Andrea Palladio 

(Italian pronunciation: [anˈdrɛa palˈladjo]; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian[1] architect active in theRepublic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered to be the most influential individual in the history of architecture. All of his buildings are located in what was the Venetian Republic, but his teachings, summarized in the architectural treatise, The Four Books of Architecture, gained him wide recognition.[2] The city of Vicenza and thePalladian Villas of the Veneto are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Biography[edit]

Palladio was born on 30 November 1508 in Padua and was given the name, Andrea Di Pietro della Gondola.[3] His father, Pietro, called "Della Gondola", was a miller. From early on, Andrea Palladio was introduced into the work of building. In Padua he gained his first experiences as a stonecutter in the sculpture workshop of Bartolomeo Cavazza da Sossano, who is said to have imposed particularly hard working conditions. At the age of sixteen he moved to Vicenza where he would reside for most of his life. Here he became an assistant in the Pedemuro studio, a leading workshop of stonecutters and masons. He joined a guild of stonemasons and bricklayers. He was employed as a stonemason to make monuments and decorative sculptures. These sculptures reflected theMannerist style of the architect Michele Sanmicheli.

Perhaps the key moment that sparked Palladio's career was being employed by the Humanist poet and scholar, Gian Giorgio Trissino, from 1538 to 1539. While Trissino was reconstructing the Villa Cricoli, he took interest in Palladio's work. Trissino was heavily influenced by the studies of Vitruvius, who later influenced Palladio's own ideals and attitudes toward classical architecture. As the leading intellectual in Vicenza, Trissino stimulated the young man to appreciate the arts, sciences, and Classical literature and he granted him the opportunity to study Ancient architecture in Rome. [4] It was also Trissino who gave him the name by which he became known, Palladio, an allusion to the Greek goddess of wisdom Pallas Athene and to a character of a play by Trissino. Indeed, the word Palladio means Wise one.[5] After Trissino's death in 1550, Palladio benefited from the patronage of the Barbaro brothers,Cardinal Daniele Barbaro, who encouraged his studies of classical architecture and brought him to Rome in 1554, and his younger brother Marcantonio Barbaro. The powerful Barbaros introduced Palladio to Venice, where he finally became "Proto della Serenissima" (chief architect of the Republic of Venice) after Jacopo Sansovino. In addition to the Barbaros, the Corner, Foscari, and Pisani families supported Palladio's career.[6]

Andrea Palladio began to develop his own architectural style around 1541. The Palladian style, named after him, adhered to classical Roman principles he rediscovered, applied, and explained in his works.[7]

Andrea Palladio is known to be one of the most influential architects in Western architecture. His architectural works have "been valued for centuries as the quintessence of High Renaissance calm and harmony" (Watkin, D., A History of Western Architecture). He designed many palaces, villas, and churches, but Palladio's reputation, initially, and after his death, has been founded on his skill as a designer of villas.[8] The palladian villas are located mainly in the province of Vicenza, while the palazzi are concentrated in the city ofVicenza and the churches in Venice. A number of his works are now protected as part of the World Heritage Site City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto. Other buildings by Palladio are to be found within the Venice and its Lagoon World Heritage Site.

Palladio's first major public project began when his designs for building the loggias for the town hall, known as the Basilica Palladiana, were approved in 1548. He proposed an addition of two-storey stone buttresses reflecting the Gothic style of the existing hall while using classical proportions. The construction was completed in 1617 after Palladio's death.

Aside from Palladio's designs, his publications contributed to Palladianism. During the second half of his life, Palladio published many books, above all, I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura (The four books of architecture, Venice, 1570). Palladio is most known for his designs of villas and palaces as well as his books.

The precise circumstances of his death are unknown. Palladio died in 1580, retold in tradition, in Maser, near Treviso, and was buried in the church of Santa Corona in Vicenza; since the nineteenth century his tomb is located in the Cimitero Maggiore of Vicenza.

Influence[edit]

The front page of I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura (The Four Books of Architecture)

Frontispiece from Colen Campbell's edition of Palladio's First Book of Architecture, published at London, 1728

Although his buildings are all in a relatively small part of Italy, Palladio's influence was far-reaching. One factor in the spread of his influence was the publication in 1570 of his architectural treatise, I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura (The Four Books of Architecture), which set out rules others could follow. The first book includes studies of decorative styles, classical orders, and materials. The second book included Palladio's town and country house designs and classical reconstructions. The third book has bridge and basilica designs, city planning designs, and classical halls. The fourth book included information on the reconstruction of ancient Roman temples. Before this landmark publication, architectural drawings by Palladio had appeared in print as illustrations to Daniele Barbaro's "Commentary" on Vitruvius.[10]

The stonecutter who shook the worldHe rose from humble origins to become one of the greatest architects ever. On the eve of a major show, Jonathan Glancey celebrates the life and legacy of Andrea Palladio

One way or another, most of us have encountered Andrea Palladio. His presence has been, and remains, quietly insistent in our daily lives - even though this great Italian architect was born 500 years ago, almost to the day, and his working life was spent in a relatively contained landscape between his birthplace, Padua, and the scene of some of his greatest triumphs, Venice.

Every building Palladio designed, from a simple farmhouse to his grand monastic churches such as San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, was a gem. Designed inside and out according to a sophisticated play of perfect geometry, each one remains an ideal to live up to. Handsomely crafted, imaginatively sited and bringing the best of classical Roman architecture up to date, his buildings had a profound influence on architecture worldwide.

Such was the compelling nature of their design that, after Palladio's death in 1580, British architects began to create buildings - from modest working-class terraces to magisterial country houses, along with town halls, assembly rooms, churches, inns, farmhouses and follies - that owe the essentials of their design, their proportions and much of their architectural spirit to the one-time Paduan stonecutter destined to become one of the greatest architects of all time.

What drew the Palladians, as these young British architects came to be known, to the master's work was its crystal-clear design, free of the pomp and theatrical circumstance of those architectural styles, especially the lavish baroque that came before an 18th-century revival of Palladianism. Here were classical buildings that seemed ideal for 18th-century, protestant Britain. Palladio showed

how it was possible to shape a form of architecture that seemed almost timeless. Informed by mathematical logic, it was highly practical, rich in terms of its ideas, and lacked any over-elaborate decoration. No wonder the brightest British Modern movement architects of the 1930s were as in awe of Palladio as they were of Le Corbusier. They saw him, if not altogether correctly, as a kind of proto-Modern.

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The work of the Palladians - spearheaded by the Anglo-Irish Earl of Burlington and Colen Campbell, a Scot - became the dominant force in British architecture. They in turn influenced the work of American architects, and by the mid-19th century, examples of Palladian design could be found around the globe, from St Petersburg to Cape Province. Even today, there are architects, notably the father and son team Quinlan and Francis Terry, who continue to work in a tradition descended from Palladio. In fact, the Terrys attract controversy precisely because they insist on pursuing a line of Palladianism, in the design of numerous country houses, as well as major urban shopping and office developments - as if the days of Palladio, or at least his ideals, were still part, parcel and pediment of everyday life.

This month, Palladio's life, work and legacy will be celebrated at the Royal Academy, London, a much rebuilt venue that was once Burlington House, a fine Piccadilly mansion remodelled by Campbell when Palladianism began to oust the English baroque style developed by Christopher Wren. The show, bringing Palladio to a 21st-century audience, will be a feast of drawings, models, photographs and paintings by Old Masters proving that the spirit, if not the exact forms, of purist classical architecture is still relevant today. The exhibition is on tour, having started life last autumn in Palladio's Palazzo Barbaran da Porto in the heart of Vicenza, the northern city he did so much to make his own, with his wonderful buildings lining its streets.

