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royal institute of british architects

in association with
centro internazionale di studi
di architettura andrea palladio

Palladio
and His Legacy
A Transatlantic Journey
edited by Charles Hind and Irena Murray

Marsilio
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Contents

palladio and his legacy: This exhibition has been organized by the vi Supporters of the exhibition bibliography and index
a transatlantic journey Royal Institute of British Architects Trust
vii riba President’s foreword 168 Bibliography of works cited
The Morgan Library & Museum,
New York ix cisa Andrea Palladio President’s foreword 177 Index
April 2 to August 1, 2010
in association with x Curators’ preface
Milwaukee Art Museum, Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura
Milwaukee, wi Andrea Palladio xii Provenence of the Palladio drawings
January 27 to May 1, 2011 in the British Architectural Library
of the Royal Institute of British Architects
The Heinz Architectural Center,
Carnegie Museum of Art, xiv Editorial note
Pittsburgh, pa
September 29 to December 31, 2011 xv Photographic acknowledgements
Exhibition curators
Charles Hind
Irena Murray palladio and his legacy:
Guido Beltramini a transatlantic journey
Calder Loth
2 Palladio and his legacy in America
Exhibition organization James S. Ackerman
Tim Hollins
Greg Hall 8 Between the lines:
Palladio’s project and Palladio’s drawings
Exhibition administration Howard Burns
Catriona Cornelius
Part i
Models 22 Thirty-one Palladio drawings:
Timothy Richards (for the American models) a self-portrait on paper
Guido Beltramini and Mauro Zocchetta Guido Beltramini
(concept), Ivan Simonato (construction
of the Palladio drawings models) 26 Catalog
Guido Beltramini, Pierre Gros, Charles Hind
Conservation
Lisa Nash Part ii
110 Publishing Palladio and the spread
Digital processing and drawings of anglo-Palladianism
Simone Baldissini Charles Hind and Irena Murray

114 Palladio and libraries in eighteenth century America

Catalog editors Cover Warren J. Cox
Charles Hind Andrea Palladio, Design for the Villa Repeta
Irena Murray at Campiglia, early 1560s, detail 120 Catalog
Charles Hind, Irena Murray
Picture research
Katharine Jones Graphic design and cover design Part iii
Elisabetta Michelato Stefano Bonetti 142 Palladio’s legacy to America
Ilaria Abbondandolo Calder Loth
Copy, editing and typography
Bibliography In.pagina srl, Mestre-Venezia 152 Reflections on the model - Venice 2009
Jeremy Crumplin Timothy Richards
© 2010 by Royal Institute of British Architects
Translation from the Italian Trust and the contributors 156 Catalog
David Kerr © 2010 by Marsilio Editori® s.p.a. in Venice Calder Loth

Editorial co-ordination isbn 978-88-317-0652

Julia Matthews
Wilson Yau www.marsilioeditori.it
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Supporters of the exhibition RIBA President’s foreword

The Royal Institute of British Architects Trust When the fledgling Institute of British Architects was granted a royal charter in 1837 by King William iv, its purpose was firmly
and the Centro Internazionale di Studi established as being, ‘[...] for the general advancement of civil architecture and for promoting and facilitating the acquirement
di Architettura Andrea Palladio would like
to express their gratitude to those who have of the knowledge of the various arts and sciences connected therewith; it being an art esteemed and encouraged in all enlightened
generously supported this exhibition nations, as tending greatly to promote the domestic convenience of citizens [...]’.
At the heart of the new Institute was a collection of ‘books and works of art’ that was intended to inform, inspire and instruct
Regione del Veneto
both the founding members and the public at large. This early example of a ‘mission statement’ has served the institute very well
Richard H. Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust since and, although the world has perhaps become more complicated since then, the riba still must balance the evolving needs
of the architectural profession with the vital work of developing public understanding of the ‘various arts and sciences connected
Dainese therewith’. We are extremely proud, therefore, to be able to show these masterworks from our Palladio collections in the nation
British Architectural Library Trust
where his work was to have so deep and sustained an influence; from that most ‘enlightened’ of the American founding fathers,
Thomas Jefferson, through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the present day.
Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation The work of Andrea Palladio has a profound resonance for us now. He studied and reinterpreted the architecture of antiquity
to provide a flexible and satisfyingly modern style which has remained in the mainstream of contemporary American architectural
Samuel H. Kress Foundation
practice. Palladio also made architecture more democratic, proclaiming the value of good design in domestic structures, arguing
Center for Palladian Studies in America, Inc. that farmhouses, barns and bridges were works which deserved as much architectural value as the churches and palaces which he
also built with such genius. His buildings and books brought theory and practice together in an exemplary way and we still have
Richard Wernham and Julia West much to learn from this approach.
Andrew D. Stone Some of these great works from the riba collections have not been seen in the United States since 1981 and others have never
traveled there before. We are very grateful to have worked so closely with Dr William Griswold, Director of the Morgan Library
William T. Kemper Foundation & Museum, New York, Daniel T. Keegan, Director of the Milwaukee Art Museum, Lynn Zelevansky, Henry J. Heinz ii Director
of the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh and Amalia Sartori, President of the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura
Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation
(cisa Palladio) in Vicenza, to bring these wonderful examples of our shared common heritage to the us.
Anne Kriken Mann We are much indebted to the curators of the exhibition, Charles Hind and Irena Murray from the riba British Architectural
Library, Dr Guido Beltramini from cisa Palladio and Calder Loth of the Virginia State Historical Service. The riba is extremely
grateful to Anne Kriken Mann, Hon friba, for all her hard work in bringing the exhibition to the United States. The support of
Jonathan Wimpenny, President of riba usa and Dr James K. Fischer, riba Council Member, has been invaluable.

ruth reed

vi vii
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Curators’ preface

The idea for this exhibition began relatively modestly when it became apparent that the great exhibition celebrating the 500th conservation of the drawings has been done by Lisa Nash. The photography of the riba’s drawings and books was carried out by
anniversary of Palladio’s birth, which between 2008 and 2010 was staged in Vicenza, London, Barcelona and Madrid, would not Andy Smart of A.C. Cooper, Ltd.
travel to the United States. A small selection of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (riba) treasure trove of Palladio’s drawings At the Morgan Library & Museum, Dr. Rhoda Eitel-Porter, Robert Park, Linden Chubin and John Alexander have worked
was offered to the Metropolitan Museum, New York, in 2007 but it proved impossible to find suitable display space in the closely with us over the last year, giving massive support and ensuring every challenge was overcome.
museum in the anniversary year. Subsequent discussions between the riba and the Morgan Library & Museum and the Finally, the support and understanding of the Palladio project given by Library staff over the last two years has made our work
transformation of the exhibition into an examination of Palladio and his legacy in America has led to the present happy outcome, possible. We thank them in full recognition that they have shouldered many duties that should otherwise have been ours. On a
with additional venues in Milwaukee and Pittsburgh. We are particularly happy that the exhibition will be shown at the Heinz personal note, we gratefully recognize the patience, empathy and all round support of our respective partners, Christopher
Architectural Center in the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, because of the links between the two institutions created by Middleton and Eric Ormsby.
our joint long-standing benefactor, Mrs. Drue Heinz.
The drawings that form the core of the present exhibition are only a selection from over 330 drawings by Palladio that are the charles hind dr. irena murray
greatest treasures in the British Architectural Library of the riba. The survival of these drawings is entirely due to two Associate Director and H.J. Heinz Curator of Drawings Sir Banister Fletcher Director
Englishmen, Inigo Jones and Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington. No other single architect’s archive can ever have had as much Royal Institute of British Architects British Architectural Library
influence on architecture as Palladio’s has, for between 1614 and Burlington’s death in 1753, no British architect of any standing
can have been unaware of them. They are key to the development of Anglo-Palladianism, that fusion of Palladio with Serlio,
Scamozzi and contemporary French practice developed by Jones and subsequently exported to America, Europe and even back
to Italy. Their full provenance is discussed on pp. xii-xiii.
Over time, a close relationship has developed between the staff of the riba British Architectural Library and our colleagues at
the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio (cisa Palladio) in Vicenza. Relations were particularly
harmonious in the preparations for the exhibition celebrating Palladio’s Quincentenary, and the present exhibition has benefited
enormously from the advice and scholarship of cisa Palladio’s Director, Dr. Guido Beltramini. We are deeply grateful to him and
to his colleagues (particularly Ilaria Abbondandolo and Roberta Colla) for their support, and also to the Centro’s President, Dr.
Amalia Sartori, who has been a powerful ally.
We are grateful to many people for making this exhibition possible, first and foremost to Anne Kriken Mann, but for whose
extraordinary energy and determination, this exhibition would not have happened. She has been tireless in finding venues,
identifying sources of sponsorship and dealing with many other aspects of what comprises and surrounds an exhibition today.
Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn was generous with her advice on fundraising.
We want to thank our fellow-curators, Guido Beltramini from Vicenza and Calder Loth from Virginia for making the
geographic distances between us insignificant, for their sympathetic involvement, fresh ideas and the time and effort they have
devoted to making the exhibition stronger.
The contributors to the exhibition catalog, Professor James S. Ackerman, Dr. Guido Beltramini, Professor Howard Burns,
Professor Pierre Gros, Warren Cox, Calder Loth and Timothy Richards gave us opportunities to benefit from their scholarship
and expertise.
For his great enthusiasm at the outset of the project and his advice on the lighting of the exhibition in New York, our thanks
are due to James K. Fischer, riba.
We are indebted to Timothy Richards for sharing with us the ways and means in which his models in the exhibition continue
the tradition established by Jean-Pierre and François Fouquet.
We appreciate the generosity of the Winterthur Museum Library for the loan in New York of Abraham Swan’s The British
Architect, the first architectural book published in America and one of the many treasures of that institution.
The Directors of the exhibiting institutions, Dr. William R. Griswold, the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, Mr. Daniel
T. Keegan, Milwaukee Art Museum, and Ms. Lynn Zelevansky, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh and their respective staff
have been supportive in welcoming and enabling the exhibition in the context of their exhibition programs.
Marsilio Editori and its staff, and particularly Martina Mian, have been endlessly patient and helpful in the production of this
catalog.
We owe enormous gratitude to Dr Tim Hollins, Deputy Director of the riba Trust, whose extraordinary labors in conquering
the challenges of a travelling exhibit with imagination, patience and good humor are worthy of a medal. Our riba colleagues
Sian Cook, Catriona Cornelius, Jeremy Crumplin, Greg Hall, Kate Jones, Julia Matthews, James Robinson and Wilson Yau, who
x have worked incredibly hard in managing and advancing different aspects of the exhibition and catalog. The impeccable xi
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Provenance of the Palladio drawings
in the British Architectural Library
of the Royal Institute of British Architects
The provenance of the riba’s collection of drawings by Palladio is a fascinating one. In 1613, King James i promised Inigo Jones
(1573-1652) the reversion of the post of Surveyor of the King’s Works, when it next became vacant. Trained originally as a painter,
Jones had made his reputation as a designer of masques, those elaborate entertainments combining music and poetry performed
by and for members of the Stuart Court and the Royal Family. Though documented as already interested in architecture, Jones
clearly felt he needed to improve his knowledge of the subject, so he took advantage of an opportunity to visit Italy offered by
the marriage between the Princess Elizabeth, James i’s eldest daughter, and the Protestant German prince, Frederick v, the Elector
Palatine. After the wedding in London, the happy couple were accompanied back to Heidelberg by the Earl and Countess of
Arundel. Jones traveled with the Arundels and on leaving Heidelberg, they turned south and spent several months travelling in
Italy. Armed with a copy of the 1601 edition of Palladio’s I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura, Jones examined as many of Palladio’s
buildings as he could, annotating his book with his comments.i During his tour, he acquired a large number of drawings by
Palladio, either from Vincenzo Scamozzi, with whom he discussed architecture, or from Palladio’s surviving son, Silla. These he
bore back to England, where Jones’s patient study of them contributed to his transformation from stage designer into England’s
first real architect and to his creation of Anglo-Palladianism.
When Jones died in 1652, he bequeathed his library and collection of drawings (his own as well as Palladio’s) to his pupil John
Webb (1611-1672). Webb in turn left the collections to his second son William, with explicit instructions that he was to ‘keepe
them intire together without selling or imbezzling [sic] any of them’.2 By 1675, Robert Hooke was recording in his diary that
Webb’s books were being sold.3 The books and some drawings were eventually acquired by Dr George Clarke and were
bequeathed in 1736 to Worcester College, Oxford, where they remain. The bulk of Palladio’s drawings were bought by the
London surveyor, John Oliver (c. 1616-1701)4 and later sold to William Talman (1650-1719). Talman was the deeply disloyal
colleague of Sir Christopher Wren in the Office of the King’s Works, but for our purposes he was of note as the collector, with
his son John, of the most remarkable collection of architectural and design drawings ever amassed privately in Britain, sadly
dispersed after 1726.5 It seems inconceivable that in the tightly knit circle that represented the architectural establishment in
seventeenth century England that Wren, Hawksmoor, Vanbrugh and others did not know these drawings. William Talman died
in 1719 and his collection passed to his son John Talman (1677-1726).
For a moment we must divert our attention to Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694-1753), who brought a separate group
of Palladio’s drawings to England. The origins of Burlington’s interest in architecture are unknown although he was praised by
John Macky6 for his taste in painting and gardening as early as 1714, when he was only 20. His Grand Tour of 1714-1715 was not
particularly oriented towards architecture but by 1717, he was remodeling Burlington House to the designs of Colen Campbell
and trying out his hand designing a garden building at his suburban villa at Chiswick.
Burlington was certainly enthusiastic about Palladio by 1719, when he made a hasty visit to the Veneto explicitly to look at
Palladio’s buildings. Whilst in Venice, he acquired a group of drawings by Palladio, although from whom is uncertain. The
ultimate source is certainly known. The vendor was Bernardo Trevisan,7 who owned the Villa Barbaro at Maser, where, it is
believed, Palladio had died in 1580. In his Fabbriche Antiche (cat. 41), Burlington states that they were part of a group of drawings
‘found in the worthy palace of Maser’. Trevisan had offered the drawings for sale in Rome in 1710, and it is possible that at some
stage between then and 1719, when Burlington returned to Italy, John Talman bought them and resold them to Burlington.
Burlington otherwise would have bought them, one supposes, from a dealer in Venice. The continuing link between Talman and
Burlington is William Kent (1685-1748). Kent traveled with Talman and knew him in Italy from 1709 onwards while he met
Burlington in Rome in 1714 and entered Burlington’s circle in London from 1719. In any case, Talman sold his father’s collection
of Palladios to Burlington in April 1721, when according to the Earl’s account book now at Chatsworth, he paid £170 ‘for a Parcell
of Architectonical Designs and Drawings by Palladio’.8 One drawing was overlooked and since 1939, it has been in the Library of
Westminster Abbey, London.9
Having brought together the bulk of Jones’s Palladios and those from Italy, Burlington now owned the vast majority of
surviving Palladio drawings. He pasted them into seventeen albums, from which derives the numbering of the riba’s drawings,
a Roman numeral for the volume, followed by an Arabic number for the leaf. Following Burlington’s death in 1753, his property
and collections passed via his daughter and heiress Charlotte, Marchioness of Hartington, into the family of the Dukes of
Devonshire.i0 The Palladios seem to have remained at Chiswick although they passed out of view of scholars and architects for
xii nearly a century. In 1845, the 6th Duke allowed two members of the riba, its Honorary Secretaries Thomas Leverton Donaldson
and Ambrose Poynter, to make and publish a summary list of the drawings.i1 In 1852, the architect, classical scholar and
archeologist Edward Falkener (1814-1896) made notes on the subjects of the drawingsi2 and for the next forty years, the drawings
remained in peaceful obscurity. In 1892, on the death of the 7th Duke, the riba was reminded of the existence of the drawings
by one of its Honorary Fellows, John Dibblee Crace, who was making a probate valuation of the contents of Chiswick. The new
Duke agreed to lend the drawings to the riba and a long and discursive article on them was published by W.H. White, friba,
in the RIBA Transactions.i3 One of the illustrations was a photograph of the room at Chiswick where the drawings were kept. The
8th Duke has been remembered by his family as the most philistine of all the Dukes of Devonshire, but the riba is grateful that
in 1894, when he decided to sell Chiswick, he made the loan into a Gift in Trust. This gift came with strings, the only one of
which still remaining active is that should the riba cease to exist within twenty-five years of the death of the last surviving great-
grandchild of Queen Victoria, the drawings will revert to the 8th Duke of Devonshire’s successors. Only one of the
aforementioned descendants of Queen Victoria presently survives.i4 A few drawings by Palladio were overlooked and remain at
Chatsworth.i5
i
Now in the Library at Worcester College, Oxford.
2
J. Bold, John Webb: architectural theory and practice in the seventeeth century, Oxford 1989, p. 185.
3
R. Hooke, The diary of Robert Hooke, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., 1672-1680: transcribed from the original in the possession of the Corporation of the City of London
(Guildhall library), H.W. Robinson ... and H. Adams (eds), London 1935, p. 156.
4
About 1682, John Aubrey commented: ‘John Oliver, the City Surveyor, hath all Jones’s plans and designs’ (J. Aubrey, Brief Lives, A. Clark (ed.), London
1895, vol. ii, p. 10). Although he goes on to list a number of Jones’s projects, it has always been assumed that Oliver bought the Palladio drawings too, unless
William Talman bought them directly from William Webb or his widow. This is unlikely.
5
For a variety of contributions on Talman and the family collections, see C.M. Sicca, John Talman: An Early-Eighteenth Century Connoisseur, London 2009.
6
J. Macky, A journey through England: in familiar letters from a gentleman here, to his friend abroad, London 1714, p. 125.
7
J. Harris, The Palladian Revival: Lord Burlington, His Villa and Garden at Chiswick, London 1994, p. 67 and note 16.
8
Chatsworth, Derbyshire, Messrs Graham & Collins Joynt accounts 1st & 2nd.
9
G. Beltramini, H. Burns (eds), Palladio, exh. cat. (London, Royal Academy of Arts, 31 January-13 April 2009), London 2008, cat. 127a/b.
i0
Lady Hartington did not survive her father long, dying in the following year, 1754. As was usual under English law, when she inherited, all her property
had passed automatically to her husband, William Cavendish, Marquis of Nartington, future 4th Duke of Devonshire.
i1
Donaldson, Poynter 1845, riba Library Drawings and Archives Collections, ms.sp/4/14.
i2
These notes are appended to the proof copy of the original report by T.L. Donaldson, A. Poynter, Some description of a collection of architectureal drawings
by Andrea Palladio in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire at his villa at Chiswick, near London, drawn up with the express permission of His Grace, riba Library
Drawings and Archives Collections 1845. See previous footnote.
i3
W.H. White, ‘The Burlington-Devonshire Collection of drawings, formerly preserved in the Villa at Chiswick, with a notice of that building’, in Transactions
of the Royal Institute of British Architects, n.s., viii, 1892, pp. 349-364.
i4
He is Count Carl Johan Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, born in 1916.
i5
These include Palladio’s design for a new Doge’s Palace, Venice, following the fire of 1577.
xiii
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Editorial note
Bibliographical references in the essays are given
in the footnotes in full. Those in the catalog
entries are provided in an abbreviated form. Full
details of the works cited in the entries are
provided in the Bibliography of works cited
on pp. 168-175.
Palladio’s I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura
(The Four Books of Architecture) are abbreviated
throughout the catalogue as I Quattro Libri.
Objects in the exhibition are referred to by
catalog numbers (cat. or cats), all comparative
and reference illustrations are referred
to as figures with the relevant page (fig. or figs).
Provenance: in catalog entries, past ownership
of all works (where known) is indicated under
‘History and ownership’, with names of owners
given within and without parentheses. Where a
name is given without parentheses, the drawing’s
ownership is confirmed, e.g. John Talman; Lord
Burlington. On the basis of such confirmed
ownership it is possible to infer previous
ownership of the drawing, although no firm
record exists as proof. In this case, its ‘history’
is recorded by placing the name or names within
parentheses, e.g. (Inigo Jones); (John Webb)
Abbreviations
fol./fols: sheet/sheets
Bk: Book
ch.: chapter
cisa: Centro Internazionale di Studi
di Architettura Andrea Palladio, Vicenza
pl.: plate
r: recto
riba: Royal Institute of British Architects,
London
v: verso
xiv
12:00 Pagina xiv
Photographic acknowledgements
Arcaid.co.uk: cat. 62 (photo: G. Jackson) 13.3, 15.1, 15.2, 18.1, 18.3, 18.4, 19.1, 20.4, 24/25.1,
Archivio Storico Capitolino, Rome: fig. 34/36.5 24/25.4, 29.1, 30.4, 32.4, 32.5, 1 (p. 143), 2 (p.
Su concessione della Biblioteca civica Bertoliana 144), 4 (p. 144), 5 (p. 144) 6 (p. 145), 11 (p. 146),
di Vicenza: fig. 2 (p. 10) 12 (p. 146), 16 (p. 147), 17 (p. 149), 18 (p. 149), 20
Howard Burns: figs 3 (p. 10), 5 (p. 10), 7 (p. 12), (p. 149), 22 (p. 150), 23 (p. 150), 24 (p. 150)
8 (p. 12), 9 (p. 13), 10 (p. 13), 13 (p. 14), 14 (p. 14) By courtesy of the trustees of Sir John Soane’s
Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Museum, Codex Coner: fig. 1.2 (photo: Michael
Andrea Palladio, Vicenza: figs 4 (p. 6) (photo: Waters)
Pino Guidolotti), 12 (p. 14), 16 (p. 15), 1.5 (photo: Timothy Richards of Bath: figs 1 (p. 153), 2 (p.
Pino Guidolotti), 6.3 (photo: Pino Guidolotti), 154), 3 (p. 154), 4 (p. 155), 5 (p. 155)
12.6, 12.7, 13.4, 14.2 (photo: Giovetti, Mantova), The Provost and Fellows of Worcester College,
14.4, 16.1 (photo: Pino Guidolotti), 16.3, 17.1 Oxford, h&t 175 a: fig. 16.5
(photo: Pino Guidolotti), 17.2 (photo: Lorenzo Acquired from Eggers and Higgins, Architects,
Ceretta), 17.3 (photo: Fiorentini, Venice), 17.5, Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees,
18.2 (photo: Fabrizio Ivan Apollonio), 20.1, 20.2, National Gallery of Art, Washington,
21.2 (photo: Pino Guidolotti), 21.3, 21.4, 22/23.1, 1984.44.93./dr: cat. 63
22/23.2 (photo: Pino Guidolotti), 22/23.4 (photo: Courtesy, The Winterthur Library, Printed Book
Pino Guidolotti), 22/23.7, 22/23.8, 24/25.3, and Periodical Collection: cat. 50
24/25.5 (photo: Pino Guidolotti), 31.5 (photo:
Rossi, Vicenza), 34/36.4
Comune di Genazzano: fig. 21.1 (photo:
Giordano Quaresima)
Warren Cox: figs 1 (p. 115), 2 (p. 116), 4 (p. 116), 5
(p. 118), 6 (p. 118)
Dipartimento dapt, Universita degli Studi di
Bologna: fig. 18.2 (photo: Fabrizio Ivan
Apollonio)
Regione del Veneto, Villa Contarini, Fondazione
G.E. Ghirardi, cart. 335, c.n. 73, fol. 69: fig. 21.5
Research Library, The Getty Research Institute,
Los Angeles (870672*): fig. 34/36.7
© 2010 Google, Geonext/DeAgostini: fig. 5.1
Charles Hind: figs 11 (p. 14), 10 (p. 146)
Immagini TerraItaly™ © Blom Compagnia
Generale Ripreseaeree S.p.A., Parma: fig. 24/25.2
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs
Division: cats 52 (habs sc,10-char.v,8-4), 53
(habs ri,3-newp,15-3), 54 (habs va,80-war.v,4-
21), 60 (Detroit Publishing Company
Photograph Collection, lc-d4-4402), 61 (lc-
usz62-124933)
The Library of Virginia: fig. 19 (p. 149)
Calder Loth: cat. 59; figs 3 (p. 144), 8 (p. 145), 9
(p. 146), 13-15 (p. 147), 21 (p. 150)
Courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society: cats
57, 58
Massachusetts Historical Society: cat. 55
Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le
Attività Culturali, Archivio di Stato di Venezia,
n. 44, prot. 117: fig. 12.5
The National Gallery, London, ng 60: fig. 29.2
John O. Peters: cat. 56
Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale della
Città di Firenze: figs 3.2 (1175 a, detail); 6.2 (634
ar); 16.4 (194 a)
Royal Institute of British Architects, British
Architectural Library, London: cats 1-49, 51; figs 1
(p. 3), 2 (p. 4), 3 (p. 6), 4 (p. 10), 6 (p. 12), 15
(p. 15), 1 (p. 23), 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 4.3, 8.1, 12.3, xv
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PALLADIO AND HIS LEGACY:

A TRANSATLANTIC JOURNEY
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Palladio and his legacy in America
james s. ackerman
The extraordinary influence of Palladio’s designs on architecture
in the centuries following his death in 1580 was due in large part
to his treatise, I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura. It was published
in Venice in 1570, and disseminated in numerous translations
through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe and
England, offering to connoisseurs of the art of architecture an
authoritative classical alternative to the exuberance and fantasy
of the Baroque style. Few of his followers knew his buildings at
first hand, which denied them the experience of the subtleties of
color and texture and the sensitivity to light and atmosphere that
enrich the original structures.
But Palladio’s drawings bring us closer to this visual richness.
Those brought to England by Inigo Jones and Richard Boyle,
Lord Burlington, of which the largest part is gathered in the
collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects, aug-
mented acquaintance with his designs and studies of ancient
architecture and contributed to a dynamic Palladian revival
that dominated the design of British country and urban houses
throughout the eighteenth century and beyond. They reveal
Palladio’s capacity to maintain equilibrium between respect for
the traditions of ancient architecture and his genius for con-
stant innovation. In the vocabulary of architectural theorists in
his time, the former goal was defined as decoro and the latter,
licenza. Palladio achieved in practice the ideal fusion of the
two. This exhibition gives us insight into his committed study
of Roman ruins and into this progression from early and
somewhat awkward experiments seeking new forms of urban
mansions and country villas to a mature achievement that
altered the course of architecture in the following centuries.
The final part of the exhibition illustrates how the ideas
embodied in Palladio’s drawings and his treatise were
interpreted in America largely through transmission of books
based on the Palladian model.
the renaissance of architectural drawing
In every aspect of the Renaissance in Italy, the revival of ancient
Mediterranean culture – literature, science, philosophy, the
writing of history and the arts – was a major goal, and in no
discipline more avidly than in architecture. This re-birth was
stimulated early in the fifteenth century by the re-discovery of
the sole surviving treatise on architecture, Marcus Pollio Vitru-
vius’ De architectura, written in the first century bce. It exerted
a great influence on the practice of architecture, spawning a
1. Plan and elevation flow of architectural treatises – that of Leon Battista Alberti,
of a round temple, 1540s
2 (cat. 10) completed in 1450, and later those of Francesco di Giorgio,
Sebastiano Serlio, Giacomo da Vignola and others prior to I
Quattro Libri. The illustrations to which Vitruvius referred in
his text had not survived, and architects had to complement
the study of his occasionally impenetrable text with assiduous
investigations of the remains of Roman buildings, by
measuring, sketching, attempting to reconstruct what they saw
in the ruins and, like Palladio, supplementing their own first-
hand experience by copying drawings by other architects of
buildings they had not seen.
Although late medieval architects had achieved a high degree
of sophistication in drawings to scale on parchment, that
material (sheepskin) was too resistant to support the freedom
of movement and the variety of media available for freehand
drawing which followed the introduction of paper production
from Asia in the late fourteenth century.
In the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries since there was
no established training in architecture, aspiring architects had
to apprentice in the figural arts in ateliers in which drawing was
the foundation of the discipline. Palladio, who had been
trained as a stonecutter, lacked even this background as a
draftsman. But the principles of architectural drawing were in
dispute. Vitruvius had written that there were three types of
architectural drawing: ichnografia, orthografia and scaenografia
(plan, elevation, perspective). Scaenografia, in showing what an
executed project would look like in three dimensions, might be
understood easily by clients, but was of no use to builders,
because the lines receding into depth could not provide
consistent measurements. His inclusion of perspective led to an
extended confusion.
Leon Battista Alberti, in the first Renaissance treatise on
architecture, De re aedificatoria, completed by 1452 (but not
printed until 1485), was the first to oppose the use of either
perspective or modeling in light and shadow. He wrote:
Between the drawing of a painter and that of an architect there is
the difference that the former seeks to give the appearance of relief
through shadow and foreshortened lines and angles. The architect
rejects shading and gets projection from the ground plan. The
disposition and image of the façade and side elevations he shows on
different (sheets) with fixed lines and true angles as one who does not
intend to have his plans seen as they appear (to the eye).
These precepts were rarely observed, and architectural
drawing remained uncodified until the grandiose projects of
the Papacy in Rome – particularly in the workshop of St. Peter,
under Donato Bramante at the start of the fifteen-hundreds –
called for stricter discipline. Bramante’s successor Raphael, in a 3
[1.]
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[2.]
4 early years in the architect’s career (cats 20 and 21). They do not
13-03-2010 12:02 Pagina 4
letter to Pope Leo x calling for the survey and preservation of
Roman antiquities, reiterated Alberti’s principles. Palladio
probably learned their techniques from architects who left
Rome for northern Italy in 1527 when the Sack of that city
caused a virtual halt in commissions.
Apart from plans of buildings, most of Palladio’s project
drawings are orthogonal – elevations in which all the elements
are projected onto the plane of the paper. But, since many were
addressed to non-architects, he did not follow Alberti’s re-
jection of shaded modeling. The difference between orth-
ogonal and perspective projection is clearly illustrated in two
drawings in the exhibition: (cats 9 and 10) the perspective
diminution in the latter is particularly evident in the treatment
of the frieze). Perhaps Palladio felt that the rules could be
relaxed because any part of circular colonnade presents to the
eye an undistorted view at the point directly ahead.
Other perspectival exceptions in the exhibition are found in
cats 2, 4, 6 and 13. However, when recording antique buildings
from the drawings of other architects, Palladio perforce used
perspective if his models did (cats 1, 2, 36).
The perspective of an entablature added to a sketch of the
Arco de’ Borsari or Arch of Jupiter Ammon in Verona (cat. 2)
has been identified as a copy of a study by Giovanni Maria
Falconetto, an architect of the preceding generation who
practiced in nearby Padua. The riba collection includes similar
perspectives of entablatures copied from an early sixteenth-
century sketchbook by Bernardo della Volpaia now in Sir John
Soane’s Museum in London. Palladio did not adhere to
Alberti’s stricture against employing shading to give ortho-
graphic projections more body (cats 4, 17, 18, 22 and 35).
types of palladio’s drawings
The surviving drawings surely represent only a small part of
Palladio’s lifetime production. There are a few quickly executed
preliminary sketches of the kind architects make while experi-
menting with different solutions, such as the plan for the Villa
Mocenigo on the Brenta canal (on the upper half of cat. 12),
which never was executed according to the architect’s design,
and a plan proposed for the early Villa Pisani at Bagnolo (cat.
19). Howard Burns has attributed this scarcity to the likelihood
that preliminary sketches did not interest early collectors of
Palladio’s drawings; besides, if there were finished drawings
prepared for the builders, they may have been worn out on the
site. Possibly contractors preferred to work from models and
templates for the details rather than drawings (documents on
the building of the church of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice
refer to Palladio’s model, which presumably was three-
dimensional).
projects
Only three of the thirteen projects for palaces and villas
included in the exhibition were prepared for structures built as
Palladio intended, and of these, the majority date from early in
his career. The drawings for small villas are mostly from the
seem to have been prepared either for specific clients or for
contractors because, being smaller than those serving as the
center of an agricultural enterprise, they were of a type for
which there was less demand at the time. Lacking measure-
ments, they cannot have been prepared for builders. Perhaps, as
Howard Burns has suggested, they were intended for publi-
cation.
The most elaborate (and the latest – c. 1550) of these projects
(cats 22 and 23) is identified as a villa design, but I wonder if the
richness of its ornamental reliefs, unparalleled in any of the built
villas, and similar to those proposed in one of the preparatory
sketches for the Palazzo Chiericati in Vicenza, was not regarded
by Palladio as unsuitable to country buildings. In the side ele-
vation (cat. 23), Palladio failed – uncharacteristically – to repre-
sent the projection of the central porch.
The designs for palace façades, of the 1540’s (cats 14 and 17)
show the impact of Palladio’s visits to Rome in 1541 and 1547,
reflecting the innovations of Bramante and Raphael, and the
visit of Raphael’s associate Giulio Romano to Vicenza in 1542,
which may have introduced him to the type of rusticated
façade initiated by Giulio and represented by cat. 14.
None of the few surviving Palladio designs for churches
presents a project as built. The two included in the exhibition
(cats 24 and 25) represent a fully developed proposal of 1577 for
the church of the Redentore in Venice – a central-plan solution
with a freestanding portico based on the Pantheon in Rome. It
was rejected by the client, the Venetian Senate, which insisted
on a more traditional longitudinal basilica with an extended
nave, a transept, presbytery and a choir behind the altar.
drawings for I QUATTRO LIBRI
Much of the great success of Palladio’s I Quattro Libri was due
to Book i, which deals in great detail with the canon of the
Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite orders which
constituted the foundation of classical design, and Book ii,
which illustrates and discusses examples of villas and palaces
designed for his clients, primarily Venetian and Vicentine.
Book iv of the treatise, on temples, focuses on ancient Roman
buildings and does not include examples of his ecclesiastical
architecture, which for this reason was influential only in the
Veneto, where they could be seen at first hand.
Book ii, as the first publication on architecture to treat the
works and projects of the author, was a great novelty (though
Palladio’s older contemporary Sebastiano Serlio had drawn
plans and elevations of residential projects for every economic
and social level of contemporary society, only one was executed
or published). Palladio’s illustrations were woodcuts, which at
the time offered the only practical way to combine images with
ample text. Though the technique encouraged emphasis on
line and modification of form-defining shades and shadows,
this suited Palladio’s style of draftsmanship.
This is demonstrated by the most elegant of those prepared
for I Quattro Libri, the palace of Iseppo Porto (cat. 32), the
earliest of Palladio’s mature residential designs (1546). It
combines a façade elevation and a section-and-elevation of the
interior court. The innovative colossal order of the court sup-
porting the balcony of the upper floor halfway up the
columnar shafts was never built (I believe it may have been
designed much later than the façade, in the mid-to-late 1560s).
A majority of the architect’s Vicentine palace projects remained
unfinished because of difficult economic times and social strife
in the later sixteenth century. But many woodcuts of palaces
and villas that had already been finished differ from their
executed designs, and all of them ignore irregularities forced on
the architect by conditions of the site.
A half-elevation and half-section through the portico of the
Pantheon in Rome (cat. 31), with a scale on the right margin
and measured in Vicentine piedi is an initial study for the same
subject in I Quattro Libri (Bk iv, pp. 76-77). The measure-
2. Plan and elevation
ments are more numerous and the numbers are not all the of Vitruvius’ peripteral
same, but the similarities outweigh the differences. The upper- temple, 1540s (cat. 9)
level pediment and the portico design appear in the architect’s
late ecclesiastical projects, notably that of 1578 for San Petronio
in Bologna.
The plan of the tomb of Valerius Romulus, son of the
Emperor Maxentius (cat. 30), is outside Rome on the Appian
Way. While the plan was intended for publication, the ele-
vation illustrates Palladio’s practice of utilizing reconstructions
of ancient monuments as a basis for developing designs for his
own work. The remains even in his time were partial foun-
dations upon which he imagined the domed and porticoed
building at the bottom of the sheet, which later served as an
initial conception for the chapel of 1580 built for Marcantonio
Barbaro at the family villa in Maser (fig. 4).
The exhibition includes three reconstructions of the Baths of
Diocletian – the interior perspective copied from another
architect (cat. 36), a section and a plan (cats 34 and 35). Though
these were not prepared for inclusion in I Quattro Libri,
Palladio did intend to publish a book on the Roman Baths, and
his drawings of them were added by Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi
to a late eighteenth-century edition of the treatise with
engraved illustrations. His approach to the section is unique:
the cuts through the building are not on the same axis as those
through the perimeter structures. The second section from the
top cuts through the great central hall of the Caldarium facing
east, but along the exterior walls, the cut is through the
semicircular domed niches well to the west of the hall. The
bottom of the four sections through the baths looking north
shows on the outer perimeter one of the larger semicircular
niches that are similarly distant from the axis of the main
building. This elegantly crafted sheet demonstrates how
effectively the use of ink washes can enliven a reconstruction of
this kind.
Apart from the relatively small number of drawings of
ancient remains destined for publication, there are many that
reveal Palladio’s passion for recording as much of Roman
architecture as he could. One of the most appealing drawings
in the exhibition is the one on which Palladio sketched with a
spirited delicacy details of entablatures, friezes, and an archivolt
from the Baths of Caracalla, the Pantheon, and the Temple of
Hadrian (cat. 3). The capital placed on the right of the fold is
the same as the one the architect drew on another sheet in the
riba collection (x/6v) that Burns found to have been prepared
for transfer to I Quattro Libri (Bk i, p. 50) as an illustration of
the Composite order.
Palladio avidly absorbed lessons from the Roman ruins, 5
001-007_PalUsa_ackerman.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:02 Pagina 6

recording them in styles ranging from such field notes to scale
records of major buildings and large complexes such as the
reconstructed plan of Trajan’s Port at Ostia (cat. 5) and the
Baths of Diocletian (cats 34 and 35). More than other archi-
tects, he would typically reconstruct them on the slightest of
evidence. Apart from drawings prepared for publication, they
represent an intensive effort of self-education and an archive
from which he could draw inspiration.
The corpus of Palladio’s drawings reveals an exceptional
capacity early in his career to turn his encounters with ancient
and modern buildings into novel solutions and, as he matured,
to achieve a level of invention in the design of churches, public
and private, urban and rural buildings that redefined the
potentials of the art of architecture.
palladio in america
Vicenza (the Loggia, the Valmarana and Porto-Breganze
palaces, the court of the Palazzo Iseppo Porto – cat. 32), and the
surviving countryside (Villa Barbaro in Maser, Villa Sarego in
Santa Sofia, both illustrated in his treatise). The order became
a standard feature of architecture of the age of absolutism.
Nineteenth and twentieth-century architects in the United
States, in the absence of an indigenous architectural language
for civic and state power, paradoxically felt impelled to adopt
the symbols of monarchy, aristocracy and papacy realized by
the two Renaissance architects. The Supreme Court (cat. 62)
and the White House, originally President’s House (cat. 58),
employ the freestanding portico of colossal columns; the
3. Survey of
United States Capitol (cat. 60), crowned as well by a high the foundations,
dome, emulates St. Peter in Rome. Palladio’s architectural reconstructions of the
principal floor and front
legacy offered our nascent democracy, founded in a wilderness, and side elevations of the
the hope of claiming a place among the long-established Mausoleum of Romulus
on the Via Appia, Rome,
nations of the world. 1560s (cat. 30)

4. Andrea Palladio,
The British Palladian revival was emulated in the United Tempietto of Villa Barbaro,
Maser, Treviso
States, particularly in the South, where plantation estates, while
supported by slave labor, were otherwise economically and
socially comparable to the villas of both Vicentine and Ven-
etian patricians and to the great British country houses. There
was no access to architectural training in colonial America;
Peter Harrison, the designer of the Redwood Library in New-
port (cat. 53), had to return to England in 1743-1745 to train for
his profession. President Thomas Jefferson learned archi-
tectural design from books. His knowledge of Palladio’s work
was based primarily on his copy of Giacomo Leoni’s two-
volume luxury edition of I Quattro Libri printed in London in
1715 with engraved illustrations that intentionally altered many
of the originals. Jefferson adapted one of these modified plates,
of the Villa Rotonda in Vicenza, as his entry in a competition
for the design of the President’s House in Washington (cat. 57),
and his Palladian residence in Charlottesville, Virginia, he
called Monticello (cat. 55), a term Palladio had chosen in I
Quattro Libri to describe the site of the Rotonda. His project
for the country houses of his neighbors and for the University
of Virginia, had many Palladian elements. But when he made
a brief visit to northern Italy in 1787, during his term as ambas-
sador to France, he did not visit any of Palladio’s buildings. In
the nineteenth century, the Palladian style continued to influ-
ence the mansions of southern plantations, especially in
[3.] [4.] Mississippi and Louisiana.
Discussions of Palladio’s influence on the succeeding
centuries have not sufficiently credited the development in his
last fifteen years of a more monumental expression. His church
projects in Venice (cats 24 and 25) and Bologna exemplified the
character of magnificenza, extolled in antiquity and in ethical
treatises of the Renaissance. Architectural magnificenza
expressed the grandeur of the state or of private individuals.
These church designs adapted the forms of the Pantheon – a
freestanding pedimented portico before a domed building (as
in the Barbaro chapel in Maser, fig. 4), first adopted by
Michelangelo in unexecuted projects for St. Peter in Rome.
Palladio employed a second innovative feature, the colossal
order (columns or pilasters embracing two or more stories,
which Michelangelo had dramatically realized on the Capitol-
6 ine Hill in Rome) in his late public and private buildings in 7
008-019_PalUsa_burns.qxp:Layout 1
1. Sebastiano Serlio,
demonstration of how
to modernize an old palace,
in Tutte le opere
d’ Architettura [...],
8 Venice 1600, vii, p. 157
13-03-2010 12:04 Pagina 8
Between the lines: Palladio’s project
and Palladio’s drawings
howard burns
Palladio was a systematic and highly original designer. He
wrote one of the most influential books on architecture of all
time, but he never explicitly explains how to design or draw.
This is surprising; other architect-writers of the Renaissance are
perfectly open about how to develop a design and even describe
the use of drawings and models.
Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), in the mid-fifteenth cen-
tury, discusses the stages of developing a project, from a first
simple sketch, to a scale drawing, to wooden models and the
final design.1 He emphasizes the importance for the architect of
consultation not only with patrons and craftsmen, but with
other intelligent persons, so as to obtain feedback and reduce
the likelihood of disastrous mistakes.2 Francesco di Giorgio
(1439-1501), writing in the last two decades of the fifteenth
century, has no hesitation in stressing the importance of careful
consideration of the site and the need to make alternative
designs.3 Baldassarre Peruzzi (1481-1537), never published his
planned architectural treatise,4 but he had a strong didactic
urge, and in fact was appointed as public teacher of archi-
tecture in his home city, Siena.5 In the notes on his drawings
Peruzzi explains the merits and defects of the alternative
designs he made for every project. He sometimes calculates the
cost of a project on the drawing itself.6 Antonio da Sangallo the
Younger (1484-1546) often annotates his drawings,7 for the
enlightenment of collaborators and for his own record.
Sebastiano Serlio (1475-1554) – a pupil of Peruzzi and like him
a ‘professor’ of architecture – also explains design procedures.8
He dedicates a book – the Libro Settimo – to design problems,
like that of modernizing old-fashioned palaces (fig. 1), or of
designing a coherent plan for an irregular site – an art he had
learned from Peruzzi.9 As a citizen of Bologna, who had studied
architecture in Rome, and had lived in Venice before moving
to France, Serlio had a wide comparative vision, and an interest
in local needs. He discusses the relation of architecture to the
social hierarchy, a theme which Palladio avoids, probably for
reasons of prudence. Vincenzo Scamozzi, in his L’Idea della
Architettura Universale (1615) also discusses designing and
provides a detailed description of the materials, instruments
and techniques of architectural drawing.10
Palladio certainly reflected on design procedures, as we see
from a letter in which he apologizes for his delay in sending a
design: ‘I wanted to make various designs (invenzioni) to satisfy
myself with one which should seem to me the best, and which
might be more acceptable to you’, a procedure confirmed by
his drawings (figs 3 and 4).11 However, in The Four Books he
merely mentions drawings and models in a deft summary of
Alberti’s views: ‘Beauty will be produced by a beautiful form,
and by the correspondence of the whole to the parts, and of the
parts to one another, and of the parts to the whole: so that
buildings may appear as a complete and well defined body, in
which one part is appropriate to another, and all are necessary
to what one wants to realize. Consider these matters, in draw-
ings, and in the model’.12
Architects and architectural schools today tend to see the
project as at the heart of architecture, a magic zone or moment,
where everything the architect has learned and all that is being
asked of him or her, comes together in the project, whether
expressed as a pencil sketch or a computer model. The word
progetto was never used in this sense in Palladio’s time. It never
occurs in Palladio’s book, or in the whole of Giorgio Vasari’s
famous Lives of the Artists (1550 and 1568).
The nearest equivalents to our word project in Renaissance
vocabulary are the words invenzione (invention) and disegno,
meaning either drawing or project, or the whole body of
knowledge and skills relating to designing works of art. Alberti
at the start of his architectural treatise defines architectural
design.13 Cosimo Bartoli in 1550 translated the famous passage
thus: ‘Design (disegno) will be a clear and effective prescription
(preordinatione) conceived in the mind, made of lines and
angles, and realized by a good mind and intellect’.14
Palladio himself does not discuss disegno as a general concept,
but merely writes of his specific disegni (projects), for individual
buildings.15 This reticence does not mean that Palladio did not
have a design method. In his drawings one can see a progression
of mental operations registered on paper. In his first rapid
sketches Palladio launches the design; walls are often indicated
solely by a single line (figs 2 and 3; cat. 12).16 In one case we can
see Palladio reacting to the situation on the ground and the
specific requests or dilemmas of the patron (fig. 2). Palladio’s
patron (and friend) Vincenzo Arnaldi was a wealthy local
notable, but without the status or ambitions of the great
families for whom Palladio also designed. Arnaldi’s notes
survive, preserved together with Palladio’s probably on-the-spot
sketches. Arnaldi’s notes show that he wanted to modernize the
farm and the old-fashioned house attached to it, introducing
regularity and symmetry. He also wanted to remove unsightly
features such as the column right in the middle of the loggia, in
axis with the main door, or the latrine, next to the bed in the
main chamber.17 Palladio in his sketches shows how these ends
can be achieved, at a limited cost, keeping most of the old
walls.18 Two large sketch plans for the Villa Mocenigo on the
Brenta Canal also survive (cat. 12).
In another sheet Palladio draws twenty thumbnail ground
plans for rebuilding a palace on an irregular corner site in 9
[1.]
008-019_PalUsa_burns.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:04 Pagina 10
Vicenza (fig. 3).19 The old building was never rebuilt (it still
exists); the drawing shows how resourceful and determined
Palladio was in generating alternatives and experimenting with
different solutions for the central space (a closed hall lit from
the sides, or an open cortile), and different placings and forms
for the stairs. Palladio next selected the most promising
alternatives, and drew these to a larger scale, using ruler and
compass. An example of this stage is represented by the three
alternative drawings for Palazzo Barbarano in Vicenza (fig. 4;
see also cats 24 and 25).20 Further revisions, and possibly
discussions with the patron, led to the final design or – on rare
occasions – the ultimate test of a wooden model.21 At the
Basilica in Vicenza (fig. 5) the City Council ordered the
construction of a full-size mock-up of one bay, so as to arrive
at an informed decision on whether to build.22 Buildings
themselves, given the normally slow progress of construction,
were themselves vast 1:1 models, to which alterations could be
made as they grew, as happened at the Basilica.23 Finally
Palladio redrew many of his designs for publication, sometimes
revising them substantially (cat. 32).24
Drawing and drawings played a central part in Palladio’s
activity. He used drawing (and state-of-the-art surveying
instruments) to record ancient buildings, and then to restore
their original appearance on paper (cats 5, 35 and 37).25 He copied
(cats 1 and 36), other architect’s survey drawings of ancient
buildings, and sometimes redrew them (cat. 2).26 This part of his
activity was fundamental to his achievement. He was convinced
that ancient Roman architecture was superior to that of his own
time, and hence devoted as much time and resources as he could
to studying and recording it.27 On a few sheets (surviving
probably from a mass of similar now lost drawings) Palladio
rapidly made sketches, of both his own projects and his drawings
of Roman antiquities. Such drawings (fig. 6) allow us access to
the architect’s imagination, and show how his own works, past,
[2.] [3.]
present and future, co-existed in his mind in a continual
dialogue with the great architectural creations of the ancients and
with Vitruvius’ typologies.28 In other drawings one can see how
Palladio launched the composition of chapters of The Four
Books: not just by making rough drafts of texts, but by as-
sembling groups of drawings relating to a particular building or
theme, together with a few notes (cat. 30). He then redrew this
material, distributing it among several pages, and expanding the
summary notes into a proper text.29
For Palladio a plan was more than a delineation of a footprint.
It was also a way of planning, representing and communicating
features of the elevation; ground dimensions served for Palladio
as a basis for calculating room height; the diameter of a column,
above all if the order was known, indicated the height of the
whole order. Vault features could be inscribed on the ground
plan (fig. 4), and even components like the columns on the first
floor of the façade could be marked on it.30
Palladio rarely used perspective but like Michelangelo
favored – and thought in terms of – orthogonal elevations and
sections, which were directly derived from the plan and permit-
ted exact control of dimensions. Orthogonal sections also
[4.] [5.]
showed the precise relation between interior and exterior
features (cats 31, 32 and 35). For Palladio drawing was a
geometrically precise way of registering and communicating
10 complex three dimensional forms. It is a method of represen-
tation which has its roots in medieval drafting practice, but was
given theoretical justification by Alberti and Raphael and was
favored by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and most of
Palladio’s contemporaries.31
In Palladio’s hands orthogonal projection was a way of
dematerializing the building drawn (cats 25, 29, 31, 32 and 37)
reducing it to pure geometrical form, enabling it to be built of
any materials, for instance of brick instead of the original
Roman marble and/or concrete.32 Orthogonal drawing for
Palladio is an instrument of transformation, a means of gener-
ating several designs from a single ancient elevation or from
one of his own designs. Palladio always knew from the ground
2. Andrea Palladio, sketch
plan whether two upright lines defined a column, a half for the renovation
column, or a pilaster. But he willfully and creatively read his of the villa of Vincenzo
Arnaldi at Meledo Alto,
own elevation drawings in different ways, transforming an c. 1547 (Vicenza, Biblioteca
ancient temple front into a palace elevation with pilasters, or an Civica Bertoliana, Ms 471,
fol. 12v)
open elevation with free standing columns, like that of Palazzo
3. Andrea Palladio, sketch
Chiericati (fig. 7), into a closed façade with half-columns, like plans for the renovation
that of Palazzo Barbarano (fig. 8). The perfection and lucidity of the palace of Camillo
Volpe, Vicenza (London,
of Palladio’s drawings more finished drawings enhanced their riba, British Architectural
potential to generate new projects and ideas; it is striking that Libray, xi/22r, detail)
Inigo Jones, who annotated every page of his copy of Palladio’s 4. Andrea Palladio,
The Four Books, shows total respect for the dozens of Palladio one of three alternative
plans – drawn to scale
drawings in his possession: he never wrote or drew on them.33 – for rebuilding Palazzo
Barbarano, Vicenza
Palladio began with basic moves: the door in the center of (London, riba, British
the façade and the court or main reception hall in the center; Architectural Libray,
xvi/4ar)
satisfactory placing of the main rooms and spaces; a convenient
place for the stairs (fig. 3; compare fig. 1).34 Once the overall 5. Andrea Palladio,
the Basilica, Vicenza
design was fixed, reflecting the status of the owner, functions, (begun 1550)
general appropriateness, cost and choices of material and
structural solutions, Palladio gave attention to the architectural
details, which he calls ‘ornaments’.35 Palladio had studied
ancient architectural details and had noted how the Romans
were in fact very flexible, introducing all sorts of variations and
novelties within their basic schemes (fig. 9). Whereas the other
leading writers on the architectural orders, Serlio and Vignola,
published their ‘Rules’ (Regola or Regole) for the orders Palladio
does not use the word in relation to the orders.36 Serlio and
Vignola establish a rigid ‘uniform’ for each order: not only do
the capitals have a standard form in each order, but also the
bases, friezes and cornices which go with them; there is an
Ionic cornice, and a Composite cornice, etc. Palladio however,
like ancient Roman architects, freely employs different cornice
types (fig. 10; compare cats 3 and 25), regardless of the capital
employed, simply on the basis of personal taste, visual impact
or cost. Michelangelo wrote that if the overall design was
changed, all the details needed to be changed too.37 Palladio
also sought to design details for an individual building which
would harmonize with its overall form. This happens on the
façade of the Villa Poiana (fig. 11), where the building’s overall
simplicity is present in the plain piers of the serliana, and even
in the window surrounds. No columns, pilasters or capitals are
used. At the Villa Rotonda (fig. 14) the flat band of the window
sills echoes the larger flat bands which bind the four façades
into a unified whole. Though Palladio gave thought to details
from the earliest stages of the design, the design of 1:1 profiles
for details (sagome) would often have been left until they were
actually needed by the masons.
The sequence of drawings from the first free hand sketches 11
008-019_PalUsa_burns.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:05 Pagina 12

