ANDREA PALLADIO

1.0 Introduction Andrea Palladio is the one of the famous architect who comes from Vicenza. In 1570 Palladio had The Four Books of Architecture printed, in which he took stock of a 40-year career filled with extraordinary creations. On the tables, the villas and the palazzi appear just like the architect had meant them to be, perfect, not spoilt by compromises sometimes imposed by the nature of the place or by already existing buildings, and sumptuous, as they could not always be realized, due to the shortage of funding or other negative circumstances. Palladio's heritage does not have equals in the history of western architecture, and maybe was even the greatest of all architects. His treatise was reprinted many times and translated in several languages, so as to amplify his message and to spread the Palladian style all over the world, from America to New Zealand, beyond the temporal perspectives the author could have imagined. The writing style is immediate and precise and matches the author's character, which the chronicles of his time described as a well-educated and pleasant man. The details of his descriptions reveal an extraordinary mastery of the subject, both in the material aspects he had learnt during his long years of training as apprentice first and as master builder later, and in his overall views, which took shape in the sight of the masterpieces of classical architecture.

Michelangelo was an introvert and impulsive artist, Leonardo was a prodigy. Palladio was a balanced and measured man, and these qualities shine also through his portraits, which show an extraordinary sense of proportion and space ratios. This is the unique combination that made him a genius. But above all he was a serene person, and his serenity was the impetus of this art and the winning feature in the challenge every artist puts out to time.

2.0 Biography Andrea Palladio was born on November 30, 1508 in Padua, the Republic of Venice. He was died in August 1580. His originally named is Andrea di Pietro della Gondola and he was named Palladio by the Italian poet and patron Gian Giorgio Trissino, who was saw Palladios architectural studies. Palladio moved to Vicenza in his early twenties to Vicenza where he would reside for most of his life. Trissino took Palladio to Rome, where Palladio studied and measured Roman architectural ruin and he also studied the treatises of Vitruvius, one of the most important of the Roman architects. At Vicenza 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 the Manneris style of the architect Michele Sanmicheli. Palladio was the first architect to recognise that humble buildings such as barns and bridges were as worthy of architectural design as villas and palaces. He also asserted that any building could be beautiful without using expensive materials. His book and his buildings demonstrate his 2

profound understanding of classical architecture while the subtle harmony of his plans and elevations were comprehensible to country builders as well as wealthy clients. Andrea Palladio began to develop his architectural style around 1541. The Palladian style named after him, adhered to classical Roman principles he rediscovered, applied, and explained in his works. Andrea Palladio is known to be one of the most influential architects in 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. The Palladian villas are located mainly in the province of Vicenza, while the palazzi are concentrated in the city of Vicenza and the churches in Venice. A number of his works are now protected as part of the World of Heritage 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.

3.0 Buildings 3.1 Villa Barbaro Villa Barbaro also known as Villa di Maser. It is a large villa at Maser in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the one of Palladios most magnificent and influential designs. Palladio planned the villa on low lines extending into a large park. The ground floor plan is complex rectangular with perpendicular rooms on a long axis, the central block projects and contains the principal reception room. The central block, which is designed to resemble the portico of a Roman temple, is decorated by four Ionic columns, a motif which takes its inspiration from the Temple of Fortuna Virilis in Rome. The central block is surmounted by a large pediment with heraldic symbols of the Barbaro family in relief.

Figure 3.1.1: Villa Barbaro Plan

Figure 3.1.2: Floor Plan in Villa Barbaro The central block is flanked by two symmetrical wings. The wings have two floors but are fronted by an open arcade. Usually Palladio designed the wings to provide functional accommodation for agricultural use. The Maser estate was a fairly small one and would not have 4

needed as much storage space. The wings are terminated by pavilions which feature large sundials set beneath their pediments. The pavilions were intended to house dovecotes on the uppermost floor, while the rooms below were for wine-making, stables and domestic use. In many of Palladio's villas similar pavilions were little more than mundane farm buildings behind a concealing faade. A typical feature of Palladio's villa architecture, they were to be much copied and changed in the Palladian architecture inspired by Palladio's original designs.

