatres) as seen in architecture throughout

Europe, which allowed the well-dressed nobility to alight from their

carriages under cover.

Look for the projected central wing that comes out to meet the angle of the street.

Why would architects have used this model for the porte-cochre?

Why do you think the plan in the Quattro Libriwas more influential than what

wasactuallybuilt?

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Fig. 1

Andrea Palladio

Plan and section of the

Palazzo Thiene, VicenzaEngraving reproducedin I QuattroLibri dellArchitetturaVenice, 1570, II, p. 13

to one another. His rules could be modified but were generally applied

across projects.

When designing the buildings details, Palladio did not simply use

Vitruviuss orders of columns as decorative visual elements, but as spatial

ones. For instance, the Ionic column would be spaced 2 times its

diameter from its neighbour, while the Corinthian would be positioned

at2 times its diameter. Palladio therefore was the first to introduce into

Renaissance architecture the idea that the orders can define both two-

and three-dimensional planning. His early buildings designed before his

visits to Rome, such as t he Palazzo Civena in Vicenza (begun 1541; cat. 11),

have a flatness that makes them appear unanimated. After visiting Rome

he learnt to use space in a way he had not appreciated before.

It is interesting to consider whether Palladios desire to create such an

architectural language may have been influenced by Trissinos interest in

linguistics. Trissino was a leadingfigure on orthography (the correct way

of writing a language), linguistics and grammatical theory. There was no

standard form of written Italian in early sixteenth-century Italy and so

Trissino was seeking to establish a new, universal language. Palladio would

have been aware of Trissinos conviction that literar y effect depends upon a

combination of grammar and choice of vocabulary. It is therefore not hard

to believe that as Palladio brought his studies together with his experience

of the ancient buildings, he found an affinity with Trissinos ideas.

VICENZA

A tributary state of Venice, Vicenza was a wealthy and cultured centre for

international trade and manufacturing, chiefly in wool and silk, with a

cosmopolitan feel. Leandro Alberti described Vicenza in hisDescrittione di

tutta Italia(Description of all Italy, 1551) as a city of very abundant wealth

inhabited by men of keen invention, great boldness and very inclined to

letters, arms and trade. He was probably referring to many of Palladios

patrons, including Trissino who had a keen vision for t he future of his

home town. Although none of his private patrons finished more than half

of a palace, and only one of his public buildings was ever completed,Palladio changed the face of sixteenth-century Vicenza, which until that

time contained no major Renaissance buildings. Vicenza was divided into

two ruling and warring factions: those with t ies to Venice and France such

as the Thiene, Porto and Chiericati families, and those with ties to Spain

such as the Valmarana family. These families often came to violent and

even deadly conflict in the citys streets. For these families, building a

palazzo in the new style in the centre of town was a way to proclaim their

status and political power, and both factions, with the encouragement of

Trissino, saw Palladio as the architect who could help them achieve this.

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I am sure that those who

know how difficult it is to

introduce a new approach,

particularly in building, will

regard me as extremely

fortunate to have found

gentlemen of such noble

and generous character and

discriminating judgements,

that they have been

convinced by my arguments

and rejected that obsolete

approach to building

without grace or beauty.

Andrea Palladio,

Quattro Libri, 1570

Palazzo (pl. palazzi)

A palace or grand

building located in the

city, normally providing

domestic and commercial

accommodation.

Loggia

A gallery or arcade open to

the air on at least one side.


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In very simple terms, what Palladio created was a screen around an

existing building, which helped to furnish the piazza and provide a place

where local citizens could meet and shelter from sun or rain. However,

he executed the project with great structural and aestheticfinesse. Palladio

had to work with the structure of the existing building, which more or less

defined the height of the two storeys, the width, number of bays and the

location of the supports. The width of the bays varied as a result of theuneven spacing of the original structure and the trapezoid plan, but

Palladio was able to create the appearance of a rational and coherent

faade. He did so by using a serliana (an open arch of constant width)

set within the bay, which absorbed the variance in the gap between the

supports. It was Palladios only work entirely in stone, which contributed

to the long construction period (it was completed in 1617), but also

demonstrates his skill on the construction site.

