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The salone, the principal reception room of the Villa Pisani.Palladios control over design and his eye for detail are best experienced on the interior, especially after the sympathetic restoration of the building in the 1970s. Its quality is evident from the loggia itself, where the biapsidal chamber has been invested with Doric pilasters and moldings echoing those of the facade. This spare but eloquent language continues in the splendid T-shaped salone, which can be entered from either of the principal fronts or from the largest rooms of the apartments. The most public of the interior spaces, the salone rises to a height equal to that of the lateral rooms and the mezzanines above. Here the architect realized the first of those one-and-a-half-story rooms considered in early drawings like plate 59 and culminating in the Villa Malcontenta. The salone is articulated by Doric pilasters with bases and capitals in limestone, which stand out against the white marmorino surfaces. The walls support a vault divided into barrel and groined sections terminating in thermal windows, and the ceiling is frescoed in an allantica style, part grotesques and part classical scenes. The density of this painted decoration contrasts with the austerity of the walls but was meant to recreate an interior like the garden loggia of the Villa Madama or the Roman baths as Palladio must have imagined they once appeared. Here for the first time one can appreciate Palladios unswerving commitment to antiquity.

Arcades of the Villa Badoer.With the Villa Badoer, Palladio put the definitive touches on his reorganization of the structures associated with villa life, which he achieved through practical and symbolic adjustments to conventional building. By employing quadrants for the form of the arcades, Palladio visibly linked the outbuildings with the owners house at the center of the estate. He thus made an integrated composition of the various farm elements, unlike the haphazard arrangement of arcades and outbuildings that often prevailed. The idea of quadrants probably occurred to him through his study of classical architecture, the hemicycles of Trajans Forum in Rome presenting a handy point of departure for this motif. The choice of the Tuscan order for the farm arcades conveyed a message in reference to the five orders, for the Tuscan was recognized by Renaissance theorists and architects as the most primitive and hence the lowest of the orders. In the first book of the Quattro Libri, Palladio explains its properties in this manner: ”When one wished to make a simple colonnade with the Tuscan order, one can make the spaces between the columns very wide, as their architrave is made of wood. Because of this, the columns are extremely suitable for the needs of villas since carts and farm implements can be left under them; their cost is also low.” The grounds for applying the Tuscan order to the farm arcades of the Villa Badoer were thus both practical and aesthetic. Palladio made the walkway the same length as the columns, and as the intercolumniation sanctioned for the Tuscan order was exceptionally wide he placed a distance of five modules or five column diameters between each. This gave more space and maneuverability for wagons. The result was an attractive arcade with classical overtones that was efficient and cheap to build.

Palazzo Chiericati, Vicenza, 1551.The confines in which Palladio had to build presented him with an unusual challenge not entirely dissimilar to the Casa Civena. There, too, the site dictated a long narrow building with wings and a central block only one room deep. In both cases the setting was on the periphery of town and faced a river, and in both cases living space was maximized by building the upper floor over an arcade. Such solutions were commonplace in Northern Italian cities, and a loggia here must have been in the architects mind from an early stage. On March 19, 1551, Chiericati petitioned the town council for permission to erect a portico thirteen feet wide along the length of the facade of his proposed new palace. He explained that this would be ”for his greater convenience and for the convenience and ornament of the city,” and as a inducement he offered the city a slice of his property on the corner of the corso. In the petition, Chiericati mentions that his intentions had been encouraged by ”experienced architects and many distinguished citizens,” which suggests that Palladios designs had already been circulated among influential council members like Marcantonio Thiene and perhaps his colleagues on the basilica project, Gabriele Capra and Giovanni Alvise Valmarana. Permission was granted and construction began immediately.

Aerial view of the Basilica and the Piazza dei Signori, Vicenza.In March 5, 1546, the Deputati ad utilia, the executive of the Vicentine governing council, recommended to the Council of One Hundred a project by ”master Giovanni and Andrea Palladio” for completing the arcades of the citys public palace. In addition, they advised that a trial bay of the loggias proposed by the architects should be erected in situ, before a final decision was reached. This proposal was approved by a large majority, and a full-scale wooden model was executed by the following January. Further deliberations followed, and Palladio was asked to submit additional designs before the Council of One Hundred formally approved the project, now simply identified as his. This occurred on April 11, 1549. With its vote, the council made a radical break with the past and set in motion the transformation of the city center under the hands of its chosen architect.

Nave of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.Standing by the Punta della Dogana, the old Customs House at the entrance to the Grand Canal, one takes in the most miraculous of all views of Venice: the Doges Palace and Sansovinos Library of San Marco stand to the east with San Giorgio Maggiore across the bay, while the Redentore closes the scene triumphantly to the west. The churches, of course, were designed by Palladio and represent his contribution to the citys appearance. They also embody his mature statement on what he would call Christian temples, a merging of the classical and contemporary in a new kind of architecture comparable to his achievement with villas and palaces.

Andrea Palladio
The Architect in His Time (2nd Edition)

By Bruce Boucher
Size: 7 3/8 x 10 3/8" 336 pages
208 illustrations, 150 in full color
Published 2007
ISBN: 978-0-7892-0938-2
In Stock
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Cloth $49.95
Also in paperback for $39.95

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A comprehensive handbook exploring the career of the architect who transformed the building design and construction of the Western world.

An absolute must for anyone interested in the real history of classical architecture... undoubtedly one of the most important architectural books to be published for some time. -- The World of Interiors

A seminal coverage, Andrea Palladio: An Architect in His Time is highly recommended for community library Biography and Architectural Studies collections. -- The Midwest Book Review

Andrea Palladio (1508—1580) is known as the architect who has guided Western design philosophy for half a millennium, creating forms that have been studied and reproduced from age to age and around the world. For architects and the public alike, his buildings have become enduring testaments to his architectural genius as creator of a timeless classicism. When Abbeville Press first published Andrea Palladio: The Architect in His Time in 1994, it was selected by Choice magazine as “Outstanding Academic Book 1994,” while The World of Interiors called it “undoubtedly one of the most important architectural books to be published for some time.” Now Abbeville is pleased to release the revised concise edition of this essential resource.

Featuring a newly updated bibliography, this handsome volume spans the entire career of Palladio, illuminating his work in the context of his historical era and his own extraordinary life. It invites us to view Palladio’s masterpieces through the lens of Paolo Marton, moving across the thresholds of myriad villas, churches, and public edifices to illustrate the elegant proportions, crisp lines, and integrated geometries that are the hallmarks of Palladio’s vision. From the immortal Villa Rotonda to the Venetian churches of the Redentore and San Giorgio Maggiore, from the city halls to the bridges, each masterpiece is described using plans, maps, and contemporary drawings and etchings along with brilliant photography.

Combining modern scholarship with intriguing narrative, Palladio will educate and enlighten, helping readers understand the passion, joy, and beauty of one of the world’s most fascinating ages of architecture.

Bruce Boucher, curator of European decorative arts and sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago, is the author of Italian Baroque Sculpture, the award-winning The Sculpture of Jacopo Sansovino, and numerous articles on Italian art and architecture. Paolo Marton is the internationally renowned photographer for Venetian Villas, Venetian Palaces, and several other works.

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