(mainly of plans) to the alternatives, to the final design, to the

templates for details tells only part of the story. A sketch
defining a project may have been conceived and executed in
less than a minute; the considerations lying behind it could
well be the result of years of experience, study and reflection.
For more than forty years Palladio tried to understand and
draw ancient building types: the Roman house, the Greek
house, the Roman theatre as described by Vitruvius, which he
managed to recreate in a permanent building, the Teatro
Olimpico (fig. 12), only at the end of his life.38 When Palladio
descended from his horse among the chickens in the farmyard
of a villa that needed renovation (fig. 2), most of the possible
projects for it would have already been formed in his mind. It
was only a matter of fitting one of them to the precise situation
which he found on the ground (fig. 3).
Among the main considerations which lie behind his formal
decisions are the choice of site or the adaptation of the design
to a site, and orientation, to ensure appropriate shade or
exposure to the sun at different times of the day or year.39 Of
[7.] primary importance was always the Vitruvian trinity of firmitas
(structural soundness), utilitas (functionality) and venustas
(beauty), which Alberti (followed by Palladio) sees as essentially
interdependent qualities.40 Economy for Palladio is almost a [9.]
fourth requisite of good architecture, for it enables buildings to
be finished within a reasonable period of time, thereby
enhancing the prestige of the owner, without dilapidating his
inheritance.41
Structure for Palladio, was of great importance, as it had been
for Alberti.42 Palladio discusses wooden bridges in I Quattro
Libri: his designs – and the famous bridge at Bassano (fig. 13) –
reveal his competence and inventiveness as a structural
engineer.43 He gave great attention to the design and execution of
domes and vaults, often following Roman forms, but executing
them in brick rather than concrete, and sometimes constructing
them with ribs, following Gothic practice.44 He is resourceful in
the use of bricks and terracotta, executing details cheaply, and
constructing elegantly tapered columns: here he followed local
traditions, reinforced by his knowledge of Roman use of bricks.45
In the all-stone loggias of the Basilica (fig. 5), Palladio refined and
extended contemporary practice, above all on the basis of his
knowledge of ancient Roman masonry (cat. 1).46
[6.] [8.] Palladio is attentive to orientation, movement and access,
hygiene, and the shapes and heights of rooms (which he
regulates by proportional formulae).47 His relationship with
function is not a passive one: in his book and in his buildings
he implicitly redefines functions, by presenting a new program
for living, a new concept of the house (above all the country [10.]
6. Andrea Palladio, 9. Capital and entablature
draft of a letter, projects house) as the context for what he terms a ‘blessed’ life.48 It is of the Temple of Saturn
for low-cost Venetian striking how Palladio anticipates Le Corbusier when he objects in the Forum, Rome.
housing, sketches This temple furnished
for palaces and a small to the clearly widespread practice of keeping riding gear in the the models for Palladio’s
church, reconstructions bedroom.49 His villas proclaim that they are places in which to preferred cornice type,
of the ancient theatre, and for his Ionic capitals
the twin temples at Pola live more decorously, more healthily, more nobly, by their with diagonally placed
(London, riba, British volutes: neither motif
Architectural Library,
display of features which evoke sacred architecture: high is present in works
xv1/9v) vaulted spaces, pedimented porticoes, and even, in case of the of his predecessors and
contemporaries
7. Andrea Palladio, Palazzo Villa Rotonda, a dome, a feature till then almost exclusively
Chiericati, Vicenza (begun associated with churches (fig. 14).50 10. Andrea Palladio, Ionic
1550) cornice of the upper order
At first sight, Palladio seems to conceal his ideas on of the Basilica, Vicenza
8. Andrea Palladio, Palazzo designing, but in fact it requires only some reverse engineering (begun 1564). Palladio
Barbarano, Vicenza (design employs the cornice
12 finalized 1570) to make his thinking and procedures visible. His lessons are of the Temple of Saturn 13
008-019_PalUsa_burns.qxp:Layout 1
[11.]
[13.]
11. Andrea Palladio,
Villa Poiana, Poiana
Maggiore, designed
c. 1548 (?). Palladio uses
no columns or pilasters;
details, apart from
the cornice, are simplified
12. Andrea Palladio,
the Teatro Olimpico,
Vicenza, designed
and begun 1580. Palladio
brilliantly adapts
his knowledge of Roman
theatres to an irregular site
occupied by substantial
14 structures
13-03-2010
13. Andrea Palladio,
the Bridge at Bassano
(designed 1569)
14. Andrea Palladio,
the Villa Almerico
(La Rotonda), Vicenza
(designed 1566-1567)
12:05 Pagina 14
imparted in different parts of the book, and in different ways:
in general chapters at the start of each of the four books or of
sections of a book, like that in Book ii dedicated to villas in
general, or in Book iii relating to bridges; or attached to more
specific passages, relating to building materials, or the
architectural orders, or in the texts which accompany his
discussion of his own or ancient Roman buildings.
Throughout the book Palladio constantly comes back to
questions of site (cat. 12). Thus he describes the hill top site of
the Villa Rotonda at enthusiastic length, adapting Pliny the
Younger’s description of his villa ‘Tusculum’.51 By referring to
the site as being like that ‘of a very great theatre’ he reveals how
15. Andrea Palladio,
the site itself was for him the real generator of the design: it ideal reconstruction
recalled to him the centralized domed building which he of the Temple of Fortune
at Palestrina (London,
imagined as crowning ancient Roman hill top complexes like riba, British Architectural
that at Palestrina (cat. 13; fig. 15).52 Library, ix/7r)
He is sensitive to the handling of irregular urban sites, and 16. Thomas Jefferson,
The Rotunda, University
to the political implications of building. This can be seen in his of Virginia (built 1822-
brilliant analysis of the Forum of Augustus in Rome where he 1826; restored to its original
form, 1973-1976).
notes that the Roman architect could not develop the plan of Rather than resembling
the temple fully, because of a pre-existing road behind it, and the Pantheon in Rome,
the building recalls
because the Emperor Augustus did not want to damage Palladio’s reconstruction
property owners in the area – and make himself unpopular – of the Mausoleum
of Romulus
by confiscating their property.53
If we take the liberty of writing what Palladio never wrote,
but taking account of what he did write and what we know,
Palladio’s message could be summarized thus:54
[12.] Always remember that a building needs to be properly constructed,
to last and to resist fire.55 It should serve the function for which it is
intended. Function concerns practical function and the function of
representing the owner, whether public or private: if the patron is
important and rich, the building should be impressive and employ
the classical orders and more expensive building materials (figs 7, 8
and 14); if the patron is less important and less wealthy, the building
should have fewer capitals and cornices but still respect norms of
good construction and design, including, proportion, symmetry and
convenience (figs 2 and 3; cats 12 and 15).56 Symmetry is needed not
just for aesthetic reasons; it helps to show how a building is
organized, where the entrance, reception hall and apartments are; it
can be structurally necessary, as in Venice or on marshy soil it [15.]
prevents the building settling unevenly, causing cracks or worse.57
Remember that often patrons – especially if they are religious
institutions – are ambiguous. They want to appear rich and
magnificent at the same time as saying they are modest and restrained
in their lifestyle: you can simply use the simpler and cheaper Ionic
[14.]
capital in their buildings rather than the more expensive Corinthian
ones, or paint the plaster red, to resemble bricks, as I did inside the
church of San Giorgio.58 Anyway propose alternatives and they will
choose.
If it is possible (mostly it isn’t) choose the site carefully; adapt the
design to the site, taking account of how the building is going to be
seen (figs 3, 7 and 14).59 Keep instances of notable sites and effective
architectural responses to them in mind – Palestrina, Pliny the
Younger’s villa descriptions – so that you can exploit similar
situations, as I did at the Villa Rotonda.60 Constantly leaf through
architectural books and engravings, and your own and other
architects’ drawings of ancient and modern buildings.61 It also helps
to make quick sketches from memory of ancient buildings, of the
projects you are working on and of buildings you might one day be
asked to design. For the architect this is like the poet re-reading 15
[16.]
008-019_PalUsa_burns.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:05 Pagina 16
Homer, Virgil, Dante, Petrarch, as my mentor Giangiorgio Trissino
did.62 You make new poetry with the poetry of the great poets; new
architecture from the architecture of the ancients.
Place the stairs with care, assigning them adequate space in the
plan right from the start (figs 3 and 4; cats 12, 15, 19, 20 and 21).63 In
residential buildings provide for entrance halls (figs 3 and 4; cat. 15),
main reception rooms, courtyards if there is space, and rooms of
three different sizes, large middling and small, to provide for
different function (cats 19 and 20). The smaller rooms can serve as
studies, libraries or for storing riding gear. Proportions serve to co-
ordinate all parts of the design: the different rooms, the columns of
the portico, the heights of the rooms: not too tall and narrow, not
too low in relation to their size, as is the Sala del Maggior Consiglio
in the Doge’s Palace, to which I have assigned a much greater height
in my project for rebuilding the palace.64
See that spaces that need to be cool get less exposure to the sun,
and that those which need to be warm in colder weather have a good
southern or western exposure. Barns should face south, so that the
hay stays dry, and does not ferment and catch fire.65
In villa design, create an overall design, in which barns, dovecote
towers and other outbuildings are grouped round the house, which
should dominate the complex (fig. 2).
Be sparing in the use of stone detailing, above all in the country,
and only use stone for columns in the most important buildings. In
larger churches use stone only as far as a hand can reach.66 Brick
columns are strong, can be elegantly tapered and are much cheaper
(fig. 7).
Standardize the forms and proportions of capitals, bases,
entablatures, etc., following my versions of the orders (fig. 10), or
your own variations, which you can invent on the basis of the ancient
examples which I publish in Book iv. Rules are important; but so is
a good eye, and artistic judgment: the architect can benefit from
discussion with artist and writer friends. The artist has a judgment
regarding what is beautiful which cannot be expressed in rules; the
writer knows that it is a standardized vocabulary and grammar which
make poetry possible; the same is needed for expressive architecture.
I have provided many models for palaces and villas in Book ii,
which you can copy or adapt. You can also try variants on these, with
the help of the ancient temples which I publish.
An architect can also do what I have sometimes done, but never
mentioned in print: take ideas from the works of leading con-
temporary architects like Bramante, Raphael, Peruzzi, Sangallo,
Giulio Romano, Sansovino, Sanmicheli, Philibert de l’Orme and
Michelangelo.67 Usually no one will notice, especially if you concen-
trate on plans, and use your own vocabulary of details, here and there
changing the order, and – even better – putting columns in the place
of pilasters, or vice-versa. This is what we call ‘varying’: even if some
experts detect your borrowings, they will not criticize you (everyone
does it), but instead admire you for the imaginative way in which you
have transformed your model. Of course the mere fact of copying
ancient buildings will in itself bring you praise, provided the result is
harmonious and functional.
Remember how important your work is: on it depends the wealth
and well-being of cities, the defence of states, the health and
happiness of human society.68
A final observation – as well as having a method for developing
projects, Palladio had a project. It appears between the lines of
his book and is also described by his friend and patron Daniele
Barbaro.69 It was simply to rebuild the cities and restructure the
countryside of the Veneto, and by implication, the world. In
the case of Vicenza and Venice Palladio built enough to
16 establish markers and guidelines for his successors to continue
his work. Thanks to his clearly written, well organized book,
with its skilful co-ordination of text and illustrations, his
architecture and project travelled, reaching many architects
who had never seen his buildings. He had many admirers and
imitators: in Italy, England, Spain, Germany, Holland and
France, and eventually in Russia.70 In the United States Thomas
Jefferson saw not only the importance of Palladio’s lesson for
the private house, but also took ideas for co-ordinating the
different buildings of the new University of Virginia campus
into a coherent monumental scheme (fig. 16). This scheme was
similar to Palladio’s villa designs in the linking of the lateral
buildings by porticoes and in the emphasis given to a temple-
like central building, the Rotunda. This domed structure with
a pedimented portico with six columns strikingly resembles
Palladio’s reconstruction of the Mausoleum of Romulus (cat.
30), rather than the Pantheon (cat. 31).71 The third president
learned from Palladio – who had been the architect not of
kings and princes, but of ‘a famous Republique’ – how to give
dignity and rationality to the architecture of a new, even greater
Republic.72
The best basic introduction to Palladio is provided by Palladio himself, in the
book which he directly oversaw and designed: A. Palladio, I Quattro Libri
dell’Architettura, Venice 1570 (see for a recent translation, A. Palladio, The
four books on architecture, translated by R. Tavernor and R. Schofield,
Cambridge (ma) 1997; see also the excellent English translation, made under
Lord Burlington’s supervision by Isaac Ware: A. Palladio, The four books of
architecture, with a new introduction by A.K. Placzek, unabridged and
unaltered republication of the work originally published by Isaac Ware in
1738, New York 1965 (and subsequent reprints). The original Italian edition
of 1570 is cited below as I Quattro Libri, with citations of Book and Chapter,
to facilitate reference to other editions and translations. It is still (even for
those who do not read Italian) worth consulting or owning a copy in a
modern facsimile: A. Palladio, I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura [...], Venice
1570, Milan 1945 (Hoepli edition and subsequent reprints).
For information on Palladio and his buildings, see now G. Beltramini, H.
Burns (eds), Palladio, exh. cat. (Vicenza 2008-London 2009), Venice 2008,
with full bibliography and many illustrations (cited below as Beltramini,
Burns 2008). For information and bibliography on individual buildings see
also L. Puppi, D. Battilotti, Andrea Palladio, Milan 1999: particularly useful
are the updated catalog entries on individual buildings by Donata Battilotti.
See also the website of the Palladio Center and Museum in Vicenza (cisa
Andrea Palladio): www.cisapalladio.org.
1
L.B. Alberti, De re aedificatoria, Bk i, ch. 1: for the Latin text with Italian
translation see L.B. Alberti, L’architettura, Latin text edited and translated by
G. Orlandi, introduction and notes by P. Portoghesi, 2 vols, Milan 1966
(cited below as Alberti (ed. Orlandi) 1966), and for an English translation:
L.B. Alberti, On the art of building in ten books, translated by J. Rykwert, N.
Leach and R. Tavernor, Cambridge (ma) 1988.
2
Alberti (ed. Orlandi) 1966, Bk i, ch. 1, pp. 19-21; Bk ii, chs 1-3.
3
F. di Giorgio Martini, Trattati di architettura, ingegneria e arte militare, C.
Maltese (ed.), Milan 1967, i, p. 239: ‘Adunque è da ordenare veduto el sito,
ricercando nove invenzioni’ (One should therefore design, having seen the
site, seeking new solutions); on the treatises of Francesco di Giorgio see M.
Biffi (ed.), Francesco di Giorgio Martini, La traduzione del De Architectura di
Vitruvio: dal ms. II.I.141 della Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, Pisa
2002.
4
See the following studies in J. Guillaume (ed.), Les traités d’architecture de la
Renaissance, conference proceedings (Tours, 1-11 July 1981), Paris 1988: H.
Burns, ‘Baldassarre Peruzzi and sixteenth-century architectural theory’, pp.
207-226; L. Puppi, ‘L’Inedito Vitruvio di Gianfrancesco Fortuna [med. palat.
51] e un’ipotesi sui commentari di Baldassarre Peruzzi’, pp. 255-262.
5
V. Annecchino, ‘Baldassarre Peruzzi e la didattica dell’architettura a Siena’,
in C.L. Frommel et al. (eds), Baldassarre Peruzzi 1481-1536, Venice 2005, pp.
309-318.
6
See H. Wurm, Baldassarre Peruzzi: Architekturzeichnungen, Tübingen 1984.
7
C.L. Frommel, N. Adams, The architectural drawings of Antonio da Sangallo
the Younger and his circle, 2 vols, New York-Cambridge (ma) 1994-2000.
8
S. Frommel, Sebastiano Serlio: architect, Milan 2003; for modern editions of
his works: S. Serlio, Architettura civile: libri sesto, settimo e ottavo nei
manoscritti di Monaco e Vienna, F.P. Fiore (ed.), preface and notes by T.
Carunchio and F.P. Fiore, Milan 1994; S. Serlio, On architecture, vol. i, Books
i-v of Tutte l’opere d’architettura et prospettiva by Sebastiano Serlio, translated
from the Italian with an introduction and commentary by V. Hart and P.
Hicks, New Haven (ct) 1996; vol. 2, Books vi and vii of Tutte l’opere
d’architettura et prospettiva, translated from the Italian, with introduction and
commentary by V. Hart and P. Hicks, New Haven (ct) 2001.
9
This posthumous work was first published by itself, in Latin and Italian: Il
settimo libro d’architettura di Sebastiano Serglio bolognese. Nel qual si tratta di
molti accidenti, che possono occorrer’ al architetto, in diuersi luoghi, & istrane
forme de siti, e nelle restauramenti, o restitutioni di case, e come habiamo a far, per
seruicij de gli altri edifici e simil cose... Nel fine vi sono aggiunti sei palazzi, con le
sue piante e fazzatte, in diuersi modi fatte, per fabricar in villa per gran prencipi.
Del sudetto autore, italiano e latino. Sebastiani Serlij Bononiensis Architecturae
liber septimus..., Frankfurt am Main 1575. Then, from 1584, it was included in
the collected editions of Serlio’s works, published in Venice.
10
V. Scamozzi, L’Idea della Architettura Universale, 2 vols, Venice 1615. This
massive, encyclopaedic work is published in facsmile: L’idea della architettura
universale di Vincenzo Scamozzi, preface by F. Barbieri, text by W. Oechslin,
Vicenza 1997 (‘Testi e fonti per la storia dell’architettura’). A modern
translation into English is underway of which the following sections have
been completed: V. Scamozzi, The idea of a universal architecture. III. Villas
and country estates, [introduction] K. Ottenheym, [translation and editing],
H. Scheepmaker, P. Garvin, [edition compiled by] W. Vroom, Amsterdam
2003; V. Scamozzi, The idea of a universal architecture. VI. Architectural orders
and their application, [introduction] K. Ottenheym; [translation and editing]
H. Scheepmaker, P. Garvin, [edition compiled by] W. Vroom, Amsterdam
2006.
Scamozzi’s description of the materials and techniques of architectural
drawing (quoted in Guido Beltramini’s essay here) is in Idea dell’Architettura
Universale, Parte Prima, Lib. Primo, pp. 49-50 (1615 edition) Scamozzi’s
account corresponds closely both to his own practice, and that of Palladio.
11
‘Magnifici signori proveditori, non ho mandato più presto il dissegno
perché, appresso molte altre mie occupazioni che mi hanno intertenuto, ho
voluto far diverse invenzioni per compiacermi in una che mi paresse la
migliore e che potesse esser di maggior satisfazzion vostro [...]’. The letter,
concerning Palladio’s design for the choir of the Pieve (now cathedral) of
Montagnana, dated 2 November 1564, is published in A. Palladio, Scritti
sull’architettura 1554-1579, L. Puppi (ed.), Vicenza 1988, p. 121.
12
I Quattro Libri, Bk i, pp. 6-7: ‘La bellezza risulterà dalla bella forma, e dalla
corrispondenza del tutto alle parti, delle parti fra loro, e di quelle al tutto:
conciosiache gli edificij habbiano da parere vno intiero, e ben finito corpo:
nel quale l’vn membro all’altro conuenga, & tutte le membra siano necessarie
à quello, che si vuol fare. Considerate queste cose, nel disegno, e nel
Modello’.
13
See note 2, above.
14
Palladio probably used his friend Cosimo Bartoli’s translation of 1550,
which was reprinted in Venice 1565: I quote from the 1565 Venice edition of
the Dell’Architettura, i. 1, p. 9: ‘Sarà il disegno una ferma e gagliarda
preordinatione conceputa dallo animo, fatta di linee, & di angoli, &
condotta da animo, & ingegno buono’.
15
Thus he writes, for example, ‘I disegni che seguono sono della fabrica del
Signor Girolamo Ragona’ (I Quattro Libri, Bk ii, p. 57): here the word
conflates both the idea of drawings and the idea of designs. The word inven-
tione, already used by Francesco di Giorgio (note 3, above), and employed too
by Scamozzi, exactly corresponds to our term ‘project’: thus Palladio writes of
his design for the Rialto bridge (I Quattro Libri, Bk iii, pp. 25-27), ‘Bellissima
à mio giudicio è la inventione del Ponte, che segue’ (The design of the bridge
which follows is, in my judgment, very beautiful).
16
H. Burns, ‘Drawing the project’, in Beltramini, Burns 2008, pp. 300-313.
17
Alberti complains about the practice of having latrines in the bed chamber
(Bk v, ch. 17, pp. 430-433). Palladio recommends putting the latrines near the
stairs, and ventilating them well (I Quattro Libri, Bk ii, ch. 3, pp. 3-4; see the
plan of the Palazzo Antonini in Udine, on p. 4, where the latrines are shown).
18
H. Burns, ‘Drawing the project’, cit., pp. 305-306; H. Burns, ‘Palladio’s
designs for villa complexes and their surroundings’, in J. Guillaume (ed.),
Architecture, jardin, paysage: l’environnement du château et de la villa aux XVe
et XVIe siècles, conference proceedings (Tours, 1-4 June 1992), Paris 1999, pp.
55-56.
19
H. Burns, ‘Andrea Palladio. Restored section of the Temple of Mars Ultor,
Rome; twenty alternative plans for modernising the house of Camillo Volpe,
Vicenza’, in Beltramini, Burns 2008, pp. 307-308.
20
G. Beltramini, ‘Palazzo Barbarano, Vicenza’, in Beltramini, Burns 2008, pp.
208-215.
21
The construction of wooden models is only documented in the case of the
Basilica, the Bassano bridge and the churches of San Giorgio Maggiore and
of the Redentore, both major undertakings in Venice.
22
G. Zorzi, Le opere pubbliche e i palazzi privati di Andrea Palladio, Venice
1964, p. 54; H. Burns, ‘Building and construction in Palladio’s Vicenza’, in J.
Guillaume (ed.), Les chantiers de la Renaissance, conference proceedings
(Tours, 1983-1984), Paris 1991, p. 201.
23
Palladio added a molding under the pedestal blocks of the upper order, to
give greater elegance and lift to the elevation, and to compensate for the fact
that the substantial projection of the Doric cornice on which the pedestal
rests would have partially hidden it from observers in the piazza. The socle
under the pedestal block did not form part of the original design; its addition
increased costs for work and material by 13 ducats per bay: see H. Burns,
‘Building and construction in Palladio’s Vicenza’, cit., p. 202, n. 87.
24
See Palladio’s revisions of the built design for the cortile of Palazzo Thiene
(riba, xvii/10r, left), discussed by H. Burns, in Beltramini, Burns 2008, p.
335, and the published plates (for which no drawings survive) of the plan of
Palazzo Valmarana and the façade elevation of Villa Godi (radically changed
with respect to the built design) in Book ii of I Quattro Libri.
25
H. Burns, ‘Models to follow: studying and “restoring” the ruins’, in
Beltramini, Burns 2008, pp. 286-293.
26
After copying a perspectival survey drawing, Palladio would often redraw it
as an orthogonal projection, not only to have a more precise record, but to
conform with the other illustrations in his book: see G. Beltramini, in
Beltramini, Burns 2008, pp. 134-135, and H. Burns, ibid., cat. 82, p. 155; cfr.
cat. 2 here.
27
I Quattro Libri, Bk i, dedication to Giacomo Angaran: ‘Furthermore I went
many times to Rome, and to other places in Italy, and abroad; where with my
own eyes I saw, and with my own hands I measured the remains of many
ancient buildings [...]’. Palladio returns to this theme in the Preface to his
Readers.
28
H. Burns, in Beltramini, Burns 2008, cat. 86b, p. 169; H. Burns, ‘Palladio
and the planning and writing of the Quattro Libri’, in H. Burns, F.P. Di
Teodoro, G. Bacci (eds), Saggi di letteratura architettonica da Vitruvio a
Winckelmann, iii, Florence 2009: ‘The Quattro Libri in miniature: riba
xvi/9v’, pp. 90-94.
29
H. Burns, ‘Palladio and the planning and writing of the Quattro Libri’, cit.,
pp. 69-95.
30
This happens in one of the thumbnail ground plans for rebuilding the
palace of Camillo Volpe.
31
Alberti (ed. Orlandi) 1966, Bk i, ch. 1, pp. 18-21; for Raphael’s views see, the
letter to Leo x, published in J. Shearman, Raphael in early modern sources, 2
vols, New Haven (ct) 2003, i: 1483-1542, pp. 507-509, 515-517, 524-526, and
in F.P. Di Teodoro, Raffaello, Baldassar Castiglione e la lettera a Leone X, 2nd
ed. Bologna 2003, pp. 78-81, 141-145, 182-183. Cfr. W. Lotz, ‘Das Raumbild in
der italienischen Architekturzeichnung der Renaissance’, in Mitteilungen des
Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 7.1953/56 (1956), pp. 193-226 (translated
in W. Lotz., Studies in Italian Renaissance architecture, translated by M.
Breitenbach, R. Franciscono and P. Lunde, Cambridge (ma) 1977, and C.L.
Frommel, N. Adams, The architectural drawings of Antonio da Sangallo, cit.,
passim.
32
In this Palladio, yet again, shows how closely he followed Alberti. Alberti
not only sets up a dichotomy between the abstract definition of form
(lineamenta, literally lines, or as we would say, drawings) and the material
structure which the building assumes when constructed: ‘Tota res
aedificatoria lineamentis et structura constituta est’ (Bk i, ch. 1). This is not,
we can note, the important common-sense definition which Vitruvius gives
of the two constituent parts of architecture, ‘fabrica et ratiocinatio’, but a
deliberate and philosophically informed rewriting of it. Alberti stresses the
un-material character of the conceptual scheme for a building, and hence of
the drawing which registers it: ‘Neque habet lineamentum in se, ut materiam 17
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sequatur, [...]. Et licebit integras formas praescribere animo et mente seclusa
omni materia’.
33
On Jones as a reader and annotator of Palladio and other books see C.
Anderson, Inigo Jones and the classical tradition, Cambridge 2007.
34
I Quattro Libri, Bk i, ch. 28, p. 60: here too Palladio follows Alberti.
35
The term ‘ornamenti’, derives from Vitruvius (Ornamentum, ornamenta)
and was adopted by Alberti in his De re aedificatoria. On the question of
Palladio’s approach to architectural detail see H. Burns, ‘Ornamenti and
ornamentation in Palladio’s architectural theory and practice’, in Pegasus, 11,
2009 (in press).
36
S. Serlio, Regole generali di architetura sopra le cinque maniere de gli edifici,
cioe, thoscano, dorico, ionico, corinthio, et composito, con gli essempi
dell’antiquita, che, per la magior parte concordano con la dottrina di Vitruuio,
Venice 1537; J. Barozzi da Vignola, Regola delli cinque ordini d’architettura,
Rome 1562.
37
Michelangelo’s much quoted letter, to ‘Monsigniore reverendissimo’ was
probably addressed to the Cardinal of Carpi and is conjecturally dated to
1557-1560. It is published in Il Carteggio di Michelangelo, G. Poggi, P. Barocchi
and R. Ristori (eds), Florence 1983, v, letter mcclxvi, pp. 123-124: ‘Ma
quando la pianta muta del tucto forma, è non solamente lecito, ma
necessario, mutare del tucto gli ador[na]menti, e similmente i lor riscontri;
[...]’ (But when the plan completely changes form, it is not only licit, but
necessary, to change the architectural details completely, and similarly the
parts which answer to them).
38
H. Burns, ‘The Teatro Olimpico’, in Beltramini, Burns 2008, pp. 244-255.
39
Palladio discusses orientation in relation to villas in I Quattro Libri, Bk ii,
ch. 2, pp. 3-4, and ch. 12, p. 46.
40
Palladio discusses the Vitruvian requisites of good architecture in I Quattro
Libri, Bk i, ch. 1: he translates them as ‘l’utile, ò commodità, la perpetuità [a
significant change of emphasis, introducing time, history and memory
alongside the more matter of fact firmitas], & la bellezza’.
41
Gothic and early Renaissance architecture in Palladio’s mind is associated
with ugliness, structural defects, excessive ornamentation; all of these faults
are for him closely connected with unnecessary cost (badly designed
buildings are costly because they collapse; excessive ornament constitutes
useless expense). Hence he hopes, in writing The Four Books, that ‘little by
little, people will learn to leave aside the strange abuses, the barbarous
inventions, & unnecessary expenses, &, (which is most important) to be
repelled by the various and continual collapses which have been seen in many
buildings’.
42
Alberti in his treatise analyses every part of the structure, stating for
instance that the roof is the most important part of the building.
43
See D. Battilotti, ‘Belli, forti e durevoli?: i ponti di Palladio’, in F. Barbieri,
D. Battilotti et al. (eds), Palladio 1508-2008, Venice 2008, pp. 268-273; I
Quattro Libri, Bk iii, chs 5-9, pp. 11-21.
44
Visible only from the upper face of the vault, the presence of brick ribs can
be seen on the extrados of the cross vault of the sala of the Villa Gazzotto at
Bertesina, or that of the large frescoed room at the Villa Poiana.
45
Palladio praises bricks in his report on the building of a new cathedral in
Brescia (1567), writing that brickwork is more durable than stone
construction: see A. Palladio, Scritti sull’architettura 1554-1579, cit., p. 124.
46
I Quattro Libri, Bk iii, ch. 20, p. 42: ‘I do not doubt that this structure may
be compared to ancient buildings, and numbered among the largest, and
most beautiful works that have been made from the time of the ancients till
now, both for its size and its architectural details, and for the material, which
is all of very hard quarried stone (pietra viva); and all the blocks have been
joined and clamped together with great diligence’.
47
I Quattro Libri, Bk i, chs 23-24, pp. 53-54.
48
I Quattro Libri, Bk ii, ch. 12, p. 45: Palladio writes (thinking of wealthy
Roman writers like Cicero, Pliny the Younger and Seneca) that ‘because of
this the ancient intellectuals (savi) used often to retreat to similar places (i.e.
villas), where visited by their cultivated friends and their relations, having
houses, gardens, fountains, and similar pleasurable places, and above all their
innate qualities (Vertù, not the same as virtù, virtue), they could easily achieve
that blessed life (beata vita), that one can obtain here below’.
49
I Quattro Libri, Bk ii, ch. 2, p. 4.
50
See A. de Meo, ‘L’Olimpo in villa’, in H. Burns, F.P. Di Teodoro, G. Bacci
(eds), Saggi di letteratura architettonica..., cit., pp. 147-162.
51
See I Quattro Libri, Bk ii, ch. 3, p. 18; B. Radice (trans.), The letters of the
Younger, Harmondsworth 1963, v.vi; H. Burns, ‘Palladio and the planning
18 and writing of the Quattro Libri’, cit., pp. 84-85.
52
I Quattro Libri, Bk ii, p. 18: ‘on the other side, it (the Villa Rotonda) is
surrounded by other very pleasant hills, which convey the appearance of a
very great theatre’. Palladio changes the word ‘amphitheatre’, used by Pliny
into the more familiar, and for the sixteenth century, more suggestive term
theatre. He is describing the landscape around the villa. But the villa was itself
on a little hill, and the ‘theatre’ image was for him associated with complexes
built on hills, which included theatres, and were crowned by centralized,
porticoed buildings as at Verona and Palestrina. Palladio thus probably
conflates his idea of a theatre with that which he takes from Pliny: see H.
Burns, in Beltramini, Burns 2008, pp. 248-249, 364-368, including the
contribution of P. Gros, ibid., cat. 186, pp. 366-368.
53
I Quattro Libri, Bk iv, ch. 7, p. 15.
54
Modern historiography, unlike that of the Greeks and Romans, and that of
the Renaissance period, influenced by the ancients, avoids putting words into
the mouths of the personages of the past. I have taken the liberty of doing
this here, not – as often happens in historical novels and films – on the basis
of pure intuition or invention, but by reformulating what one knows of
Palladio’s actual views, or what one can reasonably conjecture about them.
Sources exist (above all I Quattro Libri and Palladio’s letters and reports about
buildings) for almost every statement here; I have added some footnotes to
indicate sources or matters of doubt. I believe that the historian should
sometimes experiment with novel forms of conjecture (all history is the telling
of a conjectural story), which can raise new questions, change the point of
observation and help to arrive at (responsible) interpretations which a
conventional narrative or analysis of the sources may never achieve: cf. my
experimental Il gioco del palazzo, ovvero Palladio in piazza, Venice 2003.
55
On the connection in Palladio between durability (perpetuità) and good
construction, see note 40, above.
56
After describing (I Quattro Libri, Bk ii, ch. 1) the types of building
appropriate to different classes of owner, in a paraphrase of Vitruvius,
Palladio adds that ‘It is appropriate for lesser gentlemen to have smaller
buildings, of less expense, and with fewer adornments’. In practice the
principal messages reflecting social standing present in his town and country
houses, were ones of size, and of the quantity and character of stone details,
and whether the original builders, or at least their sons, managed to finish
them. While the extremes of grandeur or simplicity – say Palazzo Thiene on
the one hand, and the Villa Saraceno on the other – are easy enough to read,
‘middling’ buildings, like the Villa Poiana (completed, substantial, but with
the plainest of decoration) or Palazzo Chiericati (grand in concept, but
unfinished till the late seventeenth century) are harder to interpret as exact
mirrors of wealth and power.
57
I Quattro Libri, Bk i, ch. 21, p. 52.
58
On the discovery that the interior of San Giorgio was originally a
composition in red and white, see M. Piana, ‘Model of the church of San
Giorgio Maggiore in the original colours’, in Beltramini, Burns 2008, p. 321.
59
Palladio possibly did suggest the site for the Rotonda, though the choice was
an obvious one. The identification of possible sites for the Redentore, a
completely new church, was entrusted to two commissioners, and the final
choice was made by the Senate (L. Puppi, Andrea Palladio, Milan 1999, pp.
419-420; D. Battilotti, ‘Aggiornamento del catalogo delle opere’, in ibid., pp.
507-508; V. Pizzigoni, ‘I tre progetti di Palladio per il Redentore’, in Annali
di architettura, 15, 2003, pp. 165-177). Villas were often rebuilt on the sites of
earlier ones, where suitable orientation, availability of drinking water, road
and/or water access were available. Adaptation of the design to the site was
therefore Palladio’s main task, not site selection: he usually responds
brilliantly to the sites he had to build on, as one can see not only at the
Rotonda, but in Palazzo Chiericati and in the façade of Palazzo Valmarana.
60
See note 52 above.
61
For a clear instance of Palladio’s leafing through his own drawings in search
of ideas for a project he was working on see H. Burns, in Beltramini, Burns
2008, cats 148 and 149, pp. 308-311.
62
This is clear both from Trissino’s frequent quotes and half-quotes from the
great poets in his epic, La Italia liberata da i Gotthi del Trissino, Rome 1547;
see also his Poetica (1529 and 1562), republished in Trattati di Poetica e
Retorica del Cinquecento, B. Weinberg (ed.), Bari 1970, vol. i, pp. 21-158; vol.
ii, pp. 5-90.
63
I Quattro Libri, Bk i, ch. 28, p. 60.
64
This is my hypothesis. Gualdo in his life of Palladio speaks of his design for
rebuilding the Doge’s Palace after the 1577 fire: G. Zorzi (ed.), ‘Paolo Gualdo
“Vita di Andrea Palladio”’, in Saggi e memorie di storia dell’arte, 2, 1958-1959,
pp. 91-104. Gualdo’s brief but important life (1616) of Palladio is translated
into English in D. Lewis, The drawings of Andrea Palladio, New Orleans (la)
2000 (revised and expanded edition), pp. 11-12. Palladio’s façade project for
the Doge’s Palace survives, and perhaps a sketch for the ground plan: see H.
Burns, in Beltramini, Burns 2008, pp. 361-364. Apart from creating what was
for him a more magnificent and structurally satisfactory – and fireproof –
building, Palladio would have wanted to place the hall of the Maggior
Consiglio, the biggest space in the building, in a central position, and to give
it a height proportionate to its ground dimensions, according to his usual
formulae. The Maggior Consiglio was the body to which all the adult male
members of the patriciate (that is those who had a hereditary right to
participate in the government of the state) met regularly to vote and to elect
to higher offices. Its hall, which still exists in its original shape and position,
was the biggest assembly room in the palace, and could seat several thousand
patricians. Palladio’s project for rebuilding the palace, which was voted down
in the Senate, would have raised three problems: it would have meant
demolishing the building which was a symbol of the Republic and its long
history; it would have cost an enormous sum, when Venice was in deep
recession after the 1575-1576 plague, which killed over a quarter of the city’s
population; and – perhaps most seriously of all – it had political implications.
Placing the hall of the Maggior Consiglio at the center of the building, would
have given overwhelming prominence to this institution, representing poorer
patricians and the rank and file of the governing group, at the expense of the
more aristocratic (and in part plutocratic) groups who dominated the Senate
and the key executive committees of the state.
65
I Quattro Libri, Bk ii, ch. 13, p. 46.
66
A. Palladio, Scritti sull’architettura 1554-1579, cit. (in a report on building a
new cathedral in Brescia, 1567), p. 124: ‘my opinion would be that in the
inside of the church your Magnificencies should make the piers of the large
nave and the side aisles of stone up to where one can reach with one’s hands,
and the rest of brick [...]’. This is more or less what Palladio does inside the
church of San Giorgio in Venice.
67
The clearest case of Palladio taking over another architect’s design without
acknowledgement is that of Palazzo Thiene, where the original design was (as
Inigo Jones tells us), made by Giulio Romano (d. 1546), but executed by
Palladio: see H. Burns, ‘Giulio Romano and the Palazzo Thiene, Vicenza’, in
Beltramini, Burns 2008, pp. 40-43. Palladio’s design for the façade of the
Scuola Grande di San Marco in Venice is a reworking of Sansovino’s, though
inevitably so, as the organisation of the façade was already fixed in the
brickwork, and only the stone facing needed to be designed and built. From
Sanmicheli Palladio takes his preference for making pilasters taper towards
the top (i.e. have an entasis), as columns do. The façade of Palazzo Chiericati
derives from a plate in Serlio; in façades like that of Palazzo Valmarana, with
a giant pilaster order, Palladio was probably influenced by Michelangelo’s
designs for the exterior of St. Peter’s and for the façade of the Palazzo dei
Conservatori in Rome. The villa church at Maser in its plan probably takes
account of Philibert de l’Orme’s famous chapel at the Chateau of Anet.
68
In the Foreword to I Quattro Libri, Bk i, ch. 1, p. 6, Palladio associates
building with the growth of human society, and indicates the primacy of
housing: ‘among all the parts of architecture, none is more necessary to men’.
69
See H. Burns, ‘Palladio’s architecture: an intellectual and moral program’,
in Beltramini, Burns 2008, pp. 261-265.
70
For a summary see H. Burns, ‘An eternal contemporary’, in Beltramini,
Burns 2008, pp. 372-383; for northern Europe, see G. Beltramini et al. (eds),
Palladio and Northern Europe: books, travelers, architects, Milan 1999. See also,
for Inigo Jones and Burlington, C. Hind, ‘Inigo Jones’, in Beltramini, Burns
2008, pp. 386-393; for France, C. Mignot, ‘Palladio et l’architecture française
du xviie siècle’, in Annali di architettura, 12, 2000, pp. 107-115; for Spain, the
contributions of Fernando Marías, in G. Beltramini, H. Burns (eds),
Palladio, Barcelona 2009 (and also in the identical Madrid edition): Fins a
l’Escorial i Toledo: dibuixos, traduccions, retaules, pp. 152-159; De Ortiz y Sanz
(1739-1822) a Juan de Villanueva (1739-1811), pp. 278-283. For Russia, F. Rossi,
‘Giacomo Quarenghi (1744-817) and Charles Cameron (1746-1812)’, in
Beltramini, Burns 2008, pp. 394-397; D.O. Shvidkovsky, The empress & the
architect. British architecture and gardens at the court of Catherine the Great,
New Haven (ct)-London 1996; H. Burns, ‘La città bianca: continuità e
innovazione nell’architettura di San Pietroburgo, 1762-1825’, in N. Navone,
L. Tedeschi (eds), Dal mito al progetto: la cultura architettonica dei maestri
italiani e ticinesi nella Russia neoclassica, exh. cat. (Mendrisio, Lugano and St
Petersburg), Mendrisio 2004, vol. ii, pp. 471-475; D.O. Shvidkovsky, Russian
architecture and the West, photographs by Y. Shorban, translated by A. Wood,
New Haven (ct)-London 2007; F. Rossi, Tradurre Palladio: Nikolaj L’vov,
architetto e intellettuale russo al tramonto dei Lumi, Venice 2010.
71
The University of Virginia is the work of Jefferson that is closest in its forms
and spirit to Palladio’s reconstruction of ancient architecture and to his villa
complexes. The Rotunda closely resembles not the Pantheon but Palladio’s
reconstruction of the Mausoleum of Romulus (I Quattro Libri, Bk iv, ch. 22,
pp. 88-89; see also cat. 30 here); the pavilions linked by porticoes employ the
‘Basilica of Fano’ solution of using a single giant order which supports an
upper level of loggie, which Palladio used at the Villa Sarego (I Quattro Libri,
Bk ii, ch. 15, p. 67) and in his unexecuted design for the courtyard of Palazzo
Porto (I Quattro Libri, Bk ii, ch. 3, p. 10). The pavilions are linked by
porticoes, enabling one to go from one to another undercover, as
recommended by Palladio in relation to villas. For brief introductions to the
theme see K.W. Forster, ‘Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)’, in Beltramini, Burns
2008, pp. 398-399; J.S. Ackerman, The Villa. Form and ideology of country
houses, London 1995 (1st ed. 1990), pp. 185-211. The bibliography on Jefferson
as an architect is vast, and not primarily focussed on his relation to Palladio.
Among pertinent works are: W.B. O’Neal (ed.), An intelligent interest in
architecture: a bibliography of publications about Thomas Jefferson as an architect,
together with an iconography of the nineteenth-century prints of the University of
Virginia, Charlottesville (va) 1969; E.M. Betts (ed.), Thomas Jefferson’s farm
book: with commentary and relevant extracts from other writings, Princeton (nj)
1953 (reprints 1976, 1987, 1999); manuscript and transcription available online
at www.thomasjeffersonpapers.org/farm/; F.D. Nichols, Thomas Jefferson’s
architectural drawings, Charlottesville (va) 1978; J. McLaughlin, Jefferson and
Monticello: the biography of a builder, New York 1988; C. Brownell, C. Loth,
W. Rasmussen, R.G. Wilson, The making of Virginia architecture,
Charlottesville (va) 1992; R.G. Wilson (ed.), Thomas Jefferson’s academical
village: the creation of an American masterpiece, exh. cat. (Charlottesville,
Bayly Art Museum, 7 October 1993-9 January 1994), Charlottesville (va)
1993; G. Green Shackelford, Thomas Jefferson’s travels in Europe 1784-1789,
Baltimore (md) 1995; M.C. Loi, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826): primo architetto
americano, Milan 1996; L. Cellauro, ‘Thomas Jefferson and his books on
architecture and landscape gardening’, in Aurora, v, 2004, pp. 82-124;
Jefferson’s drawings at the Massachusetts Historical Society are consultable
online: Thomas Jefferson papers: an electronic archive, Boston (ma) 2003,
www.thomasjeffersonpapers.org. An interesting perspective on Jefferson,
which relates to the traditional debate on the relative virtues of town and
country, is offered by C. Maumi, Thomas Jefferson et le projet du Nouveau
Monde, preface by A. Corboz, Paris 2007.
72
Sir Henry Wotton, The elements of architecture [...], London 1624, Preface:
‘when I came home, [...], I found it fitter for my Pen [...], who have long
contemplated a famous Republique, to write now of Architecture [...]’.
Wotton had a passionate interest in architecture and owned drawings by
Palladio; he was a career diplomat, and served, as he indicates, many years as
ambassador in Venice, the most powerful and important modern Republic
before the creation of the United States. Palladio was never officially
nominated as the architect of the Venetian state, but in the last two decades
of his life held the position de facto. His architecture, with its emphasis on
private houses and public buildings, is profoundly influenced by the fact that
he worked not for a monarch, but for an extended oligarchy of ‘gentlemen’
landowners, with whom Jefferson could instinctively identify.
19
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Part I

