Table of Contents

Andrea Palladio Life and Development Renaissance The Architecture of Palladio

Palladios Masterpiece: Villa Capra (La Rotonda) Utilitas Firmitas Venustas

Influence

ANDREA PALLADIO Life and Development

Andrea Palladio was born in Padua, Italy in 1508. At his early stage, he gained his first experiences as a stonecutter in a sculpture workshop in Padua. From the age of sixteen He moved to vicenza and worked as an assistant in a Vicenza guild of masons and stone-cutters. Later on , it was the Vicentine Humanist, writer and nobleman, Giangiorgio Trissino (14781550), who took palladio and decided to grow under his wing and transform him from Andrea di Pietro to the famous architect Andrea Palladio, the fine Roman name which Trissino invented for him after their meeting. Trissino was the most important person behind the development of Palladio as an architect and in fact, its said that he would probably have remained a skilled and intelligent craftsman, capable perhaps of designing portals and funerary monuments, but without the culture and intellectual skills by this time necessary in a true architect. Trissino was important for Palladio in many ways: He was himself a talented amateur architect, who made designs for rebuilding his city palace; he also remodelled his own suburban residence at Cricoli, just outside Vicenza, in the mid 1530s, that made Palladio to practice. In 1540s, he took Palladio several times to Rome to visit the character of the ancient architecture, that furnished him with a wide range of knowledge and later on he became largely influenced by it. Trissino probably also guided Palladio in his initial reading and Vitruvius. Palladio became figurative and the most influential architect in the history of Western architecture by his particular way of utilizing the classical Roman and Greek architecture, and the theories of Vitruvius. throughout his life time, Palladio worked in the design of religious and secular buildings in the so called venetian republic, where all of his buildings are located in. His early commissions consisted primarily of palaces and villas for the aristocracy, but he began to design religious buildings in the 1560s. After a series of commissions executed in the Classic tradition, Palladio worked with Daniele Barbaro, the second important person for him after Trissino's death in 1550, on a new edition of Vitruvius. In 1570 he published his theoretical work I Quattro Libri dell 'Architettura ("The four books of architecture", Venice, 1570), that contribute largely to introduce Palladian architecture to the rest of westerns. In the same year, he was appointed architectural adviser to the Venetian Republic. Palladio died in Vicenza, Italy in 1580.

Palladio's emergence as an architect: Even though there is no clear information that tells how Palladio turned from executing small scale works to become a full architect, working not with mason's tools, but with his mind, his books, his pen and ruler, its documented as he made a design for villa Godi in 1540 at Lonedo, still it has probably been said that his contribution was restricted in scope since the villa doesn't resembles to his preferred divisions of a villa plan. In 1541 Trissino took Palladio to Rome to study the ancient monuments. At this time Palladio began a magnificent series of drawings of ancient buildings, which were the potential sources of all the inspirations for developing his best known style of architecture in his career. based on that he designed magnificent series of city palaces, county side recreational and farm villas, and later on built churches, with a consistent implementation of the motives he derived from the classical style. Palladio was unique in his deep understanding of the notion of 'client'. His approach to design in harmony with the culture and society of the time is one of the main reasons behind his success, which made him to be chosen by powerful members of Venetian society for numerous important commissions. He integrated an extraordinary aesthetic quality with an expression of the client's social aspirations, visually communicate their place in the social order of their culture. it was In 1554 that Palladio made his last trip to Rome and wrote an important handbook about the antiquity of Rome, Le antichit di Roma. in the following year he, with a group of Vicenzans, founded an academy of arts and sciences, Accademia Olimpica. palladio made illustrations for the commentary published by the Venetian humanist Daniele Barbaro In 1556 on the architectural treatise of Vitruvius. At the same time Palladio designed for Barbaro and his brother at Maser (ca. 1555-1559) one of the loveliest of all villas. The Villa Barbaro (now Volpi) is set into a gentle hillside. The central, two-storied casino with a temple front of Ionic half-columns and pediment is flanked by single-story arcades connecting it to the service buildings, for the villa also served as a farm.

