Palladian architecture

“ But the handsomest features of this upper hall are the Palladian windows, admitting a flood of light at each end, with their rectangular sashes each side of a higher, round-arched central window and a delightful arrangement of curved sash bars at the top. The many small panes lend a pleasing sense of scale, while the architectural treatment of the frames adds to the charm of the interior woodwork quite as materially as to the exterior façade. ”

“ I was sorry to see no more of these Palladian palaces than the glimpses we caught from our carriage-windows. Architecture shows to peculiar advantage by the silver radiance of a full moon: its partial white light throws portions into strong relief, and the polished marble reflects its, so to speak, icy radiance. ”

“ It is useless to seek for decorative fancy, wealth of detail, or sallies of inventive genius in the Palladian style. All is cold and calculated in the many palaces and churches of this master which adorn both Venice and Vicenza; they make us feel that creative inspiration has been superseded by the labour of the calculating reason. One great public building of Palladio's, however—the Palazzo della Ragione at Vicenza—may be cited as, perhaps, the culminating point of pure Renaissance architecture. ”

“ The formidable body of architectural dogma, contained in the literature of the Renaissance on this subject, has been so widely accepted as authoritative that modern art has been largely shaped by it. The so-called Palladian style of the seventeenth century was derived mainly from the Italian books, and the more recent teaching has been so implicitly based on the writings of Vignola and Palladio that few architects of academic training have thought of questioning the belief that the formulas of these writers constitute the only true basis of correct design. ”

“ By the example of his numerous architectural works, as well as by his writings, the influence on modern art of this famous neo-classicist has been greater than that of any other architect of the Renaissance, so that we have, in the principal countries of Europe, a style of architecture which is known as Palladian. Palladio was the first architect of the Renaissance who was not at any time either a painter or a sculptor. He begins his well-known book [21] as follows: "Guided by natural inclination, I began in my earliest years to devote myself to the study of ”

“ Owing to its good proportion, the chaste simplicity of the detail and the pleasing combination of brick pilasters with wood trim, this has been referred to by architects as the best Palladian window in America. The use of such a window in the Ionic order above a Doric doorway adds another to the many notable instances of free use of the orders by Colonial builders.
In domestic architecture Palladian windows were employed chiefly to light the stairway landing, as at Whitby Hall; to light the upper hall, as at Mount Pleasant ”

“ Architects unfortunately object to mere imitation of the old Oxford style of building; they want to produce something entirely their own, which may be very good by itself, but is not always in harmony with the general tone of the college buildings. I still remember the outcry against the Taylor Institution, the only Palladian building at Oxford, and yet everybody has now grown reconciled to it, and even Ruskin lectured in it, which he would not have done, if he had disapproved of its architecture. ”

“ The entrance façade, with its broad, high stoop and pedimental doorway, double doors and fanlight above; its pleasing fenestration, especially the round-headed, Palladian windows of the second floor, above balustrade sections resting on a horizontal belt of white at the212 second-floor level, and its pediment with a handsome hand-tooled cornice in which an always pleasing Grecian band is prominent, does credit to its design, and altogether the structure was worthy of its purpose. ”

“ The whole aspect is changed by the greater breadth of windows and doors. The houses look wider awake. This change in the size of the windows means, of course, that the rooms{144} within in most cases were lighter and more cheerful than before. Then, too, the Palladian window has appeared. Both Mount Pleasant and Cliveden afford good examples of it, Cliveden’s being placed at the side while at Mount Pleasant it forms an important feature in both the east and west fronts. ”

“ The entablature of the great order is not set in the wall and broken by ressauts to cover the columns, as in San Giorgio; but is carried by the columns, and thus overhangs the wall with a supporting corbel in the middle of each intercolumniation which forms a keystone to the arch beneath. The façade of the Redentore is a variation of that of San Giorgio with the pedestals omitted from the great order, as in the interior, and it has an attic behind the pediment like that of Vignola’s small church of St. Andrea at Rome. Such is the nature of Palladian church architecture. ”

“ Fancy yourself, patient reader, at one end of this street, so as to command its vista. What do you see? Architecture? Very little, we imagine. Save the buildings immediately at your right and left, all the others are seen in profile, a contingency never reckoned on by their builders. The decoration is all piled on the front, as elaborate a design, often, as Palladio ever dreamt of, but at the side, every cornice and stringpiece stops as short as if it had been sawn off, and the whole side is a flat blank piece of brickwork. ”

“ The finest architectural work left behind by Palladio in this city are, however, the great arcades with which he surrounded the Basilica, a vast building of the middle ages already alluded to. These arcades are two storeys high, and are rich, yet vigorous; they ornament the great structure, the roof of which may be seen rising behind, without overpowering it. ”

“ The shaft of an order has not, indeed, a proper form for an abutment, and has no buttress expression. Its resistance to thrust is slight, but it is better than nothing at all. Following Sansovino, the architect has introduced a balustrade in each opening of the arcade, and a continuous one as a crowning feature of the cornice.
Palladio himself thought well of this work, and he does not hesitate to say in his book that it will bear comparison with the most beautiful buildings of antiquity. ”

“ There is a total of one hundred and eight columns in the building, and of these all on the exterior and all in the east room, one hundred and four in number, are Doric, while the four in the west room are Ionic.
Taste varies in the beauty of architecture as well as in art generally. Some admire the Gothic cathedrals of Europe, others admire the Taj Mahal in India, and still others prefer the temples of Japan; but to those who admire the architecture of the Greeks and the Romans, the Parthenon is the most beautiful building in the world. ”