20 21
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Thirty-one Palladio drawings:
a self-portrait on paper
guido beltramini
Palladio’s drawings tell us a good deal about him as an architect
and as a scholar of ancient ruins as well as providing some insights
into his character, his way of conceiving the profession and his
vision of the world. There are almost three hundred sheets, a mine
of information compared to the meagre construction site
documents, a handful of personal letters, Vasari’s short profile,
Paolo Gualdo’s posthumous biography and a few passing
mentions in the diary of his friend Fabio Monza. Even the verse
of his companion in adventures, the poet and painter
Giambattista Maganza reveals relatively little about the man.
Palladio earned his living by drawing. He thought and created
with drawing, and through drawing he communicated with
patrons, builders and readers. His introduction to
drauftsmanship – at the age of thirteen, in the workshop of the
stonecutter Bartolomeo Cavazza in Padua – must have been
through drawings of templates for architectural elements that
informed masons how stone blocks were to be shaped. These
lines on paper generated three-dimensional elements. Palladio
did not train in a painter’s workshop and for him a drawing was
not only an image, but a tool for acquiring knowledge, for
measuring and for constructing. That explains why, as
Giangiorgio Zorzi and Wolfgang Lotz have pointed out, Palladio
rarely used perspective drawings, even in initial ideas sketched in
one sitting and adopted orthogonal projections in the plan,
elevations and sections, which enabled him to represent the
building and its parts in scale and to take measurements from the
sheet.1 As we immediately realize on examining the sheets in this
exhibition, his drawings associated with projects for villas,
palaces or churches always focus on the logical and structural
coherence of the building represented. Since Palladio lived
several days journey away from Rome, even the images of
ancient buildings that he brought back to the Veneto are
primarily dedicated to recording precise information about
specific features and dimensions, at times in fine detail. As Erik
Forssman has observed, this was the case even when Palladio’s
interpretation is not ‘archaeological’ but distorted to highlight a
motif, or an ‘invention’.2
Palladio’s drawings have come down to us from the whole span
of his life. In the exhibition we can see his early studies of ancient
monuments that he only knew second-hand and copied from the
sketchbooks of colleagues visiting Vicenza, e.g. the elevation of
the Theatre of Marcellus (cat. 1), his initial Vitruvian studies (cat.
8), or his projects for the first all’antica villa for the Pisani family
at Bagnolo (cats 19 and 20). They date from the years when he
was still simply called ‘Andrea, son of Pietro monaro’ (‘the
miller’), and had not yet established himself as Andrea Palladio,
22 1. Cat. 32, detail the classicizing professional name coined for him by Giangiorgio
Trissino, which was to bring him such good fortune. We can also
see him as an elderly man, while personally engaged in drawing
the project for the church of the Redentore (cats 24 and 25). By
then sixty-eight years old and with failing eyesight, his uncertain
hand less than firm, had lost some of the extraordinary precision
found in the sheets from his mature years.
Examining thirty-one Palladian drawings means setting off on
a journey of exploration but as well as having the desire to do so,
travellers must be equipped with a few elements to find their way.
The drawings can simply be admired as fine images, or visitors
can explore further by asking themselves how each individual
drawing is constructed and what is its purpose. In some cases they
seem to be an x-ray of the architect’s mind, as he puts his thoughts
to paper, combines ideas and checks out alternatives. In other
sheets the drawings are a means of communication, at times even
of seduction, given that – unlike painters and sculptors –
architects depend on other people to realize their works.
On what grounds can we attribute a drawing to Palladio?
There is a long tradition of studies of Palladian drawings, which
begins in the eighteenth century with Lord Burlington and
much later Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi, who both reproduced
printed versions of them, while Tommaso Temanza was the
proud owner of the drawing of the Baths of Agrippa.3 The
tradition of study continues in the nineteenth century with
Antonio Magrini and Filippo Scolari and in the twentieth
century with Burger, Keith, Dalla Pozza, Zorzi, Lotz, Spielman,
Forssman, Gioseffi, Puppi, Lewis, Boucher, Battilotti and
especially Burns, who since 1973 has developed a structured
approach to interpretation, taking into account technique,
methods, dating and meanings, which has provided the basis for
subsequent studies and also for my work in this catalog.4
An initial elementary criterion for the attribution of a drawing
to Palladio is his handwriting in the notes and figures that he
writes on the sheet. His hand is recognizable in specific personal
ways. This criterion can then be associated with Palladio’s
customary modes of representation. He preferred planar
projections to perspective views and, indeed, his few perspective
drawings are nearly always autograph copies of other architects’
sheets (see cats 1 and 36 and, as an exception, cat. 13).5 In drafting
a drawing, Palladio proceeded by first incising construction lines
on the paper with a stylus and then going over them with an ink-
laden pen. In drawing some elements, Palladio resorted to
standardized modes of representation, as can be seen by
comparing, for example, the drawings of Corinthian capitals in
cats 29 and 37. Burns has identified a specifically Palladian mode
of representation, which might be described as a ‘shorthand’ for
drawing moldings. In fact, he only draws the beginning of the
020-025_PalUsa_sag1.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:09 Pagina 24
profiles, as can be seen in cats 16, 31 and 32.6 All of these elements
must always be considered in the light of the purpose of each
individual drawing, which could vary according to whether it
was an initial idea on paper, a private preliminary study, a
presentation drawing or a drawing to be used in the preparation
of a text for publication.
Although handwritings not attributable to Palladio appear on
some drawings, in general he personally drafted the entire
drawing, with the significant exception of the ornamental
elements on presentation drawings, for which he relied on
figurative artists, who were often also the same artists who
painted the frescoes in his villas or palaces, such as Bernardino
India, Battista del Moro, and Battista Zelotti. Moreover, how
‘Palladio’s workshop’ functioned and the role played by his sons
and collaborators is one of many promising fields for further
research.
Once we have established that a drawing is in the hand of
Palladio, how can it be dated? The subject represented is
obviously a necessary but not a sufficient condition, especially
bearing in mind that Palladio sometimes returned to a building
many years later, for the purposes of publication, as in the case
of the courtyard of Palazzo da Porto (cat. 32). His drafting style
also changed over time. Thus, for example, his way of
representing Corinthian capitals in a drawing from around 1540
(cat. 9) differs from that of a drawing from the 1560s (cat. 31).
Palladio’s way of adding shade in the early drawings – orthogonal
crosshatching with the pen (cat. 17) – changed in later years,
when he made greater use of the brush. But in dating drawings,
the principal aid comes from analyzing the changes in his
handwriting over time. In the 1540s Palladio used the Greek
epsilon ‘ε’ instead of the Latin ‘e’ (cat. 9) – possibly due to
Trissino’s proposals to enlarge the Italian alphabet with Greek
letters – but from the 1550s on he again used the Latin ‘e’ (cat.
23).7 There is also another kind of handwriting which we can
describe as ‘transitional’, since the epsilon and the ‘e’ are both
present. Given that the drafting style and subject of the drawings
with the transitional handwriting can be associated with the
beginning of his career, we can surmise that this was how
Palladio wrote in the late 1530s (cat. 8).8 Other elements can also
contribute to establishing the date, such as the fact that the clean,
finished drawings of Roman baths or triumphal arches may have
been produced after the publication of I Quattro Libri in 1570, as
part of preparations for additional ‘Books’, which are mentioned
in written sources (cats 34-37).9
Palladio used various sizes of paper sheets. The sizes are
derived from a format similar to that of cat. 13 (560 × 420 mm),
which when divided into two or four parts basically generates all
the formats of the drawings on show (except when the sheet has
been trimmed).
The methods of drafting a drawing and the instruments used
in Palladio’s age are described in detail by Vincenzo Scamozzi in
his treatise L’Idea della Architettura Universale (Venice 1615).
In drawing the plans of buildings in a clean form we are accustomed to
incising all the lines of the breadths of the walls with the ivory stylus
[stileto] and then going over them with a pen [...]. Whether made of the
wood of the pear, apple, jujube, sorb or rowan [...] the rulers have a
straight edge to guide the drawing of concealed or dead lines [i.e.
24 incised lines] with the point of an ivory stylus, or the point of a small
knife, or a non-pricking needle; but the other edge must be made
thinner at the corners on both sides by a third in thickness, so that
when drawing the lines in ink they do not stain the paper [...].
The compasses, usually made of brass, or other material that does not
rust, are very light and have slender legs, provided they do not quiver,
and as far as their number is concerned, normally three will suffice, that
is large, medium and small (since too many compasses create
confusion), and the point of one of the legs must have a burin, beveled
on the inside, so that when dipped in ink, as required, it produces the
same effect as the pen in making portions of circles, arches and similar
things [...].
As regards the squares, the large ones are made of pear or a similar
supple well-seasoned wood and the small ones of brass.
The pens are made of flexible, light-colored, transparent domestic
goose feathers of average thickness. They are sharpened by making
longish cuts to look like the eagle’s beak and the points are whittled
down to half the size [...]. But the pens used to outline and draw
capitals and similar things must be much softer and more flexible, so
that they can gracefully go over again as best as possible the areas
requiring shaded parts.10
In Palladio’s drawings in this exhibition we can see where he has
made marks with black chalk or a lead point (he only began to
use graphite in his mature years) to guide the pen instead of
using incised lines. Of the thirty-one drawings in the exhibition,
only three are drafted without construction lines made by a
stylus, i.e. the sheet on which Palladio copies information from
other architects (cat. 3) and two fanciful drawings, one for the
Villa Mocenigo (cat. 12) and the other for the Temple of Fortune
complex at Palestrina (cat. 13). These kinds of initial ideas on
paper have rarely survived being discarded by Palladio himself
and by later collectors, who were more interested in the finished
drawings as rich sources of motifs and information.11 The plan
for a palace in cat. 15 was almost certainly drafted in parallel to
possible alternatives, which Palladio may not have developed to
the same extent. The survey drawing of the Port of Trajan (cat.
5) at Ostia was based on sketches made on the spot that are now
lost. They were probably like a red chalk sketch (riba vii/5r) that
did fortunately survive and on which the plan of the Baths of
Diocletian (cat. 34) is based.
On the verso of a sheet with a drawing of an ancient building
on the recto, Palladio would sometimes sketch an idea for a
project, inspired by the ancient building in question.12 Palladio
carefully conserved his drawings from the antique, and returned
to them many years later, as evidenced by measurements added
in his mature handwriting on sheets that were drafted in his early
years (cat. 1). It is now thought that Palladio went to Rome five
times, the first time with Giangiorgio Trissino in autumn 1541
and the last time together with ‘some Venetian gentlemen’
around 1554.13 For more than a quarter of a century, until his
death in 1580, the drawings of antiquities which he bought back
to the Veneto were his only firsthand images of Rome. But as
Gioseffi suggests, Palladio’s way of representing them generated
a ‘multiplication in the productivity of the sources’: the elevation
of the free-standing columns in the Temple of Minerva at Assisi,
when drawn in an orthogonal projection, is indistinguishable
from a sequence of half columns or pilasters projecting slightly
from the wall (cats 6 and 29).14 On these grounds, we can claim
that the façade of the Palazzo Valmarana is derived from the
Temple of Minerva through Palladio’s own orthogonal
representation of it. The same can be said of the flat façade of the
church of the Redentore based on the Pantheon (cat. 31).15
The thirty-one drawings selected for this exhibition create an
itinerary that enables us to see Palladio at work, as if we were
looking over his shoulder. The first section shows him studying
ancient Roman architecture. For sixteenth-century architects this
meant exploring the ruins, but also interpreting the often obscure
text of Vitruvius, author of the most important Roman
architectural treatise handed down to them. We also see Palladio
busy ‘photocopying’ surveys made by other architects (cats 1 and
36), making annotations about a survey on his own sheet (cat. 3)
or re-drafting a survey using his own methods of representation
(cat. 2). We can observe him as he transcribes the results of his
firsthand exploration of ancient buildings first hand (cats 4 and 5)
and constructs images from the words of Vitruvius (‘as best as I
could understand them’) (cats 8 and 9). In the second section, we
can envisage Palladio seated at the drawing table with some very
lively initial ideas sketched on the sheet in front of him (cats 12
and 13); he later perfected these ideas in studies which were
essentially made for his own purposes (cats 14-16), before
eventually setting them out in clean presentation drawings for a
patron, with shading to show the effect of the building in sunlight
and ornamental statues drawn by a figurative artist (cats 17-25).
The third section is dedicated to Palladio’s inspired concept of
narrating architecture in illustrated books. It shows drawings for
I Quattro Libri and for some incomplete publishing ventures,
such as a ‘Book of Roman Baths’ and a ‘Book of Arches’.
An architectural drawing is never simply an image of a building,
but a representational tool used by the architect to conceive the
building. The sheet records the stages of its creation as well as the
way ideas take shape and are communicated, and in this sense the
exhibition enables us to ‘enter’ the architect’s mind. But the
drawings also tell another story, which is not so exciting but useful
in preventing us from falling into the temptation of only viewing
Palladio through the distorting lens of his posthumous success.
Today we know that Palladio did not live his life as the
unchallenged god-like genius in a manner recounted by admirers
in later centuries. On the contrary, his difficult career was at times
beset with failure and disappointment.16 Of the twelve projects on
show in this exhibition, only four were actually executed: the villas
Repeta, Mocenigo and Contarini and the Palazzo Antonini. The
city palaces, including the giant courtyard for Iseppo da Porto, the
central-plan design for the church of the Redentore, and the
alternatives for the Villa Pisani at Bagnolo all remained ‘paper
architecture’. Looking at Palladio through his drawings enables us
to tell the story of his setbacks and not only of the successes of his
splendid buildings. In this sense, by gaining greater insight, we
really can feel that we have come ‘closer to the master’.
Working on Palladio’s drawings means building up from the five ‘corner
stones’ of scholarship in the field previously raised by the studies of
Giangiorgio Zorzi, Heinz Spielmann, Howard Burns, Douglas Lewis and
Lionello Puppi. I should like to pay homage to all five of them. The results
of Donata Battilotti’s work in updating the entries in Puppi’s book on
Palladio have been a constant reference point thanks to her deep knowledge
and her lucid analysis of the data, for which I should like to express my
gratitude as well as for her friendship and invaluable advice. I should like
to thank Charles Hind and Irena Murray for having invited me to
contribute to such a significant catalog. I am similarly indebted to Mauro
Zocchetta for his patience and friendship in working together yet again. I
should also like to thank Ilaria Abbondandolo, Nick Adams, Emilio
Alberti, Ivan Apollonio, Simone Baldissini, Marco Gaiani, Deborah
Howard, Elisabetta Michelato, Mario Piana, Francesco Pontarin, Claudio
Povolo, Daniela Tovo. In various ways they all made my work easier
through their generous help and suggestions. A special thanks to David
Kerr and Rossella Martignoni. I was able to work on this catalog as a Fellow
of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia
University and, for this, I should like to thank its director David Freedberg
and the Kress Foundation.
1
G. Zorzi, I disegni delle antichità di Andrea Palladio, Vicenza 1959, especially
pp. 33-40: Zorzi even went so far as to exclude from the autograph Palladian
works any drawing that was not in an orthogonal projection; this position was
rightly challenged in W. Lotz, ‘Osservazioni intorno ai disegni palladiani’, in
Bollettino del Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio, iv,
1962, pp. 61-68 (also in W. Lotz, Studies in Italian Renaissance architecture,
Cambridge [ma]-London 1977, pp. 181-186); H. Burns, ‘I disegni’, in R. Cevese
(ed.), Mostra del Palladio, exh. cat. (Vicenza, Basilica Palladiana, 30 May-4
November 1973), Milan 1973, p. 135.
2
E. Forssman, Palladio e l’antichità, in R. Cevese (ed.), Mostra del Palladio, cit.,
pp. 17-27; H. Burns, ‘I disegni del Palladio’, in Bollettino del Centro
Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio, xv, 1973, p. 184.
3
Fabbriche Antiche disegnate da Andrea Palladio Vicentino e date in luce da
Riccardo conte di Burlington (London 1730; cat. 41) published by Lord
Burlington was the first ‘facsimile’ of architectural drawings (it was printed in
sepia to reproduce the original color); Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi, in the fourth
volume of Le fabbriche e i disegni di Andrea Palladio (Vicenza 1783), published
the projects for the church of San Petronio, Bologna, after receiving a copy from
Temanza who had been given it by Algarotti (pp. 30-34, pls xviii-xx); he also
reprinted Burlington’s edition, to which he added the plan of the Baths of
Agrippa (Le terme dei romani disegnate da Andrea Palladio e ripubblicate con la
giunta di alcune osservazioni da Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi, Vicenza 1785); T.
Temanza, Vita di Andrea Palladio vicentino, Venice 1762.
4
L. Puppi, ‘Bibliografia e letteratura palladiana’, in R. Cevese (ed.), Mostra del
Palladio, cit., pp. 173-190; N. Carboneri, ‘La storiografia palladiana dallo
Zanella ai nostri giorni’, in Bollettino del Centro Internazionale di Studi di
Architettura Andrea Palladio, xv, 1973, pp. 341-365; D. Howard, ‘Four centuries
of literature on Palladio’, in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians,
xxxix, 1980, pp. 224-241; J.S. Ackerman, ‘Gli studi palladiani degli ultimi
trent’anni’, in A. Chastel, R. Cevese (eds), Andrea Palladio: nuovi contributi,
Milan 1990, pp. 122-126; D. Howard, ‘Palladio, Vicenza and London’, in The
Burlington Magazine, cli, 1252, 2009, pp. 182-184.
5
H. Burns, ‘I disegni del Palladio’, cit., especially pp. 172-174, see footnote 2.
6
H. Burns, ‘I disegni’, cit., p. 135, see footnote 1.
7
Ibid., pp. 133-134; H. Burns, ‘I disegni del Palladio’, cit., pp. 169-170.
8
H. Burns, ‘The Ionic Order’, in H. Burns, Andrea Palladio 1508-1580: the
Portico and the Farmyard, assisted by L. Fairbairn and B. Boucher, exh. cat.
(London, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1975), London 1975, pp. 228-229.
9
L. Puppi, ‘Gli “altri” libri dell’architettura di Andrea Palladio’, in Bollettino del
Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio, xxii, 1980, pp. 65-
83.
10
V. Scamozzi, L’Idea della Architettura Universale, 2 vols, Venice 1615, i, pp. 48-
50, quoted in H. Burns, ‘I disegni’, cit., p. 134.
11
H. Burns, ‘I disegni’, cit., p. 136; H. Burns, ‘Die Klaue des Lowen: Palladios
erste Skizzen’ / ‘The Lion’s Claw: Palladio’s Initial Project Sketches’, in Daidalos,
5, 15 September 1982, pp. 73-80, especially p. 74.
12
H. Burns, ‘Perspectival elevation of the exterior of the Roman Amphitheatre,
Pola (Pula)’, in G. Beltramini, H. Burns (eds), Palladio, cit., pp. 308-311.
13
G. Beltramini, E. Demo, ‘Nuovi documenti e notizie riguardanti Andrea Pal-
ladio, la sua famiglia e il suo lavoro’, in Annali di architettura, 20, 2008, pp. 128-131.
14
D. Gioseffi, ‘Il disegno come fase progettuale dell’attività palladiana’, in
Bollettino del Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio, xiv,
1972, pp. 45-62, especially pp. 54-55.
15
H. Burns, ‘I disegni’, cit., pp. 137-138; D. Gioseffi, ‘Palladio e l’antico (“un
atrio antico in mezzo Carampane”)’, in Bollettino del Centro Internazionale di
Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio, xv, 1973, pp. 43-66; H. Burns, ‘I disegni
del Palladio’, cit., pp. 183-186; M. Fagiolo, ‘Principi prospettico-compositivi
dell’architettura di Palladio’, in Bollettino del Centro Internazionale di Studi di
Architettura Andrea Palladio, xx, 1978, pp. 307-328.
16
G. Beltramini, Palladio privato, Venice 2008. 25
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:02 Pagina 26
learning from the antique: 1.
andrea palladio
the study of ancient ruins Elevation, section and details
of the Theatre of Marcellus,
Rome
Late 1530s
Recto: Talman mark (T:54); other
elements of the Theatre of Marcellus
Ruler and stylus, compasses, pen and
brown ink; later writings in black
chalk or graphite; slight traces
of red color
Size: bottom side 290.5 mm; right
side 439 mm; top side 289 mm;
left side 435 mm
1.1. Andrea Palladio,
Notes on the drawing: ‘questo si è
Doric entablature,
[correction in mature handwriting
Ionic entablature
and plan of an arch of a previous illegible note] del teatro
of the Theatre of de Marcelo in piaca Montanara in
Marcellus (London,
Roma’ [epsilon handwriting, center
riba, British
top]; ‘Capitelo jonicho dele secunde
Architectural
Library, x/20r) collone’ [transitional handwriting,
above the Ionic capital]; ‘cimasa
1.2. Bernardo della
del menbreto ionicho’ [transitional
Volpaia, Impost of
the Doric and Ionic
handwriting, above the impost
arches of the cornice of the arch in the upper
Theatre of order]; ‘cimasa del menbreto doricho’
Marcellus in
[transitional handwriting, above the
the Codex Coner
(London, Sir John impost cornice of the arch in the
Soane’s Museum, lower order]; ‘tuto el fuso è brazza
fol. 86v, detail) 12’ [transitional handwriting, on the
Doric half-column]; ‘pie 13 once 71/2’
1.3. Sebastiano
Serlio, Elevation [mature handwriting, in black chalk
of the Theatre or graphite, below the Doric half-
of Marcellus (Terzo columns]; ‘basa de la colona ioniche
Libro, Venice 1540,
in su el conchollo la qual à de gieto
p. xlix)
menuti 15’ [transitional handwriting,
beside the base of the Ionic half-
column]; ‘cimasa del cionhollo
soto le colone ioniche’ [transitional
handwriting, below the cornice
of the pedestal]; ‘capitelo doricho
de la prima colona’ [transitional
handwriting, above the Doric capital]
Unit of measurement: braccio
fiorentino (= 58.36 cm); no scale
indicated
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, x/20v
[1.1.] The first ancient Roman monuments
that Palladio came across were not
made of stone or brick, but of ‘paper’.
Before visiting Rome, the young
Andrea very likely could have studied
and copied from sketchbooks con-
taining surveys made by other archi-
tects who had been to the city. In 1524
Palladio was taken on as apprentice in
the Vicenza workshop of the stone-
masons known as the ‘maestri di Pede-
muro’, i.e. Girolamo Pittoni and Gio-
vanni da Porlezza. We know that
Giovanni had been to Rome and had
brought back drawings after the
antique which Palladio probably
inherited; they later passed to Vincen-
zo Scamozzi.1 The young apprentice
26 must certainly have studied them, just
[1.2.] [1.3.]
as he surely did not miss the chance to
examine the sketchbooks of celebrated
architects passing through Vicenza,
where they had contacts with the
Pedemuro. This was the case with
Jacopo Sansovino (1478-1570) in 1538
and Michele Sanmicheli (1484-1559),
who stayed in Giovanni da Porlezza’s
house in December 1541 and January
1542. Through Trissino the young
Palladio may also have had access to
the drawings and studies made by
Sebastiano Serlio, who in 1537 began
to publish his books on ancient Rome
and the ‘modern masters’.
The drawing shown here (and the
recto; fig. 1.1) is a good example of
Palladio’s ‘paper’ introduction to
Antiquity before his trip to Rome in
1541. As evidenced by the notes in his
typical handwriting of the 1540s, if
not even earlier, it is an autograph
drawing.2 Palladio preserved this
sheet, consulted it and added new
information many years later. If we
look under the Doric arch on the left,
we see that he added the measurement
of the distance between the axes of the
two half-columns: ‘pie 13, once 71/2’.3
The medium, black chalk or more
likely graphite, and the handwriting
typical of his mature years suggest
that this annotation was made in the
1550s or in the 1560s.
All the other measurements, writ-
ten with the pen, lead us to conclude
that the drawing is a copy made by
Palladio of an original work by
another architect and not the result of
a first-hand survey executed on the
spot. In fact the measurements are
expressed in braccia fiorentine (divided
into twelve once of five minuti each)
and not in the usual piede vicentino.4
A second clue providing further evi-
dence that it is a copy is the fact that
he represents the elements in three
dimensions. This was not Palladio’s
usual method of drawing. He
preferred to use orthogonal pro-
jections in the plan, elevation and
section, thus making it possible to
deduce the measurements directly
from the sheet.5 Moreover, in the
1970s Wolfgang Lotz ‘deconstructed’
this drawing. He demonstrated how
the drawing of the individual
elements is very similar to those found
in the Codex Coner, a collection of
sketches from the early decades of the
sixteenth century, now in Sir John
Soane’s Museum, London (fig. 1.2),6
and to those published by Serlio in
1537 and in 1540 (figs 1.3 and 1.4).7
Palladio simply ‘photocopies’ his
sources without interpreting them.
According to the archaeological real-
ity of the monument (and most
sixteenth-century surveys) each Doric
arch has five triglyphs, but Palladio
draws seven.8 He may even have
copied the notes. On the verso of the
drawing beside the entablature of the
upper order are the words: ‘This 27
[1.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:02 Pagina 28
cornice is drawn according to
Ventura’s measurement, although
measured in palmi, I have converted
the measurement into the braccio
fiorentino and note that in the said
cornice, according to Ventura’s
measurement, the underside of the
corona has not been carved’. The
author of this note is saying that he
converted the original dimensions in
palmi into braccia and that the
drawing he is copying is by a certain
Ventura.9 Since it is fairly unlikely
that Palladio should convert a
drawing into braccia fiorentine, rather
than into piedi, this confirms that the
drawing is very probably a copy made
by Palladio of the drawing by an
unidentified architect, who in turn
copied a drawing by a certain Ven-
tura, but converted the measurements
into a unit with which he was more
familiar. A second note brings into
the picture another draftsman,
thought by Zorzi and Lotz to have
possibly been Michele Sanmicheli:
‘the breadth of the dentils is 11 minuti,
the minuti of the spaces between them
are 51/2, according to what Messer
Michele drew’.10
The Theatre of Marcellus was a
very valuable source for Renaissance
architects, and especially for Palladio.
[1.4.]
Thus, for example, he used the
theatre’s Doric and Ionic half-
columns framed by arches as a model
for the Loggias of the Palazzo della
Ragione, Vicenza, better known now
as the Basilica. In the loggias Palladio
also used a specific element of the
language of the molding of the
Theatre of Marcellus, which helps us
understand why he took so much care
over drawing the profiles of the orders
of ancient Roman monuments.
Today, as we are less familiar with the
vocabulary of classical architecture,
we tend to overlook the fact that each
type of molding produced a precise
visual effect. As we can see on the
verso of this sheet, the last molding of
the Doric cornice on the Theatre of
Marcellus is a cavetto, i.e. a concave
molding about a quarter of a circle in
section, whereas the molding on the
Ionic cornice is a gola, or an S-shaped
molding. In the sunlight the two
moldings produce very different
[1.5.] effects: the gola softens the shade, as if
in a wash drawing, whilst the cavetto
generates a pronounced dark line at
the end of the cornice, which – as
Burns observes – is given a ‘razor edge
1.4. Sebastiano
Serlio, Front view
quality by the brightly lit flat strip
and section of Ionic immediately above it’.11 Palladio only
capital of the rarely used the cavetto molding, but
Theatre of he introduces it at the end of the
Marcellus (Quarto
Libro, Venice 1537,
Doric cornice of the Loggias of the
fol. xxxviiiv) Palazzo della Ragione in Vicenza. In
so doing he underscores the hori-
1.5. Doric zontal components of the façade and
entablature of
the Loggias of
balances the vertical membering of
the Palazzo della half-columns and projecting lengths
28 Ragione, Vicenza of entablature (fig. 1.5).
1
Beltramini, Demo 2008, pp. 125-126.
2
Burns remarks that ‘the handwriting
seems to be transitional between the
thorough-going epsilon hand and that
which preceded it (i.e. in the late 1530s?)’:
H. Burns, ‘The Doric and Ionic entabla-
tures of the Theatre of Marcellus’, in Burns
1975, cat. 469, p. 256.
3
Another two graphite annotations
indicate the breadth of the piers of the
Doric arches (‘pie 11/2’).
4
In Palladio’s day, in Florence 1 braccio =
0.584 m; in Vicenza, 1 piede = 0.357 m
(Martini 1883, pp. 206 and 823).
5
Burns 2008a, pp. 300-303.
6
Lotz 1962, pp. 61-63; see also Ashby 1904.
7
Serlio 1537, fol. xxii recto (Doric: entabla-
ture, capital and arch impost), xxxviii
verso (front view and section of Ionic
capital), fol. xxxx recto (Ionic: entablature,
plinth, base and arch impost); Serlio 1540,
pp. xlvii and xlix (general plan and
elevation and section of two superimposed
arches).
8
Tomasello, Żelazowski 2000, pp. 7-36;
Tessari 1995, pp. 123-152.
9
Lotz 1962, pp. 62-63.
10
Zorzi 1959, p. 92; Lotz 1962, p. 63.
11
H. Burns, ‘The Doric order of the
Basilica’, in Burns 1975, cat. 470, p. 256.
Literature: Zorzi 1959, p. 92; Lotz
1962, pp. 61-66; Spielmann 1966, pp.
155-156, cat. 118; Burns 1975, p. 256,
cat. 469.
guido beltramini
2.
andrea palladio
Elevation and details
of the Arch of Jupiter Ammon,
Verona
1540s
Verso: Plan and elevation of five bays
of masonry in the second walk above
the Roman Theatre, Verona
Ruler and stylus, compasses, traces
of black chalk (on the plan), pen
and grayish-black ink, brush and
sepia wash; traces of a red border
Size: bottom side 288 mm; right side
430 mm; top side 288 mm; left side
431 mm
Notes on the drawing: [epsilon
handwriting, from top to bottom]
‘questo archo si è in Verona et è
mezurato con el piedi anticquo
[corrected to: anticho] et sie once 16
per pe’ [top center]; ‘pie 12 in luxe’
[inside the arch]; ‘piedi’ [several
times]; various measurements
Unit of measurement: piede antico
(= 296 mm), divided into 16 once of
4 minuti each. Various scales: 1 piede
= 41 mm, along the left margin (for
the drawings on a larger scale); 1
piede = 10.5 mm, lower down, at a
right angle to the previous one (for
the plan and elevation); 16 units = 51
mm, to the left of the previous scale
History and ownership: Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xii/22r
A series of four drawings on three
sheets enables us to follow Palladio as
he explores ancient architecture on
the basis of a survey conducted by
another architect. Initially he copies
the survey but then impresses his own
style by re-drawing according to the
graphic method most congenial to
him. Several years later he then
drafted a fair copy from his own
notes, probably for the purposes of
publication.
The featured monument is the
Arch of Jupiter Ammon in Verona.
Jupiter Ammon is the bearded
Roman-Greek-Egyptian deity with
ram’s horns staring out from the far
left of the sheet. In Palladio’s day the
arch was already in a poor state and
partially incorporated into adjoining
buildings. Consequently, his render-
ing is at times based on conjectures
which vary from one drawing to
another and which also differ from
Luigi Trezza’s survey of the arch’s
condition in 1800.1
The drawing is definitely by
Palladio. Made using the stylus, it
bears the signs of his usual technique.
The autograph measurements and
notes on the drawing are made in his
youthful handwriting with the
‘epsilon’. In addition to the orth-
ogonal reconstruction of the ele-
vation, there is a plan of the two piers
at the base of the elevation and three
enlarged details: the pedestal and the
base of the columns (the plinth is
replaced by a flowing concave mold-
ing), the capital of the arch abutment,
and the entablature, the latter being
the only partially axonometric elem-
ent. The careful drawing is very
precise and the pen shading has
typical orthogonal cross-hatching.
Watercolor has only been used for the
background in the plan of the piers of
the arch.2
The use of the piede antico (0.297
m, divided into 16 once of 4 minuti
each, which is drawn full scale on the
verso), rather than the traditional
piede vicentino (0.357 m, divided into
16 once) is due to the fact that Palladio
did not make the survey first hand,
but copied that of another architect,
usually identified as Falconetto. The
latter’s drawing has been lost but we
still have Palladio’s ‘photocopy’ of it
(riba xii/14r) (fig. 2.1).3 Palladio
mechanically copied the original
design even when the measurements
clearly did not match (e.g. the width
and height of the pedestal or the
details of the upper entablature),
although he himself may have intro-
duced mistakes in the transcription.
When he draws it again, however, he
filters the information and omits the
critical measurements (the width of
the pedestal) and the parts which 29
[2.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:07 Pagina 30
clearly could not be checked, such as
the attic story, the winged victory at a
tangent to the arches and another
figure set on a sloping side of the
pediment. He adds, on the other
hand, the plan of both piers, the
second with the corner solution, and
inserts a floral raceme decoration in
the fascia round the plaque of the
smaller aperture. He does not, how-
ever, convert the piedi vicentini
measurements, but leaves the piedi
antichi, and draws two different scales
of measurements: one parallel to the
left edge of the sheet beside the detail
of the arch impost capital for the parts
on a larger scale (the capital and the
pedestal); and another at right angles
to the left edge of the sheet, at the
height of the base of the arch, for the
overall drawing.4 Another autograph
sheet in London (riba xii/13r-v) (fig.
2.2) has a fair copy reconstruction of
the Arch of Jupiter Ammon, with its
side and some details. The late
Palladian handwriting (with no epsi-
lon) on this sheet reveals that many
years later Palladio returned to his old
drawings to re-draft a version which
he probably wished to publish in a
‘book of arches’; he announced his
intention to do so in two passages in
I Quattro Libri (see cat. 37).5
Despite the objective difficulties
involved in studying its remains, the
Arch of Jupiter Ammon was a popular
model during the Renaissance. The
archivolt with three fasciae and ovolo
molding on the outer edge was used
by Alberti in the interior of the
monumental Portico of Sant’Andrea
at Mantua.6 For Palladio the arch was
a source of recurrent motifs, such as
[2.1.] [2.2.] the spiral fluted columns (used in the
remodeling project for the Palazzo
Ducale in Venice),7 or the plinth with
the curving sides in the pedestal.8
Palladio closely studies the apertures
on the sides of the largest arch,
created by two small piers supporting
a decorated plaque. This feature
2.1. Andrea Palladio, appears in the ground-floor windows
Elevation and
details of the Arch in the façades of the Palazzo Valma-
of Jupiter Ammon, rana and the Palazzo Barbarano in
Verona, after Vicenza (fig. 2.3).
Giovanni Maria
Falconetto 1
Tosi 1980, pp. 50-54.
(London, riba,
2
British Architectural What looks like wash below the joint of
Library, xii/14r) the half-columns and the arch, beneath the
capitals, is actually due to a subsequent
2.2. Andrea defect in the paper.
Palladio, Plan, 3
H. Burns, ‘Elevation and details of the
elevation and details Arch of Jupiter Ammon, Verona’, in
of the Arch of
[2.3.] Beltramini, Burns 2008, cat. 82, p. 155.
Jupiter Ammon, 4 of ancient monuments. The drawing
Verona (London,
A third scale of measurement, also div-
riba, British ided into sixteenths, does not correspond
Architectural to any element on the sheet, nor is it the
Library xii/13r) impression of a scale used on the verso of
the sheet.
2.3. Ottavio Bertotti 5
I Quattro Libri, Bk i, pp. 19 and 51; Spiel-
Scamozzi, Elevation
mann 1966, p. 171, no. 220; Tosi 1980, pp.
of Palazzo Barbarano 53-54; H. Burns, ‘Elevation and details of
by Palladio (Le
fabbriche e i disegni the Arch of Jupiter Ammon, Verona’, in
Beltramini, Burns 2008, cat. 82, p. 155.
di Andrea Palladio,
Vicenza 1776, pl.
6
Burns 1980, p. 107.
30 xviii, detail) 7
Burns 1980, p. 116.
8
Burns 1980, pp. 113-114. 3.1. Andrea Palladio,
Composite capital
Literature: Keith 1925, p. 94; Zorzi and entablature of
the Baths of
1959, p. 52; Spielmann 1966, p. 171, Caracalla (London,
cat. 219; Schweikhart 1977, p. 40; riba, British
Burns, in Palladio e Verona 1980, pp. Architectural
100-101; Tosi 1980, pp. 51-52; Lewis Library, vi/9, detail)
2000, pp. 47-49, cats 11 and 12. 3.2. Antonio da
Sangallo the
guido beltramini Younger, Plan,
vaults of the
basement and
interior entablature
of the Hadrianeum,
3. Rome (Florence,
Gabinetto Disegni e
andrea palladio Stampe degli Uffizi,
Base, capital and entablatures 1175 a, detail)
from the Baths of Caracalla;
elevation of the top order
of the Colosseum; elevation
and profile of the door
and the dome cornice
of the Pantheon; interior
section and entablature
of the Hadrianeum, Rome
1550s
Recto: Talman mark (T:49); capitals
and entablatures from the Baths
of Caracalla
Pen and black and sepia ink
Size: bottom side 429 mm; right side
312 mm; top side 426 mm; left side
312 mm
Notes on the drawing: [mature
handwriting, from left to right and
top to bottom] ‘la cornise che è soto
la cupola de Santa Maria Ritonda’; [3.1.]
‘de le [cortile is erased] loze che sonvi
in li fianchi del cortile scoperto’;
‘cornise de le terme Antoniane,
mesurà con el palmo, ogni onca sono
minuti 5’; ‘porta de Santa Maria
Retonda’; ‘cornise del tenpio di
Marte ala piaca de Prieti de dentro
dal tenpio, mesurata con el palmo,
ogni onca minuti 4’; ‘questo ordine
è del cortile scoperto volto a
setentrione nel locho segnato G’;
‘ogni onca è minuti 5’; ‘palmi’ [twice]
Unit of measurement: palmo romano
(= 223 mm), divided in 12 once, in
turn divided into 5 or 4 minuti; scale
(center sheet): 1 palmo = 222 mm
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, vi/11v
Unlike the previous two drawings
(cats 1 and 2), on this sheet Palladio
records a different kind of experience
has no traces of the stylus, ruler or
compasses. Palladio sketched freehand
with the pen and crowded the sheet
with measurements and information
as he copied from drawings which lay
in front of him, probably while he was
in an architect’s workshop in Rome.
In fact the drawings are measured in
two variants of the palmo romano, a
measure which Palladio did not 31
[3.2.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:07 Pagina 32
usually use for surveys. Moreover, a
cornice on the recto of the drawing is
in piedi vicentini, suggesting that he
personally made the measurements.1
Palladio was thus gathering infor-
mation from both direct and indirect
sources. Here he is taking notes for his
own purposes, since he indicates the
position of the elements and the vari-
ous scales of measurement used in
making the different surveys. Given
that the measurements are in palmi
romani, Palladio draws one full-size
palmo for reference in the middle of
the sheet: a line of 222 millimeters,
divided into 12 once, each further div-
ided into 5 minuti. This accuracy is
indispensable for someone who has
come from afar and is enjoying a rare
opportunity of studying celebrated
ancient buildings; he clearly wished to
take home an image that was as
precise as possible. Serlio adopted a
similar approach to measurements in
his Fourth Book, in which the
individual engravings often include a
printed graded line of the specific unit
of measurement used in the survey
(piede moderno, piede antico, braccio,
palmo). On page 4 of Book ii of I
Quattro Libri, Palladio was also to
print a graded line: ‘This line, with
which the following buildings have
been measured, is half a Vicentine
foot [piede vicentino]. The foot is
divided into 12 inches, and each inch
into four minutes [minuto]’.2 A full-
scale palmo romano is also drawn on
the sheet with the Pantheon (cat. 31).
On this sheet we can easily recog-
nize a Composite capital and entabla-
ture from the Baths of Caracalla (here
called ‘terme Antoniane’).3 Palladio
notes that the capital comes from the
uncovered court facing north, indi-
cated with a ‘G’. This reveals that he
was working with the aid of a general
plan of the Baths – there is a fair copy
on riba vi/1 – in which the natazio,
situated at the north, is indicated by
the letter G. Palladio later made a fair
copy of this drawing on the left-hand
side of riba vi/9 (fig. 3.1). A com-
parison of the two drawings high-
lights the transition from the first
private stage of study to the finished
clean drawing in which the palmi
have been converted into piedi.
Palladio was particularly fond of this
[3.] kind of Composite capital, in which
the volutes emerge from the echinus
with no horizontal links between
them. They were to be one of the
models for elements in the Composite
capital included in Book i of I
Quattro Libri.4
Information on the various
buildings is collected and recorded on
the sheet. Above the Composite cap-
ital, Palladio sketches and notes the
measurements of the top level of the
Colosseum, which is recorded in an
early drawing on riba viii/16.5 Lower
32 down, he sketches the interior cornice
of Hadrian’s Temple in Rome, which
he calls the ‘Temple of Mars in Piazza
dei Preti’. Palladio indicates the
element with the letter E, possibly for
the purposes of publication in I
Quattro Libri. In the event, six pages
were devoted to the temple, but the
interior cornice was not included.6
Alongside the cornice, Palladio
sketches a cross section of the temple
with the peristyle, the measurements
of the walls, and the substructure of
the temple plus measurements. Vari-
ous drawings by Antonio da Sangallo
(1484-1546), now in the Uffizi, record
the same building. On Uffizi a 1175,
Sangallo superimposes the basement
vaults on the plan and sketches a view
of the interior entablature with no
measurements (fig. 3.2).7 A drawing of
the interior cornice is also visible on a
sheet included in the corpus of
Palladian drawings, even though it is
clearly not autograph, but by an
anonymous French architect (riba
xi/21r).8 To the right of the section of
Hadrian’s Temple, Palladio draws the
profile and front view of the bronze
doors of the Pantheon,9 and, above
one of them, the cornices of the
dome. When transposing the cornices
to the woodcut in I Quattro Libri (Bk
iv, p. 84), Palladio introduces a ra-
tional system for representing the
measurements by indicating, on the
left, the distances from a virtual
plumb line hung from the furthest-
projecting element; he also adds the
heights of the individual moldings in
a grid on the right-hand side of the
woodcut.
1
These are elements from the Baths of
Caracalla; a first-hand survey of a part of
the plan has been drawn in red chalk and
then gone over with the pen in riba
viii/14r.
2
Palladio (ed. Tavernor, Schofield) 1997, p.
79; Lotz 1979, pp. 223-232; Günther 1988,
pp. 230-231.
3
Jenewein 2008, pp. 119, 127 and pl. 168.
4
H. Burns, ‘Andrea Palladio. Unfinished
study of the Composite capital...’, in Bel-
tramini, Burns 2008, cat. 132, pp. 283, 285.
5
Details of the architectural orders of the
Colosseum and on-the-spot surveys of the
Baths of Caracalla are also found together
on riba viii/14r.
6
I Quattro Libri, Bk iv, pp. 55-60.
7
Bartoli 1914-1922, iii (1917), p. 464. Other
drawings by members of the da Sangallo
family and a careful drawing of the interior
entablature measured in French feet were
published in Cipollone, Cozza 1982, pp.
16-27; Egger 1935, pl. i, with a list of a
further fourteen drawings of the temple.
8
Zorzi 1959, p. 106.
9
De Fine Licht 1968, pp. 126-132.
Literature: Zorzi 1959, p. 70; Spiel-
mann 1966, p. 136, cat. 1 and p. 160,
cat. 148; Jenewein 2008, pp. 119 and
127 and pl. 168.
guido beltramini
4.
andrea palladio
Base of the porphyry columns
at the entrance to the Lateran
Baptistry and bronze base
once in the presbytery
of the Basilica of San
Giovanni in Laterano, Rome
1540s
Verso: a carved cornice with the
inscription ‘questa cornixe era sula
botega de uno scarpelino in Roma’
Ruler and stylus, compasses, pen
and brown ink, brush and brown
wash
Size [the sheet shows two marks of
folding and has been added to in the
top and bottom right-hand corners]:
bottom side 267 mm; right side 407
mm; top side 268 mm; left side 406
mm
Notes on the drawing: [from top to
bottom in epsilon handwriting] ‘sono
colone di bronzo et le base, et sono
in santo Ioane et sono piene de Tera
Santa’; ‘piedi’ [twice]; ‘sono le colone
de porfido’; ‘pie’; ‘questa base
è a Santo Ioane coè al Batimo
di Costantino, soto el portico’
Unit of measurement: piede vicentino
(= 0.357 m), divided into 12 once,
each divided into 4 minuti. Scale:
1 piede = 46 mm
History and ownership: Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xiv/2r
This drawing is a ‘fair copy’ of two
bases of antique columns which
Palladio may have seen first hand in
the monumental complex of San
Giovanni in Laterano in Rome. On
the lower part of the sheet he draws
the bases of the two columns of the
original entrance in the south-east
front of the so-called Baptistry of
Constantine, adjoining the basilica
(fig. 4.1);1 in the upper part is the base
of bronze columns, which in Palladio’s
day were on the sides of the high altar
in the basilica presbytery. In the Holy
Year 1600, these columns were then
used in the construction of the high
altar of the Holy Sacrament in the
transept.2 Palladio refers to the four
bronze columns in the chapter on
metals3 in I Quattro Libri, and twice
in his Churches of Rome.4 Some infor-
mation about the contents of the
reliquary-columns (‘[they] are filled
with holy earth’) appeared earlier in a
book by the Vicentine cleric and
jurist, Giovanni Battista Poiana,
published in Rome in 1550, and
mentioned by Palladio in his Churches
of Rome.5
The drawing has been very
carefully drafted with the stylus, ruler
and compasses and shaded with the
typical orthogonal cross-hatching.
Certainly autograph Palladian, the
notes are in his early handwriting
with the ‘epsilon’.
In a ‘rough copy’ of this drawing in
London (riba xii/3v) (fig. 4.3),6 Pal-
ladio sketches the plan of the Lateran
Baptistry, the elevation of the two
porphyry columns in the double-
apsed atrium, and, on a larger scale,
the profiles of the two bases. Palladio
rapidly sketched freehand and the
lines are not guided by the ruler or the
grooves of the stylus. The sketches
thus seem to be notes made on the
spot in front of the building and not a
copy of earlier surveys. The base of
the columns in the double-apsed
atrium is drawn in such a way that the
rich decoration of the molding is
clearly visible. It is not a perspective
view or axonometric section, given
that the curvature of the columns are
not taken into account. The same
happens in the drawing on the sheet
shown here: the decorative elements
are not deformed by foreshortening,
so we cannot consider it to be an
orthogonal projection, unlike the
page in I Quattro Libri (Bk iv, pp. 61-
63)7 on the ‘Baptistry of Constantine’,
where the base is projected correctly
(fig. 4.2).
The base of the narthex enables us
to see how Palladio turned to the
authority of an antique example in
order to solve a practical design
problem. In I Quattro Libri, he praises
the ‘skill’ of the ancient Roman archi-
tect who came up with the idea of
setting ‘above the base of the portico...
leaves that support the column shafts’,
so that he could re-use existing
elements that were slightly too short:
in this specific case the precious red
porphyry shafts. Palladio writes that
he was inspired by this example to
solve a similar problem in his own
architecture: ‘I too made use of this
design for the columns which I placed
as ornaments at the door of S. Giorgio
Maggiore in Venice; they were not as
long as they ought to have been but
are of such beautiful marble that they
could not be excluded from the
building’.8 Like many of the other
architectural details in the baptistry,
this base is recorded in several
architects’ sketchbooks.9
On the recto of the sheet Palladio
drew a fair copy of a fragment of
entablature which appears more
sketchily on riba xii/3v. Despite the
claims of Spielmann and Lewis, this
element did not come from the
Pantheon.10 The note on the drawing
(‘this cornice was on a stonemason’s
workshop in Rome’), may mean that
Palladio had seen it first hand.
Another sheet in the Museo Civico,
Vicenza, very similar to this one, fea-
tures three antique bases, two of
which were in cardinals’ collections in
Rome.11 One turns out to have been
‘in the palazzo of S. Marcho in
Rome’, i.e. in the residence of Car- 33
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:10 Pagina 34

dinal Francesco Pisani (1494-1570), 4.1. The Lateran

Bishop of Padua, and patron in his Baptistry, Rome
diocese of works by Giulio Romano 4.2. Andrea
(the Villa dei Vescovi and the Palazzo Palladio, The
Vescovile, Padua, 1542) and Michel- Lateran Baptistry
angelo (project for Padua Cathedral, (woodcut
reproduced in
1550). We know from a legal docu- I Quattro Libri,
ment that from autumn 1546 to July Bk iv, pp. 61-63)
1547, thanks to the good offices of
Trissino and Marco Thiene, Palladio 4.3. Andrea
Palladio, Plan of the
had access to the residences of various Lateran Baptistry;
cardinals in Rome.12 elevation of the
porphyry columns
1
Romano 1991, pp. 31-70; Brandt 1997- and detail of their
1998, pp. 7-65. base; bronze base
2 in the presbytery
Liverani 1992-1993, pp. 75-97; Freiberg of the Basilica
1995, pp. 134-135. of San Giovanni
3
I Quattro Libri, Bk i, p. 9; Palladio (ed. in Laterano;
Tavernor, Schofield) 1997, p. 10: ‘In St. entablature
John Lateran in Rome can be seen four (London, riba,
bronze columns of which only one has a British Architectural
capital’. Library, xii/3v)
4
Palladio (ed. Howe) 1991, p. 129: ‘San
Giovanni in Laterano where you will see...
the four bronze columns in the church,
stupendous things to look at’.
5
Poiana 1550, p. 225: ‘Columnas quator
aeneas in medio ecclesiae plenas terrae
[4.1.] sanctae et sanctorum lapidum, qui accepti
fuere ex loco ubi crux errecta fuit et
plantata et in ea Christus fuit affixus et
emisit sanguinem’. Palladio (ed. Howe)
1991, p. 77: ‘Those four pillars of the
bronze railing, which are in front of that
altar, are filled with the holy earth carried
from Jerusalem’.
6
Zorzi 1959, p. 80; Spielmann 1966, pp.
147-148, cat. 67. The plan and section of
the baptistry appear in a fair copy by
Palladio on riba xv/9v, Lewis 2000, pp.
85-87.
7
Palladio re-drew the plan and section of
the baptistry on riba xv/9.
8
I Quattro Libri, Bk iv, p. 61; Palladio (ed.
Tavernor, Schofield) 1997, p. 273.
9
Romano 1991, pp. 36-38.
10
Spielmann 1966, p. 148, cat. 74; Lewis
2000, p. 89, who describes it as being
similar to the fragment recorded in the
drawing in the Museo Civico, Vicenza,
[4.2.] D.16r.
11
Puppi 1989, p. 109.
12
Beltramini, Demo 2008, pp. 128-131.