Portraits of Palladio's clients by Tintoretto, Titian and Veronese will be accompanied by original editions of the books Palladio wrote and illustrated, in particular The Four Books of Architecture, his monumentally influential work first published in 1570. Copies of it were reproduced across Europe, the US and beyond in ever cheaper and more available editions. Still readily available, it was The Four Books that arguably did most to spread Palladio's crisp, classical style. He was certainly a great communicator, his writing style echoing his solid, unshowy architectural philosophy. "I will avoid lengthy words," he wrote, "and will make use of those terms which workers commonly use today."

What was it, though, that has drawn so many to Palladio, from Italy, Britain, the US and even, in the 21st century, China? In clinical terms, the answer is that he offered a practical, perfectly proportioned, unpretentious form of classical design that could be pressed into elegant service for many different types of buildings. But the answer chiefly lies within the experience of the buildings themselves. Palladio transformed pure geometry into gracious, useful buildings in carefully considered settings. Stand in a room by Palladio - any formal room will do - and you will experience the feeling, both calming and elevating, of being centred not just in architectural space, but in yourself.

Recently, I stayed in Palladio's Villa Saraceno, a farmhouse in north Italy now in the care of the Berkshire-based charity, the Landmark Trust. What struck me was just how easy it was to live here and how, during a prolonged rainy spell, it was no loss to be holed up in this quietly magnificent building that looks and feels like a Roman temple, despite being a pared-down, almost barn-like workaday farmhouse. With its combination of frescoed public rooms, airy bedrooms, vast kitchens and cavernous rooftop haylofts, it's as much an adventure as a home. And it is a building that clearly demonstrates how Palladio's work should never be confused with the prissy, uptight, oddly proportioned houses described as

"palladian" that continue to be built by house-builders in Britain just because they feature sash windows and pediments.

Inside, Villa Saraceno was all commodity, firmness and delight, easily conforming to those three architectural essentials: well built, beautiful, with intelligent and practical use of space. Any number of 18th-century British houses share something of the special qualities of Villa Saraceno. Its echoes can be detected in the guise of grand, if austere, country seats such as Holkham Hall in Norfolk, and in the thousands of terrace houses that line the streets of Britain. Created in an age of ruthless commerce yet commonplace architectural grace, these are civilised, perfectly proportioned houses we have come to cherish.

Even Villa Capra - one of Palladio's most celebrated designs, with its four temple-like elevations overlooking the countryside around Vicenza, and designed as a salon for wealthy gentlemen to read, admire and discuss art, as well as dine well - has been reproduced several times, more or less successfully, in Britain, beginning with Campbell's high-domed Mereworth Castle in Kent.

This, quite simply, is Campbell's Villa Capra.

Although Palladio's tirelessly inventive buildings tell us much about this brilliant miller's son, who rose on the crest of a wave of inspired patronage, the man himself remains a rather distant figure. What we do know is that the young stonecutter Andrea di Pietro della Gondola was discovered at about the age of 30 by the poet, dramatist, diplomat and architectural patron Giangiorgio Trissino, who took his protege to Rome. There, the young man marvelled at, and drew, antique ruins, and adopted the name Palladio, probably after the angel Palladio, a divine fictional character who saved Italy.

We know, too, that Palladio was popular with local patrons, labourers and craftsmen. The Venetian nobility and clergy took to him, too. He was evidently an unpretentious fellow, marrying a

carpenter's daughter and never buying a house. A spendthrift, he was never wealthy and his sons caused him much grief. One was a convicted murderer.

Even if his later buildings became more mannered and even a little baroque, Palladio was never as chaste a designer as his many disciples in Britain and elsewhere thought. He was, in effect, no Palladian. Many of his buildings, including Palazzo Thiene in Vicenza and Villa Barbaro at Maser, break the Palladians' rules of chasteness. Palladio was less concerned with a specific style than his many followers were; he was far more interested in a reinterpretation of ancient Roman architecture, the eternal notions of harmony and proportion, and the idea that buildings were a practical joy.

His last building, the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, with its magnificent stage-set revealing seven retreating city streets, each an optical illusion, was completed after Palladio's death. Still much in use, it seems an appropriate finale: Palladio was soon to be striding across the world's stage, his architecture a part of the everyday vocabulary of so many cities for ever in his debt.

Behind the apparent simplicity of Palladio's designs is a complex architectural chemistry, beautifully resolved through an innate understanding of proportion and highly crafted and immensely practical building skills. Hopefully, the buildings Palladio built and inspired will continue to serve - and delight - us for the next 500 years and more.

One of his most famous is Villa Capra, also known as the Rotunda, which was modeled after the Roman Pantheon. Palladio also designed the Basilica Palladiana in Vicenza and Villa Foscari (or La Malcontenta) near Venice. In the 1560s he began work on religious buildings in Venice. The great basilica San Giorgio Maggiore is one of Palladio's most elaborate works.

Andrea Palladio is often described as the most influential and most copied architect in the Western world.

 American statesman Thomas Jefferson borrowed Palladian ideas when he designed Monticello, his home in Virginia.

When the American statesman Thomas Jefferson designed his Virginia home, he combined the great European traditions of Andrea Palladio with American domesticity. The plan for Monticello echoes that of Palladio's Villa Rotunda. Unlike Palladio's villa, however, Monticello has long horizontal wings, underground service rooms, and all sorts of "modern" gadgets.Thomas Jefferson added the dome in 1800, creating a space he called the sky-room.The sky-room is just one example of the many changes Thomas Jefferson made as he worked on his Virginia home. Jefferson called Monticello an "essay in architecture" because he used the house to experiment with European ideas and to explore new approaches to building.

Palladio's design for Villa Almerico-Capra expressed the humanist values of the Renaissance period.

Villa Almerico-Capra, or Villa CapraAlso known as The RotundaAndrea Palladio, architectBegun 1550Completed after Palladio's death by Vincenzo ScamozziLocated near Vicenza, ItalyVilla Almerico-Capra, or the Rotunda, is one of more than twenty villas that Palladio designed on the Venetian mainland. Palladio's design echoes the Roman Pantheon.Villa Almerico-Capra is symmetrical with a temple porch in front and a domed interior.

The name Rotunda refers to the villa's circle within a square design.American statesman and architect Thomas Jefferson drew inspiration from Villa Almerico-Capra when he designed his own home, Monticello.

Style Guide: PalladianismPalladianism is a style based on the designs of the 16th-century Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580). Palladio was inspired by the buildings of ancient Rome. In turn, British designers drew on Palladio's work to create a Classical British style. Palladian exteriors were plain and based on rules of proportion. By contrast, the interiors were richly decorated. Palladianism was fashionable from about 1715 to 1760. CharacteristicsColumns

Columns with acanthus leaf capitals at the top (called 'Corinthian') are characteristic of

Palladian design.

Scallop shells

Scallop shells are a typical motif in Greek and Roman art. The shell is a symbol of the

Roman goddess Venus, who was born of the sea, from a shell.

Pediments

Pediments were used over doors and windows on the outside of buildings. They are

also found over inside doors. The design of objects in the Palladian style often

incorporates this sort of architectural element.

Symmetry

Palladian design tends to be highly symmetrical. This means that when a line is drawn

down the middle, each side is a mirror image of the other. Symmetry and balance were

important in the ancient Greek and Roman architecture that inspired Palladianism.

Masks

Masks are faces used as a decorative motif. They are based on examples from ancient

Greek and Roman art.

Terms

Terms are based on free-standing stones representing the Roman god, Terminus. They

consist of a head and upper torso, often just the shoulders, on top of a pillar and were

originally used as boundary markers.

