Palladian architecture
Palladian Architecture is a style of architecture originally designed by the Italian architect Palladio (1508 - 1580). Today any building which (often very loosely) adheres to the rules of architecture to which Palladio subscribed is described as palladian.
Andrea Palladio's built and published work follows the rules of the Roman architect Vitruvius and his later disciples adhered to classical Roman principles, as opposed to the rich ornamentation of the Renaissance. Buildings which are truly palladian are rare, and all in Italy. They include Villa Capra and Villa Foscari and many churches in the Veneto. To explain fully the term Palladian as used outside of Italy one must first understand true palladian as designed by the master architect himself.
True Palladian Architecture
Palladio always designed his villas with reference to their setting, if on a hill, such as Villa Capra, all facades were designed to be of equal value, in order for the occupants to have fine views in all directions, porticos on all sides were for the owners to fully appreciate the countryside while protected from the blazing sun, and were used rather in the way of the proverbial American porch today. Palladio would often model his villa elevations on Roman temple facades, in fact the temple influence, often in a cruciform design, became a trademark of his work. Palladian villas are usually on just three floors, a rusticated basement or ground floor, containing the service and minor rooms, above this the piano nobile accessed through a portico reached by flight of external steps. This floor contained the principal reception and bedrooms, and above this a secondary mezzanine floor with secondary bedrooms and accommodation. The proportion of each room within the villa was calculated on a simple mathematical ratio, and the different rooms within the house were interrelated by these ratios. Earlier architects had used these formulas for balancing a single symmetrical facade, Palladio's designs related to the whole usually square villa.
Palladio's villas were often both farmhouses and weekend retreats for wealthy merchant owners, and he gave great consideration to this dual purpose, hence these always symmetrical temple-like houses often have equally symmetrical but low wings sweeping away from them, to accommodate horses, farm animals, and agricultural stores. These wings were designed not only to be utilitarian and functional but also complement and enhance and accentuate the villa, but, were in no way intended to be part of the villa. It is the use of these wings that most imitation palladian styles have most altered.
The Palladian Window
One of the features of Palladio's work, almost a trademark in his earlier work, is the misnamed Palladian window; mentioned by Sebastano Serlio (1475 - 1554) in his seven volumed architectural book on the teachings of Vitruvius, this is an arched window, flanked by two lower rectangular openings. This motif first appeared in the triumphal arches of ancient Rome. Palladio used the motif extensively, most notably in the arcades of the Palazzo della Ragione (illustrated right) in Vicenza, it is also a feature of the entrances to both Villa Godi and Villa Forni-Cerato by Palladio. It is perhaps this extensive use of the motif in the Veneto which has given the window its alternative name of the Venetian window, it is also known as a Serlian window
Whatever the name or the origin, this form of window has probably become one of the most enduring features of Palladio's work seen in the later architectural styles, evolved from palladianism.
The Spread of Palladianism
During the 17th century Palladio was researched by many architects of the age, who came to Italy to study. These architects then returned to their home countries all over Europe and adapted Palladio's style to suit the climate, topography and personal tastes of their clients. In this way forms of palladianism can be found from England to Russia.
English Palladian Architecture
One of these students was the English architect Inigo Jones, who is directly responsible for importing the Palladian influence to England. However, to call a building not designed by Palladio himself palladian is technically false, the form of architecture used by Jones, his contemporaries and followers is a style of palladianism, as the designs are very much for one facade only, and the mathematical formulae dictating layout were not strictly applied. A handful of great country houses in England built between 1640 and circa 1680, such as Wilton House, are in this palladian style following the great success of Jones' palladian designs for the Queen's House at Greenwich and the banqueting house at Whitehall, the royal palace in London of King Charles I. However the palladian designs advocated by Inigo Jones were too closely associated with the court of Charles I to survive the turmoil of the civil war. Following the Stuart restoration Jones's's palladian was eclipsed by the baroque designs of such architects as William Talman and Sir John Vanbrugh, and even Jones' pupil John Webb.