Literature: Zorzi 1959, p. 104

(Falconetto’s drawing, Palladio’s
handwriting); Spielmann 1966, p. 148,
cat. 69; Burns 1975, pp. 258-259, cat.
480; Lewis 1981, p. 64, cat. 35; Lewis
2000, pp. 88-89, cat. 35; Cooper 2005,
p. 139.

guido beltramini

34 35
[4.] [4.3.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:15 Pagina 36
5.1. Aerial view 5.
of the Port
of Trajan at Ostia andrea palladio
(© Geonext/ Plan of two sides of the basin
DeAgostini) of the Port of Trajan, Ostia
c. 1547
5.2. Italo Gismondi,
General plan of Verso: illegible traces of black chalk
the ruins, 1933 Ruler and stylus, compasses, black
(in Giuseppe Lugli, chalk, pen and brown ink, brush
Goffredo Filibeck,
Il porto di Roma and brown wash
Size: bottom side 287 mm; right side
imperiale e l’agro
Portuenese, Rome 381 mm; top side 284 mm; left side
1935) [incomplete measurement due
to frayed margin] 387 mm
5.3. Plan of the
warehouses surveyed ©2010 Google - Imagery ©2010 DigitalGlobe, Cnes Spot Image, GeoEye, Map data ©2010 Tele Atlas Notes on the drawing: [epsilon
on the south-east [5.1.] handwriting] ‘piedi 600 et 10’;
wharf (in Guido various measurements
Calza, ‘Ostia.
Ricognizioni Unit of measurement: piede
topografiche nel (vicentino?). Scale: near the apex
porto di Traiano’, of the triangle, a series of compass
in Notizie degli scavi holes at a regular distance of 2 mm,
di antichità, vi, i,
1925) equal to the width of the wharf,
indicated as 10 piedi
History and ownership: Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xv/4r
On 20 May 1547, the Vicentine noble
Marco Thiene wrote from Rome to
relatives in Vicenza to inform them
that Palladio had put off his return
home because he was busy visiting
Tivoli, Palestrina, Porto and Albano.1
If we key these four localities into
Google Maps, we see that they form a
kind of semicircle to the south-east of
the city of Rome. Palladio was thus
engaged in a series of on-the-spot
investigations in the city environs in
search of antique buildings. This
drawing, which shows two of the six
sides of the hexagonal basin of the Port
of Trajan at Ostia, may have been a
result of those investigations, since the
measurements are noted in his
youthful ‘epsilon’ handwriting, thus
allowing us to date the drawing to the
1540s.
The Port of Trajan and the adjacent
Port of Claudius at Ostia are two
wonders of Roman engineering (fig.
[5.2.] 5.1). Renaissance scholars could read
about them in ancient texts by writers
such as Cassius Dio, Suetonius and
the Plinys, and they also saw them
celebrated on the coins of Nero and
Trajan (fig. 5.4).2 The state of the
ruins, as they must have appeared to
Palladio on dismounting from his
horse, were somewhat less exciting.
On inspecting them in 1461, Pope
Pius ii deplored the condition of
Trajan’s hexagonal basin as a mud-
filled pond,3 while, almost a century
later, the surrounding buildings were
in such a poor state that, in a long
caption accompanying a plan of the
[5.3.] port published in 1552, they prompted
Antonio Labacco to comment: ‘then
there were the warehouses, which at
present are so badly ruined, even if
36 there are some visible signs of the
courtyard in one place and of stairs in
another [...] that they cannot be
perfectly rendered, and, therefore, I
have only put to paper the way that
they were laid out, as I saw and
measured [it]’ (fig. 5.5).4
Unlike Labacco, whose engraving
only sketchily shows the outline of the
warehouse walls, Palladio provides a
detailed image of the buildings on
two of the six sides of the basin. These
would seem to be the south and
south-eastern sides, since we can
make out the surviving stretch of
defensive walls and the gate known in
the Middle Ages as the Porta di Santa
Maria; it marked the beginning of the
Via Portuensis, the road from Rome
to its port, also mentioned by Palladio
in I Quattro Libri.5 These were the
two sides of the basin, then, on which
the wharves were still fairly well pre-
conserved (fig. 5.2).
Palladio drew two isolated struc-
tures inside large enclosures each
measuring 218 × 136 meters, of which
he could see the wall, still standing,
towards the basin (it also survives
today); he correctly measured its
width as being 5 piedi. Each building
is made up of four series of large
flanked rooms (each 21 × 5.7 m) with
front porticoes and a long common
courtyard at the rear. The large
stairways are evidence of the existence
of an upper floor. An excavation
campaign of the area in 1925 brought
to light warehouses made up of rooms
measuring 5 × 16 meters which were
coupled back to back on a common
wall and enclosed by a gallery 5 meters
wide, pierced by only a few apertures
for security purposes (fig. 5.3).6
Palladio may have seen some remains
in this area, or the remains of the
structures on the south-west side of
the hexagonal basin, now known as
the ‘large warehouses of Septimius
Severus’. These warehouses have two
stories served by large stairs and a
reinforcing pier at the center of the
rear wall (fig. 5.7), which Palladio
faithfully reproduces.7 The reason for
the presence of the complex walls in
the central part is less evident; they
were possibly substructures for the
ramps required to carry goods up to
the first floor. Palladio himself is not
clear about the design of the rear part,
where he sketches a kind of porticoed
square with black chalk.
This porticoed square, however,
relates Palladio’s study to other
hypothetical reconstructions of the
Port of Trajan, including that of
Sebastiano Serlio, published in the
Third Book in 1540, which shows a
porticoed courtyard at the center of
the buildings (fig. 5.6).8 Palladio
certainly knew this woodcut, but he
departs from it: on one side he closes
the otherwise completely open plan
by backing the buildings onto the
perimeter walls and transforming the 37
[5.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:16 Pagina 38
5.4. Sesterce rear roads into two long courtyards.
of Trajan, probably
issued in or after
Moreover, in organizing the center of
113 ad the building, he endeavors to create a
single, logical piece of architecture.
5.5. Antonio Unlike Serlio, Palladio actually visited
Labacco, Plan the site: according to Serlio, the
of the Port of Trajan
at Ostia (Libro length of each of the six sides of the
appartenente basin is 116 canne (259 m), but
all’architettura, Palladio indicates 1010 piedi vicentini
Rome 1552)
(360.6 m), which is much closer to
the archaeological reality (357.8 m).9
5.6. Sebastiano
Serlio, Plan As Lugli notes, Serlio’s reconstruction
of the Port of Trajan [5.4.] is based on a sketch by Giuliano da
at Ostia (Terzo
Sangallo.10 The latter’s studies seem to
Libro, Venice 1540,
p. lxxxiii) have passed to Baldassarre Peruzzi11
whose material was then used – as
5.7. Plan of the Burns has pointed out – in Antonio
warehouses of
Septimius Severus
Labacco’s engraving of 1552.12 Two
(in Guido Calza, years later Pirro Ligorio also pub-
‘Ostia. Ricognizioni lished an engraving with a re-
topografiche nel
construction of the ports of Trajan
porto di Traiano’, and Claudius, which was influenced
in Notizie degli scavi
di antichità, vi, i, by the sesterces of Nero and Trajan.13
1925) Compared to this iconographic
tradition, Palladio’s interest in the
Imperial Roman port does not seem
to be focused so much on rendering
the overall structure nor on the
hydraulic engineering aspects, as on
the typology of the ancient com-
mercial and storage buildings. The
[5.5.]
Forma Urbis (Severan Marble Plan)
had not yet been rediscovered, and
Palladio interpreted the Roman
horrea as buildings that were both
warehouses and trading centers.
What is certain is that if we look at
Trajan’s sesterce through the eyes of
Palladio (or, for that matter, those of a
Bembo or a Trissino) the large Roman
warehouses round the basin appear as
two-story structures enclosed by
loggias, which in Palladio’s re-
construction are set in the middle of
large open spaces. In the same period,
Palladio was finalizing the project for
the double order of the all’antica
Loggias of the Palazzo della Ragione
in the Piazza Maggiore, the adminis-
trative and, equally important, com-
mercial heart of his own city, Vicenza,
by then with architectural aspirations
[5.6.] to become a new Rome.
1
Morsolin 1894, p. 279: Thiene writes:
‘Palladio and Maganza, the former being
occupied with going to Tivoli, Palestrina,
Porto and Albano and the latter with some
still unfinished portraits, were unable to
[5.7.] set off on the journey [... and...] begging
Your Lordship to tell his relatives that next
week they will set off without fail’.
2
Meiggs 1973, pp. 149-171; Lugli, Filibeck
1935.
3
Piccolomini (ed. Totaro) 1984, p. 2208:
‘Nunc stagni formam habet oppletum
caenum’.
4
Labacco 1552, pp. 29-32.
5
I Quattro Libri, Bk iii, p. 9: ‘But of all
these, the Via Portuensis which led from
Rome to Ostia must have been the most
beautiful and practical; for (as Alberti, who
saw it, says) it was divided into two roads,
between which there was a row of stones a
foot higher than the rest which acted as a
38 division; one travelled in one direction
along one of these roads and returned on
the other’. Palladio (ed. Tavernor, Schofield)
1997, p. 167.
6 Elevation and details of the
Calza 1925, pp. 54-80, especially pp. 57-
60. On the usefulness of this scheme see
also Rickman 1971, pp. 123-132. Calza’s
excavations rectified the reconstruction
made by Lanciani, who had imagined
double warehouses overlooking a central
street: Lanciani 1868, pp. 144-195 and
Lanciani 1868a, pl. xlviiii.
7
Lugli, Filibeck 1935, pp. 83-85, number 10
on the map.
8
Serlio 1540, p. lxxxiii.
9
The measurements are also accurate in
Baldassarre Peruzzi’s two sketches (Uffizi
539 ar and 640 ar); Peruzzi indicates that
the side of the hexagon is ‘canne 158’, i.e.
approximately 353 meters (1 canna romana
= 2.234 meters; Martini 1883, p. 596).
10
Lugli 1947-1948, pp. 187-207. Borsi 1985,
pp. 216-217 suggests that the drawing can
be dated to 1508, after Giuliano’s in-
spection of the port occasioned by his
nephew Antonio’s role in supervising the
accounts of the works at the port of Ostia,
for which he was paid in December 1508.
11
Günther 1988, pp. 288-294.
12
Burns 1988, pp. 209-210.
13
Lugli 1947-1948, pp. 187-207; Burns
1988a, pp. 19-92, especially p. 33.
Literature: Zorzi 1959, p. 102;
Spielmann 1966, p. 178, cat. 132;
Lewis 1981, p. 40, cat. 19; Lewis 2000,
p. 60, cat. 19.
guido beltramini
6.
andrea palladio
Temple of Minerva, Assisi
1540s
Recto: plan and elevation of the
Baptistry of Constantine, Rome
Ruler and stylus, compasses, pen and
brown ink, brush and brown wash
Size: bottom side 291 mm (virtual
measurement due to torn corner,
at the tear the measurement is 287
mm); right side 428 mm (virtual
measurement due to torn corner,
at the tear the measurement is 420
mm); top side 291 mm; left side 426
mm
Notes on the drawing: [from top
to bottom in epsilon handwriting]
‘Questa loza sono a Sise et si dice
che era el tenpio di Marte’; ‘sono pie
5’; ‘li quariseli sono soto tera da qui
in giusso et si dice che intra uno
quariselo e laltro li era i gradi’
Unit of measurement: piede vicentino.
Scale: 5 piedi = 29 mm, on the right
(for the overall elevation); 1 piede
= 34.5 mm, on the left
History and ownership: Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xv/9v
We do not know for certain if Palladio
actually ever visited Assisi. There can
be no doubt, however, that given its
position on the Via Flaminia, one of
the routes that Palladio could have
taken on his way back to Vicenza
from Rome, the Temple of Minerva in
the Umbrian city must surely have
exercised a strong attraction. Indeed
he was so deeply interested in this
ancient model that he made three
drawings of it. Apart from the one
shown here, there are drawings on the
recto of riba xi/14, also in the
exhibition (cat. 29), and its verso.1
The drawing presented here is the
first of the series of three, which date
to the 1540s, as can be deduced from
the ‘epsilon’ handwriting. Palladio
carefully draws the entasis of the
column (i.e. by an optical adjustment
which slightly diminishes the diam-
eter of the shaft to make it taper
upwards from a third of the height
on). His interest in this solution first
appeared in his drawings in the
projects for the Palazzo da Porto
around 1546, which enables us to
circumscribe the date of the present
drawing to the second half of the
1540s. The drawing is very accurate
and the fluting on the columns has
been painstakingly traced on all six
shafts. The brackets of the entablature
are partially drawn (only on the left
half ), where there is also a hint of an
unusual husk garland at the joint with
the sloping side of the pediment.2 The
dimensions are well laid out and there 39
[6.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:17 Pagina 40
are two scales of measurement: one of
5 piedi for the elevation and plan and
another of 1 piede for the details on a
larger scale. Although, given the date,
this drawing could hardly have been
conceived with I Quattro Libri in
mind, the woodcut in the treatise was
eventually based on it. A comparison
of the drawing and the woodcut
reveals that in the former Palladio did
not draw the fluting on the columns
deformed by the foreshortening, but
they appear as if they were pilasters or
piers, unlike the detail on a larger
scale.
The question of whether this
drawing is a fair copy of a survey
conducted by Palladio, or rather his
copy of another architect’s drawing
can only really be solved by establish-
ing that Palladio effectively visited
Assisi. The doubts, which even in-
volve Goethe,3 are raised by the differ-
ences between Palladio’s renderings
and the actual building, especially as
regards one specific feature: the
columns set on pedestals and the
ramps of the temple stairs rising up
between them (fig. 6.1). Palladio only
draws the steps as rising to the level of
the plinths on which the dados are set
(he makes the latter taller), whereas in
the real temple the steps rise up as far
as the column bases, as can be seen in
[6.1.] [6.2.] a drawing by Baldassarre Peruzzi (fig.
6.2).4 An autograph Palladian anno-
tation may cast some light on this
error: ‘The bases are underground
from here down, and it is said that
between one base and another there
were steps’. The phrase ‘it is said’ has
been interpreted as proof of Palladio
referring to second-hand reports, and
therefore that he had not actually seen
the monument.5 But it might also
simply mean that he was saying that
he could not see the bases, since they
were buried at the time of his brief
visit on his return journey to Vicenza.
Moreover, the surveyed dimensions
tellingly only concern elements at
head height.
Thirty years ago Burns had already
realized the importance of this
drawing which enables us to enter
Palladio’s mind and grasp a key
element in the way he assimilated
ancient models: ‘he used his drawings
of ancient buildings as models, rather
than the buildings as they actually
6.1. Church stood’.6 For Palladio, who lived over
of Santa Maria one week’s journey away from Rome,
Sopra Minerva, the real antique monuments were
Assisi
gradually replaced by their represen-
6.2. Baldassarre tations conserved on his own sheets.
Peruzzi, Elevation Projected onto the plane of the sheet,
and details of the without the aid of the plan showing
Temple of Assisi
(Florence,
their three-dimensional nature, the
Gabinetto Disegni columns of the Temple of Minerva at
e Stampe degli Assisi could thus become pilasters
Uffizi, 634 ar) applied to the wall of the cella. In I
6.3. Andrea
Quattro Libri Palladio stresses the
Palladio, Palazzo exceptional character of the temple at
40 Valmarana, Vicenza Assisi, when he says that he has never
[6.3.]
seen any other temples with pedestals retain its original marble veneer and
beneath the columns. When he comes that conveys, stripped of its original
to use this antique motif for his own statues, the splendor of Imperial
projects – the pilasters of the Palazzo Rome. The stepped dome of the ex-
Valmarana (fig. 6.3) or the half- terior reappears at the Villa Rotonda
columns of the Palazzo da Porto in (cat. 26) and in various reconstruction
Piazza Castello – the source is not so drawings, for example, the Teatro
much the real Temple of Minerva as Berga in Vicenza (riba ix/10r). It
his drawing on this sheet. reappears in the work of the neo-
Palladians too, such as the University
1
Zorzi 1959, p. 82. of Virginia, by Thomas Jefferson (fig.
2
Palladio omits the dentils in the hori- 16, p. 15).
zontal part of the pediment: for an analysis
of the differences between the archaeo-
charles hind
logical situation of the temple and its
representation on the pages of the I [7.]
Quattro Libri (as opposed to the drawings)
see: Antolini 1803.
3
Boucher 2000, pp. 301-302.
4
Spielmann 1966, p. 46; Wurm 1984, p.
466. Note that Peruzzi also draws the
entablature correctly.
5
Ghisetti Giavarina 2006-2007, pp. 117-
118.
6
H. Burns, ‘Elevation of the façade of the
Temple at Assisi’, in Burns 1975, cat. 438,
p. 248.
Literature: Zorzi 1959, p. 82; Spiel-
mann 1966, p. 150, cat. 84; Burns
1973, p. 147; Burns 1975, p. 248, cat.
438; Lewis 1981, pp. 62-63, cat. 34;
Boucher 1998, pp. 227-228; Lewis
2000, pp. 85-87, cat. 34; Ghisetti
Giavarina 2006-2007, pp. 117-118.
guido beltramini
7.
unknown architect
Pantheon, Rome
Plaster model by Timothy Richards,
2010
Height 330 mm; length 610 mm;
width 380 cm
Scale: 1:165
The Pantheon was first built by the
Emperor Marcus Agrippa between 33
and 12 bc but was destroyed in the
disastrous fire of 80 ad. Rebuilt by
Emperor Domitian, it was again
destroyed or badly damaged in 110
and some small parts survive within
the foundations of its successor, built
by the Emperor Hadrian, c. 118-128
(fig. 5, p. 155). This is the building that
has come down to us today, not only
one of the great buildings of antiquity
but one of the most influential, not
least on Palladio. In his description of
it in Book iii of I Quattro Libri, he
described various elements of the
building repeatedly as ‘most beauti-
ful’. The drum of the rotunda is half
the height of its own diameter (43
metres), surmounted by a hemi-
spherical dome, the crown of which,
in accordance with the precepts of
Vitruvius, is exactly the same height
above the pavement as the diameter of
the building. Internally, the building
is the only large Roman building to 41
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:20 Pagina 42
8.
learning from the antique: andrea palladio
the lessons of vitruvius Elevation of an Ionic order
colonnade
1540s
Verso: front view of an Ionic capital
and base; Talman mark (T:54);
red border
Ruler and stylus, compasses, pen and
brown ink, brush and brown wash
Size: left side 427 mm; right side 430
mm; top and bottom sides 268 mm
Unit of measurement: 1 module
= 24 mm
Notes on the drawing: [from top
8.1. Andrea Palladio, to bottom in epsilon handwriting]
Ionic order ‘queste colone sono longe da piedi 15
colonnade (London,
in fina ai 20, come seria dire piedi 18;
riba, British
Architectural si partise tuta la colona in parte 13,
Library, xi/10) lasando fora la base et el capitelo, et
de una de le parte 13 si fa lo epistilio
coè arcitrave come dice Vitruvio’;
[transitional handwriting] ‘Nota che
questo si chiama sistilios, in lo quale
la grossezza de due cholone intra una
colona e laltra è [lacuna in the text]
che el fustoo de la cholona sie longo
teste 91/2, et se la fose de 6 colonne
i seria moduli 16, et se le fose corintie
li intriria intra uno plintide et l’altro
de le base, uno altro plintide coè
veniria li spaci equali, coè tanto
el vano quanto el pien’; ‘modulo’
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xi/9r
This plate belongs to the series of
early studies in which Palladio en-
deavored to render as accurately as
possible Vitruvius’ lessons on the
architectural orders. Very similar to
another sheet (riba xi/10) (fig. 8.1)
showing the second half of the façade
of a temple of the same kind but with
a eustyle intercolumniation, this
drawing provides a theoretical recon-
struction of the elevation of a hexa-
style, Ionic and systyle building of
worship.1 The notes on the left and
above the drawing provide an at times
[8.1.] clumsy explanation of the Vitruvian
rules that Palladio used in this
reconstruction, while a ‘module’
based on the size of the lower diam-
eter is rapidly sketched in the bottom
right-hand corner of the sheet.
Bearing in mind the care taken over
the execution of the drawing, as
evidenced by the quality of drafts-
manship and also the inclusion of the
explanatory notes, it is interesting to
see how, on all the levels of the
colonnade, each element complies
with the proportional system recom-
mended in Chapter v of Book iii of
Vitruvius’ De Architectura. Since this
work very probably predates Palladio’s
collaboration with Daniele Barbaro, it
42 is important to understand what
Palladio managed to put into practice
when he attempted to do ‘what
Vitruvius says’.
At first glance, the entablature
actually appears to be too low com-
pared to the height of the columns. An
error has thus been introduced into
the construction of the modular ratios.
This may derive either from Palladio’s
way of interpreting the indications in
the Latin treatise or the interference of
an intermediary who possibly misread
them. Below we will see in detail the
arrangement of the colonnade from
bottom to top, according to the order
followed by Vitruvius himself.
The base is of an Ionic type, i.e. it
has only one torus, the upper one,
and two scotias separated by ba-
stoncini (small convex moldings) or
astragals. This choice suggests Palladio
wished to assign a specific base to the
Ionic order, whereas Vitruvius also
allows the Attic base to be used.2 In
reality this is a false problem, since
Vitruvius’ Ionic base is simply the
Ephesian version of a type elaborated
in Asia Minor, which in the age of De
Architectura no longer had any
meaning.3 But fifteenth- and sixteen-
th-century architects were captivated
by the ‘Ionic’ style: Alberti was the
first to work on defining its profile,
although the inclusion of a lower
torus makes his base rather un-
Vitruvian;4 Fra Giocondo, in his
edition of Vitruvius of 1511, provides
the first graphically acceptable
interpretation.5 Palladio’s version is
very faithful to the theoretical
description insofar as he makes the
height of his plinth exactly half the
lower diameter of the column, and his
lower scotia projects as far as the edge
of the plinth, in accordance with the
recommendations in Book iii (5, 3).6
For the columns, as indicated in the
first of his notes, Palladio chooses the
standard of those measuring between
15 and 20 piedi high, which allows
him, in keeping with Vitruvius (iii, 5,
8), to make an architrave the equiva-
lent of 1/13 of that size. He commits a
crucial error, however, when he
decides to consider only the shaft,
excluding the base and the capital
(‘without the base and the capital’),
which can be confirmed by measuring
the drawing. This leads, however, to
an excessive reduction of the archi-
trave and consequently the whole
entablature, whose proportions
depend on the architrave. It is easy to
understand how he came to make this
choice, since it follows the logic of the
architects and theoreticians of his day,
whereby a given word could only
stand for one reality, no matter what
the context. Thus apparently on the
grounds of how Vitruvius’ treatise is
organized – i.e. with bases (iii, 5, 1-3),
columns (iii, 5, 4) and capitals (iii, 5,
5-8) divided into three separate entries
– Palladio begins from the idea that 43
[8.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:20 Pagina 44
8.2. Andrea columna is only used for the vertical
Palladio, Ionic
entablature
elements and never for the whole
(woodcut columns. Consulting Alberti’s De re
reproduced aedificatoria would undoubtedly have
in Daniele Barbaro’s confirmed his conviction,7 even
edition of Vitruvius’
though Fra Giocondo had actually
Ten Books
on Architecture, fully grasped the system used by
Venice 1556, p. 98) Vitruvius, as evidenced, for example,
in the figure on page 25 verso of his
8.3. Andrea
edition, showing an Ionic systyle
Palladio, Ionic order
(I Quattro Libri, order. In fact, when Vitruvius comes
Bk i, p. 36) to the dimensions of the architraves,
he uses the word columna to indicate
the element joining the stylobate to
the horizontal entablature, i.e. the
column inclusive of the base and
capital.8 But in Palladio’s drawing the
situation is further exacerbated by the
fact that he follows to the letter the
principle whereby the height of the
columns depends on the inter-
columniation of the colonnade. He
thus assigns – in keeping with Book
iii, 3, 10 – a height of 9.5 diameters to
his systyle order, and again calculates
this value only from the shaft. He then
proceeds to set the theoretical top of
the shaft – as revealed by the relation
between his ‘module’ and his column
– under the volutes of the capital and
not at the height of the uppermost
astragal, thus creating a significant
difference.9
The capital is correctly constructed
so that the principal dimensions – the
width of the abacus and its total
[8.2.] height, including the volutes –
correspond to Vitruvius’ values in
Book iii (5, 5). Palladio’s decoration is
arbitrary but plausible, since it
features a cruciform flower in the eye
of the volute and heart-shaped leaves
on the abacus.10
Leaving aside its relative modesty
compared to the colonnade, the
entablature is wholly conventional as
regards its internal proportions. The
architrave reflects exactly the indi-
cations in Book iii (5, 10), whereby
the heights of the three fasciae
increase from the bottom to the top
and the crowning is equal to 1/7 of the
total height.11
For the pediment, Palladio strictly
applies Vitruvius’ recommendations
not to set dentils on the sloping
sides,12 actually in the name of a rather
debatable structural logic.13 It is
interesting to note that Palladio did
not comply with this prohibition in
the plate in Barbaro’s treatise illus-
trating the Ionic entablature (fig.
8.2).14 Only the frieze does not comply
with Vitruvius’ rigorous rules, since it
is convex. The origin of this recurrent
motif has been correctly established
by Elisabetta Pagello.15 Here we will
simply point out that the ‘pulvinated
frieze’ does not feature on Roman
monuments before the early second
century bc, and that it is an
‘archaeological’ addition. The earliest
example in Palladian buildings dates
44 from 1544 (the Villa Pisani at Ba-
[8.3.]
gnolo). The same kind of frieze is
found in Barbaro’s edition of Vitru-
vius and in Chapter xvi on the Ionic
order in Book i of I Quattro Libri (fig.
8.3).16
1
Zorzi 1959, p. 121 and fig. 286 (Metà di un
portico ‘sistilos’ con colonne ioniche scana-
late). The symmetric half of this drawing is
in fig. 284 (eustyle intercolumniation). See
also Günther 1990, pp. 186-187 and notes
33 and 41, p. 196.
2
Vitruvius 1914, 1960, iii, 5, 3.
3
On this question, see Wesenberg 1983, pp.
128 ff., and my comment ad locum in
Vitruve (ed. Gros) 1990, pp. 150-151.
4
Alberti (ed. Orlandi) 1966, vii, 7, p. 570.
5
Vitruvio/Giocondo 1511, Book iii, p. 29
recto.
6 handwriting] ‘questo tenpio si chiama
For an overview of this topic, see
Lemerle, Pauwels 1991, pp. 7-13.
7
Chapters 6 and 7 of Book vii. See Morolli
1994.
8
Wesenberg 1983, pp. 114-115. He rightly
calculates that here the term columna
means ‘the absolute height of the order’.
9
On this aspect, see Vitruvius’ indications
for proportions (iv, 5, 7).
10
Here it is not so richly decorated as the
capital in I Quattro Libri (Bk i, p. 36)
which has a foliage decoration on the
fluting, indicated by Palladio with a capital
letter ‘N’ as the ‘fluting of the volute’.
11
On measuring the drawing, we see that
Palladio also complied with the 3, 4, 5
progression for the fasciae, established by
Vitruvius.
12
iv, 2, 5: ‘Neither did the ancients approve
of or employ mutules or dentils in
pediments but only coronae’.
13
In fact, if Vitruvius had taken this need
for structural clarity to its logical
consequences, he would have had to
prohibit the use of dentils on the
horizontal cornices of the pediment. On
this topic, see Knell 1985, p. 55, and my
comment ad locum, in Vitruve (ed. Gros)
1992, pp. 114-115.
14
Vitruvio/Barbaro 1556, p. 98: note the
presence of dentils on the pediments.
15
Pagello 1979, pp. 315-333.
16
Vitruvio/Barbaro 1556, p. 98; I Quattro
Libri, Bk i, p. 36.
Literature: Zorzi 1959, p. 121; Spiel-
mann 1966, p. 138, cat. 15 (mistakenly
indicated as riba xi/10r); Burns 1975,
cat. 402, pp. 228-229; Günther 1990,
pp. 186-187 and notes 33 and 34, p.
196.
pierre gros
9.
andrea palladio
Plan and elevation
of Vitruvius’ peripteral temple
1540s
Verso: section of a column and the
letter ‘a’ [eight times]; Talman mark
(T:54)
Ruler and stylus, compasses, black
chalk (below the capital leaves), pen
and blackish ink, brush and brown
wash
Size: bottom side 286 mm; right side
435 mm; top side 273 mm; left side
409 mm
Unit of measurement: not visible
Notes on the drawing: [epsilon
peripteros, come dice Vitruvio, et a
formarlo si partise di dentro via dal
stilobate in parte 5, come è signato:
le tre parte va ala cela, coè al corpo
de mezo, et le altre due una per
banda; le colone vano longe quanto
à di diametro la cela de dentro via da
le muralgie; le mura de la cela sono
grose quanto à di diametro la colona;
le colone sono x teste con la base et
el capitelo; intra una colona e l’altra
li entra due teste de colona coè dui
moduli; et quanto diametro auerà
tuta l’opera, de la medietà sia fato
el tolo, coè la cupola, da la cornice
in suso et si potria farli uno ochio
soto la cupola et quelo flore che dice
Vitruvio; chredo che sia questo
perché si ne vede in molti edefici
antiqui chome è Santa Maria Ritonda
et molti altri; et dice Vitruvio vole
esser grande quanto el capitelo de
la colona, ma a me me pariria picolo;
ioo l’ò notato come ioo l’ò intendo;
lo stilobate va alto la terza parte de
la alteza de la colona; lo epistilio alto
de la midietà de la grozeca de la
colona et el frizo la quarta parte
mancho de lo epistilio, la cornice
a porporcion de li altri menbri’
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, viii/6r
Among the most detailed graphic
reconstructions which Palladio made on
his second (or third?) trip to Rome in
the company of Trissino from 1545 to
1547 are – as Giangiorgio Zorzi has
previously noted – drawings of two
types of round temples, one monopteral
and the other peripteral.1 This sheet
shows the plan and elevation of the
peripteral temple, which is set on a
podium. Although Palladio may have
seen this kind of temple in Rome (the
so-called ‘Temple of Vesta’, i.e. the
round temple in the Forum Boarium)
(fig. 9.1)2 or at Tivoli,3 he chose to make
his own interpretation of the text of De
Architectura, iv, 8, 2-3, and to comment
on his drawing in a long note. In the
note, however, he primarily seems
concerned with the position of the flos
(‘flower’) at the apex and its relation
with the ochio (‘eye’ – oculus?) of the
dome, for which he cites the example of
Santa Maria Rotonda, i.e. the Pantheon.
The temple basically reflects the
teachings of Vitruvius, although, above
the two steps (a kind of simplified
crepidoma recommended by Vitruvius),
it does include a podium, which in
theory (iv, 8, 1), was only a feature of the
monopteral temple, given that the
stylobate in the peripteral temple is a
single level set directly on the socle.4 This
divergence, which cannot be attributed
to a tradition of misinterpreting the text
and overtly breaks with Vitruvius’
typological distinction, is all the more
surprising since the text and drawing
generally conform to ‘what Vitruvius
says’. This may be explained by the fact
that, like most exegetists in his day,
Palladio lacked the knowledge to under-
stand the nature of the stylobate, and he
interpreted it as a pedestal made up of
one or more string courses set under the
base of the column, as moreover, he says
in the note, stressing that ‘the stylobate
rises up to a third of the height of the
column’. This idea, inherited from
Alberti’s columnatio5 and Fra Giocondo’s
stylobata (fig. 9.3),6 prevented him from
understanding some passages in De
Architectura, and especially those on the
scamilli impares.7 In the same series of
drawings, one of the monopteral round
temples (riba x/4v) also has a podium,
which to Palladio’s mind was not the
same as the tribunal (raised floor) with
an ascensus (ascent) – a formula for
which Vitruvius clearly indicated a
podium with axial steps, but which
Palladio renders with a flight of seven-
teen steps. The podium is also main-
tained in this case to render the stylobate
set under the columns, which he tackles
in the next phrase.8 Thus, although the
sketch is apparently closer to Vitruvius’
description, if we follow Palladio’s
reasoning closely, we notice that in fact
he continues with the same error of
interpretation.
This, however, is the only mis-
interpretation of the text, since all the
other elements are correctly based on the
recommendations in Book iv. Palladio
also takes care to represent – through a
series of dots on the diameter of the plan
– the relation which according to
Vitruvius binds the three components of
the peripteral round temple, i.e. the
length of the ambulatory, the length of
the cella – including the perimeter walls
– and the length of the overall space
circumscribed by the colonnade. As
Palladio implies in a rather confused
manner in the note accompanying the
drawing, they are in a 1-3-5 ratio, which,
moreover, is in keeping with what
Friedrich Rakob observes of the round
temple of the Forum Boarium.9 Of
course it remains to be seen if the
external measurement should be taken
outside the colonnade, as in the Boarium
temple, on the inside as Palladio suggests
or on the axis of the colonnade as
recommended by Herman Geertman;10
on this point Vitruvius’ use of the Latin
term circa is rather puzzling, but
Palladio’s choice seems plausible,11 and it
was confirmed in Daniele Barbaro’s
edition of Vitruvius (fig. 9.2).12 The
systyle perimeter portico, therefore with
intercolumniations of two lower
diameters in keeping with Vitruvius (iii,
3, 2), implies the presence of 20 columns
whose height (including bases and
capitals) corresponds exactly – according
to the indications in iv, 8, 2 – to the
internal diameter (praeter parietes) of the
cella.13 The choice of the Corinthian is
established by the comparison Vitruvius
makes in the following paragraph
between the last floral element and the
capital of the column.14 As for the
number of columns, it is equal to that of
the round temple of Forum Boarium.15
Their soberly rendered entablature
consists of an architrave with two fasciae,
a vertical (not convex) frieze as well as a
dentilled Ionic cornice, derived from the
instructions in Book iii, to which
Vitruvius refers at the end of his treat-
ment. All of this attests to Palladio’s
painstaking quest for textual and
archaeological consistency.
The difficulties arise, however, when
it comes to the roof of the central
section, i.e. of the cella with the portico
excluded. Palladio interprets the very
ambiguous notion of tholos (Bk iv, ch.
8) as a dome, and rightly so because the
text could not be reasonably interpreted
otherwise. Given that he decides to
follow Vitruvius’ indications very
closely, he ignores the enormous size of
this dome, which the Latin author
describes as having a height half the
total width of the building.16 To achieve
this, Palladio sets what is the dome in a
strict sense on a circular drum crowned
by a cornice, which allows him to
obtain a satisfactory height without
making the hemispheric part too large
(fig. 9.4).17 He does not draw the
terminal elements – the tip of the
pyramid (pyramis) and the flos – or at
least they do not appear in the drawing
because the top of the dome does not
appear in the final rendering, possibly
because the sheet was trimmed. In any
case, in the note he does not mention
the transition from the circular top of
the roof to the base of the decorative
motif, and he remarks how the relation
established by Vitruvius between the
flos and capitals of the columns is
unsatisfactory; he comments that he
decided to make the flos larger, but the
condition of the sheet does not allow us
to assess the solution that he adopted.
In their subsequent edition of
Vitruvius, Barbaro and Palladio were to
convey the gist of this drawing, but
introduced a few changes: the
podium/stylobate has dados in relief
under the columns,18 the frieze of the
entablature is convex, the height of the
dome is slightly reduced, and a
quadrangular or hexagonal support
appears under the flos, of which the
lower part is only sketched.19
1
Zorzi 1959, p. 112 and fig. 289.
2
I Quattro Libri, Bk iv, pp. 52-54 and
Palladio (ed. Magagnato, Marini) 1980, pp.
531-532.
3
I Quattro Libri, Bk iv, pp. 90-94 and
Palladio (ed. Magagnato, Marini) 1980, pp.
540-541. See also the Vicenza drawing, in
Puppi 2007, no. 10, pp. 127-128.
4
Vitruve (ed. Gros) 1992, iv, 8, 2, p. 29 and
pp. 199-200. It goes without saying that
this distinction between the two types of
round temples is arbitrary, and that in
Vitruvius it reflects a preoccupation with
simplifying the rules.
5
Gros 2000, pp. 763-772.
6
Vitruvio/Giocondo 1511, fig. p. 28.
7
On this question, see the chapter ‘Il
problema dello stilobate e l’interpretazione
degli scamilli inpares da Alberti a Palladio’,
in Gros 2006, pp. 25-37.
8
Vitruvius, iv, 8, 1. This drawing of the
monopteral temple was presented by H.
Burns, in Beltramini, Burns 2008, pp. 282
and 284-285.
9
Rakob, Heilmeyer 1973, pp. 16-17.
10
Geertman 1989, pp. 154-177.
11
On this question, see my comment on p.
200 in Vitruve (ed. Gros) 1992.
12
Vitruvio/Barbaro 1556, pp. 126-127;
Vitruvio/Barbaro 1567, pp. 198-199.
13
This equivalence cannot be found in the
large circular Roman temples. Palladio
himself knew of this from the ‘Temple of
Vesta’, in which he sets the columns much
higher (I Quattro Libri, Bk iv, ch. 14, pp.
52-54).
14
iv, 8, 3: ‘the final, excluding its pyramidal
base should have the dimensions of the
capital of a column’. The wording suggests
that the flos is a capital with acanthuses,
and the inclusion of the capital in the size
of the column rules out the latter being
any other order than the Corinthian.
15
Rakob, Heilmeyer 1973, pp. 6 ff. and 32 ff.
The round temple at Tivoli only has eight-
een. For a comparison between the plans of
these two peripteral temples, see Günther
1988, pp. 218-219 (Codex Coner, 24).
16
iv, 8, 3: ‘the proportions of the roof in the
center should be such that the height of
the rotunda excluding the finally, is
equivalent to one half the diameter of the
whole work’. On the problems raised by
this text and the more or less arbitrary
modifications, see my comment on pp.
200-202 of Vitruve (ed. Gros) 1992.
17
Palladio adopts the same solution in
rendering the ‘Temple of Vesta’ in his I
Quattro Libri, Bk iv, p. 53.
18
This is undoubtedly an allusion to the
scamilli impares.
19
It seems also that, contrary to what Zorzi
(1959, p. 112) claims, this drawing was not
re-used in exactly the same way in
Barbaro’s Vitruvio. Moreover, it is difficult
to see what the author means by ‘il grande
rosone’ which was supposed to replace the
flos here. See Cellauro 1998, pp. 103-111.
Literature: Zorzi 1959, p. 112; Spiel-
mann 1966, pp. 139-140, cat. 21;
Cellauro 1998, pp. 103-111.
pierre gros
45
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:23 Pagina 46

[9.1.] [9.2.]

9.1. Round temple

in the Forum
Boarium, Rome

9.2. Andrea
Palladio, Plan
and elevation of the
Vitruvian peripteral
temple (woodcut
reproduced in
Daniele Barbaro’s
edition of Vitruvius’
Ten Books on
Architecture, Venice
1556, pp. 126-127)

9.3. Giovanni
Giocondo, Stylobata
(woodcut
reproduced in
Giocondo’s edition
of Vitruvius’ Ten
Books on
Architecture, Venice
1511, iii, fol. 28r)

9.4. Andrea
Palladio, Elevation
of the Vitruvian
peripteral temple
(I Quattro Libri,
Bk iv, pp. 53-53)
[9.3.] [9.4.]

46 47
[9.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:23 Pagina 48
10.
andrea palladio
Plan and elevation
of a round temple
1540s
Verso: plan of a project for the Villa
Pisani at Bagnolo; Talman mark
(T:54)
Ruler and stylus, compasses, pen
and black ink
Size: left side 419 mm; right side 418
mm; top side 274 mm; bottom side
273 mm
Unit of measurement: not visible
Notes on the drawing: none
10.1. Giovanni History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
Giocondo, Doric (John Webb); John Talman; Lord
frieze (reproduced
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
in Giocondo’s
edition of Vitruvius’ riba since 1894
Ten Books on London, riba, British Architectural
Architecture, Venice Library, xvii/18r
1511, iv, fol. 37r)
This study for a building with eight
Doric half-columns on a podium is
one of the most original and careful
drawings that Palladio ever made. The
presence of a circular altar on the axis
of the door indicates the building is a
temple. The drawing, however, is far
from easy to interpret. Given that
there is no precise reference to a
monumental type described by
Vitruvius and, as far as we know, it is
not a preliminary study for a con-
structed building, we find no trace of
it in Barbaro’s edition of Vitruvius or
in I Quattro Libri. Yet the details
faithfully follow the ancient theoret-
ician’s teachings.
The aim of the study seems to have
been to represent together elements
from round temples with a cella (iv, 8,
2-3) and those typical of pseudo-
peripteral temples (iv, 8, 6). It is an
interesting exercise but, as we will see,
not wholly successful from the
structural point of view.
That Palladio wished to represent a
Doric order, despite the fact that the
capitals, only sketched, are more like
those of a ‘Tuscan’ monument, is
revealed by the presence of Attic bases,
which had been considered a feature
[10.1.] of the doricum genus since Leon
Battista Alberti.1 In the absence of any
information on this subject in Vitru-
vius, who implicitly assumed Doric
shafts to have no base,2 and despite the
examples cited by Palladio, which
include the Theatre of Marcellus or
the Roman Theatre in Vicenza,3 early
Renaissance architects considered the
use of Attic bases to be the most
logical solution.4 The frieze with
metopes and triglyphs clearly confirms
this explanation, although the
simplified cornice does not appear to
have mutules. As far as the cella door
is concerned, its conception and
proportions comply with the scheme
of the ostium doricum in De Archi-
tectura (iv, 6, 1-2). The intercolumni-
48 ation of the half-columns, with
enough room for three lower
diameters, corresponds to a kind of
enlarged diastyle. The entablature
consists of an architrave with two
fasciae, which from the archaeological
point of view is rather unconventional
but quite frequent in the sixteenth
century,5 and a frieze with triglyphs, in
which the four metopes are exception-
ally arranged between columns. This is
actually close to the ‘araeostyle’ which
characterizes Doric-Tuscan temples,
such as the one depicted in a drawing
in the margin of the Corsini Incuna-
bulum, with up to five intermediate
metopes.6 The ornamentation of the
metopes, with an alternating patera
and bucrane pattern, sketchily takes
up an idea of Fra Giocondo (fig. 10.1).7
Between the columns, pedestals in
the lower part and panels framing
floral low reliefs above, create a lively
wall decoration fairly similar to that
on the side walls on the two flanks of
the entrance porch in the project for a
villa (riba xvii/21), which also
features eight Doric half-columns (see
cat. 22).8
The clearly incomplete upper part
of the drawing includes two ideas for
the ornamental attic above the
cornice: on the left, a pierced baluster
and, on the right, a continuous wall
decorated with garlands linked to
horned bearded heads, from which
pendants hang. Here these heads
conjure up portraits of Jupiter
Ammon, and are like those without
pendants which decorate, for
example, the frieze of the façade of the
Palazzo Thiene, Vicenza, in I Quattro
Libri.9 Set back from the attic, the
drum – it is difficult to see what it
rests on – is pierced by a window
aligned above the entrance door. It
presumably supports a dome, which,
however, is not included on the sheet.
1
Alberti (ed. Orlandi) 1966, vii, 7.
2
Vitruvius, iv, 3, 3. For the Tuscan order,
he recommends bases with circular plinths
(iv, 7, 3).
3
I Quattro Libri, Bk i, p. 22.
4
On the use of the attic base in the Doric
order in the early Renaissance, see
Günther 1988, pp. 188 ff.
5
This is what Palladio actually proposes (I
Quattro Libri, Bk i, p. 15).
6
Vitruvius (ed. Rowland) 2003, pp. 45 and
102. See also Günther 1988, p. 195, fig. 34.
7
Vitruvio/Giocondo 1511, p. 37 recto. On
the origin of these motifs, see Lemerle
1996, pp. 85-92.
8
Frommel 1990, p. 164, fig. 37.
9
I Quattro Libri, Bk ii, p. 14.
Literature: Burns 1975, p. 204, cat.
366; Lewis 1981, p. 81; Lewis 2000, p.
109.
pierre gros
49
[10.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010
11.
vitruvius (fl. 85 bc)
I Dieci Libri Dell’
Architettura Di M. Vitruvio
Tradutti Et Commentati Da
Monsignor Barbaro ... Con
due tauole, l’una di tutto
quello si contiene per i Capi
nell’ Opera, l’altra per
dechiaratione di tutte le cose
d’importauza [sic].
In Vinegia [i.e. Venice]:
Per Francesco Marcolini ...
1556
Folio
400 × 275 mm
History and ownership: Front free
endleaf inscribed ‘Parisijs 23.
Novembris 1645. De Chambray’,
probably by Roland Fréart de
Chambray; Purchased June 1854
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, E.d.384
Vitruvius, sometimes called Marcus
Vitruvius Pollio, was the author of the
only surviving treatise on architecture
50
[11.]
10:27 Pagina 50
to survive from antiquity. Although
some 80 medieval texts survive, most
if not all derive from a single Caro-
lingian manuscript, c. 800 ad, now in
the British Library (Harleian ms.
2767). None of Vitruvius’s original
illustrations, to which he refers, have
survived in copied form. Although
various printed editions existed from
1486, there was a need for an edition
with scholarly notes and carefully
reconstructed illustrations, and this is
what Daniele Barbaro and Andrea
Palladio set out to achieve.
Daniele Barbaro (1513-1570) was a
member of a minor but influential
patrician family in Venice. He was a
polymath, a Humanist scholar, histor-
ian, mathematician, diplomat,
founder of the Botanical Garden in
Padua and from 1553, the Patriarch
Elect of Aquileia, a position that
excluded him from politics. He
probably met Palladio for the first
time in Padua in the late 1530s, when
Palladio was introduced to Paduan
intellectual circles by Giangiorgio
Trissino (1478-1550) and Alvise
Cornaro (1484-1566). Barbaro took a
close interest in architecture, as did
his brother Marcantonio and between
about 1549 and 1558, Palladio
reconstructed their villa at Maser,
today one of Palladio’s most famous
villas.
Two partial preparatory manu-
scripts for Barbaro’s new translation of
Vitruvius survive in the Biblioteca
Nazionale Marciana, Venice, while
some of Palladio’s preparatory draw-
ings are exhibited in this exhibition
(cats 8, 9 and 10). The page illustrated
here is Palladio’s reconstruction of a
Roman frons scaenae. It has obvious
links to Palladio’s largely posthumous
Teatro Olimpico (1580-1583), but is
interesting in showing that Palladio
was already thinking of the receding
scenery seen behind the proscenium
arch. The similar scenery at the Teatro
Olimpico is always given to Vincenzo
Scamozzi, who finished the building
after Palladio’s death in August 1580.
The woodcuts of this Vitruvius are
attributed to Palladio and Giuseppe
Salviati.
From the inscription ‘de Chambray’
that appears on the front end paper,
this copy appears to have belonged to
Roland Fréart de Chambray (1606-
1676), translator of the first full French
edition of Palladio’s I Quattro Libri
dell’Architettura, published in Paris in
1650.
Literature: riba 3522; Gros 2006;
Beltramini, Burns 2008, no. 64.
charles hind
12.
palladio and the project: andrea palladio
first ideas on paper Design for Villa Mocenigo
on the Brenta Canal
and plans of the tombs
of Priscilla and the Orazi
on the Via Appia, Rome
1540s (the tombs); second half of the
1550s (Villa Mocenigo)
Verso: section of the Teatro Berga,
Vicenza
Tombs: ruler and stylus, compasses
or dividers; pen and brown ink,
brush and pale brown wash. Villa:
compasses or dividers, pen and black
ink
Size: bottom side 285 mm (virtual
measurement due to a tear; the
current length to the right edge of
the bottom side is 275 mm); right
side 436 mm (virtual measurement
due to a tear; the current length
to the top edge is 422 mm); top side
287 mm; left side 431 mm
Notes on the drawing: Talman mark
(T:49); two inscriptions above each
of the small round temples have been
erased and are now illegible,
although the traces do show epsilon
handwriting
Unit of measurement: piede. Scale
(below the tombs, to which it refers,
and made with holes in the paper):
10 piedi = 24 mm
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
[12.1.] [12.2.]
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, x/2r
Of Palladio’s surviving graphic works,
this drawing for the project of Villa
Mocenigo on the Brenta belongs to
the small category of those in which
he sketches an idea freehand in one go
without resorting to the stylus, ruler
and square. In this case he only uses
the points of the compasses to incise
the curved guide lines for the walls of
the barchesse and the axis of their
columns.
Here I am referring to the upper half
of the sheet and not to the two
circular structures in the lower half,
which are the plans of the tombs of
Priscilla (left) and of the Orazi (right),
both situated on the Appian Way.1
They are carefully drafted with the
instruments; wash is used for the
breadth of the walls and the structures
are in the dimensions indicated in a
scale of measurement marked beneath
them with the point of the compasses.
Some notes above the tomb plans,
now barely legible, were written in
Palladio’s early ‘epsilon’ handwriting,
dating from the 1540s. He thus
sketched his idea for the Villa Moce-
nigo on a ‘recycled’ sheet used around
ten years earlier.
The drawing for the Villa Mocenigo
has probably come down to us thanks
[12.3.]
to the plans of the tombs and a study 12.1. Andrea
for the section of Teatro Berga in Palladio, Plan
and elevation
Vicenza on the verso.2 As Burns has of Villa Mocenigo
pointed out, surviving quick sketches on the Brenta
are rare, partly because they were (I Quattro Libri,
neglected not only by Palladio himself Bk ii, p. 78)
but also by later collectors who were 12.2. Battista
all more interested in completed della Valle,
drawings as sources of good ideas and Battalion of 300
possible alternatives.3 To our eyes, pikes and two
lunettes (Vallo,
however, these sheets are particularly Venice 1539)
interesting because they reveal how
Palladio worked while exploring 12.3. Andrea
Palladio, Sketch
possible alternatives, or as he rapidly
plan of Villa
reconstructed the outline of a Mocenigo
completed project for an interlocutor. on the Brenta
In this case Palladio seems to be (London, riba,
British Architectural
recording a design idea on paper. He Library, x/1v)
traces out the overall plan and at the
same time, on the left, explores alter-
natives on a larger scale for the corner
design of the courtyard with three
juxtaposed columns, or a corner pier
with interlocking columns. The loggia
on the façade is also initially drawn
with seven bays, like the loggia in the
courtyard, but then reduced to five
(making it like those on the sides),
thus forcing him to move the joint
with the barchesse. The dimensions of
the spaces are annotated in figures
compatible with Palladio’s hand-
writing and the conventional drafting
signs for the apertures (doors and
windows), chimneys, columns and
stairs are typical of other sheets of this
type (e.g. the studies for the Palazzo
Volpe in Vicenza, riba xi/22).4
From Burger on, this drawing has
been associated with the woodcut on
page 66 in Book ii of I Quattro Libri
(fig. 12.1), while Zorzi related it to
another sheet for the project (riba
x/1v) (fig. 12.3).5 For his patron
Leonardo Mocenigo (1523-1576), Pal-
ladio devised a villa of an unusual
type, organized round the void of the
porticoed courtyard. The source of
the motif is clearer in riba x/1v and is
related to the woodcut of the Villa of
Poggio Reale, which Sebastiano Serlio
had published in his Third Book
(Venice 1540, p. cli) (fig. 12.5).6 In the
present drawing the courtyard is
changed from a square to a rectangle,
and also remains as such in I Quattro
Libri woodcut. The idea of the curved
barchesse also seems to have arisen in
riba x/1v, where it is sketched rapidly
above a straight barchessa. In the
woodcut in I Quattro Libri the curved
barchesse are also found at the rear of
the house. The overall scheme shows a
striking formal affinity with the battle
array of a battalion illustrated in
Battista Della Valle’s Il Vallo, a treatise
on military formations which Palladio
had studied when pursuing his
interest in the ancient Roman militia
(fig. 12.2).7
We know the site for the villa thanks
to various maps, including one con-
temporary with the design stage,
reported by Puppi, Lewis and Burns 51
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:29 Pagina 52

