Palladio

Palladio, ANDREA, Italian architect, was born at Vicenza, 30th November 1518. After studying the writings of Vitruvius and the monuments of antiquity at Rome, he settled in his native city, and soon acquired a high reputation throughout the country from his designs for numerous buildings in Vicenza and the neighbourhood. He is the most conspicuous of the architects who, following Brunnelleschi, led the way in establishing the modern Italian school of architecture, as distinguished from the earlier Italian Style (q.v.) of the Renaissance. His style, known as the Palladian, is modelled on the ancient Roman as apprehended by Vitruvius, reproducing its dignity and strict proportions, but often to the neglect of usefulness; and his buildings are constantly encumbered by a superfluity of pilasters and columns, broken entablatures, and inappropriate ornament, even where there is real beauty of detail. The palaces Barbarano, Della Ragione, Chierigati (now the Museo Civico), Tiene, and the Olympic theatre at Vicenza; the country mansions of Capra, Maser, and Rotunda in the vicinity; and the churches of San Giorgio Maggiore and Il Redentore, the façade of San Francesco della Vigna, and several palaces, in Venice, are his greatest achievements. He died at Vicenza, 19th August 1580. Palladio wrote a work on architecture (I quattro Libri dell' Architettura, 1570, and often reprinted) which had a great influence upon the styles of his successors, especially upon Inigo Jones, the 'English Palladio,' whose notes on the book are published in Leoni's Eng. trans. (1715). The term Palladian was, indeed, long practically synonymous with the beautiful and perfect in architecture. Recent Lives (in Italian) are those by Zanella (1880) and Barichella (1880).