RENAISSANCE:
Andrea Palladio is a man lived in the age of the period historically known as Renaissance(around 1400-1600AD), particularly of High Renaissance(1495-1520AD) and Mannerism(Late Renaissance, 1520-1600 AD). the review of some of the key architectural trends of the era is an important vocabulary to read, understand and value the architecture of Palladio in, somewhat , a specific sensitivity. the architecture of Renaissance period was mainly concerned on demonstrating the revival and development of the ancient Greek's and roman's architectural thoughts and elements.

First it was emerged out from Florence ,Italy due to a social transformation movement by a rationalist, middle class commercial social group whose interests were all materials. the emergence of the style was headed by Filippo Brunelleschi and further carried out by Michelozzo and Leon Batista Alberti, a famous humanist theoretician, artist and architect who, after a detailed observation of Vitruvius's work, wrote an architectural treatise 'Ten Books On Architecture' which became the grammar of renaissance architectural practice. Later on the second chapter of the period, High Renaissance, had evolved with an ability to apply the revived classical elements in a quite different way from the structures of the ancient times. the leader of this new fashion was Donato Bramante who had worked much on the design of several churches and palaces starting from the addition of crossing and choir to Santa Maria Delle Grazie of Milan up to the design of the famous churches such as Tempietto San Pietro and San Peter's Basilica of Rome. Later, Andrea Palladio appeared in this period as the purest classicist with his innovative methods of architecture based on Vitruvius's and other renaissance architects' works. He survived and practiced through the Late Renaissance (Mannerism) period, a style which differs in some particular motifs from the previous ones by sophistication and complexity, distortion of scale and perspective, exaggerated/embellished classical forms, which developed by architects such as Michelangelo and Giulio Romano.

Generally Renaissance architecture is characterized by: symmetry and perspective mathematical proportion; harmony between human proportion and buildings geometry and regularity of parts; perfect shapes - circle and square orders; a system of supportive or decorative columns/pilasters (Doric, Tuscan, Ionic, Corinthian And Composite) and lintel/entablature roman arches and domes

THE ARCHITECTURE OF PALLADIO

Andrea Palladio, like the contemporary architects of his time, had devoted to the designs of religious and secular buildings. Both early and high renaissance architects had considerable influences on his development. Palladio resembles to his contemporaries in the idea to employ the classical architectural elements and practices in compromise with the specifications of Vitruvius both in planimetric and elevation schemes derived from the antique. however, he is an exceptional one who displayed an architectural intelligence of a high order by the formulation of his own distinctive language. He makes use of a standardized series of overall types, of room shapes, and of forms of orders to create an architecture of fixed forms, fixed proportions and regularly implemented principles. Palladio states, according to Vitruvius, the three things that a fine work of architecture should contain; utility/convenience, duration, and beauty and that work can't be called perfect if it lacks one of the three. "An edifice may be esteemed commodious, when every part or member stands in its due place and fit situation, neither above or below its dignity and use; or the loggia's, halls, chambers, cellars and granaries are conveniently disposed, and in their roper places. The strength, or duration depends, upon the walls being carried directly upright, thicker below than above, and their foundations strong and solid: observing to place the upper columns directly perpendicular over those that are underneath, and the openings of the doors and windows exactly over one another; so that the solid be upon the solid, and the void over the void. Beauty will result from the form and correspondence of the whole, with respect to the several parts, of the parts with regard to each other, and of these again to the whole; that the structure may appear an entire and complete body, wherein each member agrees with the other, and all necessary to compose what you intend to form." 1

Harry Francis Mallgrave, Architectural Theory; Volume I, An Anthology From Vitruvius To 1870, Blackwell Publishing, USA, 2006 , page 47

