Italy has an immersive culture as well as sights worth traveling to see. It also has beautiful architecture that you can only see in Italy. Andrea Palladio is a famous architecture from Venice that is worth talking about. We will discuss his life and his work in architecture as it is important to know the culture behind Italy’s famous buildings.
Andrea Palladio was born November 30, 1508 in the region of Veneto, Italy where he was an apprentice, a student or assistant, to a sculptor until he was 16. When he finished his apprenticeship, he moved to Vicenza and was part of a guild of stonemasons and bricklayers. He was then employed as a mason, a builder of stone, who specialized in decorative sculptures in the style of the Mannerist architect Michele Sanmicheli (Richardson). It appears that he was interested in architecture since he was very young.
Between 1530 and 1538, a Count known as Gian Giorgio Trissino, who was a Humanist poet and scholar, was trying to rebuild his villa outside Vicenza. Since Palladio was working there as a mason, he was noticed by Trissino and took him under his wing to work and to experience a Humanist education (Richardson).
Humanist is a follower of Humanisn, which “…is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity” (What is). Palladio helped rebuild Trissino’s villa which had the inspiration from the ancient Roman architect and theorist, Vitruvius, who Palladio described as his guide and master (Richardson).
His name, Palladio, was given to him “after a Humanist habit, as an allusion to the mythological figure Pallas Athena and to a character in Trissino’s poem “Italia liberate dai goti.” It indicates the hopes Trissino had for his protégé” (Richardson). His original was “Andrea di Pietro della Gondola” (Richardson). So, Trissino, did have an impact on his life.
At the villa, he met the aristocracy of Vicenza, some which became his patrons. By 1541, he had adapted the Mannerist work of Sanmicheli and the Renaissance buildings of Jacopo Sansovino. “Palladio may have also met a prominent Mannerist architect and theoretician, Sebastiano Serlio, who was in Venice at the time and whose third and fourth books on architects were to be an inspiration to him” (Richardson).
In 1540, he designed his first villa (Lonedo for Girolamo de’ Godi) and his first palace in Vicenza for Giovanni Civena. The villa was inspiration from Trissino and the palace resembles the High Renaissance palace developed in the 16th century in Rome. “An innovative feature is the use of traditional arcaded pavement of northern Italy behind the main elevation, an idea that Palladio reinterpreted the imitation of an ancient Roman forum” (Richardson).
His designs for palaces were formed when he visited Rome and in 1548 his plans were accepted for the reconstruction of the 15-centruy town hall in Vicenza, known since then as the Basilica. This was his first major commission. It “involved recasing a vast hall with a two-story arcade of white stone to serve as a buttress to the old structure. Suited to both the Gothic style of the original structure and dimensions of the classical orders, Palladio’s arcade was of great proportional subtlety” (Richardson).
Later, in 1570, he centered on building churches in Venice and with the death of Sansovino he then became the leading architect of the Veneto region. But he couldn’t get enough patrons for his designs for palaces so he did civic work which consisted advice for decoration and interiors. His last commission came in 1579-80, to build a theatre for “Accademia Olimpica for performance of classical dramas” (Richardson).
When he died he left many “…unfinished buildings, including the Basilica in Vicenza, two Venetian churches, the Villa Rotonda, and the Teatro Olimpico” (Richardson). Thankfully, he has followeers that helped continue the designs.
Andrea Palladio is one of the most influential and most copied architects in the Western world after the Middle Ages. He drew from classical architecture that still “continue to be models for stately homes and government buildings in Europe and America” (Craven). His work includes: Villa Almerico-Capra (The Rotonda), San Giorgio Maggiore, and the Basilica Palladiana (Craven).
To understand his life, is to understand Italy. Their culture is in their architecture. One of the famous and more well-known ones are Andrea Palladio. He has the most refined buildings in the Renaissance period and his book on architectural theory has become so influential in architecture throughout the Western world.
References
Craven, J. (2016, November 28). About the Architect Who Inspired the Palladian Window. Retrieved June 11, 2017, from https://www.thoughtco.com/andrea-palladio-influential-renaissance-architect-177865
Richardson, M. A. (n.d.). Andrea Palladio. Retrieved June 11, 2017, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrea-Palladio
What Is Humanism? (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2017, from https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/edwords-what-is-humanism/
