Palladio
Survey Course I/2012 Week 10 “Uomo Universale”: Palladio, and his Villa Buildings/places referred to: La Rotonda (presently called Villa Capra; also referred to as Villa Almerico or Valmarana), Vicenza. Architect: Andrea Palladio; begun 1556 Terminology: broken pediment: Classical pediment that has a gap in the middle of the lower (horizontal) cornice and with raking cornice stopping before they can meet giant order: columns that rise more than one storey thermal window: semi-circular window, usually subdivided my two or more mullions hexastyle: consisting of six columns villa: a country residence usually situated within an estate villa urbana or pseudo-urbana: a house in the country that more or less has interior plans that correspond to those typically found in town houses (palazzi) People: Andrea Palladio, 1508-1580, treatise: Four Books on Architecture, 1570 Vitruvius: (Marcus Vitruvius Pollio); Roman architect and military engineer; wrote a ten-volume treatise on architecture called, unsurprisingly, De architectura, 1st century BC Giangiorgio Trissino, 1478-1550: Palladio’s mentor; a playwright and poet as well as humanist scholar Bibliography: Kostof: 468-483 Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism, by R. Wittkower, Part III (Palladio) Palladio, by James S. Ackerman, pp. 36-159 Palladio and Palladianism, by Robert Tavernor, pp. 11-105 Palladio, I Quattro libri dell’architettura (Four Books). This is an electronic resource in the UCD library Vitruvius, Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture (Book IV, Chapter VII: ‘Tuscan Temples’. Here is a good link for Vitruvius: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/vitruvius/home.html Quotes: “I set myself the task of investigating the remains of ancient buildings and finding they are much worthier of study than I had first thought. I began to measure all their parts minutely and with the greatest care.” (Palladio, Quattro Libri) “The site is as pleasant and delightful as can be found, because it is
Bibliography: Kostof: 468-483 Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism, by R. Wittkower, Part III (Palladio) Palladio, by James S. Ackerman, pp. 36-159 Palladio and Palladianism, by Robert Tavernor, pp. 11-105 Palladio, I Quattro libri dell’architettura (Four Books). This is an electronic resource in the UCD library Vitruvius, Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture (Book IV, Chapter VII: ‘Tuscan Temples’. Here is a good link for Vitruvius: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/vitruvius/home.html Quotes: “I set myself the task of investigating the remains of ancient buildings and finding they are much worthier of study than I had first thought. I began to measure all their parts minutely and with the greatest care.” (Palladio, Quattro Libri) “The site is as pleasant and delightful as can be found, because it is on a small hill of very easy access, and is watered on one side by the Bacchiglione, a navigable river; and on the other it is encompassed about with most pleasant rising which look like a very great theatre and are all cultivated about with most excellent fruits and most exquisite vines; and therefore as it enjoys from every part a most beautiful view, some of which are limited, some more extended, and others which terminate with the horizon, there are loggias made in all four fronts.” (Palladio, Quattro Libri) “Although variety and things new may please every one, yet they ought not to be done contrary to the precepts of art, and contrary to that which reason dictates; whence one sees, that although the ancients did vary, yet they never departed from some universal and necessary rules of art, as shall be seen in my books of antiquities.” (Palladio, Quattro Libri, I, chapter 20) “A villa is a building in the country – or at least outside the city – designed for its owner’s enjoyment and relaxation. Though a villa may also serve as the center of an agricultural enterprise, the pleasure factor is what essentially distinguishes this kind of residence from the farmhouse…The villa, typically the product of an architect’s imagination, asserts its modernity.” (James Ackerman) 1 Villa Rotonda, plans and elevation Villa Rotonda 2 Villa Rotonda Villa Rotonda, (above and right) 3