Principles of the architecture of Palladio

The Palladian architecture is strongly based on: Symmetry And Perspective: in the classical architecture, "symmetry" refers to aesthetics; the pleasant proportionality and balance among components. But here we refer to the geometric meaning of the word; similar arrangement of elements on both sides of an axis, or the reflection of all elements and patterns on one side exists on the other side; and there will be a perfect overlap or fit when its folded about its central axis. Palladio consistently uses the principle of a perfect symmetry for organizing spaces and architectural elements both in plan and in elevation-for the design of his facades. Generally, Palladio's plans are symmetrical about one or two horizontal axes and elements on the facades are arranged symmetrical about one central vertical axis. Proportion: it is a mathematical system used to set the dimensions of one part in correspondence with the size of the other part or with of the whole in order to create harmony in the overall project. Andrea Palladio is best known for his different sets of harmonious mathematical proportions used to dimension the different spaces in plans and the spacing in between columns with respect to their heights and diameters according to the type of the orders. In a two dimensional aspect, proportion means the relation of two quantities: in plan, the relation between the length and the width of a room, and in elevation, the relation between the length and the height of a wall, (e.g. 6:4). Palladio formulates three dimensional proportionalities that integrate a floor plan and a wall, that is, the relationship between length, width and height of a room. One of these is called geometric proportion (e.g. 9:6:4), based on the equality of two ratios, i.e., 9/6 = 6/4. The other and more complicated type is called harmonic proportion, which is closely related to musical theory (e.g., 6:4:3), based on the rule (6-4)/6 =(4-3)/3.

As a result, Palladio was able to bind plan with elevation, interior with exterior and room and room to create a correlation between parts. he designs a proportionally unified plan by creating a sequence of rooms, each having the dimensions in correspondence to the neighboring one. For example, in the design of palazzo chiericati, Vicenza, he used the smallest room size 12'*18', its neighbor 18'*18', then 18'*30' and the hall is 16'*54', all are multiples of 6. Hierarchy: is when parts of a building placed based on an order of importance. Palladio usually creates a dominant space at the center, that act as the climax of the composition, and places the other parts connected outwards from the central part in the order of decreasing size and importance.

Geometry: Andrea Palladio's architecture strictly relies on regular geometric shapes, basically square and circle, which are considered as 'perfect' in the classical period. Adaptation of classical temple architecture: Palladio considerably incorporates the elements of the ancient Greek and roman temples into the design of his buildings. Classical orders of columns and entablatures, rounded arches and domes are typical design ingredients of Palladio. PICTURES AND ILLUSTRATIONS WILL BE ADDED..........................................................................

Villa and Palace designs

Moreover to the design of churches as like many of early and high renaissance architects mostly did, Palladio is legendary in the practice of domestic architecture. Particularly, it has been found that villa design is his reputation. Generally, his designs for secular buildings lie under two categories:

Palaces:
Are city residences built for families whose political life was centered in the cities, controlled the affairs of the city as city councillors. Palladio had made the designs of palaces which reflect the influences of the works of Alberti and Bramante in the earlier stages of his career before he engaged to the invention of the popular villa typologies. He schematized the design of palaces with some common features such as a carefully arrangement of suit rooms around a courtyard with a special sensitivity to the 'piano noble', which is clearly marked on the facades by elements that express the internal divisions of the building, and facades of richly sculptured with orders and statues. SOMEOF THE PALACES DESIGNED BY PALLADIO WITH PICTURES WILL BE ADDED................

Villas:
Are new types of country residences made to met the desire of estate owners, very rich and powerful social classes; bankers and Venetian patricians, in which Palladio designed them by recognizing the less importance to have large palaces in the country side as modelled for cities. He designs villas with a scale and decoration that can closely express the wealth and social standing of the owners. As a matter of fact, these residences were effective in establishing a social and political presence in the country side. Based on two main divisions of purposes, Palladio's villas are categorized as:

Weekend retreat villas; serve for relaxing, entertaining important guests, hunting, and getting away from the city, which potentially don't offer such pleasant opportunities. Farm houses/villas; are built as a centre for controlling the productive activity of the areas from which the owner's income was derived. The buildings also are powerful to impress the tenants and advertise the presence of the owner across a largely flat territory. these residences basically differ from the first ones by incorporating some more spaces used for storage of grains and valuable products of the estate, and administrative offices, in addition to the common type of functions included in the design of villas. SOME OF THE VILLAS DESIGNED BY PALLADIO WITH PICTURES WILL BE ADDED...................