Figure 3.1.3: Section and details

Figure 3.1.4: Villa Barbaro

3.2 Basilica Palladiana Another building was designed by Andrea Palladio is the Basilica Palladiana. Basiclica Palladiana is a Renaissance building in the central Piazza de Signori in Vicenza, northeastern Italy. The most significant feature of the building is the piazza, which shows one of the first examples of that to be known as the Palladian window. The building was originally constructed in the 15th century and was known as the Palazzo della Ragione. The building was the seat of government and also housed a number of shops on the ground floor. When part of the building collapsed in the sixteenth century, the Council of One Hundred commissioned many architects to submit designs and selected Palladio to reconstruct the building in April 1549. Palladio added a new outer-shell of marble classical forms, a loggia and a portico that now obscure the original Gothic architecture. The name Basilica, by the way, comes from Palladio himself. In the 16th century Basilica did not refer to church, but rather to a meeting room and courtroom. Its a marvel to witness the huge scale of the imposing building from the inside. The large hall on the first floor gives a good impression of the size of the building. Temporary exhibitions take place here which can be visited. The Basilica was an expensive project and took a long time to complete. Palladio received an income for the work during most of his life. Only in 1614, in thirty years after his death they did the building stand complete.

Figure 3.2.1 Basilica Palladiana in the night view

Figure 3.2.2: Clock Tower of Basilica Palladiana know as Torre Bissara

3.3 Teatro Olimpico (Olympic Theatre) The Teatro Olimpic is the theatre in Vicenza, northern Italy. It is widely considered the first example of covered theatre of the Modern Age. The theatre was commissioned in 1580 by the 7

Vicenza Academia Olimpica ("Olympic Academy") for the eastern part of the city. Construction began that year, and the building was inaugurated on March 3, 1585, after the completion of the famous scenes by Vincenzo Scamozzi. These are the sole Renaissance structures of that kind to have survived until contemporary times. Together with other Palladian buildings in Vicenza, the theatre is included in the UNESCO World Heritages Sites list. Palladio created a magnificent classical stage wall, including stucco statues of the Academicians dressed as ancient Romans. Inside an exterior brick box, the elaborate wooden theater interior is a half circle of steep tiers of seats (wood covered benches) facing a rectangular proscenium stage. A wooden colonnade with cornice and figures above circles the top of the seats. The ceiling plane is undifferentiated and was later painted blue, suggesting an open sky above the theater. The walls and ceiling of the proscenium are elaborately articulated with architectural details and statues, made of wood and plaster. A central arched opening dominates the back wall, flanked by two smaller doorways. Through these openings, elaborate stage sets of streets angle backstage, a triad through the central opening and single streets through each side. These sets, designed later by Scamozzi, and use the techniques of tilting the floors and contracting the angle between the street walls and the heights of their building facades to make foreshortened streets in perspective. 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.

Figure 3.3.1 Floor Plan of Teatro Olimpico 8

Figure 3.3.2: Inside view of Teatro Olimpico

Figure 3.3.3: Teatro Olimpico facade

4.0 Andrea Palladio: His Career Timeline Palladio and his Career Year 1414 Related Publications and Events Poggio Bracciolini discovers at the monastic library of St. Galen in Switzerland a medieval manuscript copy of De architectura, a treatise written by the Roman architect Vitruvius in the first century A.D.

Jean-Jacques Boissard: Poggio Bracciolini 1452 Leon Battista Alberti, De re aedificatoria [Ten books on architecture] (Florence), published posthumously.

Leon Battista Alberti 1483 Vitruvius, De architectura libri decem [Ten books on architecture] (Rome: Fra Giovanni Sulpitius, 1st printed ed.).

Andrea di Pietro dalla Gondola [Andrea, son of Pietro of the gondola], later to be known as Andrea Palladio, is born in Padua on 30 November, St. Andrea's Day. His godfather is Vincenzo Grandi, a Vicenza sculptor who also worked in Padua.

1508

Andrea Palladio

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1511

Andrea is apprenticed to Bartolomeo Cavazza, a stonecutter in Padua. Andrea breaks his apprenticeship contract and moves to Vicenza to join his family, which has moved there. Cavazza brings him back to Padua. Andrea parts with Cavazza and enrolls in Vicenza guild of stonemasons. He trains under Giovanni da Porlezza, an architect-builder, and Girolamo Pittoni, a sculptor, who together own the Pedemuro workshop.

1521

Vitruvius, De architectura, (Venice: 1st illustrated ed.). Edited by Fra Giovanni Giocondo, who probably supplied the illustrations.. Vitruvius, De architectura (Como: 1st Italian ed.). Translation and commentary primarily by Cesare Cesariano.

1523

1524

Alvise Cornaro constructs in the courtyard of his palace in Padua a loggia designed by Giovanni Maria Falconetto in theall'antica style.