PeopleAndrea Palladio (1508 - 1580)

Palladio was the Italian Renaissance architect whose designs were the main influence

on British Palladianism. His Classical style was based on ancient Roman architecture,

which he studied both through books of theory and the surviving buildings. His Four

Books of Architecture, first published in 1570, contain illustrations and descriptions of

his own architecture, together with Roman buildings that he admired. They were the key

means by which his influence spread.

William Kent (1685 - 1748)

William Kent trained as a painter, but his true talents lay in other directions. While

studying in Italy he met Lord Burlington and on his return to Britain in 1720 became

Burlington's assistant and protégé. He worked initially as an interior decorator, in which

capacity he designed much of the furniture and interiors for Burlington's villa, Chiswick

House. He subsequently worked on many large country houses first on interior

decoration and then on architecture and garden design.

Lord Burlington (1694 - 1753)

Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington was an architect and enthusiastic promoter of

Palladianism and was influential in establishing it as a new national style. He studied the

buildings of Andrea Palladio at first hand in Italy, and had a collection of designs by both

Palladio and Inigo Jones. He designed Chiswick House as an addition to his country

estate. It was based on a villa designed by Palladio.

Buildings and Interiors Chiswick House

Chiswick House was built between 1725 and 1729 for Lord Burlington to his own

designs. The centralised structure and square plan of the villa was inspired by Andrea

Palladio's Villa Rotonda near Vicenza in Italy. Burlington drew on other designs by

Palladio for the entrance portico, the double staircase, windows and internal

arrangement of rooms. The lavishly gilded interior decoration was the work of William

Kent. Burlington and Kent also remodelled the gardens at Chiswick, the small classical

buildings and complicated paths being designed to recall those described in the

literature of antiquity.

www.chgt.org.uk

Wanstead House

Wanstead House (now demolished) was designed by Colen Campbell, an architect and

pioneer of the Palladian style. The design was published in 1715 in Vitruvius

Britannicus, the first architectural book to illustrate modern British buildings. The book

was a plea for 'antique simplicity' and Campbell included examples of his own work,

including his design for Wanstead. The grand entrance portico, the alternately arched

and pedimented windows, the great rough blocks of the basement and the end pavilions

lit by arched 'Venetian' windows at Wanstead were to become key Palladian

architectural features.

Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from and inspired by the designs

of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). That which is recognised as Palladian

architecture today is an evolution of Palladio's original concepts. Palladio's work was strongly based

on the symmetry, perspective and values of the formal classical temple architecture of the Ancient

Greeks and Romans. From the 17th century Palladio's interpretation of this classical architecture

was adapted as the style known as Palladianism. It continued to develop until the end of the 18th

century.

THOSE WHO USE HIS STYLE

Andrea Palladio is often described as the most influential and most copied architect in the Western world.

 American statesman Thomas Jefferson borrowed Palladian ideas when he designed Monticello, his home in Virginia.

When the American statesman Thomas Jefferson designed his Virginia home, he combined the great European traditions of Andrea Palladio with American domesticity. The plan for Monticello echoes that of Palladio's Villa Rotunda. Unlike Palladio's villa, however, Monticello has long horizontal wings, underground service rooms, and all sorts of "modern" gadgets.Thomas Jefferson added the dome in 1800, creating a space he called the sky-room.

The sky-room is just one example of the many changes Thomas Jefferson made as he worked on his Virginia home. Jefferson called Monticello an "essay in architecture" because he used the house to experiment with European ideas and to explore new approaches to building.

INIGO JONES

Early life and career[edit]

Beyond the fact that he was born in Smithfield, London, the son of Inigo Jones, a Welsh cloth worker, and baptised at the church of St Bartholomew-the-Less, little is known about Jones's early years. He did not approach the architectural profession in the traditional way, namely either by rising up from a craft or through early exposure to the Office of Works, although there is evidence that Sir Christopher Wren obtained information that recorded Inigo Jones as an apprentice joiner in St Paul's Churchyard.[2] He appears in the household accounts of the Earl of Rutland in 1603 as "Henygo Jones, a picture maker".[citation needed]

A masque Costume for a Knight, designed by Inigo Jones

Inigo Jones, by Anthony Van Dyck

He is credited with introducing movable scenery and the proscenium arch to English theatre. Between 1605 and 1640, Jones was responsible for staging over 500 performances, collaborating with Ben Jonson for many years, despite a relationship fraught with competition and jealousy: the two had famous arguments about whether stage design or literature was more important in theatre. (Jonson ridiculed Jones in a series of his works, written over a span of two decades.). [3] Over 450 drawings for the scenery and costumes survive, surviving evidence of Jones’s virtuosity as a draughtsman and understanding of Italian set design, particularly that of Alfonso andGiulio Parigi. It is important to understand that there was no conception of such draughtsmanship in England at this time, although it had been the medium used by Italian painters, sculptors and architects for about a hundred years. Around this time, Jones learned to speak Italian fluently and obtained an Italian copy of Andrea Palladio's I quattro libri dell'architettura (first published in 1570): all indicating that Jones made his first formative trip to Italy between 1598–1603, possibly funded by the Earl of Rutland. These drawings of set design and costume reveal an interesting development in Jones's draughtsmanship between 1605 and 1609, initially showing "no knowledge of Renaissance draughtsmanship", then in 1609, exhibiting an "accomplished Italianate manner". [4] This offers potential evidence of a second visit to Italy, circa 1606,[5] influenced by the ambassador Henry Wotton: there is evidence that Jones owned a copy of Andrea Palladio's works withmarginalia that refer to Wotton. His work became particularly influenced by Palladio.[6] To a lesser extent, he also held that the setting out of buildings should be guided by principles first described by ancient Roman writer Vitruvius.

Jones’s first recorded structural work is his monument to Lady Cotton, circa 1608, showing early signs of his classical intentions.[7] Around this time, Jones also produced drawings for the New Exchange in the Strand and the central tower of St. Paul’s Cathedral, displaying a similar practical architectural inexperience and immature handling of themes from sources including Palladio, Serlio

and Sangallo. In 1609, having perhaps accompanied Lord Salisbury's son and heir, Viscount Cranborne, around France, Inigo Jones appears as an architectural consultant at Hatfield House, making small modifications to the design as the project progressed, and in 1610, Jones was appointed Surveyor to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales and in this position, Jones devised a masque for the Prince and was possibly involved in some alterations to St James’s Palace. [8]On 27 April 1613, Jones was appointed the position of Surveyor of the King’s Works and shortly after, embarked on a tour of Italy with the Earl of Arundel, destined to become one of the most important patrons in the history of English art. On this trip, Jones was exposed to the architecture of Rome, Padua, Florence, Vicenza, Genoa and Venice among others. His surviving sketchbook shows his preoccupation with such artists as Parmigianino and Schiavone. He is also known to have met Vicenzo Scamozzi at this time. His annotated copy of Palladio's Quattro libri dell' architecttura also demonstrates his close interest in classical architecture: Jones gave priority to Roman antiquity rather than observing the contemporary fashion in Italy. He was probably the first Englishman to study these Roman remains first hand and this was key to the new architecture Inigo Jones introduced in England.[citation needed]

Architecture[edit]

In September of 1615, Jones was appointed Surveyor-General of the King’s Works, marking the beginning of Jones' career in earnest. Fortunately, both James I and Charles I spent lavishly on their buildings, contrasting hugely with the economical court of Elizabeth I. As the King's Surveyor, Jones built some of his key buildings in London. In 1616, work began on the Queen's House, Greenwich, for James I's wife, Anne. With the foundations laid and the first storey built, work stopped suddenly when Anne died in 1619. Work resumed in 1629, but this time for Charles I’s Queen, Henrietta Maria. It was finished in 1635 and was the first strictly classical building in England, employing ideas found in the architecture of Palladio and ancient Rome. This is Inigo Jones's earliest surviving work. Then, between 1619 and 1622, the Banqueting House in the Palace of Whitehall was built, a design derived from buildings by Scamozzi and Palladio and with a ceiling painted by Peter Paul Rubens. The Banqueting House was one of several projects where Jones worked with his personal assistant and nephew by marriage John Webb.[citation needed]