Elements of villa design: Palladio schematized the plan of a house with consistent use
of certain elements and principles. Consist of three main floors: Basement/ground floor for services or minor rooms, such as: Kitchens, store-rooms, laundries and cellars First floor or 'piano noble' organized by public spaces, logia and sala, at the central axis on which symmetrical rectangular rooms ranging from large to small sizes arranged left and right that are used by the family and their guests. Low mezzanine floor for secondary accommodations and for storage of grains in the case of farm villas, which simultaneously helps to insulate the main floor. Centralized/Radial plan: The configuration often consists of one dominant central space, a square or a circle, which is surrounded by the hierarchic arrangement of primary and secondary spaces all together linked by straight axial corridors radiating from the center outwards to the porticoes and the exterior space. Greco - Roman temple font portico/roofed porch: Palladio is best known in adapting the facades of the classical Greek and Roman temples to the elevations of his villas. generally he developed three types of entrance porticoes to his villas which came to be known as Palladian. Type I; a loggia pierced by three openings of Roman arches Type II; borrowed from the Greek temple front Type III; a two floor double-columned loggia with full height columns at two levels
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high basement and external accessed by - flight of steps The main floor of the Palladian villa is raised on an elevated podium accessed by grand external steps. This is derived from the ancient roman temple architecture based on the idea borrowed from Greeks, to create an acropolis within a city. PICTURES AND ILLUSTRATIONS WILL BE ADDED..........................................................................

references:
Harry Francis Mallgrave, Architectural Theory; Volume I, An Anthology From Vitruvius To 1870, Blackwell Publishing, USA, 2006. Ackerman............... websites: http://www.cisapalladio.org http://www.archiplanet.org http://lookuparchitecture.com http://www.boglewood.com http://en.wikipedia.org

PALLADIOS MASTERPIECE: VILLA CAPRA (LA ROTONDA)

We approached this research with a desire to deepen our understanding and knowledge of Italian spirit and sensibility. We were determined to discover the rules but also the filings behind an architecture that we recognize as Italian. High Renaissance was the most obvious choice since we wanted to focus on a particular point in fruitful Italian history of art and architecture, the one that was derived from ancient legacy of Rome but echoed even in modern and postmodern styles. Among many other important names of this period, our attention was captured by the name of Andrea Palladio. Indeed, he was the one Renaissance architect who was the most influential. As we know, Palladio is one of the most imitated architects of all times and even entire style was named after him (Palladianism or Palladian style). We were drawn by this fact as much as we were drawn by visual impression of his works and we needed to find out the reason for all of this. Why was Palladio so influential? Why are his works so powerful? Why his architecture was inspiration for many even several hundred years after his death? A single Palladios work had to be chosen to represent all of our considerations and to answer all of our questions. What could be more convenient for this other than Villa Capra, true Palladios masterpiece? It is not very common for residential architecture to become a legend and Villa Capra is one of the rare examples, together with much later Le Corbusiers Villa Savoye. It also represents very well the influence of Palladio since there are many examples and variations of later works by other architects based on Villa Capra (La Rotonda). Some of the best known followers of La Rotonda are Chiswick House by Lord Burlington and Monticello by Thomas Jefferson. Moreover, La Rotonda was important for reintroducing of a central plan and it is example of perfect symmetry, so characteristic for Renaissance and High Renaissance. We feel the burden of exploring historical buildings to be much heavier than criticizing works of our contemporaries. Sometimes it might be unfair to measure the past by the means of the present. For this reason, we decided not to apply contemporary reasoning, but to try to understand La Rotonda through classical lenses. This is where we reach for help from Vitruvius. Discovery of The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius was one of the most important events for the birth of Renaissance. The treatise was written in the first century BC and it became inevitable reading and source of knowledge about antiquity during Renaissance. Palladio certainly studied Vitruvius and accepted many of his principles. As described by Vitruvius and accepted in Renaissance, there are three qualities of architecture: utilitas, firmitas and venustas. Translations offered for utilitas are function, commodity, utility, for firmitas solidity, materiality, strength and for venustas beauty, delight, desire. Our goal on further pages will be to explain how Palladios La Rotonda corresponds to each of these Vitruvian categories.
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Utilitas

