Irene Preston's Historical Writing
PALLADIAN
ARCHITECTURE
One of the most interesting periods in architecture is the Georgian
period when young gentlemen went on the ‘Grand Tour’ of the continent.
They brought back sketches and designs of villas and magnificent
buildings particularly those of Palladian design.
ANDREA PALLADIO 1518-1580 was born in Vicenza near Venice where he
worked as a stonecutter. He later went to Rome to study ancient and
modern art. On his return he designed many great houses and villas in
his own interpretation of ancient buildings of Greece and Rome, and his
style became known as Palladian. His patron and employer had given him
his name from the Greek Goddess of wisdom ‘Pallas Athena’. Palladio
lived up to his name by his dedication and creation of masterpieces that
still inspire us today. One of the Roman architects and builders
Palladio studied was Vitruvius.
MARCUS VITRUVIUS was a Roman architect and army engineer during the
reign of Julius Caesar in the 1st century BC, and later under Augustus
supervised construction of military engines and the water supply of
Rome.
Sometime after 27 BC, Vitruvius wrote 10 books on architecture, ‘De
Architectura’ dedicated to Augustus, and based on his own experience and
earlier works of Greek architects. He admired the classical design that
seemed to blend with nature and the surrounding countryside. His books
covered most aspects of engineering, building and materials, design and
wall painting.
INIGO JONES 1573-1652 was the son of a cloth worker in Smithfield. He
began his career as a carpenter. He later came under the patronage of
the 3rd Earl of Pembroke and went to the continent to study landscape
painting. He found the villas designed by Palladio and studied his
drawings and books. Inigo became known as the English Palladio. He
returned to England and was made Architect to Queen Anne and later
appointed surveyor of works to Henry, Prince of Wales. He designed
masques, pageants and theatre for James 1st and Charles 1st and later
designed the new palace at Whitehall but only completed the Banqueting
Hall. In 1622 he built the Queen's house at Greenwich. In 1645 Inigo was
arrested by Oliver Cromwell and fined for being a Royalist sympathizer.
He was responsible for the revival of classical architecture in England
and was under the patronage of the 2nd Earl of Arundel for a time.
LORD BURLINGTON was born Richard Boyle in 1694 and succeeded his father
to become the 3rd Earl of Burlington in 1704. He, like many other young
men of the period, visited the continent several times from 1714 to 1726
taking in Paris, Rome, Venice and the surrounding countryside. Like
Inigo Jones he was greatly inspired by the villas of Palladio and
studied many English translations including ‘Vitruvius Britanicus’
produced by Colin Campbell between 1715 and 1725. Lord Burlington became
the patron of Campbell who designed Burlington House in Piccadilly which
is now the Royal Academy. Lord Burlington's Chiswick House, designed
with Palladio's Villa Capra known as La Rotonda in mind, was to be used
to house his art collection and somewhere to meet his fellow
intellectuals.
COLIN CAMPBELL 1676 -1729 was born in Scotland. He trained to be a
lawyer but decided upon studying architecture and writing his three
volumes of ‘Vitruvius Britanicus’ with pages of illustrations, and
greatly influenced the term, ‘Neo-Palladianism’ widely used in the
following century.
ROBERT ADAMS 1728-1792 was born in Edinburgh one of four sons whose
father was a prominent architect, and took the Grand Tour travelling
around Europe for four years. He returned home in 1758 with his own
ideas of classicism. He was well accepted in society and soon received
commissions. His first was Syon House on the banks of the Thames, once a
monastery founded by Henry V for sixty nuns and twenty priests. The nuns
named it after Mount Zion in the Holy Land but after the dissolution it
was known as Syon House and soon came into the possession of the Percy
Family, Earls of Northumberland. In 1762 the Earl commissioned Adams to
refashion the interiors and he produced the most brilliant rooms of his
career. His style was characterised by delicate surface ornamentation,
urns, festoons and garlands, as seen on the walls in Roman houses. He
was responsible for erection, alteration and design of forty five
country houses. From 1750 to his death he was joint architect, with Sir
William Chambers, to George III.
JOHN NASH 1752-1835 was often called Beau Nash and designed country
houses. He laid out Regent’s Park for the Prince of Wales, Trafalgar
Square, St. James’ Park 1811-1821. He planned Regent Street, repaired
and enlarged Buckingham Palace, for which he designed Marble Arch, and
rebuilt the Royal Pavilion in Brighton in oriental style.
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