Do you think Palladio devised an effective solution to the problem of uneven spacing?

What effect would these large openings have on the interior, which houses a row of shops

on the ground floor?

Cat. 47 After winning the Basilica commission, Palladio received a flow ofother commissions for palazzi in Vicenza and surrounding cities, which

enabled him to refine his architectural language. Girolamo Chiericati, an

influential silk merchant, became supervisor for the Basilica construction

in 1548 and was an advocate, like Trissino, of the young Palladio. When

Chiericati inherited three houses on the edge of Vicenza, Palladio was the

obvious choice to design him a palazzo worthy of his status.

The narrowness of the site encouraged Palladio to develop inventive

architectural solutions, thus creating his own architectural language. This

ultimately led to the construction of an unusual and highly original

Cat. 34 By the late 1540s, Palladio was growing in confidence as an

architect and was able to introduce a new approach to palazzo design.

The PalazzoPorto (begun c. 1546) was designed for Iseppo Porto, a loyal

friend of Palladio, who had married a member of the Thiene family. The

building was to occupy an entire city block with an ingenious double-palace

design, which Palladio derived from ancient Roman prototypes. The main

residence, which was built, faces onto one of Vicenzas important streets.

The building behind, which was never built, was designed for guests and

older children and was to face onto a minor street. The two buildings, as

published in theQuattro Libri, were unified by a large central open

courtyard surrounded by a colonnade, with a balcony on the first-floor

piano nobile. The entire composition suggests Palladios strong sense of

urban planning.

Palladio very often designed two alternative faades, which he

presented side by side on the same drawing. This is a fine example

of what is called a presentation drawing, illustrating the two suggested

options to a patron. As it is designed to be shown to the patron, the

drawing is veryfinished and precise, executed with a ruler and drawing

compass with an ink wash to define shadows and give a sense of

the relief of the columns, windows and entablatures.

Why does this drawing look like one whole building when it is in fact two alternate designs?

What are not shown on the elevation are the two statues of Iseppo Porto and his first-born son,

which are placed in the attic entablature. Can you imagine where they are located and why?

Can you identify the piano nobile, where the main living spaces would have been?

How did you recognise it?

On the upper storeys it is the left side of the drawing that most closely resembles the

finished building, but he has developed the lower level in the style of the simpler windows

on the right. Which do you prefer and can you see other ways he might have combined

theelements?

Fig. 2 Palladios first public commission and one that cemented his

relationship with the Vicentine ruling families was his addition of the

two-storey loggia to the Palazzo della Ragione, now known as the Basilica,

which stands in the main square of Vicenza. Markets on the lower level

and law courts on the upper had been consolidated under one roof inthe fifteenth century, but the newly constructed loggia collapsed in 1496.

A sequence of wars and plagues hampered rebuilding in the early

sixteenth century, but as peace and prosperity returned, an architectural

competition of sorts was held to gather designs from renowned architects

across the Veneto region. After years of indecision on how the building

should be reconstructed, the City Council, under the direction of Trissino,

approved the designs of the little-known Palladio in 1549 as architect

of the project, providing him with his first regular salary, which he

received until his death.

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Colonnade

A series of regularly spaced

columns supporting a

straight beam and usually

one side of a roof.

Piano nobile

The principal living floor

in an Italian palace, usually

on the first floor.

Entablature or trabeation

The upper part (architrave,

frieze and cornice) of a

classical order, consisting

of the whole horizontal

section supported by

columns or pillars.

Fig. 2

Palazzo della Ragione,

faades on Piazza Maggiore,

Vicenza

Centro Internazionale di Studidi Architettura Andrea Palladio,

VicenzaPhoto Pino Guidolotti

Cat. 47 OVERLEAFMarcantonio Palladio

Plan of Palazzo Chiericati,

1550

Pen, ink and wash

27.7 x 40.9 cm

RIBA Library, Drawings andArchives Collections, London

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Cat. 34 PREVIOUS PAGE

Andrea Palladio

Presentation drawing with

alternatives for the

elevation of Palazzo Porto

(recto), c.1546

Pen, ink and wash

28.3 x 40.6 cm

RIBA Library, Drawings and

Archives Collections, London

BayVertical division of the

exterior or interior of a

building marked by two

columns, pilasters,

fenestration, units

of vaulting, etc.