The Queen's Chapel, St. James's Palace, was built between 1623–1627, for Charles I's Roman Catholic wife, Henrietta Maria. Parts of the design originate in the Pantheon of ancient Rome and Jones evidently intended the church to evoke the Roman temple. These buildings show the realisation of a mature architect with a confident grasp of classical principles and an intellectual understanding of how to implement them. The other project in which Jones was involved was the design of Covent Garden square. He was commissioned by the Earl of Bedford to build a residential square, which he did along the lines of the Italian piazza of Livorno.[9]

The Earl felt obliged to provide a church and he warned Jones that he wanted to economise. He told him to simply erect a "barn" and Jones's oft-quoted response was that his lordship would have "the

finest barn in Europe". In the design of St Paul's, Jones faithfully adhered to Vitruvius’s design for a Tuscan temple and it was the first wholly and authentically classical church built in England. The inside of St Paul's, Covent Garden was gutted by fire in 1795, but externally it remains much as Jones designed it and dominates the west side of the piazza.

The Queen's House at Greenwich

Another large project Jones undertook was the repair and remodelling of St Paul's Cathedral. Between the years of 1634 and 1642, Jones wrestled with the dilapidated Gothicism of Old St Paul’s, casing it in classical masonry and totally redesigning the west front. Jones incorporated the giant scrolls from Vignola and della Porta's Church of the Gesù with a giant Corinthian portico, the largest of its type north of the Alps, but was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. Also around this time, circa 1638, Jones devised drawings completely redesigning the Palace of Whitehall, but the execution of these designs was frustrated by Charles I’s financial and political difficulties.[citation needed]

More than 1000 buildings have been attributed to Jones but only a very small number of those are certainly his work. In the 1630s, Jones was in high demand and, as Surveyor to the King, his services were only available to a very limited circle of people, so often projects were commissioned to other members of the Works. Stoke Bruerne Park in Northamptonshire was built by Sir Francis Crane, "receiving the assistance of Inigo Jones", between 1629 and 1635. Jones is also thought to have been involved in another country house, this time in Wiltshire. Wilton House was renovated from about 1630 onwards, at times worked on by Jones, then passed on to Isaac de Caus when Jones was too busy with royal clients. He then returned in 1646 with his student, John Webb, to try and complete the project. Contemporary equivalent architects included Sir Balthazar Gerbier and Nicholas Stone.[citation needed]

Later life[edit]

Inigo Jones's full-time career effectively ended with the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642 and the seizure of the King's houses in 1643. His property was later returned to him (c. 1646) but Jones ended his days, unmarried, living in Somerset House. He was however closely involved in the design of Coleshill, in Berkshire, for the Pratt family, which he visited with the young apprentice architect Roger Pratt, to fix a new site for the proposed mansion. He died on 21 June 1652 and was subsequently buried with his parents at St Benet Paul's Wharf, the Welsh church of the City of

London. John Denham and then Christopher Wren followed him as King's Surveyor of Works. A monument dedicated to him was destroyed in the Great Fire in 1666.

Legacy[edit]

He was an influence on a number of 18th century architects, notably Lord Burlington and William Kent. There is an Inigo Jones Road in Charlton, south east London (SE7). A bridge in Llanrwst, north Wales named "Pont Fawr" is also known locally as "Pont Inigo Jones" – Inigo Jones's Bridge. He is also said to be responsible for the Masonic Document called "The Inigo Jones Manuscript," from around 1607. A document of the Old Charges of Freemasonry.[10][11]

Elizabeth WilbrahamFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lady Elizabeth Wilbraham - by Sir Peter Lely.

Lady Elizabeth Wilbraham (1632–1705), née Mytton, was a member of the English aristocracy, who traditionally has been identified as an important architectural patron. Recently she is posited to be the first known woman architect, whose work frequently may have been attributed to men. In addition to a dozen family residences and a larger number of churches, as many as 400 buildings may have been designed by her.

Contents  [hide] 

1   Early years 2   Personal life

3   First known woman architect 4   Notable projects 5   See also 6   Notes 7   References

Early years[edit]

Elizabeth Mytton was born into a wealthy family and, aged 19, married Thomas Wilbraham,[1] heir to the Baronetcy of Wilbraham. They went on honeymoon together, travelling throughout Europe. She made this an opportunity to take an extended architectural study tour.

In the Netherlands Elizabeth Wilbraham met architect Pieter Post,[1] creator of the Dutch baroque style of architecture. She studied the works of Palladio in Veneto, Italy and theStadtresidenz at Landshut, Germany.[2]

Personal life[edit]

Little is known about Wilbraham's private life, but private letters were discovered and passed to the Staffordshire Record Office in 2008. These showed Wilbraham's search for suitable husbands for her daughters, Grace and Margaret. According to the marketing executive of the Weston Park Foundation, "The letters explain the importance of a suitable match within the aristocracy of the day. She was certainly a very strong lady and knew what she wanted and how to get it". [3]

First known woman architect[edit]

A 2012 book by historian John Millar claims that Wilbraham is the first known woman architect.[1] Millar says this follows more than 50 years of research into the subject.[2] In 2007 the owners of the stately home, Wotton House, organised a conference to investigate who was the original architect of the building. The conference generated at least two follow-up papers: in 2010 Sir Howard Colvin proposed that John Fitch may have been the original architect, and later the same year, Millar, noting Colvin's paper, proposed Wilbraham as an alternative.[4][5]

During the seventeenth century it was impossible for a woman to pursue a profession and Wilbraham is said to have used male executant architects to supervise construction in her place.[1] She is believed to have designed more than a dozen houses for her family and, because of the inclusion of distinctive and unusual design details, has been put forward by Millar as the designer of 18 London churches (officially attributed to Christopher Wren).[1] Because Wren came late to architecture, Wilbraham has been suggested by Millar as his most likely tutor. [1]

As many as 400 buildings have been suggested by Millar as possible works of Elizabeth Wilbraham. They all generally show similarities with Italian or Dutch architecture.[2]Wilbraham owned a 1663 edition of Palladio's book I Quattro Libri (volume I) and she heavily annotated it.[2]

In the authoritative and encyclopaedic Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 (4th Edn; 2008) by Sir Howard Colvin, however, she is mentioned only once. That notation is as a patroness of architecture.

Notable projects[edit]

Weston Hall , Staffordshire (1671)[6] - sources such as English Heritage attribute the design to Elizabeth Wilbraham, but the executant architect was William Taylor.

Wotton House , Buckinghamshire (rebuilt 1704-1714) - architect unknown, but Wilbraham or John Fitch have been put forward.[2]

Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of BurlingtonFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Right Honourable

The Earl of Burlington

KG PC

3rd Earl of Burlington

Lord High Treasurer of Ireland

In office

25 August 1715 – 3 December 1753

Preceded by The Lord Carleton

Succeeded by Marquess of Hartington

Personal details

Born 25 April 1694

Yorkshire, England

Died 15 December 1753 (aged 59)

Spouse(s) Dorothy Savile, Countess of Burlington and Countess

of Cork

Children Lady Dorothy Boyle,

Charlotte Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington

The Rt. Hon. Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork, KG, PC (25 April 1694 – 15 December 1753), born inYorkshire, England, was the son of The 2nd Earl of Burlington and 3rd Earl of Cork. Burlington was called 'the Apollo of the Arts' and 'the architect Earl', never taking more than a passing interest in politics despite his position as a Privy Counsellor and a member of both the British House of Lords and the Irish House of Lords.