(fig. 12.4).8 In the version of the layout

of the Villa Mocenigo recorded on the
present sheet, approaching the
building from the river, we encounter
two curved barchesse (‘like arms’,
Palladio was to write in the
accompanying text in I Quattro
Libri), and we enter the owner’s house
through a loggia with free-standing
columns. Palladio does not indicate
their diameter, but given that it is
visibly the same, if not less than the
columns of the barchesse and of the
courtyard, we can deduce that it is a
loggia with superimposed columns.
Proceeding along the main entrance
axis and beyond the courtyard, we
come to a large room almost 18 × 10
meters (50 × 30 piedi), with free-
standing columns supporting the
cross vault. By crossing it and going
down steps we reach what looks like a
farm yard, enclosed by barchesse. The
vaults of the sala evidently bear the
weight of the large salone on the upper
floor, which would be surprisingly
well within range of the sounds and
smells of the working farm area.9 On
this point, however, we note that the
woodcut in I Quattro Libri is decep-
tive, because if we wish to make the
elevation and the plan coincide, the
latter must be rotated by 180 degrees.
In this case the ground floor sala –
previously on the rear – would be-
come an entrance atrium, while the
salone, on the piano nobile above,
overlooks the river. Or Palladio may
have tourned the plan round simply
[12.4.]
to avoid contradicting the text
accompanying the illustration which
states that the stables are in the front
barchesse facing the river.
Both of the short sides of the farm-
house have a double order loggia,
12.4. Anonymous corresponding to that of the court-
Draftsman, Map yard. The loggias are bound by the
showing the site ends of the two blocks containing the
of Leonardo
Mocenigo’s property apartments, set parallel to the long
on which the villa side. As in the Villa Garzoni at
was to be built, Pontecasale, the loggias are thus an
c. 1550 (Venice, element of transition between the
Archivio di Stato,
Savi ed Esecutori residential areas, made up of three
alle Acque, Mappe, successive diaphragms (the columns
Brenta, rot. 44, [12.6.] of the loggia, the wall, the columns of
dis. 117) the courtyard) (figs 12.6 and 12.7).
12.5. Sebastiano Palladio learned from Sansovino how
Serlio, Plan and to achieve the effect of an imposing
elevation of Poggio solid volume that was basically
Reale (Terzo Libro,
Venice 1540, p. cli)
hollow. Lastly, we note that Palladio
does not draw any openings on the
12.6. Jacopo rear walls of the side loggias, which
Sansovino, Villa also appear to be uninterrupted in the
Garzoni,
Pontecasale, Padua
woodcut in I Quattro Libri. A possible
explanation for this may be that the
12.7. Plan of Villa two loggias provide access to the
Garzoni, upper floor, thus creating two in-
Pontecasale, Padua
(drawing by Simone
dependent residential areas for two
Baldissini, 2009) family units, or for the householder
[12.5.] [12.7.] and his guests.
The date of the drawing may be
linked to the design phase of the villa,
which Inigo Jones saw in built form
52 with the curved barchesse, albeit of a 53
[12.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010
smaller size than shown in the wood-
cut.10 An initial building campaign is
documented in 1554, but there is no
mention of Palladio. Leonardo’s
father, Alvise Mocenigo, died in 1557
and from September that year until
April 1559 Leonardo was in Vienna as
the ambassador of the Venetian
Republic. Shortly after his return in
January 1560, he began a new
building campaign in which the
masons were required to construct the
stone elements according to Palladio’s
designs.11 The present sheet may be
associated with this stage and can thus
be dated to the late 1550s.12
The antiquarian feel to this grandiose
villa for Leonardo Mocenigo is
highlighted by the peristyle, the
loggias with pediments, and the
curved barchesse. The uncovered
all’antica courtyard had few
precedents in the Veneto, apart from
the Villa Garzoni, the Villa della Torre
at Fumane or the original design for
the Villa dei Vescovi at Luvigliano;
the latter was the last residence of
Cardinal Francesco Pisani, the uncle
of Leonardo’s wife.13 Although func-
tional for farm production, the
antique-like connotations and the
great importance attributed to the
gardens (especially in riba x/1), make
the conception of the Villa Mocenigo
akin to the residences that Pietro
Bembo, Alvise Cornaro and Marco
Mantova Benavides had built in
Padua as the backdrop for life
all’antica and to house their col-
lections of art.14 Leonardo Mocenigo
owned a remarkable archaeological
collection, which included many
antique sculptures (he acquired a
group of eighteen pieces with life-size
heads and statues in Rome in 1570)
and a celebrated numismatic col-
lection, for which Palladio designed
an ebony cabinet resembling the Arch
of Constantine.15
1
Zorzi 1959, p. 103; Spielmann 1966, p.
177.
2
For the drawing on the verso, see Zorzi
1959, p. 95, fig. 225; Spielmann 1966, p.
158; Zorzi 1969, p. 92, fig. 453; Puppi 1974,
p. 292, fig. 158; Favaretto 1979, pp. 103-107,
fig. 63.
3
Burns 1982, pp. 73-80, especially p. 74.
4
H. Burns, ‘Restored section of the
Temple of Mars Ultor, Rome; twenty
alternative plans for modernising the
house of Camillo Volpe, Vicenza’, in
Beltramini, Burns 2008, cat. 147, pp. 307-
308.
5
Both authors also associate riba xvi/1 and
xvi/2 with the Villa Mocenigo, a sugges-
tion supported by Douglas Lewis but
recently called into question by Howard
Burns who, on the basis of considerations
about the dimensions and the site, suggests
that they are designs for the Villa Thiene at
Cicogna: Burns 1999, pp. 60-62; Burns
2005a, pp. 339-341.
6
Burns 1973, p. 144; H. Burns, ‘Project for
a villa for Leonardo Mocenigo on the
54 Brenta’, in Burns 1975, cat. 393, p. 223.
10:32 Pagina 54
7
Beltramini 2008, pp. 342-345 and
especially p. 345; Beltramini 2009a, pp. 12-
77 and especially p. 17.
8
Burns 1999, pp. 45-74, fig. 22. For other
maps see Lewis 1981, p. 126; Puppi 1990,
pp. 65-69.
9
Burns 1999, pp. 62-63.
10
‘This villa is otherwis ordered for I saww
yt, and yt is les, and as I remember hath
thes circular logges. I have summ nott of yt
in my Papars’: Inigo Jones on Palladio 1970,
i, p. 33.
11
On the history of the villa, see Puppi,
Battilotti 1999, pp. 359-361 and 473-474
(with bibliography).
12
This is Howard Burns’s suggestion for
riba x/1: Burns 2005, pp. 343-344; H.
Burns, ‘Sketch plan for the Villa Mocenigo
on the Brenta and its immediate surround-
ings’, in Beltramini, Burns 2008, cat. 126b,
pp. 249-251.
13
Sandrini 1993; Davis, Hemsoll 2005, pp.
288-291; Beltramini 2005a, pp. 275-277. In
1544 Leonardo Mocenigo married Marina
Capello di Zuanne, the niece of Francesco
Pisani: Borean 2008, p. 297.
14
Beltramini 2005, pp. 55-63.
15
Zorzi 1965, pp. 135 and 229; Zorzi 1969,
p. 90; Borean 2008, pp. 297-298.
Literature: Burger 1909, p. 120; Zorzi
1959, p. 103; Spielmann 1966, p. 177,
cat. 249; Zorzi 1969, p. 92; Burns
1973, p. 144; Puppi 1973, pp. 360-361;
Burns 1975, p. 223, cat. 393; Lewis
1981, pp. 126-128, cat. 73; Burns 1982,
p. 74; Burns 1999, pp. 62-63; Battilotti
1999, pp. 473-474; Lewis 2000, pp.
164-167, cat. 73.
guido beltramini
13.
andrea palladio
Idealized reconstruction of
the overall plan of the Temple
of Fortune, Palestrina,
perspective elevation
of an exedra, plan
of the semicircular stairway
and the crowning temple
structure; elevation
of the Mausoleum
of Augustus, Rome
c. 1570
Verso: plan of the porticoes
in the lower square
Pen and brown ink; red border
Size [complete sheet]: bottom side
563 mm; right side 423 mm; top side
561 mm; left side 421 mm [the
drawing occupies the right half
of the sheet]
Notes on the drawing: Talman mark
(T:49)
Unit of measurement: not visible
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, viii/11r
Imagine Palladio seated at his drawing
table with this sheet, still blank, in
front of him. The eventual second
thoughts and corrections on the
drawing suggest he was not about to
describe a project to anyone but that
he was alone with his own thoughts.
He begins to draw directly with the
pen without having made any guide
lines or axes of symmetry incised by
the stylus with the aid of the ruler or
compasses. This is one of the rare
surviving fanciful sketches that reveal
how Palladio dashed off an idea as it
came to mind and then developed it.
Burns, who has studied these kinds of
drawings thoroughly, stresses how for
Palladio a project is always something
mental, generated from the features –
today’s architects might say the
‘energy’ – of the site where the build-
ing is to stand and this process begins
from previous thoughts and solutions
already explored in the ancient
buildings or in other contexts.1
Here Palladio is elaborating an
alternative to his own reconstruction of
the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia at
the ancient Praeneste (Palestrina), an
astounding ‘architectural hill’ (Gros)
from the end of the second century bc.
Palladio saw it engulfed by subsequent
urban growth, as it was subsequently
also documented by old photographs
(fig. 13.1).2 Archaeological research has
demonstrated that what is strictly
speaking the area of the sanctuary of
Fortune begins with large rectilinear
convergent ramps, while the civic
forum starts from the lower terraces.3
In Palladio’s eyes, however, the com-
plex was a single structure, made up of
an impressive series of public squares,
arranged on terraces, laid out along a
central axis and connected by stairs
and ramps.4 Palladio visited Palestrina
in spring 1547 (at least according to
Marco Thiene)5 and he surely must
have made drawings on that occasion.
But there is no trace of any graphic
material from that time in the large
folder of sheets (Gros counts fourteen
of them) which around twenty years
later Palladio devoted to the re-
construction of the monumental
complex, also in the wake of Ligorio’s
studies.6
What we are looking at are Palladio’s 13.1. Temple
initial ideas for an alternative to the of Fortune,
reconstruction of the Palestrina Palestrina, Rome
complex, of which he had already
13.2. The
drawn a plan (riba ix/1) and elevations Mausoleum of
and sections. This version does not
Augustus, in Pirro
follow the archaeological situation Ligorio, Anteiquae
Urbis Imago, Rome
closely but never completely loses sight
1561
of it, while a good deal of room is given
over to invention. The lower forum 13.3. Andrea
becomes a large square divided into Palladio,
three sectors by long colonnades. An Reconstruction
of the Temple
enormous stairway, flanked by two of Fortune,
exedras, leads up to the second level Palestrina (London,
with the Temple of Fortune, from riba, British
which further terraces rise up to a Architectural
Library, ix/6, detail)
rectangular hemicycle at a tangent to a
cylindrical structure. We can grasp the
details of the structure more fully by
placing side by side two autograph
Palladian drawings (riba ix/7r and
ix/8), in which the initial idea has been
developed, proportioned with measure-
ments and explored in elevation (fig.
13.4). In this design the lower squares
are made longer, the exedras are split [13.1.] [13.2.]
into two hemicycle stairs and two large
‘theatres’ are set at the side of the
Temple of Fortune; at the top of the
ascent, Palladio has joined up the
forum, hemicycle and the cylindrical
structure, which is now surrounded by
four hexastyle porticoes.
In the present case, as usual,
Palladio began designing by drawing
the plan but continually checked out
the elevations. Proof of this is
provided by the lively sketch under
the exedra on the left: it shows the
exedra in three dimensions with three
orders of columns and a fourth level
of smooth masonry. This is one of a
handful of surviving autograph per-
spective sketches and is similar in
terms of its effectiveness and essential
pen work to a study of an ancient
Roman theatre, now in Westminster
Abbey Library.7
Just above the exedra, Palladio
draws the Mausoleum of Augustus in
Rome, with trees on the terraces, as
described by Strabo, and with two
obelisks in front, as it appears in Pirro
Ligorio’s reconstruction of ancient
Rome, printed in 1561 (fig. 13.2). In
the chapter on ‘obelisks and spires’ in
his book on the antiquities of Rome
(1554), Palladio includes the two
obelisks which once stood in front of 55
[13.3.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:35 Pagina 56

13.4. Recomposition the Mausoleum of Augustus (Ligorio

of the lower part recalls that they were mentioned by
(riba ix/7r) and
the upper part (riba Cassiodorus and Ammianus Marcelli-
ix/8) of the plan nus).8 Strabo and all the sixteenth-
of the Temple century reconstructions of the mauso-
of Fortune at leum – from the painted version by
Palestrina. On the
underlying sheet, Giulio Romano in the background of
the elevations of Constantine’s Vision in the Vatican to
the temple, which Giovanni Battista Montano’s draw-
originally had been ings – include a colossal statue of
above the plan
on riba ix/8, were Augustus set on the top of the
erased (digital building.9 Palladio, however, prefers
processing by to complete the building with a
Simone Baldissini, depressed dome surmounted by a
2010)
lantern, which is out of place with the
building type. Yet there can be no
doubt that the drawing is of the
Mausoleum of Augustus and, above
the right-hand obelisk, we can even
see the sphere that, according to
legend, contained Julius Caesar’s
ashes. But what is the significance of
this drawing of the mausoleum in the
overall context of the sheet, apart
from the paradoxical formal asson-
ance whereby the colonnaded terraces
tapering towards the top of the
mausoleum are the negative of the
temple exedra interior?
A possible answer may be found in
the sketch beneath the mausoleum,
generally interpreted as the plan of the
mausoleum.10 That the sketch is
effectively the plan of the mausoleum
is plausible but it is strange that
Palladio should have randomly drawn
the exedra below it. We may well
wonder if this is not a study idea for
the rotunda element crowning the
whole temple complex at a tangent
with the theatre exedra which at this
stage Palladio saw as being like the
Mausoleum of Augustus and which in
another sheet in this series (riba ix/6)
becomes a grandiose peripteral round
temple (fig. 13.3).
1
Burns 1982, pp. 73-80.
2
Gros 1996, p. 138.
3
Coarelli 1987, pp. 35-84; Coari 1989.
4
Gros 2008, cat. 185, pp. 366-368; Merz
2001, pp. 69-83.
5
See cat. 5.
6
Merz 2001, pp. 62-68.
7
H. Burns, ‘Studies of the Roman theatre
as described by Vitruvius and other
sketches’, in Beltramini, Burns 2008, cat.
127a/b, pp. 251-254.
8
Palladio (ed. Hart, Hicks) 2006, p. 51:
‘There used to be seven large “needles” in
Rome... there were two in the Mausoleum
of Augustus, of 42 feet – one was on the site
where San Rocco stands today. And there
was one, still standing today, behind the
church of Saint Peter which is 72 feet tall,
and in the top of it there are the mortal
remains of Julius Caesar’. On the
mausoleum and knowledge about it during
the Renaissance, see Riccomini 1996.
9
Riccomini 1996.
10
Zorzi 1959, p. 87.

Literature: Zorzi 1959, p. 87; Spiel-

mann 1966, p. 153, cat. 105; Merz
2001, p. 78.
56 guido beltramini 57
[13.4.] [13.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:36 Pagina 58

14.
palladio and the project: andrea palladio
study drawings Study for the façade
of a palace
First half of the 1540s
Verso: some black chalk sketches
(difficult to interpret): Doric
entablature with bucrania linked by
swags; a bucranium; a structure with
a triumphal arch or an altar with
a projecting column surmounted
by a statue and pediment with two
volutes; Talman mark (T:54)
Ruler and stylus, compasses, black
chalk (to guide the pattern of the
14.1. Francesco rustication) pen and black and
Ronzani and brown ink, brush and brown wash
Girolamo Luciolli,
Elevation of Palazzo Size: bottom side 262 mm; right side
Canossa, Verona, 388 mm; top side 261 mm; left side
by Sanmicheli 392 mm
(Le fabbriche civili Notes on the drawing: none
ecclesiastiche e
militari di Michele Unit of measurement: not visible
Sanmicheli, Venice History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
1832, pl. xvii) (John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
14.2. Courtyard of
Palazzo Te, Mantua, riba since 1894
by Giulio Romano London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xvii/6r
14.3. Marco Moro,
Palazzo da Porto,
Vicenza (Album [14.2.] After having put initial ideas to paper
di gemme
architettoniche, in rapid sketches, Palladio moved on
Venice 1847) – in sheets like this one – to a more
thorough preliminary study stage,
14.4. often working on several alternatives.
Superimposition
of cat. 14 on the Here we catch him in a private
survey of Palazzo moment, reflecting with pen in hand
da Porto by Palladio and constructing a scale drawing in
(drawing by Simone which he checks out measurements
Baldissini, 2010)
and proportions. Such drawings were
not yet meant to convince a patron.
But studying Palladio’s almost auto-
matic modes of representation and
conventions at this stage can be very
[14.1.] [14.3.] useful as we to try fathom his way of
thinking about and drawing archi-
tecture.
In this sheet, for example, Palladio
is exploring a very unusual façade for
a palazzo. The design focuses on two
different ways of handling the walls.
The lower story seems to be con-
structed by overlaying huge blocks of
rough hewn stone (actually probably
built using bricks); today we call this
kind of wall cladding ‘rustication’.
The piano nobile, on the other hand,
is as if constructed by assembling
well-dressed stone blocks (an effect
actually produced by scoring the
plaster) like those Palladio might have
seen on the walls of the cellae of
ancient temples. There is a striking
absence of engaged columns or pilas-
ters on the piano nobile, whose
‘nobility’ was usually endowed by an
architectural order. Here everything
hinges on the contrast between the
roughness of the ground floor and the
clear-cut lines of the piano nobile, and
this contrast would have been ac-
centuated in strong sunlight. This
explains why Palladio carefully dark-
58 ened the openings of the windows 59
[14.4.] [14.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010
with shade and also explored with
touches of wash the effect of the
projecting ground-floor sills and the
pediments on the piano nobile.
The sheet reveals how Palladio
built up his drawing by beginning
from a dense grid of construction
lines which he incised on the paper
with a stylus – a sharp instrument
usually made of ivory1 – which then
guided the pen.
Palladio constructed the overall
image from three deeply incised
vertical lines. Running the length of
the sheet from the lower to the upper
margin, they mark out the boundaries
of the building and the axes of the
two windows. The fact these three
lines continue beyond the margins of
the sheet suggest that, before starting,
Palladio set a drawing of the plan of
the building beside the blank sheet.
The plan then generated the guide
lines from which to construct the
elevation. As well as the three princi-
pal axes, there are also other incised
vertical lines defining the width of the
apertures. Perpendicular to these
vertical axes, Palladio incised a dense
set of horizontal lines establishing the
height of the bands of rustication.
These lines can be clearly seen in the
incomplete part of the drawing and in
the apertures for the ground-floor
windows. He did not, however, incise
construction lines for the verticals of
the rusticated blocks, which he
guided with black chalk: both kinds
of rustication are sketched freehand,
thus making the drawing particularly
vibrant and the effect is enhanced by
the gentle shading. We can be certain
that the shading was executed by
Palladio – and not added in later –
because in the brackets supporting the
pediments on the piano nobile the
wash showing the shade has been
touched up by the pen, inevitably
used later (if the pen work had been
done first the wash would have
dissolved the lines).
In short, this drawing tells us
several things about how Palladio
worked: he began by designing the
plan and then constructed the ele-
vations; he conceived the façade in an
orthogonal projection and not in a
perspective view, but was sensitive to
the effects of light and shade; and
although he constructed a grid of
reference lines, he had no hesitation
in drawing freehand within it, at least
in this kind of preliminary study in
which once he had checked out that
an idea worked, he felt no need to
complete the drawing.
But this sheet also tells us
something about his professional
development as an architect. As Burns
and Lewis have observed, this draw-
ing is a pastiche of motifs derived from
Giulio Romano and Michele San-
micheli. Thus, for example, San-
60 micheli’s Villa Soranza is an entirely
10:37 Pagina 60
rusticated building with no orders
and the lower part of Palladio’s
palazzo is very similar to that of
Sanmicheli’s Palazzo Canossa in
Verona, just as the pediments on the
piano nobile are a citation of those in
the courtyard of Giulio Romano’s
Palazzo Te, where we find the joint
presence of rough and smooth
rustication (figs 14.1 and 14.2).2 Here
Palladio is still clearly acquiring
knowledge and is highly receptive to
stimuli from the works of other
architects. He is not yet capable of
forging a wholly personal language of
his own – as he was to do in the
Palazzo Chiericati – even though
several elements are well laid down in
a balanced fashion and the rougher
edges have been smoothed out.
But which building was this draw-
ing for? From Zorzi on there had been
general agreement that the drawing
belonged to the projects for the Palazzo
Thiene. But then, in 1980, Burns
challenged this attribution by sug-
gesting it might be an initial project for
the palazzo of Iseppo Porto (fig. 14.3).
In 1542 the Vicentine nobleman had
married Lavinia Thiene, the sister of
Adriano and Marcantonio for whom
Giulio Romano designed a large
palazzo, later continued by Palladio.3
For Iseppo’s new residence, following
his marriage, the young Palladio
developed a language strongly influ-
enced by Giulio Romano in a building
that was to stand a few dozen meters
from the Palazzo Thiene. Burn’s
suggestion is persuasive, partly because
the drawing is for a much smaller area
than the site of the Palazzo Thiene.
When we compare this drawing with a
survey of the Palazzo da Porto (fig.
14.4), we find that the façades are
basically of the same breadth and the
heights of the sills and of the floor of
the piano nobile coincide. What is
radically different, however, is the
overall height of the building and the
organization of the façade according to
five axes in the drawing rather than the
seven axes in the executed building,
thus also creating differences in the
internal layouts.
Today we know that Palladio’s
commission for the Palazzo da Porto
was a long drawn-out affair because it
ground to a halt in 1545, when Iseppo
Porto was obliged to stay in Venice
pending a court case on a charge of
Lutheranism.4 The construction site
for the new palazzo could only be
opened around 1546 and the building
work was completed by 1552. More-
over, as Donata Battilotti has demon-
strated, the construction involved a
pre-existing building.5
We may surmise then that the
drawing can be situated at the begin-
ning of this decade-long story when
Palladio, at the height of his ‘eclectic’
period, designed a building that more
closely followed the pre-existing
structure with five axes and, therefore,
also with a more traditional internal
layout. When work began again after
Iseppo’s return to Vicenza, Palladio’s
experience on his visits to Rome had
deeply changed him from the man
who in documents for Palazzo Thiene
of 1542 was still humbly known as
‘Andrea son of Pietro, the stone-
cutter’.6 His initial design thus
evolved, although as Lewis points out,
all the surviving projects for the
Palazzo da Porto – even those from
the initial stage – show a façade with
seven bays.7
1
Vincenzo Scamozzi describes the
procedure for constructing lines with ‘the
point of an ivory stylus, or the point of a
small knife, or a non-pricking needle’; see
Introduction to this section (pp. 22-25).
2
Burns 1973, p. 148; Burns 1975, p. 232;
Burns 1980, p. 119; Lewis 1981, pp. 88-89;
Burns 1989, p. 505; Lewis 2000, pp. 115-116.
3
Zorzi 1965, p. 205; Puppi, Battilotti 1999,
pp. 252-254 and 450-451; Burns 1980, p.
119; Burns 1989, p. 505.
4
G. Beltramini, ‘Iseppo Porto (?).
Memorial with notes on the dates of birth
of his children’, in Beltramini, Burns 2008,
cat. 35, pp. 77-78, especially p. 78.
5
Battilotti 1981, pp. 40-44.
6
Barausse 2007, p. 166.
7
Lewis 2000, p. 116.
Literature: Zorzi 1954a, pp. 111-112;
Pane 1961, p. 165; Zorzi 1965, p. 205;
Burns 1973, p. 148; Burns 1975, p. 232,
cat. 412; Berger 1978, pp. 167-170;
Burns 1980, p. 119, cat. v.4; Lewis
1981, pp. 88-89, cat. 49; Burns 1989, p.
505; Lewis 2000, pp. 115-116, cat. 49.
guido beltramini
15.
andrea palladio
Study of a plan for a palace
with two courtyards
c. 1570
Verso: Talman mark (T:54)
Ruler and stylus, compasses, black
chalk, pen and black and brown ink,
brush and brown wash
Size: bottom side 285 mm; right side
267 mm; top side 285 mm; left side
269 mm
Notes on the drawing: only
measurements
Unit of measurement: piede; no scale
indicated
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xvi/10r
What immediately catches the eye in
this plan are the various broken lines
across it. What do they represent? If,
as it seems, they mark out the perim-
eters of urban lots, then we are
dealing with a rare document among
Palladio’s drawings in which he is
exploring the layout for a building
taking into account the pre-existing
properties in the area that he must
work on.
In any case this very fine plan is an
enigma. It shows a large palazzo with
a monumental façade around 117
piedi wide, i.e. approximately 40
metres.1 Paired pilasters delimit the
ends and the slightly projecting
central section of the façade, without
continuing along the sides of the
building. Before proceeding to
analyze the plan we must first agree
on how to interpret the conventional
modes of representation that Palladio
uses, such as the way the apertures are
drawn: he always draws the intradoses
set back, but in the case of the
windows he continues the line flush
with the walls. The fireplaces, on the
other hand, are drawn as rectangular
indents in the walls.
If we have interpreted the conven-
tions correctly, then the whole of the
ground floor is crossed, from façade to
rear, by a covered gallery over 128 piedi
long (around 45 m). The entrance is a
monumental atrium of the same size
as that of the Palazzo Barbarano, but
rotated by 90°. We then cross the
stunning three-nave space, which is a
citation of the aula regia, i.e. one of
the ‘basilicas’ of the Theatre of
Marcellus, of which Palladio made a
drawing (riba xiv/3v) (fig. 15.1).2
Powerful cross vaults support the sala
on the piano nobile, which is reached
by two double flights of oval stairs,
each double flight with 24 steps and 6
piedi wide. Isolated from the noise of
the street, the sala at the center of the
building is double the size of that in
the Palazzo Barbarano. Light enters
the sala on both sides thanks to two
courtyards, onto which the stairs and
two apartments on the façade side also
give. The only access to the apart-
ments is from the atrium – they are
thus basically independent units – and
each has a fireplace and service stair to
the piano nobile. On entering the
building from the rear, a hall leads to
two pairs of rooms; the larger ones
have fireplaces. Surprisingly, the left-
hand pair also has an entrance at the
side of the building.
This palazzo has imposing dimen-
sions, similar to those in the project for
the Palazzo Thiene published in I
Quattro Libri. In comparison, the
residential area is smaller and more
space is given over to the common
areas. It is difficult to explain the [15.]
presence of the grand (and costly) twin
stairs that both lead to the sala on the
piano nobile. Palladio ingeniously
designs abundant lighting in the rooms
and not only in the sala with its
windows on both sides; there are
several windows in the walls of the
other rooms and even on the stairs. 61
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:39 Pagina 62
15.1. Andrea The idea of moving the sala to the
Palladio, Sketches of center of the building, and providing
one of the ‘basilicas’
of the Theatre of lighting from one or two courtyards,
Marcellus (London, appears at least three times in auto-
riba, British graph Palladian drawings, although
Architectural never in such a monumental fashion.3
Library, xiv/3v,
detail) The drawing is particularly close to an
alternative plan for the Palazzo
15.2. Andrea Barbaran da Porto, dateable to the late
Palladio, Plans
1560s, and to my mind this drawing
of the palaces for
Orazio and can be dated to the same period.
Francesco Thiene But where was this building
on the Corso, located? And what are those irregular
Vicenza (London, broken lines across the drawing?
riba, British
Architectural Although there are some surviving
drawings of initial design stages
Library, xv/1)
involving dimensioning a building to
15.3. Sebastiano a site – as in the palazzo for Orazio
Serlio, Plan
of a palace on an and Francesco Thiene in the Corso in
irregular site (Libro Vicenza (fig. 15.2) – none is anything
Settimo, 1575, p. 145) like this. In the plate of the Palazzo
Trissino and the Palazzo Caldogno in
L’Idea della Architectura Universale,
Vincenzo Scamozzi superimposes on
[15.1.]
the plan the lines of the sloping sides
of the roof, but they are clearly
different from these broken lines. In
his Seventh Book, Sebastiano Serlio
draws a thin line to represent the
irregular shape of the lot, which the
project must rectify, but the line only
stands for a perimeter. The most
straightforward suggestion is that
Palladio’s broken lines indicate
‘Gothic’ urban lots (arguably more
easily legible in the left-hand area of
the drawing), which Palladio must take
into account, aligning or rectifying his
design.4 We must also bear in mind the
unusual shape of the layout. We can
only be certain that the top right-hand
corner adjoins another building and
possibly a stretch of wall of one or both
courtyards. But the rest of the building
stands alone, as revealed by the
apertures for the windows.
The configuration of the palazzo
and of the site make it difficult to
accept the identification of the draw-
ing as a project for the Palazzo da
Porto, as proposed by Lewis.5 On the
Corso in Vicenza there is a site
theoretically compatible with this
drawing, where in the eighteenth
century Ottone Calderari constructed
the Palazzo Loschi, which has no
[15.2.] adjoining buildings on three sides and
surprising similarities in the façade
and in the idea of the internal gallery.6
Yet a feature significantly absent on
riba xvi/10r are the stables. This
element would hardly be missing on a
mainland palace, unless it was a
public building.
We cannot rule the possibility that
the building may be located in Venice.
The ground line on the entrance
portal and the double line on the
façade walls (a cornice or a projecting
‘shoe base’) could be compatible with
a water entrance. The care taken over
the lighting of rooms is a feature of
Palladio’s projects for Venetian
62 palaces,7 but it would be hard to find
[15.3.]
a site in the lagoon city for a palace
standing almost entirely alone.
1
We can calculate a plausible width by
adding up the internal measurements for
the rooms recorded by Palladio on the
plan; for the breadth of the walls, we can
deduce the breadth of the internal wall of
the apartments in the façade by noting
that the largest room measures 32 piedi,
which corresponds to two smaller rooms of
18 and 12 piedi plus the dividing wall,
which thus measures 2 piedi. The external
walls appear slightly thicker and so we can
suggest they are 3 piedi thick.
2
Gros 2008a, pp. 215-217.
3
See the drawings on riba xvi/8 c (palazzo
for the Thiene: Burns 1979, pp. 127-128,
fig. 84), riba xvi/8 b (unidentified
palazzo), and riba xvi/14 a (Palazzo
Barbaran).
4
I should like to thank Deborah Howard
and Massimo Scolari, with whom I
discussed this possibility.
5
Lewis 2000, pp. 143-144. As Burns points
out, the width of the urban block on
which Palazzo da Porto stands is 55 meters
as opposed to the 42 meters on riba
xvi/10r, while the right-hand side of the
Palazzo da Porto adjoins the Gothic
Palazzo Porto Colleoni, thus making it
impossible to set any windows in the wall
(Burns 1979, p. 138, no. 44).
6
Barbieri, Beltramini 1999, pp. 88-92.
7
Beltramini, Piana, 2008, pp. 164-171.
Literature: Zorzi 1954a, p. 116; Zorzi
1965, pp. 32-33; Burns 1973, p. 147;
Lewis 1981, pp. 110-112, cat. 64 (as a
plan for Palazzo da Porto); Barbieri
1987, p. 73; Lewis 2000, pp. 143-144,
cat. 64.
guido beltramini
16.
andrea palladio
(with shading added
by Vincenzo Scamozzi)
Elevation of the courtyard
front of Palazzo Antonini,
Udine
c. 1565
Verso: Talman mark (T:150)
Ruler and stylus, pen and black ink,
brush and grey wash
Size: bottom side 189 mm; right side
254 mm; top side 188 mm; left side
252 mm
Notes on the drawing: none
Unit of measurement: not given;
no scale indicated
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xvii/25r
This sheet raises a number of puzzling
issues. The drawing has elements
typical of Palladio’s graphic style
alongside others which are far re-
moved from it. Some features are very 63
[16.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:41 Pagina 64
16.1. Andrea similar to a Palladian building from
Palladio, Palazzo the mid-1550s, while other elements of
Antonini, Udine,
street façade the vocabulary date to ten years later.
The drawing shows one half of an
16.2. Andrea elevation of a two-story building. At
Palladio, Plan and the center is a central loggia with five
elevation of Palazzo
Antonini, Udine intercolumniations in the Ionic and
(I Quattro Libri, Corinthian orders. Although it is
Bk ii, p. 5) impossible to say if the drawing is of a
façade or a rear front, it is certainly
16.3.
Superimposition very like the garden façades of two
of cat. 16 on the Palladian buildings, both from the
survey of the rear 1550s – the Villa Cornaro at Piombino
façade of Palazzo Dese (1552) and the Palazzo Antonini
Antonini (drawing
by Simone at Udine (1556) (fig. 16.1).
Baldissini, 2010) The drawing shares a number of
[16.1.] [16.2.] features with these buildings: the
16.4. Vincenzo
Scamozzi, project
types of order (but not the pulvinated
for the joint frieze of the Ionic and the simplified
between Sansovino’s base of the Corinthian); the number
Libreria and the of bays in the intercolumniations (the
Procuratie Nuove, central bay is wider); the bands
Venice (Florence,
Gabinetto Disegni which, from the three-dimensional
e Stampe degli projection of the entablatures, con-
Uffizi, 194 a, detail) tinue on the walls as abstract elem-
ents; and, only in the Palazzo
16.5. John Webb,
copy of riba Antonini, the rusticated treatment of
xvii/25r and of two the corner.1
other autograph If we superimpose the drawing on a
Palladian sheets
(now lost)
survey of the courtyard façade of the
concerning Palazzo Palazzo Antonini (fig. 16.3) – aligning
Antonini, Udine the height of the ground floor and the
(Oxford, Worcester floor of the first story – we find that
College, h&t 175 a)
the verticals basically coincide; exactly
as regards the Ionic order, but also for
the Corinthian, if we take into
account the fact that in the built
[16.3.]
palace the dado of the pedestal is set
directly on the floor, whereas in the
drawing Palladio adds a molding and
– to maintain what is clearly a pre-
established height – he eliminates a
torus and a scotia from the column
bases. The overall width and the
diameter of the columns coincide on
the horizontals, whereas the present
windows in the executed building are
the result of radical alterations in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
which also involved the roof being
raised. We can thus confidently say
that this is a drawing of the courtyard
façade of the Palazzo Antonini, thanks
to a comparison with a survey.2
Superimposing the drawing on a
survey of the Villa Cornaro, on the
other hand, revealed insurmountable
differences as regards the width and
the height of the ground floor above
ground level.
The drawing thus shows a
Palladian building also included in I
Quattro Libri (fig. 16.2). But is it an
autograph drawing? On closer
examination, the drawing un-
doubtedly reveals some uncertainties.
Thus, for example, the axes of the two
windows are not aligned, since the
upper one is slightly further left. This
can probably be explained by the fact
that on the ground floor the left-hand
wall is thicker than the right-hand
one and that Palladio, who began by
64 designing the plan, measured the axis
[16.4.]
of the window from the inner wall.
The exposed rusticated corner –
rather unusual in Palladio’s designs –
may have been devised to conceal the
variation in the breadth of the wall
and to make the window appear at the
center. On the upper floor, the
thinner wall, mentioned by Palladio
in I Quattro Libri,3 meant he had to
move the axis of the window to the
left, thus creating a bothersome
misalignment.
The pen drawing, however, shows
some typical features of Palladio’s
drafting style, such as the form of the
capitals (comparable to those of the
Palazzo da Porto; cat. 32) and his
characteristic ‘graphic shorthand’,
consisting of only drawing the initial
part of the moldings.4 What is
unusual about the drawing is the
small size of the sheet, the curled
profile of the upper window and,
most importantly, the use of the
brush instead of the pen in, for
example, the fasciae of the en-
tablature and the sloping sides of the
pediment. This kind of brushwork is
only very rarely found in Palladio’s
drawings. Lewis does not consider
the drawing to be Palladio’s and
tentatively suggests it may be a copy
by Inigo Jones of a Palladian
original.5 I am more inclined to see
the hand of Vincenzo Scamozzi, who
may have worked with the brush and
grey wash on a pen drawing by
Palladio. An autograph Scamozzi
drawing for the joint between the
Libreria Sansoviniana and the
Procuratie Nuove in Venice shows
exactly the same kind of use of the
brush on a pen drawing to apply
wash to the fasciae of the architrave,
the arches and the elements of the
triglyphs (fig. 16.4).6
It is impossible to say when
Scamozzi might have worked on this
sheet, nor can we suggest with any
certainty a date for when Palladio
made the underlying drawing. In all
of the loggias for buildings from the
1550s – the Palazzo Chiericati, the
Palazzo Antonini, the Villa Cornaro,
the Villa Pisani at Montagnana, and
the ancient Roman house in the
Vitruvius edition of 15567 – the
pedestal dado beneath the columns in
the upper order is set directly on the
floor. We know with certainty that
Palladio included a molding below
the pedestal in the second order in the
Loggias of the Palazzo della Ragione,
Vicenza, only in 1566, which involved
making a variation to the project
approved in 1564.8 But from the early
1560s Palladio began to set upper
columns directly on the floor with
balusters between the columns (e.g.
the courtyard of the Carità, the
drawings for the Rialto bridge and the
courtyard of the Palazzo Barbarano).
If this drawing was effectively part of
the design stage for the Palazzo
Antonini, and therefore dateable to
1556, as indicated by Donata Batti-
lotti,9 then it would be the earliest use
of this motif: the fact it does not
feature on the built palace, however,
still requires an explanation.
Fresh clues may be found on a
drawing by John Webb, now in
Worcester College, Oxford (fig. 16.5).10
Howard Burns has demonstrated how
the drawings by Inigo Jones’s pro-
fessional heir are a valuable source of
information about lost Palladian
originals. In fact Webb often redrew
and compared Palladio’s buildings,
copying them from I Quattro Libri or
Palladian drawings in his possession.
In the case of the Villa Barbaro at
Maser, a copy made by Webb has
preserved the image of a preliminary
Palladian drawing for the villa.11 Webb
also copied riba xvii/25r, but
significantly on a sheet with another
two sketches that undoubtedly show
alternative ideas for the Palazzo
Antonini, which can be ruled out as
being elaborations by Webb himself
(fig. 16.5).12
When dealing with the Palazzo
Antonini in I Quattro Libri (Bk ii, p.
4), Palladio says that the ground-floor
rooms are vaulted (unlike the actual
sala, which has a flat ceiling), as
shown in the two sections drafted by
Webb. If we allow that the two upper
drawings are of the street façade, the
principal difference with the con-
structed building is that they envisage
loggias on both floors with five or
three bays and an unusual idea for
closing the two end bays. The vari-
ations between the two drawings, on
the other hand, concern the presence
in the basement of vaults with arrow-
slit windows, and rustication, which
in one case is limited to only half the
façade.
The Palladian drawings copied by
Webb might have been made for I
Quattro Libri, in which city palaces
are often also illustrated in sections. It
is arguably more likely, however, that
they are alternative ideas dating from
the design stage of the palace, as
several elements suggest. Firstly, as in
the constructed building, there is no
molding beneath the pedestals for the
columns in the Corinthian order.
Moreover, on the right of the upper
drawing, Webb writes: ‘ye head of this
wyndow lyes not even with ye
Rustick’. This annotation is hardly
compatible with the drawings for I
Quattro Libri. Lastly, the measure-
ments indicated in the central
drawing are close but not identical to
those published in the treatise.13
The drawing on riba xvii/25r
could be part of a series with the first
two copied by Webb, as a third
alternative for the façade with the
rustication restricted to the corners.
But in that case it would be difficult
to explain the presence of the molding
beneath the pedestal dado, which
suggests a date of around the mid-
1560s, and therefore a decade after the
construction of the façade. On the
other hand, the drawing could hardly
have been made for I Quattro Libri,
which has no rear façades of build-
ings. It is possible then that it is a
design for the second stage of
construction concerning the rear
façade, which had been left in-
complete after the first campaign.
1
A comparison of the current courtyard
façade of the Palazzo Antonini is greatly
undermined by the radical alterations to
the building made from the late seven-
teenth century to the twentieth century.
See Asquini 1997, pp. 99-160.
2
Zorzi tentatively linked the drawing to
the Palazzo Antonini. See Zorzi 1965, p.
227 and Zorzi 1969, p. 183. His suggestion
was accepted in Puppi 1973, p. 307 and
then in Lewis 1981, pp. 164-165, and Lewis
2000, pp. 213-214, but only on the grounds
of impressions, also of the plate in I
Quattro Libri, which shows the opposite
front.
3
Palladio refers to the narrower walls in his
description of the Palazzo Antonini in I
Quattro Libri (Bk ii, p. 4): ‘The rooms
above have ceilings and are wider than
those below, according to the contractions
or diminutions of the walls’. Palladio (ed.
Tavernor, Schofield) 1997, p. 79.
4
Burns 1973, p. 135.
5
Lewis 2000, p. 213.
6
Beltramini 2003, pp. 53-57, especially p.
56; Hopkins 2003, p. 216; Scamozzi uses
the tip of the brush in the group of
drawings used to define the layout for the
pages of the L’Idea della Architettura
Universale. Cf. G. Beltramini, ‘Vincenzo
Scamozzi. Planimetria e prospetto di villa
Ferramosca a Barbano’, in Barbieri, Beltra-
mini 2003, cat. 1b, pp. 149-150. A
comparison of the Ionic capitals or the
profiles of the moldings on the two sheets
rules out the possibility that Scamozzi was
responsible for the pen drawing on the
riba sheet.
7
Vitruvio/Barbaro 1556, p. 177.
8
Burns 1991, p. 202 and note 87.
9
D. Battilotti, ‘Palazzo Antonini’, in
Puppi, Battilotti 1999, p. 477.
10
Keith 1925, pp. 94-108, especially pp. 102-
103; Harris, Tait, 1979, p. 73.
11
H. Burns, ‘John Webb, after Andrea
Palladio. Unexecuted project for Villa
Barbaro at Maser’, in Beltramini, Burns
2008, cat. 66, p. 123.
12
Tait 1979, pp. 59-62.
13
In general, the plan measurements
coincide (the central sala is 32 piedi, the
lateral room 17 piedi), whereas the heights
differ, albeit by much less than ten percent.
Literature: Lukomskij 1938, p. 24;
Dalla Pozza 1943, pp. 80-81; Dalla
Pozza 1943a, p. 251; Zorzi 1965, p. 227;
Zorzi 1969, p. 183; Puppi 1973, p. 307;
Pagello 1979, pp. 326-327; Lewis 1981,
pp. 164-165; Asquini 1997, p. 64;
Lewis 2000, pp. 213-214.
guido beltramini
65
[16.5.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:52 Pagina 66

