Palladian window.........................Illustrated Architecture Dictionary
Andrea Palladio
Frontispiece, Volume I, The Architecture of A. Palladio, third edition by Giacomo Leoni, London, 1742.
Andrea Palladio, 1508-1580, an Italian Renaissance architect.Palladio was born in Padua in 1508, of humble family, but grew up in Vicenza. He was originally trained as a sculptor (a not unusual thing for Renaissance architects) and as a stone mason. A generous patron, Count Giangiorgio Trissino, took him to Rome in 1541 where he turned to the study of ancient buildings. He published the first scholarly guide book to classical Rome in 1554.
Most of his life he spent in Vicenza. He built churches, town and country houses, public buildings and bridges in Venice and on the Venetian mainland and in and around Vicenza. He died in Vicenza in 1580.
Palladio's work is indebted the Roman architect Vitruvius (The Ten Books on Architecture) and Leon Battista Alberti ( De Re Aedificatoria).
Palladio ranks among the most influential architects of all time, primarily because of his 4-volume book, The Architecture of A. Palladio, first published in 1570, ten years before his death. A second edition followed in 1581, a year after his death, another in 1601, and so on in remarkable succession.
- A Sampling of Drawings from Andrea Palladio's The Four Books of Architecture
- Temple of Fortuna, Book IV, plates XXXV-XXXVII, The Architecture of A. Palladio, third edition by Giacomo Leoni, London, 1742. This Roman temple was a source for the decoration of Jefferson's bedchamber.
- Two photos: Villa Rotunda (Villa Capra) Perhaps Palladio's most influential building
- Five examples of Palladio's villas
- Andrea Palladio: Biographical Highlights
- Andrea Palladio (Great Buildings)
England: In England, Inigo Jones (1573-1652) imported Palladianism and helped usher in the Renaissance.Palladio's buildings ("Palladianism") were used as models in England in the early 18th century by Lord Burlington and Colen Campbell
America: Palladio's books influenced American architecture in the late 18th century in America, as promoted by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson owned five editions of Palladio's Four Books of Architecture. Jefferson's Monticello and the University of Virginia are two examples of Palladian influence. See Classical Revival / Jeffersonian Classicism / Roman ClassicismTwo examples of early Palladian Georgian buildings are the Governor's Palace (1706-1714) in Williamsburg, Virginia, and Drayton Hall (1738-42) near Charleston, S.C.
In Buffalo, an example of Georgian Revival patterned after Palladian models is Lockwood Library on the UB campus.