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One must describe as

suitable a house which

will be appropriate to the

status of the person who

will have to live in it and

for which the parts will

correspond to the whole

and to each other.Andrea Palladio,

Quattro Libri,1570

Rustication

Masonry made of stone

blocks, often roughly hewn,

usually found on the lower

floors of buildings.

Pilaster

Square or rectangular

projection from the wall that

is designed to resemble a

column.

Barchessa (pl. barchesse)

A south-facing outhouse on

Veneto farms used for

storing hay. Palladio

incorporated barchesse into

his villas.

Dovecote

A structure, usually at a

height above the ground, for

housing domestic pigeons.

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building. Part villa, part town palace, it is situated on the margins of the

old town, not far from the confluence of the two rivers encircling the city

and in front of the towns river port where timber and cattle markets were

located. Its faade forms the backdrop to the piazza, which becomes

almost a gateway to the town, and Palladios two-storey loggia creates a

powerfully expressive presence for the building. In order to make the

narrow site more usable, Chiericati petitioned the city for the use of an

extra four metres of public land onto which he could extend a ground-

floor loggia as a gift to the city. In 1551 he wrote:

I have been advised by expert architects and by many revered citizens to make a

portico along the faade of my house on the Isola for greater convenience to me

and for the convenience and ornament of the entire city. This opinion I have

carefully considered in view of the much greater expense than would be involved

without the portico; nevertheless, because of the greater convenience and the

greater honour to both myself and to the public, it would be especially gratifying

and rewarding to me if permission were conceded with the good graces of this

magnificent city.

A wonderful synergy between public and private space was thus c reated.

The city gained a long covered walkway, running the length of the building,

which to this day is a major meeting place for the citizens of Vicenza.

Chiericati gained a much larger firstfloor as he was able to build over the

walkway on the upper level.

Palladio created a symmetrical plan with an axis in both its short and

long directions. The palazzo is raised on a podium, protecting it from

flooding, and is entered by a wide grand stair characteristic of ancient

temples. Although construction started relatively quickly the building

wasonly partlyfinished when Chiericati died in 1557, and his son did

no further building but commissioned some extraordinary frescoes.

The palazzo itself was only completed in the late seventeenth century.

Palladio created three short axes and one long axis within the building. Can you spot them?

Can you see the area he was given by the city for the loggia? Does this look like a public space

or part of the private house? Why do you think so?

VILLA DESIGNS

While working on civic buildings and palazzi in the 1540s in Vicenza,

Palladio was also building villas in the surrounding countryside for his

Vicentine patrons. From 1542, these designs (such as the Villa Pisani at

Bagnolo [cat. 31]) contain an abundance of motifs taken from his studies

in Rome. He scaled the motifs to suit the building and the available

finances, but still introduced high barrel-vaulted halls and sizeable loggias,

which had previously only been seen in designs for churches. Like ancient

Roman temples, Palladio raised the ground-floor level of his villas so that

they were entered up a small flight of stairs. This allowed a half-sunk

Villa

A country residence usually

situated within an estate.

Barrel-vault

A continuous semicircular

vaulted roof.

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service floor below, where kitchens, pantries, washrooms and cellars

were located. He used the ample roof spaces as storage for grain.

TheVilla Godi at Lonedo (begun 1537) was one of his earliest, and the

first obvious attempt to mesh a local building tradition with classical

architecture. The result is a villa that is stripped of or nament, an ironic

touch since he had spent the preceding years as a stonemason creating

exactly that.