17.
palladio and the project: andrea palladio
presentation drawings Elevation of a Doric order
palace façade
Half of the 1540s
Verso: Talman mark (T:54)
Ruler and stylus, compasses, pen
and brown ink
Size: bottom side 291 mm; right side
344 mm; top side 289 mm; left side
342 mm
Notes on the drawing: none
Unit of measurement: not given;
no scale indicated
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
17.1. Giangiorgio (John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Trissino, Façade Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
of Villa Trissino
at Cricoli, Vicenza riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
17.2. Andrea Library, xiii/10r
Palladio, Façade of
Palazzo Garzadori,
Vicenza This kind of sheet enables us to reflect
17.3. Michele on the differences between drawings
Sanmicheli, Palazzo made during the preliminary private
Pompei, Verona study phase of designing and those
produced to communicate the project
17.4. Ottavio
Bertotti Scamozzi, to the outside world and, especially, to
Elevation of Palazzo patrons. A presentation drawing is
Civena by Palladio recognizable as such on the grounds
(Le fabbriche e i of its refined graphic quality due to
disegni di Andrea
Palladio, Vicenza careful draftsmanship, well-laid out
1776-1783, pl. measurements when present, and the
xxxvi) use of shading to bring out chiaro-
[17.1.] [17.2.] scuro effects. It may also show the
17.5. Comparison
of sheets riba hand of a figurative artist who has
xvii/14r and cat. 17 drawn the ornamental elements, such
and the survey of as statues, bas-reliefs or stuccoes.
Palazzo Civena Palladio did not usually only present
(drawing
by Simone one drawing but would involve his
Baldissini, 2010) patrons in assessing several alter-
natives, at times found on the same
sheet.
In this case we have a drawing for a
palazzo with five bays. The base has
rusticated arches on which are set
fluted Doric half-columns on ped-
estals; each end of the façade is
[17.3.] [17.4.]
marked by a pair of half-columns.
The general scheme, and especially
the drafting of the lower rustication,
is very similar to that of the Palazzo
Caprini in Rome by Bramante. This is
also true of the smooth bands of the
string courses between the arches and
whole piano nobile. Palladio was very
familiar with the Roman palace and
he very likely owned the drawing of it
now kept among his sheets.1 Windows
with alternating triangular and curved
pediments are a Raphael-like motif
first introduced to the Veneto by
Falconetto, not in the Loggia
Cornaro, whose second floor was
added in the 1550s,2 but in the Monte
di Pietà in Padua (1532-1535);3 it was
also used by Giangiorgio Trissino in
the façade of his villa at Cricoli (fig.
17.1). The fluted Doric half-columns,
which have a capital with a rosette
necking, an echinus with an ovolo
molding and a single-torus base, seem [17.]
to have been inspired by the columns
66 [17.5.] in Michele Sanmicheli’s Palazzo 67
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010
Pompei in Verona, which Hemsoll
and Davies date to the second half of
the 1530s (fig. 17.3).3 As Burns has
observed, there is also a Vicentine
model for the columns in the portal of
the Palazzo Conti, built by
Sanmichelian circles and dating from
the early 1530s, while the curved
profile of the plinths on the pedestals
is borrowed from the Roman Arch of
the Leoni in Verona, which Palladio
had surveyed;4 Doric half-columns
also flank two high reliefs in
Bartolomeo Ammannati’s triumphal
arch in the courtyard of the Palazzo
Mantova Benavides in Padua.
It has been clearly established that
the drawing is autograph Palladian
and this is confirmed by the drafting
technique, as for example, in the
rustication, which is like that in cat.
14 and the typical shading, carefully
drawn with orthogonal cross-
hatching. The identity of the palace is
less certain.
Giangiorgio Zorzi includes this
drawing in the series of projects for
the Palazzo Civena, which Palladio
constructed for a wealthy family of
silk merchants. The building’s foun-
dation medal dated 1540 has survived
and the palace was probably com-
pleted by the end of 1546 (fig. 17.4).5
Agreeing with Cevese’s doubts, in
1973 Burns concluded that there were
no firm clues for identifying the
palace, although he did later have
some second thoughts.6 Lewis, on the
other hand, confidently suggested
that it was the Palazzo Civena, with-
out, however, adducing convincing
evidence.7
If we go back to the drawing, we do
find one element undoubtedly in
favor of the identification with the
Palazzo Civena: the porticoed
passageway. Yet on comparing the
drawing with a survey of the Palazzo
Civena and with a Palladian drawing
unanimously considered as being for
the latter (riba xvii/14r), we find – if
the span of the arches are kept equal –
a radical difference in the distance
between the top of the arches and the
string course at the height of the floor
of the first story (fig. 17.5). This
difference can only be explained by a
change in the type of vault for the
portico, which in the executed build-
ing has a barrel vault. Can this
difference be justified simply by the
fact that the present drawing was
from a preliminary stage in which
Palladio had endeavored to preserve as
far as possible the pre-existing struc-
tures? The opposite actually seems
more likely, i.e. that the building
preceded the drawing. The façade of
the executed building is basically two-
dimensional, as if cut out of a sheet of
paper: the stone blocks of the base are
‘drawn’ by incising the stucco, while
the pilasters with no entasis simply
68 look like projections from the walls.
10:52 Pagina 68
The drawing, on the other hand, has
a much greater consistency, with a
new strong plastic feel to the
rustication and to the fluted half-
columns with entasis, which we find
from the mid-1540s on in projects
such as the loggias for the Palazzo
della Ragione and the Palazzo da
Porto.
This sheet is interesting also
because there are reasons to believe
that the same hand drew both the
female figure between the half-
columns and the architecture. This
means we are dealing with one of
Palladio’s rare figurative drawings. In
fact he usually simply indicated the
statues with stylized figures, as in cat.
32, or called in artist friends to do the
work, as in cat. 25. Palladio inevitably
conceived of the sculptural element as
a bas-relief, since it is on a plane set
back from the pedestals of the half-
columns. Similar figures can be found
between the two Corinthian pilasters
of Trissino’s villa at Cricoli and on the
façade of the Palazzo Garzadori in
Vicenza, a little known Palladian
building (fig. 17.2).
1
H. Burns, ‘Anonymous Draftsman.
Corner view of Palazzo Caprini, Rome’, in
Beltramini, Burns 2008, cat. 37, p. 79.
2
Beltramini 2005b, pp. 270-272.
3
Davies, Hemsoll 2004, pp. 193-198.
4
H. Burns, ‘Progetto per la facciata di
palazzo Civena(?)’, in Palladio e Verona
1980, cat. v.2, p. 118.
5
Zorzi 1965, p. 184. On the Palazzo Civena,
see Battilotti 1999, pp. 447-448; Burns
2002, pp. 384-385.
6
Cevese 1964, part ii, pp. 344-345; Burns
1973, p. 146; H. Burns, ‘Project for a palace
façade’, in Burns 1975, cat. 408, p. 231.
7
Lewis 1981, pp. 26-28; Lewis 2000, pp. 39-
40.
Literature: Zorzi 1949, p. 101; Zorzi
1954a, p. 111; Pane 1961, pp. 100-101;
Cevese 1964, pp. 344-345; Forssman
1963, pp. 30-31; Zorzi 1965, p. 184;
Puppi 1973, pp. 244-245; Burns 1973,
p. 146; Burns 1975, p. 231, cat. 408;
Berger 1978, pp. 43-56 and 199-203;
Burns 1980, p. 118, cat. v.2; Lewis
1981, pp. 26-28, cat. 7; Lewis 2000,
pp. 39-40, cat. 7; Davies, Hemsoll
2004, pp. 193-198.
guido beltramini
18.
andrea palladio
(with shading added
by Vincenzo Scamozzi?)
Elevation of a Doric order
palace façade (Palazzo Poiana,
Vicenza?)
First half of the 1540s
Verso: Talman mark (T:54)
Ruler and stylus, compasses, pen
and black and brown ink, brush
and brown wash
Size: bottom side 319 mm; right side
278 mm; top side 315 mm; left side
278 mm
Notes on the drawing: none
Unit of measurement: piede. Scale
(under the portal on the right):
5 units = 27.5 mm
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xvii/11r
This drawing has traditionally been
attributed to Palladio so persuasively
that it was even used as a model to
build a genuinely ‘Palladian’ house in
eighteenth-century London. Yet it has
a number of peculiar features not
commonly found in the corpus of
Palladio’s drawings, not least the
unusually liberal use of wash. Even
the elements of the architectural
vocabulary are curious. The façade,
and especially the piano nobile, is
organized in various layers of depth:
the external layer of the pilasters, the
set back rusticated layer and the more
internal layer with the windows. This
compositional style takes us back to
Verona, and specifically to the terraces
of the Roman Theatre, surveyed by
Palladio (fig. 18.1), but actually used as
a model much earlier by Sanmicheli
in the façade of the Palazzo Bevi-
lacqua and in the country-facing front
of the Porta Palio. What is typically
Palladian, however, is the way the
entablature of the serliana runs all the
way along the façade to become the
trabeated cornice of the rusticated
piers and windows.
Given that the Doric pilasters have
no entasis, but are simply rectangular
projections from the walls, the
drawing may be dated to the mid-
1540s, since it is compatible with the
vocabulary of the ‘eclectic’ Palladio –
also characterized by some Sanmiche-
lian features – found in the projects
for the Loggias of the Basilica of
around 1546. Confirmation for this
dating comes from the presence of the
tabernacled windows on the ground
floor, which are similar to those in the
slightly later project for the Palazzo da
Porto (riba xvii/9r).1
The palace has five bays and the
central one is wider to accommodate
the larger entrance arch. Beneath the
entrance, to the right, there is a scale of
measurement with five subdivisions.
This is very probably a scale of five
piedi vicentini: by using it to measure
the palace, we obtain an overall width
of 55 piedi (19.60 m) and a height of
441/2 piedi (15.90 m); the width of the
central arch is 83/4 piedi (3.12 m). These
dimensions match those of the Palazzo
Poiana on the Corso, or the Strada
Grande, as Vicenza’s main
thoroughfare used to be called (fig.
18.2). We have no complete survey of
this palace as it stands today, but on
the basis of initial photogrammetric
measurements, the façade turns out to
be 20.10 meters wide and 15.40 meters
high, while the width of the central
arch is 3.40 meters.2
Although similar in terms of overall
size, the paper palace and the built
palace are very different, except for
the rusticated piers on the right-hand
side and the ratio of the pilasters, both
close to 1:8. The differences suggest
we must proceed very cautiously with
the identification, especially in the
absence of a thorough survey of the
Palazzo Poiana able to clarify a visibly
very complex building history, as
evidenced, even to the naked eye, by
the later addition of the balcony, the
raised central arch and probably also
the changes to the apertures in the
façade.3
Unlike the vast majority of
Palladio’s sheets, this drawing has
been almost completely shaded with
wash to highlight the various layers
and the contrasts in light and shade. A
similar effect can be found in a
drawing identified as a preparatory
work for the Palazzo da Porto (riba
xvii/12v) (fig. 18.3)4 in which the
whole surface of the wall beyond the
pilasters has been filled with grey
wash. On the same sheet, wash was
also applied to render the projecting
effect of the entablature, of which
Palladio had only marked the
beginning of the profiles. But to come
back to the present drawing, in
general, wash has been applied to
underscore all the projecting elem-
ents, while in the lower arches the
narrowing of the shade to the point of
becoming sickle-shaped is un-
precedented in Palladio’s drawings. A
closer look at the bases and capital
reveals that in those on the right-hand
side of the façade, the profiles, for
which Palladio only indicates the
beginning with the pen, have been
completed with the brush, and the
same is true of the lines marking out
the rusticated ashlars in the right-
hand windows (fig. 18.4). As in the
case of cat. 16, this may have been due
to Vincenzo Scamozzi intervening on [18.]
the autograph Palladian original.
In 1723 this drawing was used by
Lord Burlington as a model for the
house of General George Wade at
number 29, Old Burlington Street, 69
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 10:56 Pagina 70
18.1. Andrea which was demolished in 1935.5 The
Palladio, Survey design was illustrated in the third
of the terraces of
the Roman Theatre, volume (pl. 10) of Colen Campbell’s
Verona (London, Vitruvius Britannicus (1725) and this
riba, British was probably the source of a further
Architectural version built at Trinity College,
Library, xii/22v)
Dublin, by an unknown architect in
18.2. Andrea the 1730s.
Palladio, Palazzo
Pojana on the 1
G. Beltramini, ‘Presentation drawing
Corso, Vicenza with alternatives for the elevation of
(image by Fabrizio
I. Apollonio, 2010) Palazzo Porto’, in Beltramini, Burns 2008,
cat. 34a, pp. 76-77.
2
18.3. Andrea The photogrammetric survey was
conducted by Fabrizio I. Apollonio, in
Palladio, Project
for the façade of collaboration with Salvatore Corso, Aldo
Palazzo da Porto, Rossi Faculty of Architecture, Cesena,
Vicenza (London, University of Bologna.
riba, British 3
In 1561 Vincenzo Poiana, who lived in the
Architectural [18.1.]
Library, xvii/12v) left-hand part of the current palazzo,
acquired a lot of the same size on the other
18.4. Cat. 18, details side of a narrow lane, and applied for
permission to join up the two parts of the
house with a piano nobile by means of an
arch eighteen piedi high. Baldarini 1779, ii,
pp. 67-68; Dalla Pozza 1943, pp. 164-169;
Zorzi 1965, p. 297; Battilotti 1980, p. 61;
Barbieri 1987, pp. 96-97; Zaupa 1990, p.
207; Puppi, Battilotti 1999, pp. 336-338 and
487; G. Beltramini, ‘Palazzo Poiana’, in
Andrea Palladio 2000, pp. 20-21.
4
H. Burns, ‘Andrea Palladio, Project for
the lower level of the façade of the Palazzo
Porto, Vicenza, 1542-45’, in Palladio and
Northern Europe 1999, cat. 2, pp. 57-58;
Lewis 2000, pp. 145-147.
5
Keith 1925, pp. 100-101; Wittkower 1974,
p. 247 and note 45 in the Italian edition
(Turin 1984); Harris 1981, p. 73; C.
Anderson, ‘Henry Flitcroft, General
Wade’s House, elevation of court façade,
1723’, in Palladio and Northern Europe
[18.2.] 1999, cat. 35, p. 143.
Literature: Keith 1925, pp. 100-101;
Dalla Pozza 1942, pp. 131-132, fig. 6;
Zorzi 1954a, pp. 110-111, fig. 5; Puppi
1973, p. 249 (as Palazzo da Monte); L.
Fairbairn, in Burns 1975, cat. 411, p.
232; Harris 1981, p. 73.
guido beltramini
19.
andrea palladio
Design for Villa Pisani
at Bagnolo and its
surroundings: plan
[18.3.] c. 1542
Verso: Talman mark (T:54)
Ruler and stylus, compasses, black
chalk, pen and blackish ink, brush
and brown wash
Size: bottom side 252 mm; right side
383 mm; top side 253 mm; left side
380 mm
Notes on the drawing: [from top
to bottom in epsilon handwriting]
‘pertege’ [3 times]; ‘cusina’; ‘fiume’
Units of measurement: piede vicentino
(= 0.357 m), pertica vicentina
(= 6 piedi); no scale visible
[18.4.]
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
70 Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xvi/7r
On this sheet Palladio has carefully
drafted a plan for a villa complex to be
presented to the brothers Vettore,
Marco and Daniele Pisani for their
property at Bagnolo, a farming town
to the south-west of Vicenza. Over-
looking the river, the house is joined
to an almost square farmyard measur-
ing 77 × 74 meters (1 pertica = 6 piedi;
1 piede vicentino = 0.357 m). On the
right-hand (north) side the house is
closed by a barchessa with 21 cassi (a
Venetian term for bays), for which
Palladio indicates 20 columns and the
perimeter walls of the two large rooms
to the rear, probably meant to house
stables and cellars; on the left (south
side), there is a corresponding portico
of the same length to be used as a
shelter for farm equipment and carts.
Palladio carefully studied the logistics
of the complex. Openings at the ends
of the porticoes allow movement from
one area to another in the complex,
and the central bays are wider to
facilitate the access for carts (as well as
reinforce the symmetrical axes).
Although the owner’s house is clearly
separate from the farm production
part of the complex, the symmetrical
axes make them visually communi-
cating parts of an integrated whole:
the loggia with three arches on piers –
its interior is a sophisticated rect-
angular room with two large apses –
dialogues with the projecting block
providing access to the villa from the
courtyard. As Burns has pointed out,
this is one of the earliest surviving
drawings in which Palladio puts on
paper his idea of the villa as an
integrated complex combining residen-
tial and production areas, informed
more by architectural criteria rather
than functional logic.1 One discordant
note in the refined overall symmetry is
introduced by the room to be used as
a kitchen on the right of the villa. Its
position may possibly be due to a pre-
existing structure or a specific request
made by the patron.2
In the drawing Palladio presents his
ideas very clearly: he has even drawn
waves to represent water, with the
word fiume (river) added below, and
seems to be anticipating a question
from the patron by noting that the
house is 16 piedi from the river bank
(just less than 6 m). He also indicates
that the building on the right of the
house is the kitchen (cucina) and has
taken care over the aesthetic aspect of
the drawing, since it is accurately in
scale. Only the principal measure-
ments are indicated, well laid out at
the center of the relevant rooms. He is
always painstakingly accurate, how-
ever, since when there is a risk of
ambiguity in the measurements, as in
the large courtyard, two small arrows 71
[19.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 11:00 Pagina 72
19.1. Andrea appear to indicate exactly the dis-
Palladio, Plan
of Villa Pisani at
tances being measured.
Bagnolo (London, As well as the handwriting of the
riba, British notes, the draftsmanship and graphic
Architectural technique attest to the fact the
Library, xvii/18r) drawing is autograph Palladian. The
19.2. Ottavio plan is carefully constructed with lines
Bertotti Scamozzi, incised by the stylus, later worked
Plan of Villa
over again with ink. The ruler and
Trissino at Cricoli,
compasses guide the hand. Only the
Vicenza (Le
fabbriche e i disegni internal stairs and those at the sides of
di Andrea Palladio, the projecting pronaos, or the oven
Vicenza 1776,
for the kitchen (and obviously also
pl. xxxviii)
the waves of the river) are drawn
19.3. Sebastiano freehand. On closer examination of
Serlio, Elevation the sheet, however, we find some
of the exedra of the
black-chalk marks: at times they
upper courtyard of
guide the ink lines, but more often
Donato Bramante’s
Belvedere, Rome indicate possible alternative ideas: two
(Terzo Libro, Venice niches on the interior wall of the
1540, p. cxlvii)
projecting pronaos, or two windows
in the rear wall of the loggia in the
19.4. Sebastiano
Serlio, Plan of the courtyard and an idea for a door in
entrance loggia the large left-hand niche of the latter.
of Villa Madama,
Palladio clearly continued to reflect
Rome (Terzo Libro,
Venice 1540,
on and perfect his design.
p. cxlviii) The great care taken over this plan
can be explained by the fact that it
was a presentation drawing for the
Pisani brothers, who belonged to the
wealthy Venetian nobility. Their
patronage would mean a project on a
grander scale than those for Palladio’s
previous Vicentine patrons.3 The
brothers’ father, Giovanni, had ac-
quired the property at Bagnolo in
1523, together with the old farmhouse
which had been destroyed during the
[19.1.]
War of the League of Cambrai (1509-
1517). Given that in a tax declaration
of 1545, Vettor Pisani mentions ‘a
palazzo at Bagnolo, newly built’,
scholars agree in dating the drawings
for it to around 1542.4
The history of the attribution of
this sheet to the design of Villa Pisani
at Bagnolo begins with Fritz Burger,
who associated it with two other
drawings certainly for the Villa Pisani
(riba xvii/18r and xvii/17) (fig. 19.1).5
Antonio Dalla Pozza then added to
these the sketch plan on sheet
xvii/2v,6 while more recently Howard
Burns also included xvi/19c in the
group.7 The reconstruction of this
[19.2.] ‘folder’ of drawings is a very rare case
for surviving Palladian material. It
enables us to follow Palladio as he
sketches and elaborates alternative
ideas, possibly even simultaneously,
according to his usual working
method.8 If the date for the drawings
of around 1542 is correct, then they
were made just after his first visit to
Rome, which probably took place in
summer 1541. His enthusiasm for
modern and ancient Rome inspired
an eclectic series of projects com-
bining ideas derived from the build-
ings of Bramante, Raphael and
Antonio da Sangallo as well as from
ancient monuments. In this drawing,
the sequence of three rooms with
72 harmoniously proportioned relation-
[19.3.] [19.4.]
ships (18 × 30, 18 × 18 and 18 × 12
piedi) is derived from his experience
in the Villa Trissino at Cricoli (fig.
19.2), although he introduces the
novelty of rotating the axis of the
largest room by 90 degrees. The
circular loggia with central stairs, half
concave and half convex, is probably
modeled on Bramante’s idea for the
Cortile del Belvedere in Rome and
Serlio’s contemporary research on the
subject (fig. 19.3). The block pro-
jecting from the façade onto the
courtyard has a cross vault borrowed
from the Roman baths with serliana
openings, while the system of side
stairs is derived from the ancient
temple at the source of the Clitum-
nus, near Spoleto. Also derived from
the Roman baths is the imposing
rectangular room with two large
niches in the rear wall of the court-
yard which, as Boucher points out,
may have been inspired by Serlio’s
engraving for the Villa Madama (fig.
19.4) (a model for the façade of the
Villa Trissino at Cricoli). At a later
design stage and in the built villa a
similar element was to replace the
exedra in the front overlooking the
river.9
1
Burns 1999, pp. 45-74, especially pp. 49-
50.
2
In I Quattro Libri, on commenting the
plate of the Palazzo Antonini, in which the
kitchen is also in an asymmetric position
beside the main block, Palladio remarks:
‘The kitchen is outside the house but is
still very convenient’ (Bk ii, p. 4).
3
Puppi, Battilotti 1999, p. 451; Burns 2008,
pp. 64-69.
4
Burns 2008, p. 69.
5
Burger 1909, pp. 40-47.
6
Dalla Pozza 1964-1965, pp. 203-216.
7
Burns 1999, p. 50.
8
H. Burns, ‘Andrea Palladio. Progetto in
pianta e alzato di villa Pisani a Bagnolo’, in
Palladio e la villa veneta 2005, cat. 61a, pp.
298-299.
9
B. Boucher, ‘Project for the Villa Pisani at
Bagnolo’, in Burns 1975, cat. 329, p. 187.
Literature: Burger 1909, p. 45; Zorzi
1954, p. 64; Pane 1961, pp. 106-107;
Dalla Pozza 1964-1965, pp. 212-213;
Zorzi 1969, p. 42; Forssman 1963, pp.
149-151; Barbieri 1970, pp. 70-72;
Burns 1973, p. 147; B. Boucher, in
Burns 1975, p. 187, cat. 329; Lewis
1981, pp. 83-85, cat. 47; Lewis 2000,
pp. 109-112, cat. 47; Beltramini 1997,
pp. 78-82; H. Burns, in Palladio e la
villa veneta 2005, pp. 298-299.
guido beltramini
20.
andrea palladio
Design for Villa Pisani
at Bagnolo:
plan and elevation
c. 1542
Verso: Talman mark (T:54); elements
of a partial plan
Ruler and stylus, compasses, pen
and brown ink (blackish?), brush
and sepia wash
Size: bottom side 234 mm; right side
381 mm; top side 234 mm; left side
381 mm
Notes on the drawing: various
measurements
Unit of measurement: piede vicentino;
no scale indicated
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xvii/1r
Everything on this sheet suggests that
we are dealing with a drawing from
Palladio’s early period: i.e. the drafting
technique, typical of the early 1540s,
the vocabulary, such as the serliana
with the indented archivolt, and the
way of juxtaposing the plan and the
elevation. Yet this drawing looks to
the future since it anticipates some of
the buildings constructed twenty
years later by Palladio or some works
by Vincenzo Scamozzi, such as the
Villa Molin alla Mandria (1597).
While a large portal provides access
to the basement of the villa, pre-
sumably to be used for service rooms,
two flights of stairs lead up to a
biapsidal loggia, which is identical to
the one we saw in the previous Villa
Pisani designs (cat. 19). The loggia
provides access to a large cross-vaulted
room, lit from above by four thermal
windows. Again, we find this idea in
the built Villa Pisani, in which,
however – given that the sala is sunk
into the building – three of the
thermal windows are blind and to
open the fourth one, a wing is created,
thus giving the room a T-shape (figs
20.1 and 20.2). The layout is very
severe, to the detriment of a more
flexible internal distribution of the
rooms and passages. Palladio studied
various square-plan villas, such as the
Villa Valmarana at Vigardolo (riba
xvii/2r) and a square plan is also
found in some preliminary drawings
for the Villa Pisani, in which, however,
a central axis is clearly legible with two
suites of rooms on either side. In this
drawing, on the other hand, the center
of gravity of the building is the square
sala, with the minor rooms arranged
symmetrically round it.
In his research here Palladio is
clearly engaging in a dialogue with
Sebastiano Serlio’s studies on villas.
The layout of the ‘second house
outside the city’ published in Serlio’s 20.1. Plan of Villa
Pisani at Bagnolo
Seventh Book, provides if not the
(drawing by Simone
actual starting point at least a Baldissini, 2008)
travelling companion for Palladio’s
explorations (fig. 20.3).1 We know that 20.2. Sala of Villa
the Seventh Book was published Pisani at Bagnolo
posthumously in Frankfurt in 1575, 20.3. Sebastiano
but as Günther points out, Palladio Serlio, Plan and
elevation of the
had access to Serlio’s manuscripts
‘Second house
when the Bolognese architect stayed
outside the city’
in the Veneto from 1528 to 1542.2 In (Libro Settimo,
1534-1535 Giovanni Maria Falconetto Frankfurt 1575, p. 5)
and Alvise Cornaro designed a villa
[20.1.] [20.2.] 20.4. Andrea
for Cardinal Francesco Pisani at
Palladio, Plan of
Luvigliano with a square plan and, at Villa Pisani at
the center, a hanging courtyard to Bagnolo (London,
riba, British
function as an impluvium.3 Giulio
Architectural
Romano, who was summoned by
Library, xvi/19c)
Pisani to restructure the villa in 1542,
designed another villa, never built,
with a square central room, lit from
above.4 The source for all these
designs can be traced back to studies
by Giuliano da Sangallo and
Francesco di Giorgio Martini, which
were also re-elaborated by Raphael,
Peruzzi and Antonio da Sangallo.5
While the functional requirements
for the rooms and the passages break
up the plan of Serlio’s ‘second house’,
the building designed by Palladio is
informed by an elementary, rigorous
logic, influenced by ancient Roman
architecture and especially the rooms
in Roman baths. James Ackerman was
the first to stress the absolute novelty
of the bare, terse façade. He remarks
that it reflects Palladio’s knowledge of
the ‘stripped style of antiquity’, found
for example, on the exterior of the
Pantheon. Palladio could only have
discovered this from first-hand
experience, unlike his knowledge of
ornamental detail, which he could
acquire by studying other architects’
sketchbooks.6 Ackerman’s observation
is confirmed by considering the
change from the earlier austere
‘Veneto dialect’ of the Villa Godi at
Lonedo (1538) or the diametrically
opposed façade of the Palazzo Civena
in Vicenza (1540), in which the
antique sources are second-hand –
taken from Falconetto’s buildings –
and this comes through in the façade, [20.3.]
which has no plastic depth.
In 1999 Burns suggested that riba
xvi/19c should be related to the series
of designs for the Villa Pisani at
Bagnolo (fig. 20.4). By assigning a
diameter of 2 piedi to the columns in
the rear loggia, we obtain plausible
overall measurements for the build-
ing: 16 × 30 piedi for the larger rooms
and 32 piedi for the octagonal sala.
The width of the site indicated on the
drawing matches that shown on the
other drawings for the project (cat. 19)
and the water access is only compat-
ible with the site for this villa, at least
as far as our current state of know-
ledge of the surviving projects is
concerned.7
When comparing the present 73
[20.4.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 11:00 Pagina 74
drawing with the drawing for the
Villa Pisani on riba xvi/19c, we
notice that the affinities are so strong
that it is hard to believe it is not a
project for the same site.8 This theory
is further corroborated by the
similarities with the Villa Pisani as
constructed. If anything, what is still
uncertain is the purpose of the draw-
ing. It has already been observed that
the mode of representation in the
drawings of the 1540s, with the plan
and elevation juxtaposed, suggests
that Palladio began work on the
publication of his buildings very early
on.9 Rather than a presentation
drawing, this sheet may have been
part of an initial group of materials
prepared for the purposes of publi-
cation.
1
Serlio 1575, p. 5.
2
Günther 1981, pp. 42-94.
3
Beltramini 2005a, pp. 275-277.
4
Davies, Hemsoll 1989, pp. 517-517. In a
design of a square-plan villa, now in the
Codex Chlumczansky (fol. 2), the follow-
ing words are inscribed in the square
central sala: ‘a higher sala obtains light
from above the other rooms’.
5
Bierman 1986, no. 3, pp. 493-535; Tafuri
1994, pp. 404-406; Frommel 2005, pp. 12-
29.
6
Ackerman 2009, p. 43.
7
Burns 1999, pp. 45-74, especially p. 50.
8
Lewis also made this association but
ultimately deemed riba xvii/1 to be a
project for the Villa Valmarana at Vigar-
dolo; Lewis 2000, pp. 103-104.
9
Magagnato 1980, pp. xi-lxviii; Puppi
1999, pp. 519-523; Burns 2008c, pp. 328-
331.
Literature: Burger 1909, p. 57;
Lukomskij 1938, p. 24; Zorzi 1954, pp.
61-62; Pane 1961, pp. 108-109; Forss-
man 1963, p. 28; Ackerman 1966, p.
43; Zorzi 1969, pp. 41-42; Burns 1973,
p. 148; Puppi 1973, p. 247; L. Fair-
bairn, in Burns 1975, p. 182, cat. 322;
Berger 1978, pp. 64, 79-84; Lewis
1981, pp. 77-78, cat. 43; Frommel
1990, p. 151; Boucher 1998, pp. 74-75;
Lewis 2000, pp. 102-104, cat. 43.
guido beltramini
21.
andrea palladio
Plan and elevation of a villa
for two brothers (Villa
Contarini at Piazzola?)
c. 1546
Verso: upper sheet, Talman mark
(T:150); lower sheet, Talman mark
(T:150), plan of the front of a loggia
with six columns and two piers at
each end
Ruler and stylus, compasses, black
chalk, pen and brown ink, brush
and sepia wash; red border added
after the sheets were pasted together
74 Size: [whole sheet] bottom side 281
[20.]
mm; right side 316 mm; top side 281
mm; left side 316 mm; [upper sheet]
bottom side 280 mm; right side 137
mm; top side 281 mm; left side 136
mm
Notes on the drawing: [epsilon
handwriting] ‘piedi’ [twice]
Unit of measurement: piede vicentino;
no scale indicated
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xvii/15r
21.1. Nymphaeum,
Today the plan and section of this Genazzano (Rome)
villa appear on one sheet made by
pasting two sheets together, one above 21.2. Andrea
Palladio with later
the other. The drawings were origin- transformations,
ally, however, actually on a single Villa Contarini,
sheet. We can deduce this from the Piazzola sul Brenta,
guide lines incised by the stylus which Padua
run from one of the pasted sheets
onto the other. We do not know when
they were divided, but as we know
Lord Burlington added red borders to
many of his drawings when they were
bound into albums and this drawing
has a red border, they must have been
reunited by the 1720s.1
This is clearly a presentation
drawing. The plan and elevation are
shown together according to the [21.1.]
method of representing architecture
used by Antonio da Sangallo, whom
Palladio may have met during his
trips to Rome.2 Since the drawing had
to persuade a patron, the measure-
ments are well laid out so as not to
detract from its graphic quality. The
various forms of the vaults in the
rooms are indicated (cross, pavilion
and lunette), and wash highlights the
breadth of the walls in the plan.
Palladio began to design the plan with
incised lines and black chalk marks to
guide (or correct) the pen work: he
initially set two niches in the façade
but then erased them after realizing
that they weakened the central axis.
Burns has recently stressed how the
project was originally inspired by the
baths complexes of Diocletian and of
Caracalla not only for the variety of
rooms and the system of vaults, but also [21.2.]
for the façade with its broken pedi-
ments and serliana openings. Included
by Palladio in his reconstruction of the
Baths of Diocletian (cat. 34), the
serliana openings reflect his knowledge
of the projects and buildings of Bra-
mante and his circle, such as the
‘nymphaeum’ at Genazzano (fig. 21.1),
or the choir in St. Peter’s.3 Both Burns
and Ackerman thus date the drawing to
the early 1540s.4
What remains to be solved, however,
are the precise circumstances in which
the project was conceived. In 1973
Burns had already stressed that the villa
was designed with twin apartments and
thus put forward the idea that the
patrons might have been two brothers.5 75
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 11:05 Pagina 76
21.3. In fact the stairs aligned with the lateral
Superimposition serliana openings suggest that they were
of the villa plan
(cat. 21) on accessed from the twin square-plan sale,
and that the large central loggia was a
Francesco Muttoni’s
1760 survey common space for the two brothers.
(drawing by Marco On the basis of this idea and because of
Gaiani, 2010)
affinities with the drawing on riba
21.4. xvii/2r, Lewis thought it might be a
Superimposition project for the house of the cousins
of the villa elevation Giuseppe and Antonio Valmarana at
(cat. 21) on
Francesco Muttoni’s Vigardolo, despite very different
1760 survey dimensions and without taking into
(drawing by Marco account the fact that in the drawing,
Gaiani, 2010)
the villa is raised on a base around six
21.5. Girolamo piedi high, creating a kind of front
Rigetti, Contarini ‘terrace’, reached by two stairways.
property at Piazzola None of these elements can be found at
sul Brenta, detail Vigardolo.6 Burns suggests that it may
of the villa, 1556
(Piazzola sul Brenta, be the Villa Thiene at Quinto, on the
Archivio Contarini grounds of similarities with the taste of
Camerini, cart. 335, the two rich brothers who also commis-
c.n. 73, fol. 69) sioned Palladio to design the family
palazzo in Vicenza, although the
dimensions are not exactly the same.7
There is, however, another built
Palladian villa with a terrace about 6
piedi high at the front and designed
for several brothers: the villa at
[21.3.] Piazzola sul Brenta (fig. 21.2), con-
structed for the sons of Zaccaria
Contarini of the ‘dagli Scrigni’
branch.8 The present-day villa is the
result of seventeenth-century alter-
ations, but we know that in the 1540s
work had begun on a new residence
on the family estate at Piazzola.
Donata Battilotti has suggested the
first campaign began with the con-
struction of the terrace (the date 1546
is carved on it). Work was then
interrupted and only began again in
the mid-1550s with the construction
[21.4.]
of the walls of the building (shown on
a map of 1556), while the final
finishing work continued until the
early 1560s.9 The few documents
mentioning the construction site refer
to Paolo Contarini ‘et fratrum’
without adding anything more.10
Paolo Contarini is known to have had
a twin called Pietro, who became
Bishop of Paphos (Cyprus) while a
third brother, Filippo is documented
as having died in 1562.11
By comparing riba xvii/15 with a
survey of the villa at Piazzola
conducted by Muttoni and published
in 1760, we find a striking cor-
respondence between the dimensions
both in width and depth and in the
layout of the interior walls (fig. 21.3). A
comparison of the façades is equally
significant (fig. 21.4).12 In the 1556 map
[21.5.] we can clearly see the terrace and two
apertures on the side towers, which are
similar to serliana openings (fig. 21.5).
The drawing may thus have been
made for the initial campaign in the
mid-1540s, which is compatible with
the date of the drawing, but the
project was subsequently modified.
1
Sicca 2009.
76 2
H. Burns, ‘Andrea Palladio. Plan and
elevation for Villa Valmarana at Vigar-
dolo’, in Beltramini, Burns 2008, cat. 19, p.
49.
3
H. Burns, ‘Andrea Palladio. Plan and
elevation of a villa for two brothers’, in
Palladio and Northern Europe 1999, cat. 1,
pp. 56-57.
4
Ackerman 2009, pp. 42-43. Lewis is of a
different opinion. He dates the villa to
before Palladio’s trip to Rome in 1539-1541
(Lewis 1981, p. 72, and Lewis 2000, p. 98),
possibly to associate it with the Vigardolo
project: but in fact the date for the latter
project should be brought forward to the
early 1540s (G. Beltramini, ‘Villa Valma-
rana a Vigardolo’, in Le ville 1997).
5
Burns 1973, p. 149.
6
The façade is around 89 piedi wide and 55
piedi deep; the Villa Valmarana is 72 × 66
piedi.
7
The villa in the drawing is the same
depth, but is around 20 piedi narrower
than the Villa Thiene.
8
Zaccaria Contarini, son of Francesco
(1452-1513), was a wealthy and very able
Venetian diplomat; he appears to have had
ten children with Alba Donà dalle Rose,
daughter of Antonio: Gullino 1983a, pp.
325-328.
9
D. Battilotti, ‘Villa Contarini-Camerini’,
in Puppi, Battilotti 1999, pp. 454-455.
10
Puppi 1975a, pp. 13-18, especially p. 15.
11
Pietro Contarini (1493-1562), ‘well-versed
in the Greek and Latin languages’, was
devoted to charitable works. A friend of
Cardinals Jacopo Sadoleto, Reginald Pole
and Ignatius Loyola, of whom he was one
of the first disciples (Ignatius was to
criticize him for being too fond of his great
wealth), he was appointed Bishop of
Paphos (Cyprus) in 1557. See Gullino 1983,
pp. 265-266. We learn from Pietro’s will of
1562 that he had a third brother, Filippo,
who, however, had already died: Archivio
di Stato di Venezia, Notarile, Testamenti,
Antonio Marsilio, viii, b. 1213, fasc. 931.
12
Muttoni 1760, pls ii-iii.
Literature: Dalla Pozza 1943, p. 73;
Wittkower 1945-1974, pp. 166-167
(attributed to Vincenzo Scamozzi);
Zorzi 1954, pp. 66-67; Pane 1961, p.
109; Harris 1966, cat. 7 (attributed to
Scamozzi); Ackerman 1967, p. 4;
Zorzi 1969, pp. 46-47; Burns 1973, p.
149; Puppi 1973, p. 247; L. Fairbairn,
in Burns 1975, p. 185, cat. 326; Lewis
1981, p. 72, cat. 41; Lewis 2000, pp.
98-99, cat. 41.
guido beltramini
[21.]
77
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 11:07 Pagina 78

22/23.1. 22.
Hypothetical
reconstruction andrea palladio
of the plan on the Design for Villa Repeta
basis of the façade at Campiglia: façade
on cat. 22 (drawing
by Simone Early 1560s
Baldissini, 2009) Verso: blank, except for Talman mark
(T:150)
22/23.2. Andrea Ruler and stylus, compasses or
Palladio, Loggia
del Capitaniato, dividers; pen and brown ink, brush
Vicenza and brown wash
Size: bottom side 313 mm; right side
22/23.3. Andrea 207 mm; top side 310 mm; left side
Palladio, Arch
of the Gavi, Verona, 206 mm
detail (previously [22/23.2.] Notes on the drawing: only some
Biblioteca Civica measurements
di Verona, now lost) Unit of measurement: piede
22/23.4. The (vicentino?). Scale: 10 piedi = 51 mm
Palladian façade History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
of Villa Repeta, (John Webb); John Talman; Lord
now rear façade, Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
Campiglia dei
Berici, Vicenza riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xvii/21r

23.
andrea palladio
Design for Villa Repeta
at Campiglia: elevation
of the guest quarters
Early 1560s
Verso: blank, except for Talman mark
(T:150)
[22/23.1.] [22/23.3.] Ruler and stylus, compasses
or dividers; pen and brown ink,
brush and brown wash
Size: bottom side 230 mm; right side
[22.]
202 mm; top side 230 mm; left side
204 mm
Notes on the drawing: [mature
handwriting] ‘dal pian de le stancie
fina a la supeficie del solaro
di sopra, con el seleza [corrected
to: saleza] et grosesa di travi,
son pie 17 quarti 3’
Unit of measurement: piede
(vicentino?). Scale: 9 piedi = 46 mm
[a lacuna has erased the mark of the
tenth piede, which would have given
10 piedi = 51 mm, the same scale as
xvii/21r]
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xvii/24r