Palladian Revival (Neo-Palladian)
The baroque style, popular in Europe, was never truly to the English taste and it was quickly superseded when in the first quarter of the 18th century, four books were published in Britain, which highlighted the simplicity and purity classical architecture in all its glory. These were:-
- Vitruvius Britannicus published by Colen Campbell, 1715
- Palladio's Four Books of Architecture published by Giacomo Leoni, 1715
- Leone Battista Alberti's De Re Aedificatoria, published by Giacomo Leoni, 1726
- The Designs of Inigo Jones, published by William Kent, 1727
The most popular of these among the wealthy patrons of the day was the four volumed Vitruvius Britannicus by Colen Campbell. Campbell was both an architect and a publisher. The book was basically a book of design containing architectural prints of British buildings, which had been inspired by the great architects from Vitruvius to Palladio; at first mainly those of Inigo Jones, but the later tomes contained drawings and plans by Campbell and other 18th century architects These four books greatly assisted palladian revival architecture to become established in 18th century Britain; and their three authors became the most fashionable and sought after architects of the era.
At the forefront of the new school of design was the aristocratic architect Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, who saw baroque as a symbol of foreign absolutism. Burlington with William Kent, designed Chiswick House. Chiswick House was a reinterpretation of Palladio's Villa Capra, but purified of 16th century elements and ornament. This severe lack of ornamentation was to be a feature of the palladian revival.
Vitruvius Britannicus's author Colen Campbell was the architect of Stourhead house,(illustration below), for the banker Henry Hoare I, a masterpiece that became the inspiration for dozens of similar houses across England.
In 1734 William Kent and Lord Burlington designed one of England's finest palladian revival houses, Holkham Hall in Norfolk. The main block of this house followed quite closely Palladio's dictates, but Palladio's low (often detached) wings of farm buildings were elevated in significance. Kent attached them to the design, banished the farm animals, and elevated the wings to almost the same importance as the house itself, these wings were adorned with porticos and pediments, often resembling, as at the much later Kedleston Hall, small country houses in their own right. It was the development of the flanking wings that was now to take English palladianism away from the origin work of Palladio himself.
By the middle of the 18th century there were dozens of architects designing 'Palladian' mansions all over the British Isles. In Ireland even quite modest mansions were cast in a neo-Palladian mold, though the most famous, like the magnificent Castletown, near Dublin, or Florence Court, County fermanagh have robust Rococo plasterwork, an Irish specialty. In Virginia and Carolina, the Palladian manner is epitomized in numerous Tidewater plantation houses: Stratford Hall or Westover, or Drayton Hall near Charleston are all classic American colonial examples of a palladian taste that was transmitted through engravings, for the benefit of masons— and patrons, too— who had no first-hand experience of English building practise.
As is always inevitable the styles began to change to suit the requirements of each individual client.
When in 1746, the Duke of Bedford decided to rebuild Woburn Abbey it was inevitable that the palladian style would be chosen. He chose Henry Flitcroft a protegee of Burlington himself. Flitcroft's designs while Palladian in nature would not be recognised by Palladio himself. The central block is small, only three bays, the temple-like portico is merely suggested, it is in fact closed, two great flanking wings containing a vast suite of state rooms, replace the walls or colonnades which should have connected to the farm buildings, the farm building terminating the structure are elevated in height to match the central block, and given palladian windows to ensure they are seen as of palladian design.
This theme was to be repeated in countless houses in Britain, often the terminating pavilions would have blind porticos and pilasters themselves, competing for attention with the central block. This was all very far removed from the designs of Palladio two hundred years earlier.
English Palladian houses were no longer the small, but exquisite weekend retreats from which their Italian counterparts were conceived. As the palladian style swept Britain, all thoughts of mathematical proportion were swept away, rather than a square house with supporting wings, the length of the facade became the major consideration, these long houses often only one room deep, were almost theatre sets, giving a false impression of fantastic size, yet they had completely abandoned the rules of true Palladianism. By the 1760 and 1770s such architects as Robert Adam and Sir William Chambers, were in huge popular demand but they were now drawing on a great variety of classical sources, so much so that their forms of architecture is now defined as neoclassical and most definitely not Palladianism. The term Palladian today is often misused, and tends to describe any building with classical pretensions