In the next decade, Palladios clients broadened substantially to

include the great Venetian patricians. Venices position as the dominant

Mediterranean seaport in Europe shifted as new trade routes opened,threatening the citys economic stability. The end of the wars, major

investment in irrigation, and land reclamation across the Veneto made

more land habitable and farming became a potential source of wealth and

prosperity. With the addition of tax incentives, landowners consolidated

their holdings and members of the Venetian aristocracy invested in land.

Palladio responded well to the particular social and economic

circumstances of the time, which created a new type of patron requiring a

different sort of architecture. Landowners wanted to closely oversee their

agricultural activities while not feeling relegated to a social backwater. They

therefore required an architecture that was functional and economical,

while also being worthy of their status and suitable for entertaining guests.

Palladio incorporated large vaults, loggias with stone piers and r usticatedDoric columns for the villas of very wealthy bankers and Venetian

patricians, such as the Pisani family. For the moderately wealthy, such as the

owner of the Villa Gazzotti at Bertesina (begun 1542; cat. 52), Palladio used

brick for the pilasters with only the capitals and bases made from stone. To

both the Villa Saraceno at Finale (begun mid-1540s) and the Villa Poiana at

Poiana Maggiore (begun late 1540s; cat. 55), he gave presence and status

with the careful orchestration of w indows, pediments and loggia arcades.

He was economical with the materials and resources, and thus able to

convey grandeur within the available means. Palladio used architecture as a

conveyor of style and choice, defining a patrons social status.

As he said in theQuattro Libri, Palladio thought of a house as nothing

other than a small city. He created a new type of villa by grouping thehouse and farm buildings into a single entity and positioning them in direct

or close proximity to the farmland. He formed a hierarchy of structures,

with the main dwelling in the centre with smaller barchesse, dovecotes and

other farm buildings spanning out from it. This was an aesthetic as well as a

practical solution, which enabled outer buildings to be added as finances

allowed. The main dwelling may have been smaller than some of his earlier

villas but it maintained a powerful presence with motifs like pediments

often decorated with the owners coat of ar ms.


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the positioning of buildings; for instance, the barns all face due south

to keep the hay dry and stop it fermenting and thus causing a fire, a point

that Palladio specified in theQuattro Libri.

The introduction of the triangular pediment in domestic architecture was Palladios invention.

It would have been a complete shock to the Italians of the time, but is very common now. Can

you think of examples where you have seen this, and why would it have been used?

The Villa Barbaro features in Veroneses painting Susanna and the Eldersalong with the faces

of the two elderly Barbaro brothers many years after the villa was completed. Why do you think

Veronese would have done such a painting?

Look for the large window on the front faade that breaks the architrave above. This kind of

expressive architecture is unlike Palladios rational approach and may have been the hand

of the Barbaro brothers or Veronese. What effect does it have?

Perched on a hilltop overlooking Vicenza,

the Villa Capra, known as La Rotonda

(begun 1566; fig. 4) is Palladios best-known

and most copied work. A beautifully self-

contained villa, without the accompanying

buildings of a working farm, it has a perfect

square plan with a magnificent central dome.

Each of the buildings four sides has a grand

portico resembling an ancient temple

framing the view of the surrounding

countryside. The approach to the Rotonda is

orchestrated in such a way that its volume

and form can be fully appreciated.

Surprisingly, when illustrating the villa in his

Quattro Libri, Palladio included it in the

section on palazzi as he said it was so close to the city.

Cat. 69 and Fig. 3 The Villa Barbaro at Maser (begun mid- 1550s) is

oneof Palladios finest and most unique villas and was almost certainly

a result of the collaborative relationship between Palladio and his patrons,

the brothers Daniele (151470) and Marcantonio Barbaro (151895).

Trissino died in 1550 and the Barbaro brothers came to be as instrumental

to Palladios career as his earlier mentor. Palladio accompanied Daniele to

Rome in 1554 to complete work on the first translation of VitruviussDe

Architectura, which was edited by Daniele and principally illustrated by

Palladio. Daniele, a humanist scholar, man of the Church, ambassador,

authority on architecture and perspective, and part of Venetian highsociety, was one of Palladios chief promoters. Palladio also gained many

of his Venetian commissions through Danieles brother Marcantonio,

who served as ambassador to France and the Ottoman Empire.