The first drawing (xvii/21) shows a

tripartite façade with a central loggia
of a small Doric order building
surmounted by a low attic. The
second drawing (xvii/24), showing a
narrower façade with three bays, is
clearly linked to the first on the
grounds of structure, the drafting of
the architectural elements and the
scale of representation. The drawings
are certainly autograph Palladian on
several grounds: the graphic tech-
nique, the construction with the
stylus, the typical orthogonal cross-
hatching, the way the scales of
78 measurement are traced and the 79
[22/23.4.] [23.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 11:07 Pagina 80
22/23.5. The handwritten measurements and notes
basement floor on both sheets. The building is set on
of Villa Repeta,
Campiglia dei a base 4 piedi high (just under 1.5 m).
The two flights of stairs of seven steps
Berici, Vicenza
(survey drawing at the sides of the loggia on the façade
by Simone Marzari, suggest that the loggia projects (fig.
1997)
22/23.1). The idea of a front block
22/23.6. The piano with two rectilinear stairs appears in
nobile of Villa at least three other Palladian projects
Repeta, Campiglia for villas from the early 1540s on,
dei Berici, Vicenza
(survey drawing including the project described in cat.
by Simone Marzari, 20.1 But in the building shown here,
1997) rather than a front block with serliana
openings, we find a pronaos with four
22/23.7. Alignment
between the original columns and two piers, inspired by
capitals and the the temple at the sources of the
windows drawn Clitumnus.
on cat. 22 (drawing In both drawings the Doric order is
by Simone
Baldissini, 2009) articulated in columns, half-columns
[22/23.5.] [22/23.6.] and piers. The ratio between the
22/23.8. North front module and height is 1:8 (a diameter of
of the hall with the 2 piedi and a height of 16 piedi) and
original fifteenth-
century capitals the central intercolumniation of 51/2
in Villa Repeta, piedi corresponds to the Vitruvian
Campiglia dei diastilos, which is also considered to be
Berici, Vicenza
Doric on the plate in I Quattro Libri
(Bk i, p. 22).2 On the drawing all of
the shafts clearly show the lines incised
by the stylus at a third of the height to
guide the drawing of the entasis.
Pilasters, half-columns or piers with
entasis begin to appear in Palladio’s
drawings from the late 1540s, e.g.
those for Palazzo da Porto (riba
xvii/9r, after 1546) and for the Palazzo
Chiericati (Worcester College h&t
129r, no later than November 1550).3
This and the fact that riba xvii/24 has
autograph Palladian notes in his
mature handwriting allows us to
circumscribe the date to the late 1540s
on. But we can, however, be even a
little more accurate. The sheet riba
xvii/21 has correctly been associated
[22/23.7.] by Lewis with the first known drawing
for the Palazzo Chiericati (riba, b.d.
viii/iir),4 which shares the use of the
Doric (the freeze with one fascia) and
the very rich ornamentation: the freeze
has carved oak leaves and, more
significantly, the swags between the
half-columns have a motif derived
from the ornamentation in Raphael’s
Palazzo Branconio dall’Aquila in
Rome and from Vicentine examples.5
In the drawing here, however, we are
dealing with full-blown decorative
panels which have few precedents in
other Palladian drawings or buildings.
[22/23.8.] We have to move forward to the late
1560s to find something similar in the
project for the Loggia del Capitaniato
in Vicenza (fig. 22/23.2). Howard
Burns has connected the new relation-
ship between architecture and façade
stucco decoration, typical of this
period, with the young architect’s
formative Verona years. In fact the
return to the ‘provincial’ antiquities of
Verona and their sumptuous decora-
tive apparatuses was to be the basis of
Palladio’s richly ornamental mature
language of the 1560s and 1570s.6 In
80 the drawing on riba xvii/21 the mask
amidst racemes is borrowed from the
Arch of the Gavi (fig. 22/23.3), but a
similar element is also found in
Palladio’s invention of the side bay for
the Arch of Jupiter Ammon, again in
Verona (cf. cat. 2). The frieze with an
undulating ornamentation above the
cornice is reminiscent of a similar
decoration – surveyed by Palladio – in
the frieze of the older part of the Porta
Leoni in Verona, which even has a
similar inversion in the movement of
the waves at the center of the façade.7
If the two drawings shown here are
actually from the 1560s (as the mature
Palladian handwriting suggests), then
they constitute valuable graphic
documentation of his endeavors to
combine architecture and ornamenta-
tion in the Verona years.
In 1954 Giangiorgio Zorzi was the
first to bring these two drawings
together. He suggested they were a
side and façade of the same building,
but was unable to connect them to a
precise project.8 In 1975 Lynda Fair-
bairn noticed some affinities with the
Palazzo Chiericati and put forward a
terminus post quem date for the sheet as
1549.9 In the catalog for a Washington
exhibition of 1981, Lewis took the date
back to 1548-1549 by relating the sheet
to the drawings for the Palazzo
Chiericati and the Palazzo da Porto.10
He found similarities between the
attic windows and those drawn by
Palladio for the interior of the Loggia
in Brescia. We are unable to agree with
this suggestion since – as Frommel
reported in 199011 – the windows are
actually a precise citation of those in
Baldassarre Peruzzi’s Palazzo Massimo
in Rome.
Lewis was the first to suggest two
possible candidates for the project.
First, the Villa Muzani at Rettorgole,
on the grounds of the unusual attic
over the pronaos. Given the radically
different dimensions of the two
buildings, however, he was forced to
surmise that the riba drawings were so
greatly re-elaborated that the idea
became incoherent. Second, the Villa
Arnaldi at Meledo Alto, on the basis of
the dimensions of the side of the
building. But even though the dimen-
sions of the side are similar, the rest is
completely different (projecting
pronaos, basement, etc.) and thus
presumably for another project, but
for which we have no evidence. What
all the scholars do agree on is that the
drawings may be dated to the late
1540s, and that they show the façade
and side of the same building.
Recently I put forward a new
hypothesis, namely that the drawings
date from the 1560s and that they
document the project which Palladio
used to construct the Villa Repeta at
Campiglia (part of the original
building still survives). More precisely
I suggested that they were a drawing
for the villa façade, at the time facing
north, and a drawing for the west end
of the separate block that housed the
guest quarters.12 Any comparison
must take into account the fact that
the present-day villa is the result of
reconstruction work in 1672, which
reversed the orientation of Palladio’s
building, thus changing the original
front façade into what is now the rear
façade (fig. 22/23.4). An examination
of the cellars of the villa reveals that
Palladio had constructed a projecting
pronaos, which in the 1672 re-
modeling was flanked by twin blocks
making a continuous flush north
front and creating two extra rooms
(fig. 22/23.5). The front of the original
pronaos still survives with four Doric
columns enclosed by two piers. The
fact is that Palladio had been obliged
to work from the layout of a previous
building, which had forced him to
give up the usual arrangement of
rooms with a series of proportioned
dimensions in favor of the more
traditional arrangement of a salone as
a grand hallway with two equal rooms
on each side (fig. 22/23.6). In the long
salone, fifteenth-century capitals from
the imposts of the original vault are
still visible (fig. 22/23.8).
By comparing the drawing on riba
xvii/21 and the reconstruction of
Palladio’s project we obtain some
significant confirmation for this
hypothesis. The current columns have
a diameter of 0.71 meters (2 piedi
vicentini), and a height of 5.75 meters
(16 piedi vicentini) – the same
measurements as in the drawing. The
windows on the attic story in the
design have the same width and sill
height as those built by Palladio; they
were also of the same height, but were
raised in the 1672 remodeling, as
demonstrated by the position of the
surviving fifteenth-century impost
capitals of the vault (fig. 22/23.7).13
However, there are a number of
differences which are far from
negligible. For example, the central
intercolumniation of the built loggia
differs from that in the drawing (6
and 51/2 piedi vicentini, respectively)
with a consequent reduction in the
lateral intercolumniations. Further-
more, the overall breadth of the
existing villa is around 23.6 meters
compared to 21.3 meters in the draw-
ing. In general, the dimensions of the
elements and the alignments coincide
along the verticals, while they appear
to be misaligned in the horizontal
plan. It is as if Palladio had drawn the
general concept and then had to adapt
it to the existing building by intro-
ducing slight adjustments to match
the layout of the pre-existing walls.
He followed a similar practice in the
plans for the Palazzo Barbarano in
Vicenza.14
In the sixteenth century there was
already another building adjacent to
the Repetas’ farmhouse at Campiglia.
The drawing on riba xvii/24 may
have been the project for the façade
on the short side facing west, which
did not require doors (the entrance
was on the opposite side). The
composition of the elevation is more
compatible with a façade, albeit
secondary, rather than with a side of a
building (there are no elevations of
sides in any of the dozens of Palladian
drawings for villas or palazzi). The
central bay is accentuated and under-
scored by two pairs of half-columns,
while the lateral bays tend to ‘fade
away’. Palladio resorts to this solution
when he wants to give a monumental
feel to a rather short front, as in the
Casa Cogollo in Vicenza. On riba
xvii/24, Palladio writes: ‘from the
floor of the rooms to the surface of
the upper ceiling, with the floor and
the breadth of the beams, seventeen
and three-quarter piedi’. This note is
problematic since – when referred to
the drawing – it suggests a height for
the mezzanine floor which would set
the height of the window sill at
around 1.60 meters. We are not even
helped by an examination of the
present-day foresteria (guest quarters),
which is clearly different from the
sixteenth-century structure and
around 2 meters narrower than the
façade in the drawing on riba xvii/24.
According to a tax declaration
made by Mario Repeta, in 1563 the
villa at Campiglia was still the
fifteenth-century building. In 1566
Repeta was accused of homicide and
placed under obligatory residence in
Venice, where he remained until the
end of the decade.15 In the same year
Palladio described his project for the
Villa Repeta to Vasari and it was
subsequently published in I Quattro
Libri but as a completely different,
very ambitious project. In the
published text Palladio mentions the
wish to build the villa expressed by
Mario Repeta’s father, Francesco, who
had died in 1556.16 The two drawings
shown here could thus refer to a real
project to reconstruct the house,
eventually carried out by Mario
Repeta after his father’s death, either
in the early 1560s or at the beginning
of the following decade.
1
This idea is not only found in two of the
preliminary studies for the Villa Pisani at
Bagnolo from around 1542 (riba xvi/7r
and xvi/19c), but also in a project for the
Villa Paglierino, which may be dated 1542-
1545 (riba xvi/3r).
2
The cross drawn with the pen on the bay
could be related to what Palladio says in
Chapter v of Book iv, when he warns
against making the bay of the diastilos too
wide, since it could cause the architraves to
split.
3
Davies, Hemsoll 1992, pp. 346-348; G.
Beltramini, ‘Andrea Palladio. Presentation
drawing with alternatives for the elevation
of Palazzo Porto’ and ‘Andrea Palladio.
Study for the upper order of the façade of
Palazzo Chiericati’, in Beltramini, Burns
2008, cat. 34a, pp. 76-77 and cat. 46, p. 96.
4
Lewis 2000, p. 153.
5
H. Burns, ‘Project for the façade of the
Palazzo Chiericati, Vicenza’, in Burns 1975,
cat. 56, p. 40.
6
Burns 1980, pp. 103-117 and 331-332.
7
At least it appears as such in Giovanni
Caroto’s engraving; Caroto 1560, pl. xxi.
On Palladio’s drawing of the Porta Leoni,
see Cavalieri Manasse 1980, pp. 71-76.
8
Zorzi 1954, pp. 59-76, especially pp. 70-
71. The plan is called into question by
Pane, who believe that ‘the frontal solution
[...] has an error in the joint between the
ends of the portico and the recurrent
members at the sides of the window,
because the latter cannot have a column on
one side and a pier on the other’: cf. Pane
1961, p. 110, no. 27. Zorzi examined the
drawings again without any particular
variations in his comments but omits the
reconstructed plan (Zorzi 1969, p. 49).
9
L. Fairbairn, ‘Elevation of a villa’ and
‘Side elevation of a villa’, in Burns 1975,
cats 422-423, p. 237. The author rather
generically refers to the decorative panels
as being derived from antique examples,
whereas Zorzi had already accurately
identified the sources as the abutments of
the Arch of the Gavi in Verona (Zorzi 1954,
p. 70, no. 27).
10
Lewis 1981, pp. 118-119; Lewis 2000, pp.
152-154.
11
Frommel 1990, p. 160.
12
Beltramini 2009, pp. 393-405.
13
If one looks at the interior of the north
front, it is clear that the original roof was
lower and that the position of the impost
capital implies that windows were once
lower than at present, i.e. set at the same
height as the windows in Palladio’s draw-
ing.
14
Beltramini 2008a, pp. 208-217, and
especially pp. 213-215.
15
Beltramini 2009, pp. 393-405.
16
Vasari (ed. Bettarini-Barocchi) 1966-
1997, vi, pp. 196-198; I Quattro Libri, Bk ii,
p. 61.
Literature (both drawings): Zorzi 1954,
pp. 70-71; Pane 1961, p. 110; Zorzi
1969, p. 49; L. Fairbairn, in Burns
1975, p. 237, cats 422 and 423; Berger
1978, pp. 181-182; Frommel 1990, p.
160; Davies, Hemsoll 1992, p. 347;
Harris 1994, p. 91, cat. 18; Beltramini
2009, pp. 393-396.
guido beltramini
81
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 11:10 Pagina 82
24/25.1. Andrea 24.
Palladio, Project for
the Church of the andrea palladio
Redentore, Venice Project for the Church of the
in a round form: Redentore, Venice in a round
alternative plan
(London, riba, form: plan
British Architectural From 22 November 1576 to 9 January
Library, xiv/16)
1577
24/25.2. Aerial view
Verso: blank
of the church of the Ruler and stylus, compasses, pen
Redentore, Venice and brown ink
Size: bottom side 284 mm; right side
24/25.3. Plan of
the church of the 412 mm; top side 285 mm; left side
Redentore, Venice 415 mm
(drawing by Simone Notes on the drawing: [not in
Baldissini, 2008)
Palladio’s handwriting] ‘coro’;
[Palladio’s handwriting] some
measurements in piedi
Unit of measurement: piede
(veneziano? = 0.347 m). Scale:
20 piedi = 55 mm
History and ownership: Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xiv/13r
25.
andrea palladio
Project for the Church
of the Redentore, Venice
in a round form: elevation
From 22 November 1576 to 9 January
1577
Verso: blank except for the modern
pencil annotation, ‘A [inscribed
in a circle] Palladio: Maser church’
Ruler and stylus, compasses, pen
[24/25.1.] and brown ink
Size: bottom side 276 mm; right side
407 mm; top side 272 mm; left side
406 mm
Notes on the drawing: only some
measurements in piedi
Unit of measurement: piede
(veneziano? = 0.347 m); no scale
visible, but from the measurements,
the scale is compatible with that
of the section on riba xiv/14r, where
10 piedi = 32 mm
History and ownership: Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xiv/15r
[24/25.2.]
On 27 September 1576, Vincenzo
Scamozzi organized Alessandro
Vittoria’s flight from a plague-ridden
Venice. The sculptor and his family
were taken by boat up the rivers
Brenta and Bacchiglione to the port
of Santa Caterina at Vicenza, where
they remained in quarantine. They
thus survived one of the worst
epidemics of the century, which had
broken out in 1575.1 This appalling
scourge resulting in a death toll of
[24/25.3.] 50,000 in two years (one Venetian out
of every four perished) was the back-
ground to the commissioning of one
of Palladio’s finest masterpieces.2 In
fact, on 4 September 1576, a few
82 weeks before Vittoria’s flight, the
Venetian Senate had decreed that a
‘monumental’ votive offering should
be made by constructing a great
church dedicated to the Redentore
(‘Christ the Redeemer’).3
The two sheets shown here are part
of a group of four which form a quite
unique Palladian ‘folder’ of uniform
drawings dedicated to a single project,
consisting of two plans, an elevation
and a section of the church of the
Redentore in Venice (fig. 24/25.1). They
do not, however, represent the church
(consecrated in 1592) as we know it
today, but a preliminary version ‘in a
round form’. After two months of
intense debate concerning at least three
possible sites, on 22 November 1576 the
Senate chose an area on the island of the
Giudecca measuring 80 × 200 piedi
veneziani (around 28 × 69 m; fig.
24/25.2). The boundaries of the lot can
be seen in Palladio’s two plans: the first
shows a square-plan church with half-
columns in the façade and a large cross
vault set on four free-standing columns
(fig. 24/25.1) and the second an alter-
native square-plan church with a
hexastyle portico and a dome (plate 24).
Roberto Pane was the first to
identify the four drawings as being
preliminary designs for the church of
the Redentore,4 in which Palladio
studied a version of a central-plan
church. But in February 1576 the
Senate rejected the proposal in favor
of a longitudinal layout, which was
eventually built. This definitive
version inherited a number of features
from the preliminary study, such as
the dome, the diagonal arrangement
of the piers, and the apse with free-
standing columns screening the
transition from the nave to the choir
(fig. 24/25.3).
The drafting of the plan has not
been particularly carefully executed
since there are errors in the drawing of
the columns in the pronaos and the
choir, some second thoughts at the
sides of the piers and a system of
noting the internal measurements
with simple pen marks instead of the
small arrows normally used by
Palladio. The ductus of the hand-
writing of the notes, however, is
Palladian – except in the word coro
(‘choir’), beside the curve of the apse.
There is also some uncertainty in the
drafting of the elevation (e.g. in the
entasis of the columns and in the
lantern of the dome). But in the rest
of the drawing the drafting style is
unequivocal, both as regards the
measurements and the elements of the
order, especially the bases and
capitals, and the inaccuracies in the
drawing may simply have been due to
Palladio’s advanced age; by then he
was sixty-eight and beset by family
misfortunes. The sculptures at the
sides of the stairways and as acroteria
on the pediment seem to have been
drawn by a different hand. At various 83
[24.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 11:11 Pagina 84

times Palladio resorted to figurative Villa Barbaro at Maser (under con-

artists who drew the ornamental struction 1580) (fig. 24/25.5). The
elements in his presentation drawings. patron was the same Marcantonio
This was the case with the drawings Barbaro who had so strenuously
for the Rialto bridge, in which supported the idea of the Redentore
Magagnato has identified the hand of ‘in a round form’ four years previ-
Bernardino India (1528-1590),5 or for a ously.9
funerary chapel in Florence, where
1
the name proposed for the artist is Zorzi 1957, doc. 5, pp. 126 -127.
2
that of Battista Del Moro (1514-1575).6 Preto 1978.
3
Palladio often had long-standing Cooper 2005, pp. 229-257.
4
Pane 1961, pp. 304-305.
relations or friendships with these 5
Magagnato 1974, p. 83.
artists, who also worked on the 6
H. Burns, S. Marinelli, ‘Progetto per una
frescoes in his buildings. In this case cappella sepolcrale’, in Palladio e Verona
the figures are so highly stylized that 1980, cat. vii.7, p. 168.
24/25.4. Andrea the iconography is mundane, thus 7
Howard 2003, pp. 306-325, especially p.
Palladio, Details making it difficult to identify the 306; Cooper 2005, pp. 232-234.
8
from the section hand of the artist, who also worked A. Guerra, ‘Andrea Palladio. Section of
of the church of the on this section of this church (fig. the Church of the Redentore, Venice’, in
Redentore, Venice Beltramini, Burns 2008, cat. 118, p. 235.
(London, riba, 24/25.4). 9
The plan with pronaos, elevation Howard 2003.
British Architectural
Library, xiv/14) and section enable us to observe
Palladio as he communicates his Literature (both drawings): Pane 1961,
24/25.5. Andrea
project in the form of a presentation pp. 304-305; Zorzi 1966, pp. 167-168;
Palladio, Tempietto Isermeyer 1972, pp. 105-133, especially
of Villa Barbaro, folder, which includes an idea for a
Maser, Treviso second plan. This alternative would p. 132; Burns 1973, p. 146; Puppi 1973,
have been less costly thanks to the pp. 431-433; Burns 1975, pp. 146-147,
elimination of the pronaos and dome. cat. 258; Foscari 1975, pp. 44-56;
The sheets with the plans and Battilotti 1985, pp. 40-44; Boucher
elevation are basically the same size 1994, pp. 194-195; Battilotti 1999, pp.
[24/25.4.] (around 41 × 28 cm), while one sheet 507-508; Lewis 2000, pp. 249-252,
is almost twice as wide to accom- cats 114 and 115; Pizzigoni 2003, pp.
modate the section (around 41 × 53 171-173.
cm). The scale of measurement is not
always the same, however: in the two guido beltramini
plans it is 10 piedi = 28 mm, as
opposed to 10 piedi = 32 mm in the
elevation and section, which are
extended to the edges of the sheet to
make the design more legible.
Palladio proposed constructing a
three-dimensional model of the
church (‘relief model... with all the
ornaments that one may wish to be
made’) to compare it with the
longitudinal plan version, but the
Senate rejected the offer; apparently
they felt sufficiently well-informed by
his drawings.7
Palladio’s idea for a projecting
pronaos was intended to create a
dialogue between the Redentore and
the church of San Giorgio, situated at
the end of the Giudecca, for which he
had also envisioned a projecting
pronaos, but in the event it was not
constructed.8 This exhibition provides
us with the opportunity of being able
to compare the drawings for the
façade of the Redentore with
Palladio’s ‘remodeling’ of the Mauso-
leum of Romulus (cat. 30). On the
basis of the little information available
[24/25.5.] at the time, acquired from examining
the mausoleum ruins and from anti-
quarian studies, Palladio designed an
hexastyle portico with three columns
on the sides for the mausoleum, as he
also did for the Redentore, and sets
exactly the same lantern at the top of
the dome as in the Venetian church. A
few years later his reflections on this
subject would lead to the built
84 architecture of the Tempietto at the 85
[25.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 11:28 Pagina 86
26.
andrea palladio
Villa Rotonda, Vicenza
Plaster model by Timothy Richards,
2010
Height 320 mm; width 635 mm;
depth 635 mm
Scale: 1:90
The Villa Rotonda is justly one of
Palladio’s most famous buildings,
much admired by visitors since the
early seventeenth century, from Inigo
Jones and Goethe to Sir Charles Barry
and Le Corbusier. The client was
Paolo Almerico, a cleric and papal
civil servant who had retired to the
city of his birth, which he had left as
[26.] [27.] a youth under something of a cloud.
A short walk from the city center, the
villa was both a town and a country
residence. The porticos are derived
from one of Palladio’s favorite antique
buildings, the Portico of Octavia in
Rome, which he used in various
guises in numerous buildings. Pal-
ladio’s published image of the villa
(fig. 26.1) gives it a far more elaborate
dome and it is the engraved image
that was the source of all the many
copies and versions of the villa that
have been built or proposed in Europe
and America (cat. 57). The dome as
built used to be attributed to Vin-
cenzo Scamozzi, who made some
alterations and additions to the villa
for a later owner in the 1590s (in 1820
Charles Barry called it ‘a vile inven-
tion of the envious Scamozzi’)1 but
there is no evidence that it is not by
Palladio. It is conceivable that Palladio
felt that such a dome as he depicted
was not strictly suitable for a private
house, given its close association with
Venetian church architecture, and
that it would have looked odd on a
building in such a raised situation.
The complete symmetry and balance
of the exterior, its simplicity and yet,
at the same time, its grandeur, has
made it one of Palladio’s defining
buildings. The interior has been much
spoiled by later decorations. The
name of the villa (properly it should
[26.1.] [27.1.]
now be called the Villa Valmarana),
reflects the design source of the dome,
the Pantheon in Rome, which is also a
church called Santa Maria Rotonda.
1
ms diary in London, riba, British
Architectural Library, skb 240/5,
quoted in Hind 2008, p. 349.
charles hind
86
27. third floor in 1554 and though it was 26.1. Andrea
andrea palladio perfectly habitable, the villa was not Palladio, plan
and elevation of
Villa Saraceno, Finale finally completed until the end of the
the Villa Rotonda,
Plaster model by Timothy Richards, century. Here and at the Villa Pisani Vicenza (I Quattro
2010 at Montagnana (fig. 7, p. 145), Pal- Libri, Bk ii, p. 19)
Height 230 mm; width 355 mm; ladio established the two-story temple
front type for villa architecture, a 27.1. Andrea
depth 130 mm Palladio, plan
Scale: 1:65 design taken up in America in the and elevation of
eighteenth century, such as Drayton the Villa Saraceno,
Hall, sc (cat. 52) but never adopted by Finale (I Quattro
Designed about 1545 and largely Libri, Bk ii, p. 56)
finished by 1555, the Villa Saraceno the English neo-Palladians.
was commissioned by Biagio Saraceno The Villa Cornaro (fig. 28.1) uniquely 28.1. Andrea
of Vicenza following a split of family adopts the Corinthian over the Ionic Palladio, plan
order, while the Villa Pisani is Ionic and elevation
property that left him without a of the Villa
house. The simple restraint of the over Doric. The Corinthian capitals Cornaro, Piombino
design as built contrasts with are made of terracotta and painted to Dese (I Quattro
Palladio’s published design in I look like stone, a typical Palladio Libri, Bk ii, p. 53)
Quattro Libri (fig. 27.1), where the economy. The choice of this order
house was to be flanked by elaborate may reflect Serlio’s comment that the
barchesse, or outbuildings. The pres- Venetians particularly liked the
ent outbuildings are largely nine- Corinthian order. Inside the house,
teenth century. The façade does not unusually reception rooms are on
employ any orders and relies for its both the first and second floor, rather
effect on a simple language of surface than Palladio’s normal practice of
and volume, with a central loggia and putting the main rooms on the piano
three arched openings to a flight of nobile. This gives the house an
steps. The villa was rescued from unusually palatial air, appropriate
dereliction recently by the British both to the Cornaros’ status and the
charity, the Landmark Trust and fact that the villa was on the edge of
handsomely restored as holiday the town, rather than in the country.
accommodation. The only sign that
the Villa Saraceno was noticed by the charles hind
[28.] English Palladians is a drawing in the
riba British Architectural Library.1
This unpublished drawing is not
attributed, although it came into the
riba with a large group of drawings
by Colen Campbell. It effectively
reproduces the façade of the villa, but
the plan indicates that it was only the
front for a two room lodge or garden
building. In America, the Villa
Saraceno’s simple elegance made it a
more promising model and Mount
Airy, va (cat. 54), owes it a
considerable debt.
1
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, sc 16/114.
charles hind
28.
andrea palladio
Villa Cornaro,
Piombino Dese
Plaster model by Timothy Richards,
2010
Height 200 mm; width 405 mm;
depth 240 mm
Scale: 1:20
The Cornaro family of Venice were
amongst Palladio’s grandest clients.
The need for a new villa resulted from
a split of family property between two
brothers, the elder of whom retained
the old house. The accounts indicate
[28.1.] that most of the fabric was built 1552-
1553. There was a site visit from Pal-
ladio in 1554 to supervise work on the 87
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 11:30 Pagina 88

29.
palladio and his books: andrea palladio
the four books on architecture Plan and elevation of a
tetrastyle prostyle temple in
the Corinthian order and
the Temple of Minerva, Assisi
1560s
Verso: right sheet, Talman mark
(T:150); left sheet, capital, entablature,
pedestal and base of the Corinthian
columns of the Temple of Minerva,
Assisi, Talman mark (T:150)
Left sheet: ruler and stylus, compasses,
pen and black ink; black chalk
(sketches of a doorway and two
29.1. Raphael, orders of columns on the left, and a
Detail of the
interior of the border of the sheet, 275 × 183 mm).
Pantheon, Rome Right sheet: ruler and stylus,
(London, riba, compasses, traces of black chalk, pen
British Architectural and brown ink (border of the sheet
Library, xiii/1v)
in black chalk or graphite, 273 × 179
mm)
Size: [whole sheet] bottom side 379
mm; right side 292 mm; top side 377
mm; left side 290 mm. Left sheet:
bottom side 192 mm; right side 291
mm; top side 192 mm; left side
290mm. Right sheet: bottom side
c. 192 mm; right side 292 mm; top
side c. 190 mm; left side 291 mm
Notes on the drawing: various
measurements
Unit of measurement: piede
(vicentino?). Scale: [from the top of
the lower right margin on the right
sheet] 10 units = 41 mm, 9 units = 38
mm, 10 units = 33 mm; [lower left
margin on the right sheet] 10 piedi
= 36 mm; [center of left sheet] 8
units = 40 mm, 12 units = 24 mm
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xi/14r

Among the Palladian sheets in the

Royal Institute of British Architects,
one drawing (riba xiii/1v) is quite
different from all the others. Made
using ink and red chalk, it shows a
rough sketch of the upper order, with
a window and a pilaster, and the
entablature of the lower order of the
Pantheon. No information is pro-
vided about the dimensions of the
entablature, but the red chalk drawing
enables us to grasp the effect it would
have on the onlooker (fig. 29.1).
Indeed the drawing is not by Palladio
– although the fact that it is among [29.]
his sheets probably means that he
owned it – but by Raphael.1 In 1519, in
the celebrated Letter to Leo X, Raphael
established a method that was to be
[29.1.]
used for centuries in representing
architecture when he adopted orth-
ogonal projections in the plan, ele-
vation and section for the purposes of
a proposed systematic survey of the
buildings of ancient Rome.2 Even
88 though on riba xiii/1v Raphael is 89
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 11:33 Pagina 90
29.2. Leandro probably not drawing first hand but
Bassano, The Tower copying from another sheet, as a
of Babel, detail
(London, The painter he depicts the cornice in the
National Gallery) zenithal lighting of the Pantheon,
with effects of light and shade
29.3. Andrea generated by projections and mold-
Palladio, Elevation
of an octostyle ings. Palladio did not train in an
temple (woodcut artist’s bottega, but as a stonemason on
reproduced in the construction site (fig. 29.2). In his
Daniele Barbaro’s boyhood apprenticeship he learned to
edition of Vitruvius’
Ten Books on shape stone blocks according to two-
Architecture, Venice dimensional drawings of their pro-
1556, p. 86) files, what in the Veneto were called
sagome (‘templates’), of which some
29.4. Andrea
Palladio, Peripteral examples related to Palladio’s con-
temple (woodcut struction sites have survived.3 This
reproduced in ‘imprinting’ enabled him to think
Daniele Barbaro’s ‘instinctively’ in terms of projections
edition of Vitruvius’
Ten Books on on the plane, which embrace the third
Architecture, Venice dimension without any need to draw
1567, p. 198) it.4
Palladio also brought this approach
29.5. Andrea
Palladio, Temple to bear on the process of making
[29.2.]
of Minerva in the images for books, right from his first
Forum of Nerva publishing venture as illustrator of
(I Quattro Libri,
Bk iv, pp. 26-27)
Daniele Barbaro’s edition of Vitru-
vius, printed in 1556. Barbaro overtly
acknowledges Palladio’s role as the
author of the images and vindicates
the scientific effectiveness of the
orthogonal representation: ‘In repre-
senting the plan, the elevation and at
times the section and sides, we will
leave out the shade and only work
with lines, we will propose examples
with their own ornamental elements
and various details, so that we can
show what ornament and what
architectural element are appropriate;
and in addition to the overall images
of the buildings, represented in the
correct dimension, we will make
[29.3.] [29.4.] separate and legible each larger-sized
element, so that each can be measured
with the compasses, and our figures
will be like templates that can be used
by all constructors. We will not fill up
the sheets with small figures of little
significance, and we will not seek to
impress with many fine chiaroscuro,
foreshortened or perspective figures,
since our aim is to demonstrate how
things are and not to teach how to
paint’.5
This stated aim of Barbaro and
Palladio presupposed a radical change
in architectural publishing at the
time, as exemplified by editions such
as Sebastiano Serlio’s Third Book
(1540) and Fourth Book (1537), Torello
Saraina’s Antichità di Verona (1540)
and Labacco’s Libro appartenente a
[29.5.] l’architettura (1552), or compared to
the illustrations for Giovanni Antonio
Rusconi’s abandoned edition of
Vitruvius and Pirro Ligorio’s archi-
tectural prints. In all of these texts
perspective or pseudo-perspective
representation is more or less pre-
dominant. The converse is true of the
1556 edition of Vitruvius and, with
some slight yielding in the additional
images, also of the new edition of
90 1567: almost all the ancient buildings
and their details are represented in
orthogonal projections with innova-
tive techniques, such as transparent
elements in the foreground making it
possible to see through to the back-
ground elements (fig. 29.3).
The two drawings shown here,
however, mark a further step forward
with a captivating new image of the
elevation of the temple turned over
onto its own plan. In the 1556 edition
of Vitruvius the plans and sections
were always kept strictly separate,
although in various new drawings for
the 1567 edition the plan was placed
beneath the elevation (fig. 29.4). But
here the abstraction reaches a climax
by making the two levels of represen-
tation transparent and superimposing
the two ‘layers’, as we would say in
modern computer-aided drawing
jargon. Palladio is probably experi-
menting with the possibility of using
this kind of method in I Quattro
Libri, given that at least one of the
two sheets (they were later pasted
together) has a precise equivalent in
the treatise.
In fact the right-hand sheet shows
the Temple of Minerva at Assisi (on
the verso there are details of the capital,
entablature and pedestal) which fea-
tures on two full-page illustrations of I
Quattro Libri (Bk iv, pp. 104-105). The
left-hand sheet has a drawing of a
Corinthian temple very similar to the
Temple of Augustus at Pola (Bk iv, pp.
108-109), but differences between the
measurements on the drawing and
those published make the identifi-
cation as such problematic.
In the right-hand sheet Palladio is
reflecting on the scale of measurement
to be used in representing the temple
in relation to the format of the page:
he actually draws four scales, and
ultimately seems to opt for the scale of
10 piedi on the far left, which, how-
ever, was then ‘stretched’ during work
in progress by increasing the width of
the first 4 piedi. On the left-hand
sheet the scale used is that of 10 piedi
(at the center), whereas beneath the
pedestal there is a unit divided into 12
parts, probably meant to be 1 piede
divided into 12 once, arguably to be
used for the larger-scale details.
Interestingly, Palladio delimits the
edges of both drawings with a
graphite or lead line (more clearly
visible on the left-hand sheet), which
is often also found as a printed frame
round the temples in Book iv of I
Quattro Libri. At least as far as the
image on the right-hand drawing is
concerned, Palladio seems to be at
work on an intermediate phase be-
tween the early drawings (see cat. 6)
and the plate of I Quattro Libri,
because the pedestals are still wider
than high, and not lengthened up-
wards as in the treatise.
This method of representing the
plan and elevations would certainly
have allowed Palladio to use half as 30.1. Aerial view
many pages, but after trying it out, he of the Mausoleum
of Romulus, Rome
did not use it for I Quattro Libri,
although he did maintain some super- 30.2. Plan of the
impositions of plan and elevation for Mausoleum of
the more complex temples, such as Romulus, Rome
the Temple of Minerva in the Forum
30.3. Sebastiano
of Nerva (Bk iv, pp. 26-27) (fig. 29.5). Serlio, Mausoleum
of Romulus (Terzo
1
H. Burns, ‘Details of the interior of the Libro, Venice 1540,
Pantheon’, in Burns 1975, cat. 489, p. 263; p. xlv)
A. Nesselrath, ‘Raffaello. Dettagli archi-
tettonici dell’interno del Pantheon, verso’, 30.4. Andrea
Palladio,
in Frommel, Ray, Tafuri 1984, cat. 3.2.8, p. Mausoleum
420.
of Romulus, Rome,
2
Thoenes 1986, pp. 373-381; Di Teodoro and two Roman
2003. [30.1.] [30.2.] [30.3.] mausolea (after
3
M. Piana, ‘Andrea Palladio. Template of a Serlio) (London,
cornice with a “gorna” for the Monastery riba, British
Architectural
of San Giorgio Maggiore’, in Beltramini,
Library, viii/7)
Burns 2008, cat. 153, p. 319.
4
Burns 1973, pp. 133-154; Burns 2008a, pp.
300-312.
5
‘Figurando la pianta e lo impie e alcuna
volta il profilo e i lati, lasciaremo le ombre
e, solamente con linee operando, propo-
neremo gli essempi adornandone qualche
parte, con diverse maniere di tagli,
accioche si sappia quale ornamento à qual
membro convegna, e oltra i corpi intieri
delle fabriche posti in forma conveniente
faremo da per se partitamente ogni
membro di più commoda e maggior
misura, di modo che ogni parte si potrà
con la sesta misurare, e le figure nostre
seranno come sacome, che serviranno a
tutti i fabricatori. Lasciaremo d’empir i
figli (!) di figure di cose minute e facili, e
non affettaremo la quantità e la sottilità
delle figure adombrate, e in iscorzo, e in
prospettive, perchè nostra intentione è
dimostrare le cose, e non insegnare a
dipignere’. Vitruvio/Barbaro 1556, p. 66
[actually p. 68]; cf. Cellauro 1998, pp. 57-
128, especially p. 61.
Literature: Zorzi 1959, p. 82; Spiel-
mann 1966, p. 150, cat. 85.
guido beltramini
30.
andrea palladio
Survey of the foundations,
reconstructions of the
principal floor and front
and side elevations
of the Mausoleum
of Romulus on the Via Appia
1560s
Verso: draft of a text for the plate
of the Tempietto di San Pietro in
Montorio in I Quattro Libri (Bk iv,
p. 64); Talman mark (T:150)
Ruler and stylus, compasses, pen
and brown ink (and black ink for
an inscription at bottom?), brush
and grey wash; graphite or black
chalk (a cross and some numbers
in the left margin and at the center)
Size: bottom side 205 mm; right side
287 mm; top side 203 mm; left side
288 mm
Notes on the drawing: [from top
to bottom in mature handwriting] 91
[30.4.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 11:34 Pagina 92
‘questo tempio overo sepultura è di
fora a Santo Sebastiano, et è tuto di
pietra cota’; [two erased words] ‘sono
in tuto archi 11’, ‘sono archi 13 per li
fianchi’, ‘mancha a fare lo inpiedi’
Unit of measurement: piede; no scale
indicated
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, viii/1r
‘Mancha a fare lo impiedi’ – ‘the
section is still to be done’. Palladio’s
note in the lower margin of this sheet
reveals that he still had to finish
working on his preparatory studies for
the plate in I Quattro Libri dedicated
to the Mausoleum of Romulus, the
deified son of Emperor Maxentius. As
Burns has pointed out, although this
drawing is almost entirely freehand, it
was not a survey made on the spot,
but rather the transcription of notes
based on previously acquired infor-
mation.1 Situated between the second
and third kilometer on the Appian
Way, just after the basilica of San
Sebastiano, the cylindrical mauso-
leum built in the fourth century ad is
encircled by a grandiose porticoed
enclosure and flanked by a circus (figs
30.1 and 30.2). From Francesco di
Giorgio Martini on, the mausoleum
had been the subject of many Re-
naissance architects’ surveys and
conjectures and had been published
by Serlio in his Third Book (Venice
1540, p. xlv) (fig. 30.3).2
In the center of the sheet Palladio
draws the basement of the mausoleum,
the only portion of the building in
elevation that could still be seen,
although Serlio had complained about
the pitch dark inside the cella, while
Giuliano da Sangallo commented ‘we
had to go in with lit torches’.3 Palladio
draws two of the four porticoed sides
of the basement, but with some
inaccuracies: he sets the side with
thirteen arches at right angles to the
axis of the mausoleum, but this side is
actually parallel, and he opens a portal
of 201/2 piedi in it, but in fact the
entrance is on the other side. He later
corrects this error in the plate in I
Quattro Libri, in which the measure-
ments on the drawing are system-
atically confirmed (Bk iv, pp. 88-89).
The walls of the basement and the
porticoes have been shaded with
wash, unlike the plan of the upper
floor of the cella. As Burns has ob-
served for the Baths of Agrippa,
Palladio shades in the standing walls,
and leaves the conjectured parts
blank.4 In I Quattro Libri, Palladio
himself explains his aim to re-
construct the buildings as they had
once stood: ‘And although one can see
only portions of some of them [the
92 temples] standing above ground, I
[30.]
have nonetheless proceeded to deduce
from them what they must have been
like when they were complete’ (Bk iv,
p. 3).5 In this case, however, there are
very few elements to aid our under-
standing of the elevations. Serlio only
reconstructs the plan of the complex,
as does Francesco di Giorgio Martini.
In I Quattro Libri Palladio goes no
further than proposing a plan of the
upper floor, which differs from the
plan in the drawing because of the
presence of apparently alternating
large semicircular and rectangular
niches between pairs of pillars. This
arrangement is similar to Michele
Sanmicheli’s Cappella Pellegrini at the
church of San Bernardino, Verona
(1528-1529). On the page in the
treatise Palladio also includes an
enlargement of the piers of the arch
and the corner pillar. He clearly must
have been able to rely on other
graphic materials, now lost, in
addition to this sheet.6
As far as the elevation is concerned,
among Palladio’s drawings, there is a
copy of another architect’s fanciful
reconstruction of the mausoleum
(riba viii/7), for which Günther has
reconstructed the genealogy, but it is
not taken into account in the ‘re-
modelling’ (fig. 30.4).7 Palladio
actually imagined a kind of miniature
Pantheon, with an hexastyle portico
and dome with diminishing steps. He
clearly had this reconstruction in
mind when, ten years later, he
designed the church of the Redentore
with a central plan (see cat. 24) and
later still, the Tempietto of Villa
Barbaro at Maser (fig. 24/25.5).
In the process of preparing the
woodcuts for I Quattro Libri, this
sheet seems to record a less advanced
phase compared to the next two
drawings (cats 31 and 32). In fact here
Palladio is gathering material and
information but he is still not study-
ing the layout of the page. From this
point of view, there are similarities
with a sheet (riba viii/1r, right) – for
a long time it was pasted beside the
present drawing – showing the so-
called ‘Temple of Vesta’ in the Forum
Boarium, on which Palladio noted:
‘mancha a fare li ornamenti’ (the
ornaments [details] have still to be
done).8
1
Burns 1973, p. 142.
2
Burns 1994, p. 363; De Angelis Bertolotti,
Ioppolo, Pisani Sartorio 1988, pp. 33-44.
3
Huelsen 1984, p. 59, fol. 43 verso.
4
Burns 2008b, pp. 286-299, especially pp.
295-296.
5
Palladio (ed. Tavernor, Schofield) 1997, p.
213.
6
Two codices of architectural drawings,
now in Padua and Venice, but whose
authorship and provenance are uncertain,
show the general plan and the enlargement
of the pillars: see Olivato 1978, pp. 153-160.
7
Günther 1981, pp. 42-94, especially p. 70.
On riba viii/7, see Lewis 2000, pp. 62-63,
who, however, does not cite Günther.
8
H. Burns, ‘Andrea Palladio. Plan,
elevation and details of the Round Temple
(“Temple of Vesta”) in the Forum
Boarium, Rome’, in Beltramini, Burns
2008, cat. 169a, pp. 335-336.
Literature: Zorzi 1959, p. 80; Spiel-
mann 1966, p. 149, cat. 79; Burns
1973, p. 142; Burns 1975, p. 104, cat.
194; Olivato 1978, p. 154; Lewis 1981,
p. 45, cat. 23; Günther 1990, pp. 191-
193, fig. 31; Ackerman 1994, pp. 17-18;
Boucher 2000, p. 298; Lewis 2000,
pp. 65-66, cat. 23.
guido beltramini
31.
andrea palladio
Studies for the plates of the
Pantheon in I Quattro Libri:
elevation and section of the
portico (Bk 1v, pp. 76-77),
cornice of the portico
columns (Bk 1v, p. 80),
cornice of the entrance (Bk
1v, p. 83)
1560s
Verso: right sheet, interior section
of the Pantheon (Bk iv, p. 81); left
sheet, plan, elevations and section
of the temples of the Sun and
the Moon (Bk iv, pp. 37-38)
Ruler and stylus, compasses, black
chalk, pen and black ink
Size: [whole sheet] bottom side 389
mm; right side 307 mm; top side 388
mm; left side 309 mm; left sheet
(above the right sheet), bottom side
202 mm; right side 307 mm; top side
200 mm; left side 309 mm
Notes on the drawing: Talman mark
(T:150) on both sheets; ‘piedi’ ‘144
son pie 3’ [144 minuti = 36 once
= 3 piedi]; various measurements
Units of measurement: right sheet,
palmo romano (= 223 mm). Scale:
(on the right margin of the sheet)
1 palmo = 223 mm (the first 6 once
from the top are divided into 5
minuti; the second 6 into 4 minuti;
in the lower part the two alternatives
are side by side); at bottom, 50 piedi
vicentini = 105 mm. Left sheet: piede
vicentino (= 0.357 mm)
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, viii/9r
In 1540 Sebastiano Serlio began his
Third Book, devoted to the Roman
antiquities, with the Pantheon – ‘the
best conceived building of all those I
have seen’ (Venice 1540, pp. v-xvii)
(figs 31.1 and 31.2).1 Exactly thirty
years later Palladio gave pride of place
to the same building in Book iv of I
Quattro Libri, by devoting twelve
pages to it, which was more than any
other subject received (Venice 1570,
Bk iv, pp. 73-84). A comparison of
the treatment of the Pantheon in the
two editions highlights a radical
change in the mode of describing
built architecture and also attests to
the effectiveness of Palladio’s tech-
niques of communication using the
printed page.
Of the twelve pages on the
Pantheon in I Quattro Libri, two are
of text and the other ten are given
over to full-page images, strictly in
planar projections, reproduced in
scale and accompanied by detailed
measurements. Serlio’s images, on the
other hand, have no indications of
dimensions: they must be laboriously
extracted from the text, which
occupies part of the page, thus
restricting the space for the figures.2
Palladio’s ekphrasis in images begins
with the plan and proceeds from the
exterior to the interior; he dedicates
five plates to the front and portico, of
which he provides drawings of the
elevations and sides, the cross and
longitudinal sections and the orna-
mental elements on a larger scale; he
then moves on to the interior with a
cross section, elevation of a portion of
the first two levels and two plates of
ornamental elements. Palladio deals
with basically the same subjects as
Serlio, but the effect is superior in
terms of rigor, user-friendliness and
visual impact.
The sheet presented here is related
to the first of the double pages in
which the elevation and section are set
side by side (fig. 31.3). The notes and
drafting technique allow us to date
the drawings to Palladio’s mature
years, while the subject points towards
the late 1560s. The images were drawn
independently on two separate sheets
and then pasted together. On the
verso of the sheet showing the façade
is a drawing of its interior section and,
on the other half, there is a study for
the temples of the Sun and the Moon,
again for I Quattro Libri. In the illus-
trations for Barbaro’s 1556 edition of
Vitruvius, Palladio had already tried
out the idea of exploiting the sym-
metry of a building to juxtapose the
elevation and section (fig. 31.4).
Along the right vertical margin
Palladio traced a graded scale of
twelve segments, of which the six
upper ones are divided into five parts
and the six lower ones into four parts:
the overall size of 223 millimeters
proves that this is a full-size unit of 1
palmo romano, divided into 12 once, in
turn divided into 5 or 4 minuti. The
same specific difference is found in
cat. 3, when Palladio writes beside the
cornice for the Baths of Caracalla
‘measurement with the palmo, each
oncia is 5 minuti’, and beside the
interior entablature of the Hadria- 93
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 11:36 Pagina 94

neum ‘measured with the palmo, each 2

Burns 1975, pp. 106-107. 31.1. Sebastiano
oncia 4 minuti’. Günther has de-
3
Günther 1988, pp. 230-231. Serlio, Elevation of
4
Palladio (ed. Tavernor, Schofield) 1997, p. the Pantheon (Terzo
scribed how in Rome several different Libro, Venice 1540,
divisions of the palmo were in use, 286.
5 p. viii)
Burns 1973.
and that they often varied from one
workshop to another. Serlio and 31.2. Sebastiano
Literature: Zorzi 1959, p. 77; Spiel- Serlio, Description
Peruzzi are known to have used one and details of the
mann 1966, p. 148, cat. 73; Burns
palmo divided into 12 once of 4 minuti Pantheon (Terzo
1975, p. 245, cat. 433. Libro, Venice 1540,
(for a total of 48), whereas Sangallo’s
circle preferred the oncia of 5 minuti p. x)
guido beltramini
(and therefore a finer division of the 31.3. Andrea
palmo into 60 minuti), but there were Palladio, Elevation
also other conventional units of and section of the
measurement.3 Palladio employed the portico of the
Pantheon (I Quattro
piede vicentino and, given that he Libri, Bk iv,
clearly used graphic material on pp. 76-77)
various scales (cf. cat. 3), he required
two conversion scales, while other 31.4. Andrea
Palladio, Section
scales in piedi can also be seen in and elevation of
[31.1.] [31.2.] various places on the sheet. A scale of a temple (woodcut
measurement of 10 piedi vicentini is reproduced in
printed along the lower margin near Daniele Barbaro’s
edition of Vitruvius’
the left corner on the corresponding Ten Books on
page of the treatise. Architecture, Venice
Palladio constructs this complex 1556, pp. 80-81)
drawing with the stylus, ruler and 31.5. Andrea
compasses and then intervenes with Palladio, Church
black chalk (or black lead) to change of the Redentore,
the inclination of the beam, only Venice
ultimately to confirm the original
position by going over it again with
the pen. The rectangles on the second
pediment ‘are some stones that pro-
ject outward a little [...] I cannot
imagine what they were for’ (Bk iv, p.
74).4 The letters on the drawing were
used as cross-references to the written
introduction or to details on a larger
scale on other plates: the letter C, for
[31.3.] example, refers to the cornice of the
pediment entablature on page 80 and
it is drawn here near the left margin.
The profile sketched in the top right-
hand corner is the portal cornice,
indicated by the letter E and found on
page 84 of I Quattro Libri. With
respect to the previous drawing (cat.
30), here Palladio is working on the
layout of the page, and the profiles of
the entablatures on the margins of the
sheet could be experiments for the
purposes of inserting the details in the
context of a more general image.
This drawing takes on a special
significance when related to the design
materials for the church of the
Redentore (cats 24 and 25). Palladio’s
representation flattens the projecting
pronaos of the Pantheon onto the
[31.4.] sheet, creating a double pediment, but
in the absence of a plan we are unable
to reconstruct the spatial arrangement
of the parts. Burns has suggested
[31.] reflecting on how the model for the
built façade of the Venetian church
(fig. 31.5) was not so much the real
Pantheon as the orthogonal represen-
tation that Palladio made of it during
his Roman stays and then brought
back to the Veneto.5