He is remembered for bringing Palladian architecture to Britain and Ireland. His major projects include Burlington House, Westminster School, Chiswick House and Northwick Park.

Contents  [hide] 

1   Life 2   Major projects 3   Marriage and children 4   Gallery of architectural works 5   References 6   External links 7   Further reading

Life[edit]

Lord Burlington was born in Yorkshire into a wealthy Anglo-Irish aristocratic family. Often known as 'the architect Earl', he was instrumental in the revival of Palladian architecture in both Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland. He succeeded to the title and extensive estates in Yorkshire and Ireland at the age of ten. He showed an early love of music. Georg Frideric Handel dedicated two operas to him, while staying at Burlington House: Teseo and Amadigi di Gaula. According to Hawkins, Francesco Barsanti dedicated the six recorder sonatas of his Op. 1 to Lord Burlington, although the dedication must have appeared on the manuscript copies sold by Peter Bressan, before Walsh & Hare engraved the works c. 1727.[1] Three foreign Grand Tours 1714 – 1719 and a further trip to Paris in 1726 gave him opportunities to develop his taste. His professional skill as an architect (always supported by a mason-contractor) was extraordinary in an English aristocrat. He carried his copy of Andrea Palladio's book I quattro libri dell'architettura with him in touring the Veneto in 1719, and made notes on a small number of blank pages. In 1719 he was one of main subscribers in theRoyal Academy of Music, a corporation that produced baroque opera on stage.[2][3]

Portrait of Richard Boyle as a boy, with his sister Lady Jane Boyle, ca. 1700.

Burlington never closely inspected Roman ruins or made detailed drawings on the sites; he relied on Palladio and Scamozzi as his interpreters of the classic tradition. Another source of his inspiration were drawings he collected, some drawings of Palladio himself, which had belonged to Inigo Jones and many more of Inigo Jones' pupil John Webb, which William Kent published in 1727 (although a date of 1736 is generally accepted) as Some Designs of Mr Inigo Jones... with Some Additional Designs that were by Kent and Burlington. The important role of Jones' pupil Webb in transmitting the palladian—neo-palladian heritage was not understood until the 20th century. Burlington's Palladio drawings include many reconstructions after Vitruvius of Roman buildings, which Burlington planned to publish. In the meantime, in 1723 he adapted the palazzo facade in the illustration for the London house of General Wade in Old Burlington Street, which was engraved for Vitruvius Britannicus iii (1725). The process put a previously unknown Palladio design into circulation.

Burlington's first project, appropriately, was his own London residence, Burlington House, where he dismissed his baroque architect James Gibbswhen he returned from the continent in 1719 and employed the Scottish architect Colen Campbell, with the history-painter-turned-designer William Kent for the interiors. The courtyard front of Burlington House, prominently sited in Piccadilly, was the first major executed statement of neo-Palladianism.

Portrait of Burlington

In the 1720s Burlington and Campbell parted, and Burlington was assisted in his projects by the young Henry Flitcroft, "Burlington Harry"— who developed into a major architect of the second

neopalladian generation— and Daniel Garrett— a straightforward palladian architect of the second rank— and some draughtsmen.

By the early 1730s Palladian style had triumphed as the generally accepted manner for a British country house or public building. For the rest of his life Burlington was "the Apollo of the arts" as Horace Walpole phrased it— and Kent his 'proper priest."

In 1739, Lord Burlington was involved in the founding of a new charitable organisation called the Foundling Hospital. Burlington was a governor of the charity, but did not formally take part in planning the construction of this large Bloomsbury children's home completed in 1742. Architect for the building was a Theodore Jacobsen, who took on the commission as an act of charity.

Many of Burlington's projects have suffered, from rebuilding or additions, from fire, from losses due to urban sprawl. In many cases his ideas were informal: at Holkham Hall the architect Matthew Brettingham recalled that "the general ideas were first struck out by the Earls of Burlington andLeicester, assisted by Mr. William Kent." Brettingham's engraved publication of Holkham credited Burlington specifically with ceilings for the portico and the north dressing-room.

Burlington's architectural drawings, inherited by his son-in-law the Duke of Devonshire, are preserved at Chatsworth, and enable attributions that would not otherwise be possible. In 1751 he sent some of his drawings to Francesco Algarotti in Potsdam together with a book on Vitruvius.[4]

Palazzo facade drawn by Andrea Palladio, purchased in Italy by Inigo Jones. Burlington purchased it from the heirs of

Jones' pupil John Webband adapted it for the London House of General Wade. Note thePalladian window.

Colen Campbell's Burlington House as it was in 1855, before a third storey was added

Plate 72, Cross-section of Octagon at Chiswick House, Richard Boyle, 1727 V&A Museum no. 12957:33

Major projects[edit]

(Burlington House, Piccadilly, London): Burlington's own contribution is likely to have been restricted to the former colonnade (demolished 1868) In London, Burlington offered designs for features at several aristocratic free-standing dwellings, none of which have survived: Queensbury House in Burlington Gardens (a gateway); Warwick House, Warwick Street (interiors); Richmond House, Whitehall (the main building);

Tottenham Park , Wiltshire, for Charles, Lord Bruce: from 1721, executed by Burlington's protégé Henry Flitcroft (enlarged and remodelled since). In the original house, the high corner pavilion blocks of Inigo Jones' Wilton were provided with the "Palladian window" motif to be seen at Burlington House. Burlington, with a good eye for garden effects, also designed ornamental buildings in the park (demolished)

Westminster School , the Dormitory: 1722 – 1730 (altered, bombed and restored), the first public work by Burlington, for which Sir Christopher Wren had provided a design, which was rejected in favour of Burlington's, a triumph for the Palladians and a sign of changing English taste.

Old Burlington Street , London: houses, including one for General Wade: 1723 (demolished). General Wade's house adapted the genuine Palladio facade in Burlington's collection of drawings.

Waldershare Park, Kent, the Belvedere Tower: 1725 – 27. A design for a garden eye-catcher that might have been attributed to Colen Campbell, were it not for a ground plan among Burlington's drawings at Chatsworth.

Chiswick House Villa , Middlesex: The "Casina" in the gardens, 1717, was Burlington's first essay. The house he designed for himself was demolished. The villa is one of the gems of European 18th-century architecture.

Sevenoaks School , School House, 1730. Classic Palladian work, commissioned by his friend Elijah Fenton.

The York Assembly Rooms: 1731 – 32 (facade remodelled). In the basilica-like space, Burlington attempted an archaeological reconstruction "with doctrinaire exactitude" (Colvin 1995) of the "Egyptian Hall" described by Vitruvius, as it had been interpreted in Palladio's Quattro Libri.The result is one of the grandest Palladian public spaces.

Castle Hill, Devonshire

Northwick Park , (now Gloucestershire)

Kirby Hall, Yorkshire. An elevation

Giacomo LeoniFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lyme Park, Cheshire designed by Giacomo Leoni. The original Tudor mansion was transformed by Leoni into

an Italian palazzo. The design was altered by English architect Lewis Wyatt's 19th century addition of the box-like

structure surrounding the centre pediment. This squat tower is in place of Leoni's intended cupola.

Giacomo Leoni (1686 – June 8, 1746), also known as James Leoni, was an Italian architect, born in Venice. He was a devotee of the work of Florentine Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti, who had also been an inspiration for Andrea Palladio. Leoni thus served as a prominent exponent of Palladianism in English architecture, beginning in earnest around 1720. Also loosely referred to as Georgian, this style is rooted in Italian Renaissance architecture.

Having previously worked in Düsseldorf, Leoni arrived in England, where he was to make his name, in 1714, aged 28. His fresh, uncluttered designs, with just a hint of baroque flamboyance, brought him to the attention of prominent patrons of the arts.