The Villa Barbaro sits on a gently rising slope in the Veneto

countryside, with a principle dwelling that juts forward from the

supporting buildings to provide ample light and air on three sides with

views across the landscape. It is entered from a split staircase that allows

for an impressive cruciform central hall w ith magnificent barrel-vaulted

ceilings. Every room of the upper level contains frescoes by Paolo

Veronese (152888), which are a fitting counterpart to Palladios

ambitions for the architecture; both artist and architect immersed

themselves in ideas of Antiquity but with their own original flair.Built into the hillside, the upper storey opens onto a court behind, with

a fishpond and Nymphaeum decorated with statues of classical g ods. This

placement enabled a sophisticated hydraulics system that supplied water to

the pond and service areas and filtered through the building to the garden

and orchards on the slopes below. Such practicalities were also applied to

Cat. 69

Paolo Caliari, called

Veronese

Susanna and the Elders,

c.158588

Oil on canvas

140 x 280 cm

Kunsthistorisches Museum Wein,Gemldegalerie, Vienna

1514

Fig. 3

Villa Barbaro, Maser, faade

Centro Internazionale di Studidi Architettura Andrea Palladio,Vicenza

Photo Pino Guidolotti

Fig. 4

Andrea Palladio

Plan and section of the

Villa Capra, known as

La Rotonda, Vicenza

Engraving reproduced in IQuattroLibri dellArchitettura

Venice, 1570, II, p. 19

Nymphaeum

In ancient architecture,

a monument consecrated

to the nymphs, especially

those of springs. It was

reintroduced in the

Renaissance as a model

for monumental fountains.

Pediment

A low gable, typically

triangular with a horizontal

cornice, on top of a

colonnade, an end wall, or

a major division of a faade.


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16

VENICE

Palladio soon gained the respect of his Venetian patrons for whom

he wasdesigning villas in the 1550s. Having proven he was not just a

provincial architect, certain members of the Venetian lite turned to

Palladio to introduce a modern style of architecture to Venice. For the

thirty years before Palladios arrival in Venice, the architectural scene had

been dominated by the sculptor and architect Jacopo Sansovino

(14861570), who was the state architect and designer of buildings around

the famous Piazza San Marco. Encouraged by Daniele Barbaro, Giovanni

Grimani commissioned Palladio in 15645 to take over the design of thefaade to Sansovinos San Francesco della Vigna (started 1534; cat. 78).

Palladio was able to resolve some of the inherent conflicts that arise when

trying to unite a classical street faade with a Gothic church structure.

The rejection of Sansovino and the rise to prominence of Palladio signalled

a change in the taste of Venetian high society. There was an emerging

faction, led by such patricians as the Grimani, Barbaro and Foscari families,

Cat. 88

Giovanni Antonio Canal,

called Canaletto

San Giorgio Maggiore

fromthe Bacino di

SanMarco, c. 1740

Oil on canvas

60.5 x 95.1 cm

Manchester City GalleriesPhoto Manchester City Galleries

17

all with close bonds to the Catholic Church, who wanted to see a

modernisation of the Venetian state across all fields, including architecture,

law and the military. Palladios architecture, with its simple, rational

language derived from classical models, was seen as an instrument for this

transformation, where the architecture until that time had been primarily in

brick and in the lavish and ornate Gothic style.

Palladios first major commissions in Venice were for two monastic

buildings: the refectory at San Giorgio Maggiore (1560; cat. 83) and the

convent of the Carit (1561). The Carit, inspired by ancient Roman houses

with its colonnaded atrium, was never fully realised; the completed wingnow forms part of the Gallerie dellAccademia. For the refectory, Palladio

drew upon his studies of the ancient Roman baths and created a

sumptuous sequence of spaces that display his true skill as a scenographer.

The drama was heightened by the placing of Veroneses monumental

Marriage at Cana(1562) on the end wall of the great refectory,

complementing Palladios magnificent volumes.