1527

Rome is sacked by forces of the Holy Roman Emperor. Several prominent figures relocate from Rome to the Veneto, including sculptorarchitect Jacopo Sansovino to Venice; architect Micheli Sanmicheli to Verona and Venice, architect-writer Sebastiano Serlio to Venice, and literary figure Giangiorgio Trissino to Vicenza.

Vincenzo Catena: Giangiorgio Trissino 1531 The Pedemuro workshop, commissioned by Francesco Godi, erects a portal with classical elements for the church of Santa Maria dei Servi, near the central piazza of Vicenza.

Andrea marries Allegradonna, the daughter of a carpenter. Her dowry is provided by Angela Poiana, a Venetian noblewoman in whose household she served. They will have five children: Leonida (an architect who worked with his father), Marc'antonio

1534

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(who worked with the sculptor Alessandro Vittoria in Venice), Orazio (who studied law in Padua), Zenobia (wife of a goldsmith in Vicenza) and Silla (who, as secretary of the Accademia Olimpico, supervised completion of the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, after his father's death). The Pedemuro workshop 1534executes the high altar of the 1536 cathedral of Vicenza, with a combination of classical and Venetian elements, possibly to Palladio's design. The Pedemuro workshop installs 1536 a classical doorway, probably to Palladio's design, for the Domus Comestabilis in Vicenza, leading from the Basilica to the residence of the Venetianpodest [governor]. Andrea probably meets 1536- Giangiorgio Trissino rebuilds his villa in Giangiorgio Trissino for the first 1537 Cricoli, outside Vicenza, after Sebastiano time while the Pedemuro Serlio's drawing of an alternative garden workshop is working on facade which Rafael had designed for Villa Trissiono's villa at Cricoli. Madama in Rome. Andrea leaves the Pedemuro workshop but receives through them his first major commission, to design Villa Godi in Lonedo di Lugo. 1537 Sebastiano Serlio, General rules on architecture [Fourth Book on architecture] (Venice). The first volume published in a projected series of seven. Jacopo Sansovino works on the upper gallery of the cathedral in Vicenza.

1538 Andrea moves temporarily to 1538Padua with Giangiorgio Trissino. 1540 While there he meets Alvise Cornaro, likely sees in construction the Bastion Cornaro designed by Michele Sanmicheli, and may meet his future patrons Giorgio Cornaro and Daniele Barbaro, who are both present there at that time.

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Andrea returns briefly from Padua to Vicenza in February 1539 to attend a theatrical performance staged in a wooden theater designed by Sebastiano Serlio for the courtyard of Palazzo Colleoni Porto, which influenced the subsequent founding of the Accademia Olimpica. Andrea for the first time appears 1540 in some documents as 'Palladio' and begins to use the title architect. Palladio designs Palazzo Civena in Vicenza. Palladio visits Rome for the first time, from early in the year until autumn, accompanied by Giangiorgio Trissino. Palladio designs Villa Valmarana at Vigardolo Palladio designs Villa Gazzotti in Marcello Curti in Bertisima with his first templ- style pediment. 1541

Sebastiano Serlio, Delle Antichit [Third book on architecture] (Venice).

Torello Sarayna, De origine et amplitudine civitatis Veronae(Venice), a book on Verona antiquities. Serlio moves to Fountainbleau as a consultant to the French king.

Villa Gazzotti 1541- Michele Sanmicheli visits Vicenza for 1542 consultation on the Basilica, staying with Giovanni da Porlezza of the Pedemuro workshop. Palladio designs Villa Pisani at 1542 Bagnolo, his first commission for a patrician family of Venice.

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Giulio Romano visits Vicenza as a paid consultant for the Palazzo della Ragione (Basilica) project.

Titian: Giulio Romano Palladio begins designing Palazzo Porto in Vicenza. Palladio performs his first public commission as Vicenza's city architect. With support from Giangiorgio Trissino, Palladio constructs a temporary architectural stage set with triumphal arches and pediments in the all'antica style to celebrate the arrival into Vicenza of Cardinal Bishop Niccol Ridolfi. Palladio visits Rome for the second time, from September until February of following year, accompanied by Giangiorgio Trissino.

1543

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Palladio designing Palazzo Festa.

da

begins Porto

1545

Palladio and Giovanni da Porlezza of the Pedemuro workshop submit a proposal forthe Basilica loggia project.

1546

Palazzo da Porto Festa (detail) Leon Battista Alberti, Ten books on architecture, 1st Italian ed. (Venice).