Contents  [hide] 

1   Early life 2   Works

o 2.1   Lyme Park

o 2.2   Clandon Park o 2.3   Moor Park o 2.4   Miscellaneous works

3   Influence 4   Death and Legacy 5   Notes 6   References

Early life[edit]

Palladio's design for a Basilica as it appeared drawn by Leoni, in his translation of The Architecture of Palladio in

Four Books(3rd. ed. vol. 1, London, 1742, Plate XX).

Leoni's early life is poorly documented. He is first recorded in Düsseldorf in 1708, and arrived in England sometime before 1715. Between 1716 and 1720 he published in installments the first complete English language edition of Palladio's I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura, which Leoni entitled The Architecture of A. Palladio, in Four Books.[1] The translation was a huge success and went into multiple editions in the following years (illustration, left) Despite Leoni's often eccentric alterations to Palladio's illustrations, his edition became a main vehicle for disseminating the essence of Palladio's style among British designers. The direct impact of Palladio's text was upon building patrons,[2] for these expensive volumes were out of the reach of most builders, who could consult them only briefly in a gentleman's library. In 1738 Isaac Ware, with the encouragement of Richard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington, produced a more accurate translation of Palladio's work with illustrations which were faithful to the originals, but Leoni's changes and inaccuracies continued to influence Palladianism for generations.[3]

On the frontispiece of his edition of Palladio, Leoni titled himself "Architect to his most serene Highness the Elector Palatine." This claim, however, remains unsubstantiated.[4]

Leoni followed his Palladian volume with an English translation of Alberti's De Re Aedificatoria ("On Architecture"), the first modern book on the theories and practice of architecture.

Works[edit]

7 Burlington Gardens, later Queensberry House, London. Leoni's first executed design in England, an important

architectural landmark as the first London mansion to be built in a terrace with an "antique temple front."[5]

Giacomo Leoni's principal architectural skill was to adapt Alberti's and Palladio's ideals to suit the landed classes in the English countryside, without straying too far from the principles of the great masters. He made Palladian architecture less austere, and adapted his work to suit the location and needs of his clients. The use of red brick as a building component had begun to replace dressed stone during the William and Mary era. Leoni would frequently build in both, depending on availability and what was indigenous to the area of the site.

Leoni's first commissions in England, though for high-profile clients the Duke of Kent and James, Earl Stanhope, first lord of the Treasury, remained unexecuted. His first built design in England was Queensberry House, 7 Burlington Gardens, for John Bligh, Lord Clifton, in 1721. [4] This was to be an important architectural landmark, as the first London mansion to be built in a terrace with an "antique temple front."[5]

Throughout this career in England, Leoni was to be responsible for the design of at least twelve large country houses and at least six London mansions.[4] He is also known to have designed church monuments and memorials.

Lyme Park[edit]In the early 1720s, Leoni received one of his most important challenges: to transform the great Elizabethan house Lyme Hallinto a Palladian palace.[6] This he did so sympathetically that internally, large areas of the house remained completely unaltered, and the wood carvings by Grinling Gibbons were left intact. In the central courtyard Leoni achieved the Palladian style by hiding the irregularities and lack of symmetry of the earlier house in a series of arcades around the courtyard.

The transformation at Lyme was a success. However, it has been claimed that the central Ionic portico, the focal point of the south front, was a little spoiled later by English architect Lewis Wyatt's 19th-century addition of a box-like structure above its pediment.[7] This squat tower, known as a "hamper," is on the site of Leoni's intended cupola, which was rejected by the owner.

The inner courtyard, and main entrance at Lyme Park. The rusticated walls and bold fenestration evoke a strong

Italian atmosphere, while the manneristarcades, many of them blind, conceal the Tudor irregularities of design.

Leoni reconstructed Lyme in an early form of what was to become known as the Palladian style, with the secondary, domestic and staff rooms on a rusticated ground floor, above which was a piano nobile, formally accessed by an exterior double staircase from the courtyard. Above the piano nobile were the more private room and less formal rooms for the family.

In a true Palladian house (one villa designed by Palladio himself), the central portion behind the portico would contain the principal rooms, while the lower flanking wings were domestic offices usually leading to terminating pavilions which would often be agricultural in use. It was this adaption of the wings and pavilions into the body of the house that was to be a hallmark of the 18th-century Palladianism that spread across Europe, and of which Leoni was an early exponent. At Lyme, while the central portico, resting upon a base reminiscent of Palladio's Villa Pisani, dominates the facade, the flanking wings are short, and of the same height as the central block, and the terminating pavilions are merely suggested by a slight projection in the facade. Thus in no way could the portico be seen as a corps de logis. This has led some architectural commentators to describe the south front as more Baroque than Palladian in style.[8] However, at this early stage his career Leoni appears to have been still following the earlier and more renaissance-inspired Palladianism which had been imported to England in the 17th century by Inigo Jones. This is evident by his use of classical pilasters throughout the south facade, in the same way that Jones had used them, a century earlier, at the Whitehall Banqueting House and Leoni's mentor, Alberti, had employed them at the Palazzo Rucellai in the 1440s. These features, coupled with the heavy mannerist use of rustication on ground floor with segmented arches and windows, is the reason that Lyme appears more "Italian" than many other English houses in the Palladian style and has led to it being described as "the boldest Palladian building in England."[9]

Clandon Park[edit]

Clandon Park, considered by some to be Leoni's masterpiece.[10]

In 1730 Leoni was commissioned by the 2nd Lord Onslow to build what is probably his masterpiece, Clandon Park.[11] The result was a house of "exuberant grandeur and at the same time endearing naivety".[11] This coupling of grandeur and naivety was to become Leoni's own style, as he mixed the Baroque and Palladian styles. Clandon was built of a fiery red brick, with the west front dressed with stone pilasters and medallion ornamentation. The interiors contrasted with the exterior: the huge double-height marble hall is in muted stone colours, to provide a foil for the vibrant colours of the adjoining suite of state rooms. The interiors were altered slightly later in the 18th century, but here the house was fortunate; the changes were made in the style of Robert Adam, so were sympathetic to Leoni's original intentions. The marble hall is considered one of the most imposing 18th-century architectural features in England, as are the magnificent plaster work ceilings. [11] From this point in time the house was largely unaltered, until the 2015 fire. A fire in April 2015 left the house gutted, apart from one room. Much of the architecture, walls, ceilings, floors and historic artifacts that the building housed were destroyed. The house currently remains a shell. [12][13]

Moor Park[edit]

Moor Park during the 1780s when the colonnaded wings were still in situ. Today, the remaining corps de logis is the

club house of a golf course.

Leoni designed Moor Park, Hertfordshire, during the 1720s, assisted by the painter Sir James Thornhill. The commission was received from Bengamin Styles, an entrepreneur later to lose his fortune in the South Sea Bubble.[14] Leoni completely redesigned the house, originally built for the Duke of Monmouth in 1680, giving it a massive Corinthian portico which leads into a vast hall with a painted and gilded ceiling, with a trompe-l'œil dome, painted by Thornhill.[15]

The house was to have similarities with one of Leoni's more ambitious projects, Lathom House. Both were similar in concept toAndrea Palladio's never-built Villa Mocenigo, with great spreading and segmented colonnaded wings embracing a cour d'honneur. Today, the wings have been demolished but the square corps de logis remains.[14]

Lathom House (demolished in 1929) was a truly Palladian house with a large corps de logis, from which spread twin segmented colonnades linking it to two monumental secondary wings of stables and domestic offices. The secondary wings or blocks, each crowned with a cupola, were similar in style to those built by Henry Flitcroft for the Duke of Bedford twenty years later at the far larger Woburn Abbey.[16]

Miscellaneous works[edit]

Lathom House, Lancashire. Built in 1724 forThomas Bootle by Leoni. A Palladian mansion with a rusticated

basement and a flight of steps leading to the piano nobile. Linked by colonnades to secondary wings. The house was

largely demolished in 1929.