Cat. 88 With his work at San Giorgio Maggiore, first with the refectory

and then with a church commission in 1565, Palladio embarked upon

the most important projects of his life, working for one of the most

powerful patrons in sixteenth-century Italy, the Benedictine Cassinese

Congregation. As is clearly evident in this painting by Canaletto(16971768), the church of San Giorgio Maggiore, located on the island

of San Giorgio, was and still is one of the most dramatic and beautiful

buildings on the Venetian skyline. The faade and brick body were not

conceived as a whole unit, and although the main body of the church

wasbuilt by1576, the faade was constructed after Palladios death

between 1607 and 1611. The interior is spectacular, with a strong central

axis that enables the interlocking spaces to form a continuous passage

leading to the altar, with spaces to t he side defined by architectural

elements that adjust in scale to suit their purpose. It has recently been

discovered that the original interiors were not white as they are now, but

in fact featured elements painted in a red plaster, something Palladio also

used in the Villa Foscari, calledLa Malcontenta(155758; cat. 71), in thesame period.

Canalettos painting has a companion piece, Church of the Redentore(c.1740; cat. 115),

which is identical in size and depicts another Palladian church. Why do you think a patron

would have wanted two such views?

This period also heralded something new in Palladios architecture,

which can be attributed to his contact with the architecture of

Michelangelo in his later trips to Rome. His buildings became more

expressive with freer planning, introducing colour, gigantic columns and


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Fig. 5

Church of the Redentore,

Venice, interior



Cat. 141 OVERLEAF

Andrea Palladio

Frontal elevation and

sections of the Pantheon

and of a conjectural

reconstruction of the

Bathsof Agrippa,

after1570

Pen, ink and wash

28.6 x 41.75 cm

RIBA Library, Drawings and

Archives Collection, London

projecting spaces. This can be seen with the double-storey pillars, which

stamp the faade of the Palazzo Valmarana in Vicenza (1566; cat. 101),

giving the building a scale and presence in the street not previously

witnessed.

Cat. 141 and Fig. 5 Each year on the third Sunday in July, Venice is

transformed when a pontoon is built across the Giudecca Canal to create

a grand procession leading to the Redentore, in a spectacular celebration

of pomp and ritual known as the Feast of the Redeemer. It commemorates

salvation from the bubonic plaguethat devastated Venice in 1576.The Venetian Senate ordered the Redentore to be built as an ex-voto

(an offering to a saint in g ratitude or devotion). Palladio and Marcantonio

Barbaro, who was instrumental in the formers appointment to the

commission, initially conceived the church as having a circular plan.

When the decision was entrusted to Capuchin monks, who preferred a

longitudinal plan, Barbaro instead commissioned Palladio to design his

private chapel, the Tempietto at Maser, in what he thought to be the perfect

round form (1580; cat. 123). The Capuchins had strict functional

requirements that required different sorts of spaces, with particular

progressions from one to the next. In designing these spaces for the

Redentore, Palladio drew inspiration from his surveys of ancient Rome,

such as the Baths of Agrippa and the Pantheon. The Capuchins alsoinsisted on the use of brick and terracotta rather than marble, even for the

beautiful capitals in the interior of the church.

The full majesty of the proportional system Palladio applied to the

faade of the Redentore can be appreciated when the church is approached

from the front, as during the g reat annual procession. He made the width

and height of the church almost the same and marked the mid-point with

the main pediment. The faade is sculpted in relief with different layers

revealed within the thickness of the wall and he resolved the relation of the

orders of different sizes with absolute clarity. However the maturity of the

whole composition can be seen when approached by vaporetto (water bus)

on the canal, where the union between faade and church body, dome,

tower and roof is evident. The two thinner towers of the Redentore aresimilar to the minarets of a mosque, an idea that may have come from

Marcantonio Barbaro, who had been ambassador to I stanbul, and most

probably introduced Palladio to the work of Mimar Sinan (14891588),

the great Ottoman architect.

What kinds of space does Palladios drawing of the Baths of Agrippa and the Pantheon show?