Convenience (will be assured) when the arrangement of the apartments is faultless and presents no hindrance to use, and when each class of building is assigned to its suitable and appropriate exposure.2 To better understand the function of the Villa and to be able to judge effectiveness of the solution, we need to be introduced to some facts. Commissioner of the Villa was Paolo Almerico, cleric who successfully served under two popes in Rome. After his retirement, he decided to return to his hometown Vicenza and build a suburban villa, the one that will become known throughout the world as a perfect achievement of High Renaissance. The site that was chosen was at the hilltop just outside the city. The site is pleasant and delightful as can be found; because it is upon a small, easily accessible hill with the navigable river Bacchiglione on one side and hills encompassing the other, it gives an impression of a very grandiose theatre3 as described by Palladio himself. The types of Palladian villas and palaces had been briefly explained in the first part of this paper. Palace is a city residence, while villa could be described as a countryside retreat. The two main types of Palladian villas are farmhouse and weekend retreat. La Rotonda was not a part of an agricultural estate and there was no need for any production-following facilities. Supplying was easy and convenient since the city is less than a quarter of a mile away. It was intended for La Rotonda to be an escape from city life, a place for social activities, recreation and enjoying nature. As far as it is from a villa-farm; La Rotonda could rather be called villa-temple, which will be in detail explained later on. In fact, Palladio himself listed it under palaces in his famous treatise The Four Books on Architecture. As many other Palladios villas, La Rotonda has three floors. The lowest floor, semibasement, accommodates utility rooms and supporting functions. Access for servants to the semi-basement is provided from the level of the terrain. The main floor, also known as piano nobile, is the representative part of the Villa interior, it contains principal reception and it is accessed through four elevated porticos. Normally, beside the rooms for welcoming guests, bedrooms would be located in piano nobile. In La Rotonda this is not the case because no one was supposed to spend the night there. The last floor with smaller height and no windows was originally intended for storage, although usual function of this space in many other villas was residential (more private and secondary rooms). In La Rotonda, this space was changed to living space during eighteenth century.

Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1914, Page 17 3 Andrea Palladio, I Qvattro Libri dellArchittettvra, Il Secondo Libro dellArchittetvra, Urlico Hoepli, Milano 1980, reprinted 2009, page 18

The piano nobile plan has a shape of a perfectly symmetrical Greek cross with two axes of symmetry. This is a great comeback of a central plan. The piano nobile is easily accessible from all directions through four identical porticos. Elevation of this level, together with porticos, enables splendid view of the surroundings. As a person enters the Villa from any of its porticos, he or she will be guided to the central hall. This is the most important and representative room of the Villa. It has a circular shape and it is cover by cupola with oculus which provides natural lighting. Other rooms, which are arranged around this central hall, have rectangular shape and simple proportions that Palladio propagates in The Four Books on Architecture. To be precise, other rooms are proportioned according to golden ratio, where proportion of one part to another is the same as proportion of a bigger part to a whole. Study of golden ratio can also be found in Vitruvius treatise. In conclusion, we can say that brilliance of the plan of La Rotonda comes from its simplicity and convenience, which was made possible because of special circumstances given by the commissioner.
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Firmitas

Durability will be assured when foundations are carried down to the solid ground and materials wisely and liberally selected.4

Construction system of Villa Capra is typical for the period it was built in: bearing masonry. Most of the elements are made from stucco-covered brick, while just the finest details are made from stone.

Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1914, Page 17

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Venustas

Beauty (will be assured) when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste, when its members are due proportion according to correct principles of symmetry. 5 As mentioned before, Villa Capra could be considered as villa-temple type. This is an interesting innovation by Palladio, where he showed that residential architecture could be as magnificent as that of, for example, churches. He is known to be able to create a work of art even with very limited funds and in cases of second grade buildings. But what exactly makes Villa Capra a villa-temple type? Palladio chose to glorify the Villa as the symbol of personal and family values. The settings were perfect for this: La Rotonda arises on the hilltop just as if it was put on a pedestal. Central plan came from a typical ancient temple, and it is considered that inspiration for La Rotonda was famous Pantheon in Rome, temple built in second century and dedicated to all gods. Central plan, the cupola and the porticos of La Rotonda remind of this temple.

Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1914, Page 17

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Symmetry

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INFLUENCE

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Bibliography

Palladio Andrea, I Quattro Libri dellArchitettura, Ulrico Hoepli Editore, Milano, 2009 Ackerman James S., Palladio, Penguin Books Tavernor Robert, Palladio and Palladianism, Thames & Hudson world of art Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture,

Web sites

www.villalarotonda.it www.wikipedia.com www.wikiarquitectura.com www.greatbuildings.com

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