“ This free-standing column supporting the archivolt is often spoken of as an innovation of Sansovino and Palladio. It is worthy of notice, however, that instances of it occur in the Græco-Roman architecture of Syria, as in S. Simeon Stylites (Fig. 74) ; but the arch in these cases is not framed in with the useless order. In the ground story arcade of Padua the spandrels have circular perforations, and these are reproduced by Palladio in both stories of his portico. ”

“ Palladio, Andrea, an Italian architect, born at Vicenza, of poor parents; was precursor of the modern Italian style of architecture, and author of a treatise on architecture that has borne fruit; his works, which are masterpieces of the Renaissance, consist principally of palaces and churches, and the finest specimens are to be met with in Venice and in his native place (1518-1580) .
Palladium, a statue of Pallas in Troy, on the preservation of which depended the safety of the city, and from the date of the abstraction of which by Ulysses and Diomedes the fate of it was doomed ”

“ But we do not feel the same instinctive attraction in the Palladian mansions of Jones, however accurately classical are their proportions or their mouldings, nor in any other of the dignified importations transplanted from Greece or Rome and forced to grow on uncongenial soil. They must ever be to us exotics, with perhaps the beauty of the exotic, but without the homely qualities which endear to us the real home. ”

“ Viewed from the street, the house presents an impressive sight. The unknown architect set it far back on the lot, sideways to the street, with a Palladian carriage house and iron gates. The impressive scale of the house results from stories of equal height, 15 feet, 8 inches. Double galleries with curved ends adorn the façade. These feature Doric columns below and Corinthian above. Linking the columns are panels of cast iron in a pattern somewhat heavier than usual, which admirably blends with the feeling of solidity which the building gives. ”

“ If a new architecture thus arises, and takes its place among the arts of ages, it will soon have its Leone Albertis, its Palladios, its Vignolas; who will give its rules, and true proportions, and show it perhaps to be rhythmical and harmonic, as are the depressed tympanums of the old Doric, and the high-peaked fronts of our ancient cathedrals. ”

“ Both columns and pilasters have strong entasis, and the frieze of the entablature is rounded in profile. In raising the great order on pedestals Palladio conformed more closely to ancient Roman practice than Michael Angelo and Vignola had done; but the pedestals have a clumsy effect thus ranged along the nave, and their sharp angles are in the way of moving crowds of people. It is noticeable, too, that Palladio has introduced complete orders under the archivolts, giving an entablature to each pair of small pilasters. ”

“ The architect is not bound to exhibit structure; nor are we to complain of him for concealing it, any more than we should regret that the outer surface of the human frame conceal much of its anatomy; nevertheless, that building will generally be the noblest, which to an intelligent eye discovers the great secrets of its structure, as an animal form does, although from a careless observer they may be concealed. In the vaulting of a Gothic roof it is no deceit to throw the strength into the ribs of it, and make the intermediate vault a mere shell. ”

“ When thus perfect, it must have formed an interior of surpassing beauty, lighted as it was solely through the central eye, and the light tempered by the linen veil stretched across its rich bronze cornice, which still remains round the opening, and retains vestiges of gilding. The Pantheon can scarcely be called a daring effort of construction, because its vast solidity seems to defy all doubts as to its duration. ”

“ On approaching a building of this type, we must abandon our conceptions of organic architecture: only the Greek and northern Gothic styles deserve that epithet. We must not seek for severe discipline and architectonic design. Instead of one presiding, all-determining idea, we must be prepared to welcome a wealth of separate beauties, wrought out by men of independent genius, whereby each part is made a masterpiece, and many diverse elements become a whole of picturesque rather than architectural impressiveness. ”

“ We shall see more of Palladio's art when we come to the consideration of the later civil and domestic architecture of the Renaissance.
It is unnecessary to multiply examples of the church architecture of the Roman Renaissance, i.e. that architecture which derived its character primarily from the influences that were active in Rome from the beginning of the sixteenth century. ”

“ His art was too pure and severe for a race whose taste had been formed on the fantastic mingling of Gothic and Byzantine and on the glowing decorations of the greatest school of colourists the world has known. It was from the warm and picturesque art of Sansovino and Longhena that the Italian baroque naturally developed; and though the authority of Palladio made itself felt in the official architecture of Venetia, its minor constructions, especially the villas and small private houses, seldom show any trace of his influence save in the grouping of their windows. ”

“ Now it is agreed that the more lofty and slender proportions of the Order of the Parthenon must have given to the original building a charm beyond that given by the stumpy proportions of the Pæstum temple: but it is also undeniable that many lovers of architecture, of this as of other epochs and styles, love especially the early work, that which is commonly known as archaic. ”

“ Clarke, “there be upon earth any buildings, which may be fairly brought into a comparison with the Parthenon, they are the temples of Pæstum in Lucania. But even these can only be so with reference to their superior antiquity, to their severe simplicity, and to the perfection of design visible in their structure. In graceful proportion, in magnificence, in costliness of materials, in splendid decoration, and in every thing that may denote the highest degree of improvement to which the Doric style of architecture ever attained, they are vastly inferior.” ”

“ But, since there is soon to come into the light of day a work of Palladio, in which will be printed two books of ancient edifices and one book of those that he himself has caused to be built, I shall say nothing more of him, because this will be enough to make him known as the excellent architect that he is held to be by all who see his beautiful works; besides which, being still young and attending constantly to the studies of his art, every day greater things may be expected of him. ”

“ The statue of Palladio stands on a pedestal, two storeys in height, with a genius by his side in the act of crowning him. Seated on the first story of the pedestal, against the angles of the upper portion, which is less in size than the lower, are two allegorical figures, one representing Vicenza with a wreath in her left hand, and looking up with pride at [Pg 142] the artist; the other Architecture, depicting the history of the art on a scroll, by a representation of a primitive hut, and the Pantheon. ”