Palladio visits Rome for the third time, from March until July of following year, accompanied by Giangiorgio Trissino. While there he may have designed the ciborium in the church of Santo Spirito in Sassia. Upon Giulio Romano's death, Palladio assumes supervision of the construction of Palazzo Thiene, which was begun in 1542, and modifies some of Romano's design for it; construction is suspended before completion. Palladio travels to Albano, Tivoli 1547 and Palestrina. Palladio designs Villa Caldogno. 1548 Palladio designs Villa 1548Saraceno in Finale andVilla 1549 Poiana in Poiana Maggiore. Palladio is commissioned to 1549 construct the loggias of Vicenza's Palazzo della Ragione, known as theBasilica. 15

Palladio visits Rome for the fourth time, possibly to advise on St. Peter's Basilica. He probably views Sangallo the Younger's recent giant model of it. Palladio designs a bridge spanning the Cismon River at Bassano del Grappa.

1550

Bridge over the Cismon River, Bassano del Grappa (reproduction) John Shute travels to Italy, upon commission by the Duke of Cumberland, to research architecture. Giangiorgio Trissino dies. Palladio begins designing Villa Cornaro in Piombino Dese (his second villa for a Venetian patrician), Villa Pisani in Montagnana, Palazzo Chiericati in Vicenza, and Palazzo della Torre in Verona. 1551

Villa Cornaro, Piombino Dese Palladio unsuccessfully seeks appointment asproto, chief architect, of the Salt Magistracy in Venice. Palladio visits Rome for the fifth time, accompanied by [Pirro?] Ligorio and Daniele Barbaro. He probably writes his two guidebooks on this trip, Lantichit di Roma between February and July and Descrizione delle chiese di 1554

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Roma thereafter. Palladio participates in first Rialto Bridge project. Pietro Cateneo of Siena, I quattro primi libri d architettura (Venice)

Palladio designs Villa Mocenigo at Dolo and Villa Chiericati at Vancimuglio (his first villa with a 'Greek templefront' motif)

Villa Chiericati, Vancimuglio Anton Francesco Doni in his Seconda Libraria mentions that Palladio has drafted an architectural treatise: 'The book is untitled, but from what one can learn from it, [it] could be called 'the norms of true architecture.' Palladio submits a model for a stairway at the Doge's Palace in Venice. Palladio and others submit plans for replacing the Rialto Bridge. 1555

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Palladio designs Villa Badoer in Fratta Polesina.

Villa Badoer, Fratta Polesine Palladio designs Palazzo Antonini in Udine. Palladio designs the Arco Bollani, an arched gateway in Udine. 1555 1556

Arco Bollani, Udine Palladio joins in founding the Accademia Olimpico in Vicenza. Daniele Barbaro confirms Doni's description of Palladio's text and adds that Palladio has included drawings and comments on the structures he had planned and built.

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Palladio supplies illustrations for Daniele Barbaro's Italian language edition of Vitruvius (and the Latin edition in the following year).

Giorgio Vasari probably views Palladio's original manuscript during his visit to Venice. He uses it freely in writing Palladio's profile in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architect. Palladio designs Villa Barbaro in Maser, incorporating remnants of an earlier structure, andVilla Repeta in Campiglia.

Villa Barbaro, Maser Palladio designs Villa Foscari (La Malcontenta) on the Brenta and Villa Zen in Cessalto. 1558

Villa Foscari (La Malcontenta) Palladio designs a faade for the Church of San Pietro in 19

Castello, the patriarchal cathedral of Venice. Palladio receives his first commission for a work in Venice: completion of the refectory for the Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore. Palladio designs Villa Emo in Fanzolo.

1560

Villa Emo, Fanzolo Palladio designs a faade for Palazzo Schio in the Ponte Pusterla section of Vicenza. Palladio designs the convent of Santa Maria della Carit in Venice Palladio designs the first of his three temporary theaters, with others following in 1562 and 1565. 1562 Giacomo Barozzi Vignola, La regola delli cinque ordini dell' architettura (Rome).

1561

Palladio designs a faade for church of San Francesco della Vigna in Venice. Palladio designs Villa Valmarana at Lisiera.

1563

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John Shute, First & chief groundes of architecture (London).

Palladio submits unsuccessful design for second Rialto Bridge competition in Venice. Palladio designs the rebuilding of the church ofSanta Lucia in Venice. Palladio designs the church of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice.

1565

Palladio designs Villa Sarego at Santa Sofia. Palladio designs Palazzo Valmarana in Vicenza. Palladio travels to Turin at the invitation of Emanuele Philiberto, Duke of Savoy, who had moved his capital there four years earlier and launched a series of building projects.

