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. The story of Palladianism can be traced from the early 16th century in the Veneto to Washington in the late 18th century and beyond.
Andrea Palladio's built and published works follow the rules of the Roman architect Vitruvius and his later disciples, such as Leone Battista Alberti who all adhered to the classical Roman principles of architecture, 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 Sebastiano Serlio (1475 - 1554) in his seven volume architectural book Tutte l`opere d`architettura et prospetiva on the ideals of Vitruvius and Roman architecture, 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 these ways forms of palladianism can be found from England to Russia. In 1570 Palladio had published his book I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura, this book of his designs was later tanslated into other European languages, and inspired architects all across the continent.
English Palladianism
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.
English 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.
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.
Irish Palladianism
During the palladian revival period in Ireland even quite modest mansions were cast in a neo-Palladian mould. Palladian architecture in Ireland subtly differs from that in England, while adhering like in all other countries to the basic ideals of Palladio, it is often truer to those ideals, perhaps because it was often designed by architects who had come directly from mainland Europe, and therefore were not influenced by the evolution that palladianism was undergoing in Britain, or perhaps because Ireland was more provincial fashions changed at a slower pace then elsewhere; whatever the reason palladianism still had to be adapted for the wetter more cold weather. One of the most pioneering Irish architects was Sir Edward Lovett Pearce (1699-1733) who became one of the leading leading advocates of Palladianism in Ireland. A cousin of Sir John Vanbrugh he was originally one of his pupils, but rejecting the baroque, he spent three years studying architecture in France and Italy, before returning home to Ireland. His most important palladian work is the former Houses of Parliament in Dublin, a prolific architect he also designed the south facade of Drumcondra House in 1727, and Cashel Palace in 1731.
One of the most notable examples of palladianism in Ireland is the magnificent Castletown, near Dublin. Designed by the Italian architect Alessandro Galilei (1691-1737), said to be the only palladian house in Ireland to have been built with Palladio's mathematical ratios, it is also one of the two Irish mansions which claimed to have inspired the design of The White House in Washington.
Other fine examples include Russborough, designed by Richard Cassells, an architect of German origin, who also designed the palladian Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, and Florence Court, County Fermanagh. Irish palladian Country houses often have robust Rococo plaster-work, an Irish speciality, which is far more flamboyant than the interiors of their contemporaries in England.
North American Palladianism
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 European building practise. A feature of American palladianism was the re-emergence of the great portico, it again fulfilled a need, as in Italy protection from the sun; the portico in various forms and size became a dominant feature of American colonial architecture. In the north European countries the portico had become a mere symbol - often closed, or merely hinted at in the design by pilasters, and sometimes in very late examples of English palladianism adapted to become a porte-cochere; in America the palladian portico regained its full glory.
The White House in Washington, was doubtless inspired by Irish palladianism; both Castletown and Richard Cassel's Leinster House in Dublin claim to have inspired the architect James Hoban who designed the executive mansion which was built between 1792 - 1800. Hoban born in Callan, County Kilkenny in 1762, studied architecture in Dublin, where Leinster House (built circa 1747) was one of the finest buildings at the time. The palladianism of the White House is interesting, as it is almost an early form of neoclassicism, especially the South facade which closely resembles James Wyatt's design for Castle Coole of 1790 also in Ireland. Ironically the North facade lacks one of the floors from Leinster House, while the Southern facade gains a floor extra than Castle Coole, and has an external staircase more(in the palladian manner). Castle Coole is, in the words of the architectural commentator Gervase Jackson-Stops "A culmination of the palladian traditions, yet strictly Neo-Classical in its chaste ornament and noble auterity". The same can be said of many houses in the American palladian style.
One of the adaptions made to palladianism in America, was the the piano nobile tended to now be placed on the ground floor, rather than above a service floor, as was the tradition in Europe. This service floor, if it existed at all, was now a discreet semi-basement. This negated the need for an ornate external staircase leading to the main entrance as in the more original palladian designs. This was also to be a feature of the neo-clacissall style which followed palladianism.
Decline of Palladianism
By the 1770s, in England, 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, including ancient Greece, so much so that their forms of architecture was eventually defined as neoclassical rather than Palladian. The Palladian revival was over by the end of the 18th century. The term Palladian today is often misused, and tends to describe a building with any classical pretensions.
References
- Cropplestone, Trewin (1963). World Architecture. Hamlyn.
- Dal Lago, Adalbert (1966). Ville Antiche. Milan: Fratelli Fabbri.
- Halliday, E. E. (1967). Cultural History of England. London: Thames and Hudson.
- Jaskson-Stops, Gervase (1990). The Country House in Perspective. Pavilion Books Ltd.
- Marten Paolo,(1993). Palladio. Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, Koln
- Watkin, David (1979). English Architecture. London: Thames and Hudson.