500 Palladian Years
via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
Yesterday was Andrea Palladio's 500th birthday. Well, I guess I should say it was the 500th
anniversary of Palladio's birth. If you've never heard of him, he was a 16th century Italian architect/builder. He is one of the most influential designers that ever built a building - anywhere. And he wrote one of the bibles of architecture, I Quattro libri dell'architecttura (Four Books on Architecture) which was published in 1570. It was an instant success; influencing designers, architects and builders from the time it was printed through the 17th and 18th centuries, right on to today.
Here's a great example. Take a look at the picture on the left, Palladio's Villa Cornaro,
and notice the similarities between the north portico of the White House and the upper portico of the Villa.
designslinger]
Thomas Jefferson was such a fan of the Italian master, that the 3rd President of the United
States used Palladio's Villa Almerico (aka Villa Rotonda), as the inspiration for his home in Charlottesville, Virginia.
window, Posh Living via flickr /Artwork: desginslinger]
When Andrea Palladio built his first arch with rectangular side openings, he never could
have imagined that the shape would become an iconic window pattern. The center photo is a Palladio original, and the other photos are examples of the "Palladian window" that you see in buildings all over the world.
and Athenaeum, Newport Rhode Island, wallyg via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
The image on the left is an illustration from Palladio's Four Books. The picture on the right
is a small library in Newport, Rhode Island which was constructed with a Palladian portico in 1748. I lived in Providence, RI. for a few months, and visited the Redwood Library and Athenaeum as a side trip on the way to tour the big mansions on Bellevue Avenue. I discovered that the front facade of the building is considered to be the first public structure built in the U.S. with a design inspired by Andrea Palladio. I was really surprised when I found the illustration and saw just how much architect Peter Harrison "borrowed" from the I Quattro etching.
We've picked just a microscopic sampling of the number of buildings whose architects
turned to Palladio for inspiration. So the next time you see that cluster of three windows, or a formal porch, the building may not be 450 years old, but the design may have come from the architect born 500 years ago.
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