1566

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Palladio designs Villa Almerigo c1566 [La Rotonda]near Vicenza.

Palladio critiques a model created by Lodovico Beretta for a proposed new cathedral in Brescia. Palladio designs Palazzo Barbaran da Porto in Vicenza. At the request of Martino Bassi, Palladio and others comment on a design controversy involving Milan Cathedral. Palladio publishes I quattro libri dell'architettura[Four Books on Architecture] (Venice: Domenico de' Franceschi).

1567

Villa Almerigo (La Rotonda), Vicenza Pietro Cateneo, L'architettura di Pietro Cataneo Senese (Venice).

1570

Later Italian editions of I quattro libri published in 1581, 1601, 1616, 1642, 1711 (with L'Antichit di Roma), 174048 (G. Fossati ed. with Muttoni annotations), 1768 (reprinted 1780), 1769 (Fossati-Muttoni), 1791 (Books 1-3 only), 1800 22

(FossatiMuttoni), 1945 (reprinted 1951, 1968, 1976, 1980), 1979, 1980 and 1992. Palladio moves to Venice. Palladio designs Loggia del Capitaniato in Vicenza.

1571

Loggia del Capitaniato, Vicenza Palladio designs Palazzo Porto Breganze in Vicenza. Palladio's sons Leonida and Orazio die. Palladio unsuccessful to proposes a design for the faade of the church of San Petronio in Bologna. El Greco paints (probably) Palladio's portrait, now in Royal Museum in Copenhagen. (Another apparent portrait of Palladio, attributed to Magagno, is now owned by the Valmarana family). Silvio Belli, Treatise on proportion (Venice). Palladio designs a 1574 temporary triumphal arch and loggia for the Lido to welcome Henry III, king of France, on his state visit to Venice. Palladio publishes I commentari 1574di C. Giulio Cesare (Venice). 1575 1575 The second great plague epidemic attacks Venice. 1575 Alessandro Farnese transcribes a series of drawings from Palladio's I quattro libri.

1572

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Palladio plans church of Il Redentore [the Redeemer] in Venice.

1576

Il Redentore, Venice Palladio (prob.) designs Valmarana Chapel in the Church of Santa Corona. Palladio consults on restoring/rebuilding the Doge's Palace in Venice after the fire in 1577. Palladio proposes additional designs for the faade of San Petronio in Bologna. Palladio prepares 43 illustrations for a new edition of Polybius' History. Palladio addresses letter of dedicaton to Francesco de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, but the book is never published. Palladio designs the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza.

1577

1578

1580

. Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza 24

Palladio designs the Tempietto for Villa Barbaro at Maser. Palladio dies at Maser August 19.

Giuseppe de Fabris: Funeral monument of Andrea Palladio (1845) Palladio's surviving sons, Marc'Antonio and Silla, work to complete an expanded edition of I quattro libri dell'architettura with a fifth part which Palladio himself had begun, but the project is never finished. 1581

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5.0 Conclusion Palladios influence has been felt across the Western world, firstly in Europe and then in America. The third American President and architect Thomas Jefferson turned to Palladio for the new countrys private and public architecture, as did Catherine the Great with the architect Giacomo Quarenghi in late eighteenth-century Russia. But it was the English, firstly with Inigo Jones and later Lord Burlington and others, who embraced Palladio with the greatest enthusiasm. They took up his legacy, finding him a suitable source particularly when requiring a less extravagant architecture suitable for a new class of rich merchants and gentry. It was Inigo Jones who, having met Scamozzi in Vicenza, and so having the opportunity to come to know Palladio through his pupil, brought the masters drawings to England. His own design for the Banqueting House, Whitehall, is an exemplar, as it captures both the language as well as the spirit of Palladio. Burlingtons Chiswick House, and even the Royal Academys own Burlington House, is all indebted to Palladio, as are buildings across the country. Palladio brought together the theory and practice of architecture, forging a new architectural language informed by a profound understanding of classical architecture. He created a formula and set of principles that could be applied across building types, giving equal attention to the creation of beautiful villas, barns and palazzi. For these reasons it is not just the architects who follow his style that have found Palladio so worthy of study. The famous twentieth-century modernist architect Le Corbusier learnt much from him and Palladio continues to be a source of inspiration and the focus of admiration for architects today. As Daniele Barbaro predicted, Palladio constructed many superb buildings in his native city, and elsewhere, which rival the ancients, illuminate the moderns, and will appear marvelous to future generations.

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