How do you think these spaces may have influenced his designs for the Redentore?

18

Tempietto

A small temple, as found

in classical architecture.

The term was subsequently

used for a small church or

chapel based on ancient

models.

Capital

The head of a column

or pillar.


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13/14

Vicenzas principal Roman monument [cat. 126]) and Vitruviuss

descriptive texts.

Palladio had been experimenting with theatre design earlier in his

career, with various temporary theatres. However it was not until the Teatro

Olimpico that he was able to fully r ealise his ideals. Unfortunately he never

saw it built; his son Silla had to oversee its construction after his death. The

theatre is spectacular, with a steep, curved bank of seating crowned by a

dramatic colonnade. Palladio created a magnificent classical stage wall,

including stucco statues of the Academicians dressed as ancient Romans.

Into this, Vincenzo Scamozzi (15481616), Palladios follower and rival,inserted a dramatic setstreet scenes with accentuated perspective for

the performance ofThe Seven Roads of Thebesin 1585. These were never

removed and are now an integral part of the building. With the Teatro

Olimpico, Palladio designed one of the most distinctive and evocative

spaces in architectural history, which has become a reference for theatre

designers ever since.

Why do you think the Teatro Olimpico has been such an important reference point for

theatre designers?

Have you seen any theatre designs that it may have influenced?

23

Tuscan

Composite

QUATTRO LIBRI

In 1570, Palladio published his seminal book on architecture, I Quattro Libri

dellArchitettura(The Four Books of Architecture). What made t he book

so remarkable, and led to its wide dissemination and great influence, was

its clear and concise method of communication. Palladio was able to

minimise lengthy text descriptions by accompanying each passage with

a picture illustrating his idea word and drawing working hand in hand.

Each drawing was also presented in a uniform fashion, with every plan

and elevation annotated with dimensions in a standard form of

measurement (a Vicentine foot), rather than mixed within complicatedtext as it had been by those who had published architectural treatises

before him. His training as a stonemason had taught him that it was

crucial that a book of this sort should be without academic pretension

and comprehensible to a builder.

The Four Books gather together all that Palladio had created and

learnt in the preceding three decades. The First Book provides the basic

building blocks: it explains how to prepare a site, lay foundations, and

the materials required; it states the five architectural orders (Tuscan,

Doric, Corinthian, Ionic and Composite); and it outlines all the different

room types, stairs, vaults and windows that can be used. The Second

Book shows how these elements can be combined to realise a building,

and is illustrated by the dwellings he designedincluding all his palazziand villas. The Third Book contains his public buildings and bridges.

The Fourth Bookpresents imaginative reconstructions of ancient Roman

temples, made from his surveys of ruins and readings of Vitruvius, as a way

of illustrating how churches should be built. It is interesting that with these

he includes only one example from modern Rome, namely Bramantes

Tempietto (c. 1502). Thus he provides all the basic knowledge for designing

a building, but does not divulge all his secrets; it takes an architect of great

skill to use this knowledge to make a truly great and original building.

THE TEATRO OLIMPICO

Fig. 6The Teatro Olimpico was Palladios last building and one of his

most remarkable works. Located at the end of the main street of Vicenza,

adjacent to the Palazzo Chiericati, it was built at the behest of the

Accademia Olimpica. Unique at its time for the social mix of its

membership, the Accademia was founded in 1555 by cultivated nobles,

writers and artists, including Palladio. With a revival of interest in ancient

drama, theatre served as a way to comment upon contemporary culture,

society and politics. Palladio made manifest this new role by reviving the

ancient Roman theatre in the design for this building, faithfully bringing

together his studies of the ancient ruins (such as the Teatro Berga,

22

Fig. 6

Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza,

frons scaenae



Corinthian

Ionic

Doric

I also set myself the task

of writing about the

essential principles that

must be followed by all

intelligent men eager to

build well and gracefully,

and beyond that to

illustrate through

drawings many of those

buildings that were

designed by me in

different places, and all

those ancient buildings

I have seen up til now.

Andrea Palladio, Quattro

Libri, 1570


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