Lathom House, Lancashire, the surviving west wing

However, Leoni's clients were not always satisfied, especially when he designed for clients unaware of the intricacies of Palladian architecture. Leoni had been commissioned by Edward and Caroline Wortley to rebuild the decayed Wortley Hall. A magnificent residence arose. However, in 1800, the Wortleys complained they were unable to move in, as the architect had forgotten to build a staircase.[17] One hundred years later, a Duchess of Marlborough made the same complaint against SirJohn Vanbrugh's Blenheim Palace. Both owners had rather missed the point of a house built on a 'piano nobile' design. A piano nobile is the principal floor, usually above a lower floor or semi-basement. It contains all the rooms necessary for the grandees who inhabit the house. It usually consists of a central salon or saloon (the grandest room beneath the central pediment); on either side of the saloon (in the wings) there is often a slightly less grand, withdrawing room, and then a principal bedroom. After that perhaps would follow a smaller more intimate room, a "cabinet". The point both the Duchess and owners of Wortley had failed to grasp was that the owners lived in 'state' on the 'piano nobile' and had no need to go upstairs, hence only secondary/back staircases would reach the floors that were occupied by children, servants and less favoured guests. Indeed, these houses often did have a grand staircase, but it was external—the elaborate flights of stone steps to the main entrance on the piano nobile. From photographs of Wortley Hall, one can see the large, tall windows of the 'piano nobile' on the lower floor, and the much smaller windows of the secondary rooms

above. It did not require a 'grand' staircase'. Wortley Hall survives today as an hotel; the owners still tell the story of the forgetful architect. Among Leoni’s other designs isAlkrington Hall in Middleton, now in Greater Manchester.[18]

Influence[edit]

Leoni's portico ia all that survived a fire at Thorndon Hall. The house was rebuilt by James Paine

Leoni was not the first to import Palladian Architecture to England; that accolade belongs firmly to Inigo Jones, who had designed the Palladian Queen's House at Greenwich in 1616 and the more ornate Banqueting House in Whitehall in 1619. Nor was he the only architect practising the concept during the Palladianism. William Kent designed Holkham Hall in 1734 in the Palladian manner; Thomas Archer was also a contemporary, although his work tended toward the baroque style that had been popular in England prior to the Palladian revival. Palladian architecture was able to flourish in England though, as it was suited to the great country houses being built or re-modelled; because unlike the French, the British aristocracy placed primary importance on their country estates.

For all his work and fame, Leoni did not achieve great financial benefit. It is recorded that in 1734, Lord Fitzwalter of Moulsham gave him £25 to ease his "being in distress.".[19] Later, as Leoni lay dying in 1746, Lord Fitzwalter sent him a further £8 "par charité"[20] He is known to have had a wife, Mary, and two sons, one of whom is "thought" to have been a clerk to the great exponent of Palladianism Matthew Brettingham.[4]

Octagonal Garden Temple, Cliveden by Giacomo Leoni

Leoni did not only design grand mansions. His lesser designs included an octagonal garden temple at Cliveden for Lord Orkney, in 1735;[21]an elegant arch in purest Palladian tradition, at Stowe, for the Marquis of Buckingham; and a Portland stone bridge at Stone Court,Carshalton. Leoni is thought to have designed a new church when working for the 8th Lord Petre at Thorndon Hall, Essex. The original church had been swept away to make room for the new mansion he was designing there.

Today, it is difficult to assess Leoni's works as much has been destroyed. [4] Amongst his country houses, Moulsham, built in 1728, was pulled down in 1816; Bodecton Park, completed in 1738 was razed in 1826 and Lathom, completed circa 1740, was lost like so many other English country

houses in the 20th century. By the early 20th century, the style of Palladianism which Leoni's books and works did so much to promote,[22] was so quintessentially English that the fact that it was regarded as purely Italian at the time of its inception was largely forgotten. So indigenous to England does it seem, that in 1913—a time of huge pride in all things British—Sir Aston Webb's new principal facade atBuckingham Palace strongly resembled Leoni's 'Italian palazzo.'

Leoni's name on the Burdett Coutts Memorial, Old St Pancras Churchyard, London (detail)

Alkrington Hall built in 1736 for Sir Darcy Lever by Giacomo Leoni

Death and Legacy[edit]

Giacomo Leoni died in 1746 and was buried in Old St Pancras Churchyard in London. [4] His name is listed on the 1879 monument erected in that churchyard by Baroness Burdett Coutts amongst the important graves lost.

By the time of his death, Palladianism had been taken up by a whole new generation of British architects working in the classical forms, and was to remain in fashion until it was replaced by the Neoclassical interpretations of such architects as Robert Adam.

His final intended publication, which would have added to an evaluation of his work "Treatise of Architecture and ye Art of Building Publick and Private Edifices—Containing Several Noblemen's

Houses & Country Seats’ was to have been a book of his own designs and interpretations. It remained uncompleted at the time of his death.[4]

VILLAS

Palladian villas of the VenetoFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Palladian villas)

Villa Capra "La Rotonda" in Vicenza. One of Palladio's most influential designs

Villa Godi in Lugo Vicentino. An early work notable for lack of external decoration

The Palladian villas of the Veneto are villas designed by architect Andrea Palladio, all of whose buildings were erected in the Veneto, the mainland region of north-eastern Italy then under the political control of the Venetian Republic. Most villas are protected by UNESCOas part of a World Heritage Site named City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.

The term villa was used to describe a country house. Often rich families in the Veneto also had a house in town called palazzo. In most cases the owners named their palazzi and villas with the family surname, hence there is both a Palazzo Chiericati in Vicenza and a Villa Chiericati in the countryside, similarly there is a Ca' Foscari in Venice and a Villa Foscari in the countryside. Somewhat confusingly there are multiple Villas Pisani, including two by Palladio.

UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1994.[1] At first the site was called "Vicenza, City of Palladio" and only buildings in the immediate area of Vicenza were included. Various types of buildings were represented in the original site, which included the Teatro Olimpico, some palazzi and a few villas. However, most of Palladio's surviving villas laid outside the site. That is why in 1996 the site was expanded, hence "City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto". Its present name reflects the fact that it includes villas designed by Palladio throughout the Veneto.

Contents  [hide] 

1   Villa architecture [2] 2   List

o 2.1   Others 3   References 4   External links

Villa architecture[2][edit]

By 1550, Palladio had produced a whole group of villas, whose scale and decoration can be seen as closely matching the wealth and social standing of the owners: the powerful and very rich Pisani, bankers and Venetian patricians, had huge vaults and a loggia façade realised with stone piers and rusticated Doric pilasters; the (briefly) wealthy minor noble and salt-tax farmer Taddeo Gazzotto in his villa at Bertesina, had pilasters executed in brick, though the capitals and bases were carved in stone; Biagio Saraceno at Finalehad a loggia with three arched bays, but without any architectural order. In the villa Saraceno as in the villa Poiana Palladio was able to give presence and dignity to an exterior simply by the placing and orchestration of windows, pediments, loggia arcades: his less wealthy patrons must have appreciated the possibility of being able to enjoy impressive buildings without having to spend much on stone and stone carving.

Palladio's reputation initially, and after his death, has been founded on his skill as a designer of villas. Considerable damage had been done to houses, barns, and rural infrastructures during the War of the League of Cambrai (1509-1517). Recovery of former levels of prosperity in the countryside was probably slow, and it was only in the 1540s, with the growth of the urban market for foodstuffs and determination at government level to free Venice and the Veneto from dependence on imported grain, above all grain coming from the always threatening Ottoman state, that a massive investment in agriculture and the structures necessary for agricultural production gathers pace. Landowners for decades had been steadily, under stable Venetian rule, been buying up small holdings, and consolidating their estates not only by purchase, but by swaps of substantial properties with the other landowners. Investment in irrigation and land reclamation through drainage further increased the income of wealthy landowners.

The frescoes in the Villa Caldognomain hall depict the different moments of the life in villa at Palladio's age

Palladio's villas - that is the houses of estate owners - met a need for a new type of country residence. His designs implicitly recognise that it was not necessary to have a great palace in the countryside, modelled directly on city palaces, as many late fifteenth-century villas (like the huge villa da Porto at Thiene) in fact are. Something smaller, often with only one main living floor was adequate as a centre for controlling the productive activity from which much of the owner's income probably derived and for impressing tenants and neighbours as well as entertaining important guests. These residences, though sometimes smaller than earlier villas, were just as effective for establishing a social and political presence in the countryside, and for relaxing, hunting, and getting away from the city, which was always potentially unhealthy. Façades, dominated by pediments usually decorated with the owner's coat of arms, advertised a powerful presence across a largely flat

territory, and to be seen did not need to be as high as the owner's city palace. Their loggie offered a pleasant place to eat, or talk, or perform music in the shade, activities which one can see celebrated in villa decoration, for instance in the villa Caldogno. In their interior Palladio distributed functions both vertically and horizontally. Kitchens, store-rooms, laundries and cellars were in the low ground floor; the ample space under the roof was used to store the most valuable product of the estate, grain, which incidentally also served to insulate the living rooms below. On the main living floor, used by family and their guests, the more public rooms (loggia, sala) were on the central axis, while left and right were symmetrical suites of rooms, going from large rectangular chambers, via square middling sized rooms, to small rectangular ones, sometimes used as by the owner as studies or offices for administering the estate.

The owner's house was often not the only structure for which Palladio was responsible. Villas, despite their unfortified appearance and their open loggie were still direct descendants of castles, and were surrounded by a walled enclosure, which gave them some necessary protection from bandits and marauders. The enclosure (cortivo) contained barns, dovecote towers, bread ovens, chicken sheds, stables, accommodation for factors and domestic servants, places to make cheese, press grapes, etc. Already in the 15th century it was usual to create a court in front of the house, with a well, separated from the farmyard with its barns, animals, and threshing-floor. Gardens, vegetable and herbal gardens, fish ponds, and almost invariably a large orchard (the brolo) all were clustered around, or located inside the main enclosure.

Villa Pisani in Bagnolo in the I quattro libri dell'architettura by Palladio (book II)

Palladio in his designs sought to co-ordinate all these varied elements, which in earlier complexes had usually found their place not on the basis of considerations of symmetry vista and architectural hierarchy but of the shape of the available area, usually defined by roads and water courses. Orientation was also important: Palladio states in the Quattro Libri that barns should face south so as to keep the hay dry, thus preventing it from fermenting and burning.

Palladio found inspiration in large antique complexes which either resembled country houses surrounded by their outbuildings or which he actually considered residential layouts - an example is the temple of Hercules Victor at Tivoli, which he had surveyed. It is clear, for instance, that the curving barns which flank the majestic façade of the villa Badoer were suggested by what was visible of the Forum of Augustus. In his book Palladio usually shows villa layouts as symmetrical: he would have known however that often, unless the barns to the left and right of the house faced south, as at the villa Barbaro at Maser, the complex would not have been built symmetrically. An example is the villa Poiana, where the large barn, with fine Doric capitals, was certainly designed by Palladio. It faces south, and is not balanced by a similar element on the other side of the house.

The Power of PalladioLet this 16th century architect help you close the deal.

DECEMBER 2004 | BY JACKIE CRAVEN

The name Palladio may seem obscure to your prospective buyers. After all, he lived more

than four centuries ago, and the homes he built were tailored for wealthy Italian nobility. And

yet, it's hard to imagine an American house that is not shaped by the Renaissance architect.

Andrea Palladio is to architecture what Julia Child is to cooking. He borrowed ideas from the

past, added his own insights, and created a straightforward approach to design that builders

anywhere could follow. In addition to designing some of the most beautiful and most livable

homes of his time, he wrote down detailed "recipes' for home construction. Palladio's writings

were translated into many languages and influenced architects for centuries.

You don't need to be a scholar to talk about Palladio, and your prospective buyers certainly

don't want to listen to a lecture. The most important thing to know is that Palladio showed how

to apply classical principles to private homes. Because of his work, 17th- and 18th-century

homebuilders began imitating ancient buildings like the Roman Parthenon.

In England, a passion for "Palladianism' inspired the kind of elegant country manors you see on

Masterpiece Theatre on PBS. In the United States, Thomas Jefferson modeled his Virginia

residence, Monticello, after buildings by Palladio. Indeed, some of America's most important

buildings, such as the White House and the U.S. Capitol, were influenced by Palladio's ideas.

A dwelling does not need to be palatial in order to be Palladian. The two words aren't related,

and Palladio's theories play an important role in the design of all types of buildings, including

small houses you might dismiss as ordinary. To see the Renaissance architect's influence in

your listings, look for these features:

Symmetrical Floor Plans. Like the great builders of ancient Rome, Palladio

believed that beauty comes from harmony. Our homes, he wrote, should be

proportioned like our bodies, with rooms balanced equally on each side of the

entrance hall. You will find this type of symmetry in a Center Hall Colonial and

many Georgian and Neoclassical homes.

Columns. Since Palladio modeled his work after the great buildings of ancient

Greece and Rome, it's not surprising that he made extensive use of columns. An

assortment of column styles—Corinthian, Ionic, and Doric—were used to support

roofs, frame archways, and divide interior spaces. America's stately Southern

mansions—those multi-columned "Gone with the Wind' houses—are grandiose

examples of Palladian design. Indeed, Palladio's villas are the inspiration behind

the columned porches you see on Greek Revival and Neoclassical houses.

Pediments. A pediment is a triangular shape resembling the gable of an ancient

Grecian temple. The pediment shape is a hallmark of the Greek Revival style, but

you will often see miniature pediments used on a variety of homes. Look for

triangular roofs or ledges over doors, windows, and porticos.

Porticos. A portico is an entry porch with columns. The White House in

Washington, D.C., has a grand, rounded portico, but a portico can be much

smaller. Often it's simply a front stoop that is sheltered by a small pediment.

Today you will find porticos at the entrance to many houses,

fromColonial to Contemporary. In keeping with Palladio's love of balance, the

portico is often placed at the center of the facade, with windows distributed

equally on each side.

Rounded Arches. Wide, rounded arches are as Roman as the Coliseum. Inspired

by ancient architecture, Palladio built arched doorways, windows, and wall

niches. Contemporary designers are following Palladio's lead when they use

arches to soften the passageways between rooms. Arched windows and doorways

appear on many houses, but you will especially notice this feature on Spanishand

Mediterranean style homes.

Palladian Windows. Named after the Renaissance master, a Palladian window

combines the pleasing arched shape with a keen sense of symmetry. A tall

window rounded at the top is flanked by two smaller rectangles. You'll most often

see a Palladian window on the second story, directly above the front entrance.

This type of window is characteristic of the Federal style, but has been widely used

on other homes from Victorian to modern times. Upscale new homes sometimes

have oversized floor-to-ceiling Palladian windows.Every Home Is a Castle

Palladio's legacy is not limited to decorative flourishes. Architectural historians say that he set

the standard for home designers. By drawing upon classical principles, he showed how to build

efficient, economical dwellings that were as awe-inspiring as temples and palaces. In other

words, Palladio promoted the idea that our homes are our castles. And, that's an idea every

prospective homebuyer wants to hear.