1
On the Pantheon, see at least De Fine
Licht 1968; MacDonald 2002; Nesselrath
94 2008. 95
[31.5.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1
32.1. Andrea
Palladio, Elevation
of Palazzo da Porto,
Vicenza (I Quattro
Libri, Bk ii, p. 9)
32.2. Andrea
Palladio, Courtyard
elevation of Palazzo
da Porto, Vicenza
(I Quattro Libri,
Bk ii, p. 10)
[32.1.]
96
[32.2.]
15-03-2010 11:54 Pagina 96
32.
andrea palladio
Studies for the plates of the
Palazzo da Porto in I Quattro
Libri: façade and section in
correspondence to the giant
order courtyard (Bk 11,
pp. 9-10)
Verso: Talman mark (T:150) on both
sheets
Left sheet: ruler and stylus,
compasses, pen and black or brown
ink, brush and grey wash. Right
sheet: ruler and stylus, compasses,
pen and brown ink
Size: [whole sheet] bottom side 372
mm; right side 288 mm; top side 373
mm; left side 288 mm; right sheet,
bottom side 185 mm; right side 288
mm; top side 185 mm; left side 287
mm; left sheet, left side 288 mm; the
other three sides cannot be measured
Notes on the drawing: various
measurements
Unit of measurement: piede vicentino
(= 0.357 m). Scale: 5 piedi = 22.5 mm
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xvii/3r
In 1570 Palladio published full-page
illustrations of the façades of five
Vicentine palaces – Thiene, Porto,
Chiericati, Valmarana and Barbarano
– in Book ii of I Quattro Libri. The
last two were recent projects and in
the case of the Palazzo Barbarano the
final touches to the design had only
just been added. Indeed Palladio
apologizes for not including the plan
‘which has just been completed and
according to which the foundations
have now been laid, because I was not
able to make the woodcut in time for
it to be printed’.1
In the first three buildings Palladio
was returning to the ‘scene of the
crime’ decades later: the Palazzo
Thiene had been designed in 1542, the
Palazzo da Porto in 1546, and the
Palazzo Chiericati in 1550. In all three
cases Palladio used the printed page as
an active tool to intervene again on
the design of the buildings. In the
woodcut showing the façade of the
Palazzo Chiericati, documented as
having been interrupted after the
construction of the third bay, Palladio
shows the still unexecuted central
section. In the Palazzo Thiene, as
Burns has demonstrated, small but
significant changes ‘Palladize’ the
design as the architect files off the
features more evidently characterized
by Giulio Romano’s style.2
In the representation of the palazzo
for his friend Iseppo da Porto (fig.
32.1), Palladio adds to the woodcut of
the façade that of the grandiose
courtyard, enclosed by giant order
Composite columns, designed to link
up the owner’s house to a twin
residence intended for guests or as an
independent dwelling for his sons
(fig. 32.2). Given that the completion
of the building can be dated to 1552,
the monumental courtyard certainly
does not belong to the design phase of
the palazzo and, moreover, never
appears in the various surviving
preliminary drawings.3 Columns
reaching up two stories are elements
which Palladio introduced to his civil
architecture from his studies of
Vitruvius (e.g. the illustration of the
basilica of Fano, 1556) (fig. 32.3) and
from his façades for Venetian
churches, starting with San Pietro di
Castello (1559); they first appear in a
palace façade in the Palazzo Valma-
rana (1566).
In publishing the Palazzo da Porto
Palladio effectively ‘remodels’ part of
the building. Paradoxically, therefore,
although this drawing was associated
with documenting the building for
the purposes of I Quattro Libri, it is a
newly invented design, at least in ideal
terms, especially as far as the right half
is concerned. Thus, for example, the
order of the pier supporting the loggia
in this drawing is Tuscan or Doric but
in I Quattro Libri it is Corinthian.
Similarly, the design of the walls
behind the giant columns is very
different. Some building elements are
also transformed in the treatise, such
as the functional flat floor at the
height of the crowning baluster,
which in this drawing is sloping for
the purposes of draining off rainwater.
In actual fact this sheet consists of
two separate drawings. They were
later pasted together, according to
Lewis, by the eighteenth-century
collector John Talman, who marked
the verso of both sheets with his
distinctive monogram.4 There are a
number of differences between the
two drawings, such as the fact that
only the apertures on the left half of
the sheet have been shaded with grey
wash. Palladio also used this
conventional technique on other
sheets for Vicentine palaces associated
with the production process of I
Quattro Libri, i.e. the façades of the
Palazzo Chiericati (riba xvii/5), the
Palazzo Thiene (riba xvii/10) and the
Palazzo Valmarana (riba xvii/4r). The
apertures in the courtyard of the
Palazzo Thiene (riba xvii/10), on the
other hand, are not shaded with wash. [32.]
It may be that Palladio had produced
a series of drawings of façades and
then later decided to supplement
them with plates of courtyards.
Significantly, in the only plate
showing both façade and courtyard
on the same sheet – that for the
Palazzo Valmarana – the apertures of
the courtyard have been shaded with
grey wash (it was then not included in
I Quattro Libri) (fig. 32.4). We do not 97
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 11:56 Pagina 98
32.3. Andrea know how much time elapsed be-
Palladio, Section tween the series of façade drawings
of the basilica of
Fano (woodcut and the courtyard drawings, but in
the two sheets for the Palazzo da Porto
reproduced in
Daniele Barbaro’s
there is a considerable difference in
edition of Vitruvius’ the design of the statues. On the left-
Ten Books on
Architecture, Venice hand sheet we find the typical
1556, p. 142) ‘mannequins’ drawn by Palladio to
outline ornamental statues when he
32.4. Andrea did not resort to the collaboration of
Palladio, Elevation
and section of the figurative artist friends. In this case,
courtyard of Palazzo moreover, the sketched figures are in a
Valmarana, Vicenza deliberately playful light pose, which
(London, riba,
British Architectural
seem to reveal the amused smile of the
Library, xvii/4) architect. On the right-hand sheet,
the figures have been drawn more
32.5. Marcantonio forcefully with clearly rendered dress,
Palladio, Statues
from the project
and they may have been the result of
for the frons scaenae the collaboration of Palladio’s son
of the Teatro Marcantonio, since they resemble
Olimpico, Vicenza very closely the statues he designed on
(London, riba,
the frons scaenae in a drawing for the
British Architectural
Library, xiii/5r, Teatro Olimpico (riba xiii/5r) (fig.
detail) [32.3.] 32.5).
The two drawings represent an
advanced but not final stage in the
process of producing the preparatory
drawings for the plates in I Quattro
Libri. In the woodcut of the façade,
the Ionic frieze is transformed from
pulvinated to smooth and the ashlars
in the rustication above the windows
are reduced from four to three (as
opposed to five in the executed build-
ing). The measurements of the
windows and columns are the same,
but there are – albeit slight – di-
vergences in the measurements of the
entrance door, the upper entablature
and the height of the windows in the
attic, which are changed from square
to rectangular (the opposite occurs in
the windows in the courtyard attic).
Moreover, as Lewis points out, the
final drawings were destined to be
consumed in the process of making
the woodcuts.5
In a farmyard at Molina di Malo,
[32.4.]
near Vicenza, we can still see ten
majestic brick column shafts with
white stone bases, bearing an in-
scription with the name ‘Iosephus
Portius eques’ (Iseppo Porto knight)
and the date 1572.6 This is all that
survives of an ambitious Palladian
project left incomplete on the death
of both the patron and the architect
in 1580. The diameters of the shafts
and the base of the columns,
compatible with the Composite order,
suggest that, had they been com-
pleted, they would have been very
similar to the columns of the
imaginary ‘paper’ courtyard designed
for the Palazzo da Porto in Vicenza.
1
Palladio (ed. Tavernor, Schofield) 1997,
Bk ii, p. 22.
2
H. Burns, ‘Andrea Palladio. Study for the
plate of the exterior elevation of Palazzo
Thiene in I Quattro Libri’, in Beltramini,
Burns 2008, cat. 22, p. 53; H. Burns,
‘Andrea Palladio. Study for the elevation
and section of the courtyard of Palazzo
98 Thiene published in I Quattro Libri’, in
[32.5.]
Beltramini, Burns 2008, cat. 168, p. 335.
3
Forssman 1973; Puppi, Battolotti 1999,
pp. 277-281 and 455-456; Burns 2002.
4
Lewis 2000, p. 150.
5
Lewis 2000, p. 150.
6
Zorzi 1969, pp. 228-230.
Literature: Zorzi 1965, p. 192; Forss-
man 1973, p. 32; Burns 1973, p. 148;
Puppi 1973, p. 281; L. Fairbairn, in
Burns 1975, p. 233, cat. 414; Lewis
1981, pp. 116-117, cat. 67; Harris 1994,
p. 92, cat. 19; Ackerman 1998, p. 6;
Lewis 2000, pp. 150-151, cat. 67.
guido beltramini
33.
andrea palladio
I Quattro Libri
dell’Architettura di Andrea
Palladio. ... In Venetia,
Appresso Dominico
de’ Franceschi, 1570
Folio
290 × 200 mm
History and ownership: Richard
Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington by
1743; given by him to Brabazon
Ponsonby, 1st Earl of Bessborough,
1748; thence by descent to Frederick
Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough
(d. 1847), his Sale, Christies, 3 April
1848, lot 1029; the architect Joseph
John Scoles, by whose widow
Harriott Scoles presented
to the riba, 1864
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, E.f.409
Palladio’s I Quattro Libri dell’Archi-
tettura has exerted more influence
than any architectural treatise before
or since. As a work of graphic design,
with its careful integration of illus-
trations and text, it was a model for all
subsequent architectural books. Pro-
bably several hundred copies were
printed and it ran to numerous
editions and translations over the next
two centuries. Indeed the original
woodcut blocks continued in use for
over 80 years, before their final use,
looking very worn, in Fréart de
Chambray’s Paris edition of 1650.
Palladio appears to have contemplated
publishing a work on architecture in
the late 1540s, but this was laid aside,
perhaps because he felt he had not yet
gathered enough material. His in-
volvement in Daniele Barbaro’s trans-
lation of Vitruvius (cat. 11) must have
encouraged him to revive the idea and
Barbaro actually mentions this
impending work in his introduction.
After stating that it was principally to
deal with domestic architecture,
Barbaro continues that it will have:
‘plans, sections and elevations of all
the houses and palaces which he has
designed for various nobles, with the
addition of some excellently drawn
beautiful ancient buildings’ (Vitru-
vius, p. [179]). Rather cleverly, Pal-
ladio’s emphasis on domestic archi-
tecture was in deliberate contrast to
Vitruvius and Sebastiano Serlio, who
both concentrated on the orders and
religious architecture.
Palladio continued to gather material
for the next fourteen years. A draft of
the first three books survives in the
Correr Museum, Venice, dated to the
early 1560s, perhaps the draft seen by
Giorgio Vasari in 1566. By this time,
Palladio had a substantial body of
buildings and proposed buildings to
include, enabling him to present his
own works almost exclusively (other-
wise he only included Donato Bra-
mante’s Tempietto in Rome) as
examples of good, modern archi-
tecture. His clear and simple text
ensured that he had a wide potential
audience, not just the wealthy and
scholarly but members of the building
trades too, while his illustrations, with
dimensions added, often spoke louder
than words. I Quattro Libri was a
brilliant act of self-promotion, as well
as a major contribution to scholar-
ship.
Each of the four books covers a
different area of architecture. Book i is
devoted to the orders and various
elements of buildings. Book ii tells
you how to put them together and is
illustrated throughout with Palladio’s
own palaces and villas, many some-
what tidied up and ‘improved’ for
publication. Book iii turns to public
buildings, again with works of his
own interspersed, but including
roads, bridges and basilicas. Book iv
deals almost entirely with antique
buildings, principally temples, and
includes general observations on
religious architecture. It seems that
Palladio planned further books,
dealing with baths, theatres, and other
ancient buildings but they never
appeared and only drawings and a few
draft paragraphs survive.
The exhibited copy is opened at the
title page, with an inscription
identifying it as belonging to Lord
Burlington. This is one of the dozen
copies of various editions that Philip
Ayers has identified as owned by
Burlington and kept at Chiswick
House. From the annotations in red
pencil that seem to be sixteenth
century, it had previously belonged to
a Frenchman. [33.]
Literature: Barker 1963, pmm 224 (the
bal copy); Ayers 1992; riba 2383.
charles hind
99
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 11:59 Pagina 100

34.
palladio and his books: andrea palladio
unpublished books Study for a plate of the Baths
of Diocletian for a ‘Book
of Roman Baths’: plan
After 1570?
Verso: blank
Ruler and stylus, compasses, black
chalk pen and black ink, brush
and grey wash
Size: bottom side 449 mm; right side
429 mm; top side 447 mm
(measurement incomplete due
to trimmed corner); left side 426 mm
(measurement incomplete due
34/36.1. Lord to trimmed corner)
Burlington, Plan
of the Baths of
Notes on the drawing: [mature
Diocletian handwriting] ‘piedi’ [at bottom
(Fabbriche Antiche center]
disegnate da Andrea Unit of measurement: piede
Palladio Vicentino,
London 1730)
(vicentino?). Scale: 90 piedi = 39 mm
History and ownership: Lord
34/36.2. Andrea Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
Bacci, Baths of riba since 1894
Diocletian (De
thermis..., Venice
London, riba, British Architectural
1571, fol. 442) Library, v/1r

35.
andrea palladio
Study for a plate of the Baths
of Diocletian for a ‘Book
of Roman Baths’: cross
and longitudinal sections
After 1570?
Verso: blank
Ruler and stylus, compasses, pen
and black and brown ink, brush
and brown wash
Size: bottom side 432 mm; right side
287 mm; top side 436 mm; left side
286 mm
Notes on the drawing: [from top
to bottom in mature handwriting]
[34/36.1.] ‘facata de le terme de Diculiciano
volta verso el stadio’; ‘parte interiore
che volta verso el stadio’; ‘parte
oposita al stadio de fora’; ‘la parte
interiore per el traverso’; ‘stadio’
Unit of measurement: piede
(vicentino?); no scale indicated
History and ownership: Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, v/2r

36.
andrea palladio
Cross section of the Baths
of Diocletian, Rome
1540s
Verso: blank
Ruler and stylus, compasses, black
chalk, pen and brown ink
Size: bottom side 430 mm; right side
281 mm; top side 428 mm; left side
281 mm
Notes on the drawing: [epsilon
handwriting] ‘Questo sie l’inpiedi de
terme de Diocoliciano de dentro via,
coè la mità’; ‘piedi’ [at the center of
100 the right-hand serliana] [34.]
101
[34/36.2.]
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 11:59 Pagina 102

Unit of measurement: piede

(vicentino?); no scale indicated
History and ownership: Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, v/3r

In a letter Petrarch poignantly recollects

the silence and solitude that he sought
and found by climbing up onto the
great vaults of the Baths of Diocletian,
where the air was gentler and the view
ranged over the ruins of Rome.1 In the
Foreword to Book i of I Quattro Libri,
34/36.3. Sebastiano Palladio describes the thrill that he had
Serlio, Plan of the experienced thirty years earlier – and
Baths of Diocletian which he still felt – on contemplating
(Terzo Libro, Venice the antiquities of Rome: they were
1540, pp. xcvi-
xcvii) ‘much worthier of study than I had first
thought’.2 He does not mention the
34/36.4 Position Baths of Diocletian in this context, but
of the sections if we consider which buildings must
drawn by Palladio
on the plan of cat. have made the strongest impression on
34 (drawing by the young man from the provinces
Simone Baldissini, newly arrived in Rome, then we would
2010) have to include them: ‘for the most part
still standing [...] and of a stupendous
size’ as he was to write in his small
volume on the antiquities of Rome in
1554.3
The Roman baths were to accom-
pany Palladio throughout his career.
When a young architect, they provided
him with the terms of a new language,
such as the serliana openings and the
broken pediments of his early villas,
and the vocabulary of grandeur for
huge bare vaulted spaces. In 1542, the
large vaulted sala of the Villa Pisani at
Bagnolo (cats 19 and 20) showed a
dimension in the Veneto previously
only reserved for churches.4 In his late
years the Roman baths were the com-
[34/36.3.]
positional model for the successions of
complex spaces – in which space is
continuously experienced in a varied
way through movement – found in the
Refectory of San Giorgio and the great
Venetian churches. But this is also true
for the laconic Palladio of their ex-
teriors: pure masses stripped of orders.
The drawing on riba v/3 (cat. 36),
which comes from his early years,
shows a perspective section of the Baths
of Diocletian going from the left-hand [35.]
palestra as far as halfway across the
frigidarium. As Burns has observed, he
was probably copying the drawing of
another draftsman, who seems to have
been close to the author of the Codex
Coner, a sketchbook in which per-
spective sections and serliana openings
often feature (see cat. 1). The same
source must also have been used by
Sebastian van Noyen, who provided the
[34/36.4.] drawings of the Roman baths for an
edition printed in 1558, which is
surprisingly similar to Palladio’s
drawing (fig. 34/36.5).5 On comparing
his work with the engraving, however,
we note that the serliana openings are
only found in the drawing, whereas in
102 the engraving the Flemish artist uses 103
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010 12:01 Pagina 104

34/36.5. Sebastian columns to support a rectilinear

van Noyen, entablature. Evidently in his re-
Perspective section
of the Baths of onstruction Palladio combines archaeo-
Diocletian, Antwerp logical research with his own design
1558 ideas.6 In the present sheet we find
many of the elements from the other
34/36.6. Pirro
Ligorio, Thermae projects on show in this exhibition: the
Deocletianae et sequence of pediments set on fragments
Maximianae inter of entablature on the far left are also
Qurinalem et present in the villa for the two brothers
Viminalem, Rome
1582 (cat. 21), together with the serliana
[34/36.5.]
openings, which also appear in the
34/36.7. Vincenzo projects for Villa Pisani (cats 19 and 20)
Scamozzi, Choro- and at the center of the façade for a
graphia omnium
partium Thermarum palace in Vicenza (cat. 18).
Diocletiani (Rome The sheets riba v/1 and v/2 (cats 34
1580) and 35) correspond to a later stage, as
implied by the mature handwriting.
The Sangallo and Peruzzi made
detailed reconstructions of the Baths of
Diocletian, while Serlio printed an
overall plan of in 1540 (fig. 34/36.3).7
Palladio’s plan does not depart from the
latter greatly, except for the fact it shows
the two palestras with the portico only
on three sides, and not on all four as in
Serlio’s woodcut (and in the young
Palladio’s perspective section on riba
v/3). Burns has recently stressed Pal-
ladio’s apparent lack of interest in the
function of the spaces that he calls ‘dry’,
where there is no trace of a key element:
water. This clearly reflects his greater
focus on composition and typology,
given that from texts like Bacci’s book,
[34/36.6.]
printed in Venice in 1571, Palladio could
obtain all the necessary information on
the function of the complex, summar-
ized in a plan whose architecture
basically borrows from that of Serlio
(fig. 34/36.2).8
The plan (cat. 34) is a finished
drawing, whereas an early sheet (riba
vii/5r) records the information sur-
veyed by Palladio in the field in a red
chalk drawing which has been gone
back over with the pen.9 This is a very
exciting drawing since it conjures up
the image of the young architect
moving among the ruins, which he
observes, measures, draws and corrects.
Serlio also dedicated two double
pages to the Baths of Diocletian, but he
only shows reconstructions of the plans
and decides against rendering the [36.]
elevations: ‘for three reasons: first
because they are so badly ruined and
little of anything entire can be under-
stood; second, because of the dif-
ficulties in measuring them; and third
because in truth as far as one can see
this building was not made in that
[34/36.7.] felicitous century of good architects, on
the contrary, one sees many discord-
ances and irregularities’.10 Palladio, on
the other hand focuses on the re-
construction of the elevations in a series
of studies culminating in the sheet
shown here, which has much more
detail than the reconstructions pub-
lished by Pirro Ligorio in 1558 and 1561
(fig. 34/36.6).11 Palladio ‘redesigns’ the
elevations, which he presents in
104 complex cross and longitudinal sections 105
026-107_PalUsa_sche1.qxp:Layout 1 15-03-2010
in order to enhance the narrative to the
utmost (plate 35 and fig. 34/36.4).
The plan and the sections (cats 34-
35) are similar in terms of the drafting
style and of the page layout to a group
of drawings which also describe the
Baths of Agrippa, Nero, Trajan, Titus,
Caracalla, and Constantine.12 This
material was clearly ready for publi-
cation. Palladio’s first biographer, Paolo
Gualdo, mentions that Palladio wished
to produce another book in addition to
the ‘four books’ printed in 1570:
‘Palladio had prepared another book
that was to contain ancient temples,
arches, tombs, bridges, towers and
other buildings of Roman antiquity.
But just when he was about to have it
printed, he was overtaken by death and
all those noble works were left in the
hands of the Venetian nobleman Signor
Giacomo Contareno’.13 The publishing
project was completed exactly a century
and a half later, when, in 1730, Lord
Burlington printed in London
Fabbriche Antiche disegnate da Andrea
Palladio Vicentino (cat. 41), a
sophisticated edition of Palladio’s
drawings of the baths, which Burling-
ton had purchased in Italy in 1719.
Printed in bistre to emulate the original
ink, this was the first ever published
‘facsimile’ of architectural drawings.14
In the transition from the manu-
script drawing to the printed page,
however, Burlington introduced a
number of modifications to make the
elevations and plan completely con-
gruent (fig. 34/36.1). The two palestras
acquire a fourth colonnaded side and
the columns are backed onto the front
with the projecting calidarium.
In March 1580, when Palladio was
still alive, Vincenzo Scamozzi published
in Rome a view of the Baths of
Diocletian in the form of a cutaway
perspective drawing, combining the
plan and views of the elevations. This
was clearly an alternative to the
drawings made by Palladio for
publication. Scamozzi claims that he
personally conducted a campaign of
surveys of the ancient remains of Rome
(‘both those surviving on the surface
and those concealed in the bowels of
the earth’), but his reconstruction
shares many points with that of
Palladio. There is a difference in Serlio’s
design of the palestra, showing the
beginning of arches on the fourth side,
when compared to Palladio’s definitive
plan, but not compared to his survey in
the field recorded on riba vii/5r and in
his cutaway perspective (fig. 34/36.7).15
In 1561 Pope Pius iv entrusted
Michelangelo with the commission to
design the basilica of Santa Maria degli
Angeli by incorporating it in the central
hall of the Baths of Diocletian.16
1
F. Petrarca, Le familiari, vi, 2, 15.
2
Palladio (ed. Tavernor, Schofield) 1997, p.
5.
106 3
Palladio (ed. Hart, Hicks) 2006, p. 29.
12:01 Pagina 106
4
Burns 2008, pp. 64-69.
5
van Noyen 1558.
6
Burns 1973a, pp. 174-177.
7
Serlio 1540, pp. xcvi and xcvii.
8
Burns 2008b, pp. 296-299; Bacci 1571.
9
P. Gros, ‘Andrea Palladio. Surveys made
on the spot of the Bath of Diocletian and
Caracalla, Rome’, in Beltramini, Burns
2008, cat. 26, pp. 59-60.
10
Serlio 1540, p. xcvii.
11
On the preparatory drawings for the
plate with the cutaway, see Zorzi 1959, pp.
70-71; on Pirro Ligorio’s engraving,
Thermae Deocletianae et Maximianae
(Michele Tramezzino 1558): cf. Daly Davis
2003, pp. 191-193.
12
Zorzi 1959, pp. 64-73.
13
Zorzi 1959a, pp. 93-104.
14
S. Pasquali, ‘Lord Burlington, “Fabbriche
Antiche disegnate da Andrea Palladio
Vicentino”’, in Palladio and Northern
Europe 1999, cat. 33, pp. 141-142.
15
Daly Davis 2003, pp. 190-193.
16
Karmon 2008, pp. 141-152.
Literature (for all three drawings):
Burlington 1730, pls xi-xiii; Temanza
1762, pp. xliv; Bertotti Scamozzi
1785, pp. 25-27, pls xi-xiii; Zorzi 1959,
p. 70; Spielmann 1966, p. 161, cat. 150
and p. 162, cats 156-157; Burns 1975, p.
249, cats 441 and 443.
guido beltramini
37.
andrea palladio
Study for a plate of the Arch
of Constantine for a ‘Book
of Arches’: plan, front and
side elevations and partial
section
After 1570?
Verso: Talman mark (T:150); details
of the Arch of Constantine shown
on the recto
Ruler and stylus, compasses, traces
of black chalk construction lines, pen
and brown ink, brush and brown
wash
Size: bottom side 210 mm; right side
300 mm; top side 208 mm; left side
299 mm
Notes on the drawing: various
measurements
Unit of measurement: piede
(vicentino?). Scale: 10 piedi = 30 mm
History and ownership: (Inigo Jones);
(John Webb); John Talman; Lord
Burlington; Dukes of Devonshire;
riba since 1894
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, xii/5r
In Chapter xvi (‘On squares and the
buildings which are constructed
around them’) of Book iii of I Quattro
Libri, Palladio writes: ‘Arches that are
built at the ends of streets, that is, at
the entrance to the square, are the
greatest form of embellishment [orna-
mento] for squares; how they should
be built, why the ancients made them,
and why they were called triumphal
will be explained at length in my book
on arches, and I will present drawings
of many of them’ (Bk iii, p. 31).1 In
Chapter xix (‘On pedestals’) of Book
i, he had outlined a kind of ‘contents’
for this proposed book of arches by
mentioning those of the Leoni and the
Gavi in Verona, Titus and Constan-
tine in Rome, Trajan at Ancona,
Caesar at Susa, and the Sergi at Pola
(Bk i, p. 51).2 The presence of many
autograph drawings of arches in
Palladio’s corpus of graphic works
suggest that work on the book was at
an advanced stage. Moreover, Magrini
and Puppi report that in 1581 new
materials were involved in a
publishing project being pursued by
Palladio’s son Silla who wished to
‘make a reprint of the books of
architecture of his deceased father,
enlarging them to include other
ancient and modern buildings’.3
The present drawing is very
probably related to this unfinished
‘Book of Arches’. Here Palladio shows
his skill in achieving maximum
concision without ever yielding any-
thing, however, in terms of legibility
and graphic quality, as demonstrated
by the simultaneous view of the side
and the section, the latter being of the
principal large arch. The notes on the
verso are in his mature handwriting,
while the representation of the cut of
the section, with the building ‘frac-
tured’, brings to mind the illustrations
for the 1556 edition of Vitruvius. In
terms of drafting conventions and
date, the drawing is close to a group of
sheets, among which are riba xii/13r
(Arch of Jupiter Ammon), riba
xii/11ar (Arch of the Gavi) and riba
xii/4r (Arch of Janus). In the Museo
Civico, Vicenza, on the other hand,
there is a series of uniform drawings
with his epsilon handwriting, which
include images of the arches named
after Titus, Septimius Severus and
Constantine.4 The drawing of the
Arch of Constantine has a number of
measurements added in a different,
darker ink, also found on the present
sheet, and therefore appears to have
been made in preparation for this one.
Much more than we might imagine
today, triumphal arches were a
practical design theme for Renaissance
architects. The Roman generals’ tri-
umphs not only inspired Mantegna,
but also sixteenth-century pro-
cessional entries into cities by kings
and popes, such as Leo x’s memorable
arrival in Florence in 1515.5 In the
Third Book Serlio dedicates around
forty pages to arches (the Arch of
Constantine is on pp. cxix-cxxi).
Sansovino made one in disguise in the
Loggetta in St. Mark’s Square, while in
the court of the Palazzo Mantova
Benavides in Padua, Bartolomeo
Ammannati built a stone triumphal
arch as the entrance to the garden and
a backdrop for performances of plays.6
Ammannati’s arch, which stands
beside a colossal statue of Hercules,
may have been inspired by the results
of the young Palladio’s first commis-
sion in his own city: the temporary
wooden and stucco decorations
erected for Cardinal Ridolfi’s entry to
Vicenza in September 1543. Two
triumphal arches were raised for the
occasion: one backed onto the Porta
del Castello and a second, four-
fronted arch served to guide the
procession round the bend into the
main square.7 In 1565, for the entry
into the city of the new bishop of
Vicenza, Matteo Priuli, Palladio
designed a bifrontal triumphal arch
with Corinthian columns, which was
raised near the Ponte degli Angeli.8 In
1574, to mark Henry iii’s entry to
Venice, Palladio constructed another
arch, this time modeled on the Arch of
Septimius Severus.9 No drawings of
these arches have survived (there is
only a written description of the
Vicentine ones), but we do have a
project for a triumphal arch as a
garden entrance.
Moreover, the Arch of Constantine
was the model for an ebony cabinet
that Palladio designed to contain
Leonardo Mocenigo’s numismatic
collection (see cat. 12).10
1
Palladio (ed. Tavernor, Schofield) 1997, p.
193.
2
A chapter of Palladio’s Antichità di Roma
is also dedicated to triumphal arches: the
list includes the arches of Septimius
Severus, Constantine, Titus, the Velabrum,
Portugal and Gallienus.
3
Magrini 1845, p. 296; Puppi 1980, i, p. 76.
4
Puppi 1989a, pp. 104-108.
5
Shearman 1975, pp. 136-154; Burns 1975,
p. 73; on the connection between apparati
effimeri (temporary wood and stucco
decorations) and urban renewal, see Tafuri
1992, pp. 145-146, with bibliography.
6
Beltramini 2005c, pp. 279-281.
7
Beltramini 2008b, pp. 2-4.
8
Beltramini 2008c, pp. 38-44.
9
Cooper 2005, pp. 213-227.
10
Zorzi 1965, pp. 135 and 229; Zorzi 1969,
p. 90; Borean 2008, pp. 297-298.
Literature: Zorzi 1955, pp. 47-48; Zorzi
1959, p. 55; Spielmann 1966, p. 170,
cat. 214; Lewis 1981, p. 68, cat. 38;
Beyer 1987, pp. 43-44; Lewis 2000, p.
94, cat. 38.
guido beltramini
107
[37.]
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Part II

108 109
108-119_PalUsa_sag2.qxp:Layout 1
1. Abraham Swan, The
British architect, London
1745, pl. li, the source for
the parlor chimneypiece
in the Jeremiah Lee
House, Marblehead (ma)
110 (cat. 49)
13-03-2010 12:15 Pagina 110
Publishing Palladio and the spread
of anglo-Palladianism
charles hind and irena murray
In discussing the spread of Palladio’s influence in the English-
speaking world, it is necessary to make a distinction between
Palladio and Palladianism. Inigo Jones’s introduction of
knowledge of Palladio’s work into England after his return from
the Veneto in 1614 was based largely on personal knowledge of
Palladio’s buildings, together with Jones’s ownership of a large
collection of Palladio’s drawings. We do not know how many
copies of I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura had made it across the
English Channel before Jones’s departure for Europe in 1613
apart from the copy of the 1601 edition that he took with him.
Upon his return and his formal appointment as Surveyor of the
King’s Works in 1614, Jones was uniquely placed to adapt what
he had seen and read to suit the conditions of Stuart England.
His adaptation of Palladio of necessity involved mixing the pure
seam represented by I Quattro Libri and the drawings with what
he learned from other literary sources such as Sebastiano Serlio
and Vincenzo Scamozzi, from contemporary English practice
(such as models for chimneys, which Palladio did not provide
and the placing of fireplaces against internal rather than external
walls) and from French practice (mostly for chimneypieces, for
which again Palladio did not provide any models). The result,
when actively revived in the early eighteenth century is what in
the twentieth century was called Palladianism, or anglo-
Palladianism, essentially Palladio seen through Jones’s spectacles.
Jones’s Palladianism remained a still under-appreciated foun-
dation for most English architecture for the rest of the seven-
teenth century1 and it was knowledge of what was in Palladio’s
drawings that undoubtedly influenced the ‘Palladian’ elements in
the architecture of Sir Christopher Wren, William Talman,
Nicholas Hawksmoor and Sir John Vanbrugh, not to mention a
reasonable presumption that all of them owned copies of I
Quattro Libri.2 But the wider dissemination of Palladio and
Palladianism derived not from the drawings but from English
translations of the whole or parts of I Quattro Libri and the
pattern books that took elements from it and spread the message
to builders and artisans as well as their clients. In the North
American colonies, although translations of Palladio are recorded
from 1741,3 it was the pattern books that had the greatest impact.
First we should look at what the later authors sought to
quarry. Although he was the author of other books,4 it was
Palladio’s I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura that forms the basis of
his subsequent reputation (cat. 33). The four books sum up his
knowledge and experience of both Roman architecture and
contemporary building. Book i deals with the basic components
of architecture and the rules governing them, the orders, room
shapes, vault types, doors, windows and stairs. Book ii tells you
how to put them together to design palaces and villas (cleverly
his views are illustrated with his own works). Book iii discusses
public buildings, starting with roads and bridges before moving
on to piazzas and basilicas; and Book iv contains general
observations on religious buildings before moving on to antique
temples and a detailed discussion of particular examples.
The history of publishing Palladio in England begins in 1663,
with Godfrey Richards’ edition of Book 1 only of I Quattro Libri
dell’Architettura. The format, plates and general design was based
on Pierre Le Muet’s Paris edition of 1645 and the frontispiece was
a direct copy. The title page claims that Richards translated Le
Muet’s French text but in fact he seems to have worked from
both Le Muet and the original Italian text, as he includes
material in Palladio that was omitted by Le Muet and some of
the later parts of the book include material evidently written by
Richards himself. There were also additional illustrations such as
chimneypieces, copied by Richards from Le Muet because they
were ‘most agreeing to the present practice both in England and
France’. This second edition was issued because of the need for
such works after the Great Fire of London and went into
numerous further editions until superseded by the cheap
Hoppus and Cole edition of all four books, 1732-1734.
There were four wholly or partially successful attempts to
publish the complete I Quattro Libri in English, details of which
are to be found in the relevant catalog entries (cats 38-40, 42). As
it had an impact on the first three English editions, it is relevant
to mention that the first full translation out of the original Italian
was published in French in Paris in 1650 by Roland Fréart de
Chambray (1606-1676). Giacomo Leoni’s English translation of
1715-1720 came first (cat. 38), followed by Colen Campbell’s
incomplete edition (cat. 39). The third was the very successful
but effectively pirated version by Edward Hoppus and Benjamin
Cole of 1732-1734 (cat. 40) whilst the fourth and last became the
definitive English version, edited by Isaac Ware and published
from 1737, but with titlepages dated 1738 (cat. 42).
The key points to make about the editions by Leoni,
Campbell and Hoppus and Cole are that they were all inaccurate
textually and they took liberties with Palladio’s illustrations.
These points are amplified in the catalog entries but in brief
Leoni relied on the French text of Fréart de Chambray rather
than Palladio’s original Italian and he admitted that his
illustrations could virtually be regarded as new works. The
Hoppus and Cole translation was completely dependant on
Leoni, cribbing his text although rewriting the words to avoid
charges of copyright infringement and re-engraving his
illustrations to a smaller size and in reverse of Leoni’s originals.
Campbell’s text was a revision of Leoni’s English text rather than
a new translation of the Italian. 111
[1.]
108-119_PalUsa_sag2.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:15 Pagina 112
After Isaac Ware’s translation was published in 1737, there were
no further attempts to rework Palladio’s original text, although
there were further editions of both Leoni and Ware. Burlington’s
Fabbriche Antiche (cat. 41) never had a wide circulation and was
always a rare book. The editions of Richards’ version of Book i
became redundant after Leoni’s edition appeared. But although
much effort and investment went into producing translations of
I Quattro Libri, we should now look at the relatively cheap
pattern books, often shamelessly pirating designs from each
other. The importance of these pattern books in the American
colonies is discussed below by Warren Cox (pp. 114-119) and
Calder Loth (pp. 142-151).
Eileen Harris defines pattern books as ‘a collection of ideal,
untried designs made for a specific publication – or assembled in
the case of [...] Batty Langley’s hotchpotch, The City and
Country Builder’s Treasury of Designs (1740) – with the express
purpose of assisting the reader in making a choice’.5 There has
been a tendency, particularly amongst American writers of the
last half century, to classify as pattern books virtually all English
eighteenth-century architectural publications, but whilst James
Gibbs’ A Book of Architecture (1728) was enormously influential
as a source of designs and details on both sides of the Atlantic, it
was written by a major British architect, rather than a failed one.
Colen Campbell’s Vitruvius Britannicus (1715-1725), whilst
undoubtedly occasionally quarried for inspiration,6 was a survey
of contemporary British architecture, spiced with a few of
Campbell’s own designs. Few true pattern book authors had
much success as architects or designers, whatever the success of
their publications. Despite the influence of Gibbs, his book only
managed a second edition,7 in contrast to, say, Batty Langley’s
The Builder’s Jewel: or, the Youth’s Instructor, first published in
1741, which made it to 20 editions by 1808, one of them pirated
and published in Charlestown in 1800. Gibbs, like Palladio, was
most influential in the way that his work was absorbed and
spread by the pattern book authors.
The presence of Palladio in some of these publications is not
always easy to identify. Few authors went as far as Abraham
Swan, whose The British Architect: or, the Builder’s Treasury of
Stair-cases (first edition 1745) contained a plate that amalgamates
elements of arcades from one of the Palladio translations8 and
presents them as new (cat. 49). The plate includes in clockwise
formation single bays of the Palazzo Thiene and the Basilica,
Vicenza, the Carità, Venice, and Palazzo da Porto, again in
Vicenza. The bay of the Palazzo Thiene (top left) is particularly
interesting in that Swan clearly misunderstood his source (or
deliberately did so) and instead of showing us a courtyard façade
with a view across a cloister corridor to a wall behind, he presents
it all as a single plane. From the early 1730s, mixing in other
material became standard in the dissemination of Palladio.
Francis Price’s A Treatise on Carpentry (1733), from its second
edition of 1735 called The British Carpenter, claimed it was a
compilation of ‘the most approv’d methods of connecting timber
together’ given by Alberti, Serlio, Palladio and others and from
the second edition onwards it included a supplement that
extracted Palladio’s work on the orders, with doors and windows
from Book 1, together with a proportional system of his own
devising that preserved the proportions of Palladio whilst
offering a simpler way to arrive at them. William Salmon’s
112 Palladio Londinensis (cat. 45, first published in 1734) remained
the standard builder’s manual through various editions until 1773
and whilst it nodded in the direction of Palladio, it used what it
wanted and discarded the rest. Palladio was being democratized
out of existence in these works. There is also the question of style.
A number of the plates in Swan’s The British Architect, and
particularly those showing chimneypieces, are basically Jonesian-
Palladian but with a thin veneer of fashionable rococo ornament
spread across them (fig. 1).
Probably because the numbers of eighteenth-century pattern
books available in America were far more limited than in
England, American historians since the days of Fiske Kimball, in
his Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the Early
Republic (New York 1922), have been far more diligent than their
English colleagues in identifying sources for designs in American
houses than in British ones, apart from the obvious ones such as
gothic elements from Langley’s Ancient Architecture, Restored and
Improved (first edition 1742), or indeed from Gibbs’ A Book of
Architecture. Kimball was one of the first in America to recognize
the importance of the printed illustrations in architectural books
from Palladio to William Pain (cat. 51).
It is legitimate to ask how these pattern books reached the
American colonies. Much work has been done in recent years
examining the North American book trade in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries.9 Books were dispatched either to individual
gentlemen, who may have visited London but who had certainly
struck up personal relationships with London booksellers, or
they were sent to colonial booksellers in Boston, New York,
Philadelphia or elsewhere in response to both general requests for
current publications on particular subjects or to requests for
particular authors or titles. Apart from the intriguing example of
Abraham Swan, a pirated edition of whose The British Architect
was the first book on architecture to be published in North
America, little attention seems to have been focused on archi-
tecture as a particular subject although one can draw general
conclusions from the work of Helen Park and Janice Schimmel-
man.10 Both authors have identified a list of European archi-
tectural books available in America in the eighteenth century
(before the Revolution in Parks’ case) and they have also
identified libraries and bookstores of the same period that either
circulated or sold architectural books.
Schimmelman’s figures indicate that it is not until after 1760
that architectural books begin to appear in booksellers’ catalogs
or advertisements in any quantity. Between 1693 and 1759, she
lists 26 titles of which only 12 could legitimately be described as
pattern books, whilst in 1760, there are 21 titles (18 pattern
books) alone.11 We are not describing a 1483 edition of Vitruvius
or Fréart’s Parallele de l’Architecture Antique et de la Moderne
(1650) as pattern books. Even in 1760, some of the books
appearing are quite old, e.g. William Halfpenny’s Practical
Architecture (1724), or William Hoppus’ Practical Measuring
Made Easy (1738), which were offered by the bookseller William
Dunlap (d. 1779) of Philadelphia. One has to assume that these
were being sent over from London as job lots on architecture.
The vast majority of titles recorded in the American colonies
before 1760 were in library catalogs, not in booksellers’ lists,
which leaves open questions about access to architectural books
by architects or builders or indeed their clients not always
answered in the available literature. In this context, the practice
of seeking sources in dateable and surviving American buildings
has been a particularly valuable exercise. The clear identification
of plates in Abraham Swan’s The British Architect as sources for
the parlor chimneypiece of the Jeremiah Lee House, in
Marblehead, ma (late 1760s, plate li, illustrated in fig. 1) and the
dining room chimneypiece at George Washington’s Mount
Vernon, va (1775, plate l), are classic and much cited instances.12
This brings us neatly to the issue of pirated American editions
of English works, of which the first, and the first American
architectural book, is the self-same Swan’s The British Architect.
The publisher/printer Robert Bell (c. 1731-1784) was born in
Glasgow and had served as a bookbinder in Berwick-upon-
Tweed and bookseller in Dublin. English copyright law did not
extend to Scotland and Ireland and a profitable trade had grown
up in both countries of unauthorized reprints of London
editions, many of which were exported to America. By avoiding
the copyright laws, of course these editions could undercut the
London booksellers. Bell emigrated to Philadelphia in 1768 after
he had gone too far in Dublin and had tried to undercut Irish
booksellers.
In America, Bell flourished and he became a flamboyant
marketer of books, his own publications as well as those of
others.13 Architecture was only a small part of his trade but
between 1773 and 1783, he stocked twenty-one titles, most of
which were cheaper pattern books14 by such authors as Batty
Langley, William Halfpenny and William Salmon. His most
expensive (and non-architectural) publications were unique in
the spread of their subscribers, all over the colonies, not just
Pennsylvania. Bell evidently selected Swan as a pirate edition
because he recognized its popularity in America (confirmed by
Park and Schimmelman), and he was able to build a base of 200
subscribers. Further advantages were that Swan was dead and
there would be little comeback from London publishers. He
employed the engraver John Norman (c. 1748-1817) to reproduce
the plates (which are mirror images of the originals) and the
most obvious difference between his and the London editions is
that Swan is described on the London titlepages as a Carpenter
and in America as an Architect. Bell replicated the process with
his edition (though of Part i only) of Swan’s A Collection of
Designs in Architecture, which came out the same year, 1775. This
was proudly dedicated to John Hancock, president of the
Continental Congress.15
Robert Bell did not retain the plates and his engraver John
Norman published a further edition of The British Architect
under his own imprint in Boston in 1794. Norman had
advertised himself as an Architect and Landscape Engraver in
177416 but he seems to have worked only as an engraver. How-
ever, he had maintained an interest in architecture after his move
from Philadelphia to Boston and he published there in 1781 The
Town and Country Builder’s Assistant, which was a compilation of
plates replicated from Swan again and Isaac Ware’s The Complete
Body of Architecture (London 1756). Another pirated title he
published was William Pain’s The Practical House Carpenter: or,
the Youth’s Instructor, which was at least up-to-date as he based it
on Pain’s fifth edition, published in London the same year, 1794.
After the Revolution it was only a matter of time before the
reliance on English architectural titles began to slacken but it still
took until 1797 before the first American pattern book, Asher
Benjamin’s The Country Builder’s Assistant, was published in
Greenfield, ma. In design terms, although there are elements of
Palladianism in it, it relies heavily on the more fashionable
Adamesque neo-classicism popularized in America by William
Pain (cat. 51), although some of the houses in Benjamin’s plates
would not look out of place in an English townscape of the
1750s, for example his plate 25, with a two-story house of five
bays and a Venetian window above a tri-partite front door.17
Palladio was not giving up without a fight!
1
The best discussion of this underlying Palladianism in the period of English
architecture traditionally characterized as ‘baroque’ remains G. Worsley,
Classical architecture in Britain: the heroic age, New Heaven (ct)-London 1995.
2
Wren and Hawksmoor certainly did by the time they died as we know from
their posthumous sale catalogs but of course we have no idea when their copies
were acquired. See D.J. Watkin (ed.), Sale catalogues of libraries of eminent
persons. IV. Architects, London 1972. Two of their near-contemporaries also
owned copies of Palladio. For Sir Roger Pratt (1620-1685) and Robert Hooke
(1635-1703), see C. Hind, ‘The Amateur Architect and his Library’, in G.
Worsley (ed.), The role of the amateur architect: papers given at the Georgian
Group Symposium, 1993, London 1994, p. 35.
3
One of the Leoni editions was in the Library Company of Philadelphia, whilst
another was at Yale in 1743. The edition of the Yale copy cannot be identified
from the catalog record but the Philadelphia copy was presumably the second
edition of 1721, the first edition (1715-1720) having been issued to subscribers
only. See J.G. Schimmelmann, Architectural books in early America, New Castle
(de), 1999, pp. 79-80.
4
The two most successful were the Antiquitates Urbis Romae and Descritione de
la Chiese, Stationi, Indulgenze & reliquiae de Corpi Santi, che sonno in la Citta di
Roma (both Rome 1554). These were two small guidebooks, the first a brief study
of the antiquities of Rome, while the second describes the history, treasures and
services of the seven most important ancient churches, with a list of other
churches, festivals and indulgences. Palladio’s fourth and final works were on
unlikely topics, an illustrated Italian edition of Julius Caesar’s Commentaries
(1575), and an edition of Polybius’ Histories, left incomplete at his death in 1580.
5
E. Harris, British architectural books and writers 1556-1785, Cambridge 1990, p.
34.
6
For example, Peter Harrison’s Brick Market Building (1762-1772) in Newport
(ri), was derived from Campbell’s illustration of what he called Inigo Jones’s but
was actually John Webb’s River Gallery at Somerset House, London, a popular
model for many neo-Palladians.
7
In 1739.
8
Probably Hoppus and Cole (cat. 40), which was the cheapest available.
9
See H. Amory, D.D. Hall (eds), A history of the book in America. I. The colonial
book in the Atlantic world, Worcester (ma) 2007.
10
H. Park, A list of architectural books available in America before the Revolution,
new ed., Los Angeles 1973, and J.G. Schimmelmann, Architectural books in early
America, cit.
11
J.G. Schimmelmann, Architectural books in early America, cit., pp. 177-178.
12
See A.L. Cummings, ‘The availability of architectural books in eighteenth-
century New England’, in K. Hafertepe, J.F. O’Gorman (eds), American
architects and their books to 1848, Amherst (ma) 2001, p. 9, and in the same work
R.F. Dalzell Jr., ‘George Washington, Mount Vernon and the pattern books’, p.
37. The first English edition of Swan’s The British Architect was 1745 but we do
not know which editions of the possible five were the sources for the two
chimneypieces cited. We can also mention here chimneypieces (1770s) in the
James Brice House, Annapolis (ma), based on plates l, li and liii.
13
This account of Bell’s career is drawn from H. Amory, D.D. Hall (eds), A
history of the book in America..., cit., pp. 284-290. However, they mention only
Swan’s A collection of designs in architecture and not The British Architect.
14
J.G. Schimmelmann, Architectural books in early America, cit., pp. 185-186.
15
It remains the rarest of the architectural titles published in America before
1800.
16
In the Pennsylvania Journal, 11 May 1774, cited by H.-R. Hitchcock, American
architectural books. A list of books, portfolios, and pamphlets on architectural and
related subjects published in America before 1895, Minneapolis (mn) 1962, p. 71.
17
Reproduced in K. Hafertepe, J.F. O’Gorman (eds), American architects and
their books to 1848, cit., fig. 8.8, p. 138.
113
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1. Robert Morris, Select
114 Architecture (1755), pl. 3
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Palladio and libraries
in eighteenth century America
warren j. cox
Palladianism in America is not the result of the direct study of
Palladio and his I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura by colonial
patrons and architects. While there were four copies of the
Leoni editions and twelve of the Ware editions of I Quattro
Libri1 recorded in the colonies, only a single copy of the 1570
or first edition is listed. It was in the Harvard College Library
as of 1765,2 but it was apparently an eighteenth-century
edition with engravings rather than woodcuts. What were far
more influential were the pattern books published in London
that popularized Anglo-Palladianism for the country
gentlemen, builders and craftsmen and made it the most
influential style in Britain between the 1720s and the 1750s.
The researches of Helen Park3 and Janice Schimmelman4 have
shown that far and away the five most frequently documented
architectural books in America before the Revolution were
carpenters’ handbooks, or pattern books, relatively un-
pretentious ‘how-to-draw’, ‘how-to-build’ books, smaller in
both size and ambition. These were also far more popular than
the treatises on architectural design by established British
architects such as James Gibbs (cat. 44) and those in the
second half of the century by Sir William Chambers and
Robert and James Adam.
From 1720 to 1750 there were twelve documented titles of
architectural books in the colonies. From 1750 to 1799 there
were almost 140 and they consisted largely of carpenters’
handbooks. The major authors such as William Salmon (cat.
45), Batty Langley (cats 43 and 47), Abraham Swan (cats 49 and
50), William Halfpenny and William Pain (cat. 51) churned out
multiple titles.
According to Park,5 the most prevalent architectural book in
the colonies was William Salmon’s rather optimistically titled
Palladio Londinensis (cat. 45) first published in 1734, which has
about as much relationship to I Quattro Libri as a pick-up
truck has to a racing car. Each has its place, but they are not the
same. In fact, the major architect named in the title page is
Gibbs! On the other hand, if one were a builder with a house
to construct, Palladio Londinensis would be far more directly
useful than illustrations of Palladio’s villas and reconstructions
of Roman antiquities. For example, the book gives basic
geometry lessons, prices of labor and materials for masons,
carpenters, joiners, smiths, etc. There are directions for the
construction of the five orders, for ‘Frontispieces, with the
several Doors proper for each Order’, for several kinds of ‘Stair-
Cases’, ‘the best Rules for framing and trussing all manner of
Roofs’ and so forth – all good practical advice.
Another book attempting to trade on the great man’s name
is William and James Pain’s folio-sized British Palladio: or, the
Builder’s General Assistant (1786; cat. 51). The Pains mix
staircases, roof framing, moldings ‘with their proper orna-
ments’, chimneypieces, house plans, elevations and sections
along with the prices of various trades and materials. There is
little of the true Palladio and the great man’s name has been
cited as a marketing device. Though typically overloaded and
fussy, the Pains’ designs are within the Anglo-Palladian
tradition.
Abraham Swan’s slightly less presumptuously titled The
British Architect: or, the Builder’s Treasury of Stair-cases (1st
edition 1745; cat. 49), mentions Palladio in the introduction
and compares some of its delineations of the orders and designs
of arches with Palladio’s, but the book’s main subject is, as
stated, staircases, some of them very elaborate. Also shown in
less quantity are classical window frames, chimneypieces, orna-
ments and the de-rigueur roof trusses (which had, of course,
always interested Palladio). The British Architect remained a
popular book, running to seven editions, of which the last two
were published in Philadelphia (cat. 50) and Boston, as late as
1794.
Perhaps the best known and the most prolific of the authors
of carpenters’ handbooks was Batty Langley. Two of the most
widely-known were The City and Country Builder’s, and Work-
man’s Treasury of Designs (1740; cat. 47) and the wonderful, tiny
and aptly named The Builder’s Jewel: or, the Youth’s Instructor
and Workman’s Remembrances (1746), which ran to more than
eighteen editions, one of them published in Boston in 1800.
The Treasury is more of a design handbook for the orders,
doorcases, chimneypieces, decorative flooring, even bookcases,
console tables, pulpits and funerary monuments than it is a
construction handbook, although roof framing is included.
The plates are surprisingly well-rendered. This is a book for the
builder who needs to dress a building properly rather than be
told how to construct it. The Builder’s Jewel, pocket-sized, again [1.]
well engraved and crammed with delightful small plates is
basically a shrunken Builder’s Treasury. Its popularity in
America before 1800 is probably due to both its size and its
undoubtedly minimal cost.
Lastly, we should turn to Robert Morris’s Select Architecture
(1755; cat. 48), a copy of which was in Thomas Jefferson’s
library. It is another of the core books of neo-Palladianism in
early America and was often quarried for its designs. Jefferson
may have used plate 43 as a source for the final Monticello and
plates 31 and 32 for his retreat, Poplar Forest. There are several
plates of winged, five-part, Palladian houses and plate 3 (fig. 1)
is generally considered to have been the design inspiration for
Brandon (c. 1765; fig. 2) on the James River in Virginia. 115
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There were very few libraries in eighteenth century America
that contained, by modern standards, a large number of archi-
tectural books. What is significant, and perhaps surprising, is
that three architects, in particular Thomas Jefferson, did amass
architectural libraries which contained many, if not most, of
the few significant titles available and there were also at least
two other documented libraries belonging to major colonial
landowners that listed important architectural books.
thomas jefferson (1743-1826)
While Jefferson, depending upon one’s interpretation,
assembled four, five or six libraries in his lifetime, it is the
second library, amassed from 1770 to 1815, that was the largest,
most famous and most thoroughly cataloged.6 When it was
sold to the Library of Congress in 1815, it contained 6707
books, with forty-three titles on architecture and twenty-five
on gardening, painting and sculpture. It was one of the largest
individual libraries in America and contained more books
dealing with architecture than any other library in the country.
Jefferson had been a voracious collector. In the five years he was
in France (1784-1789), for example, he added at least 20007
titles. He acknowledged his addiction in 1815, ‘I labor
grievously under the malady of bibliomania’.8
In contrast to his contemporaries, who relied largely on
carpenters’ pattern books and handbooks, Jefferson’s forty-
three titles were almost entirely the large and expensive
‘gentlemen’s’ folios. The carpenters’ handbooks were only
lightly represented by those of Batty Langley and William
Halfpenny. Jefferson’s remarkable, not to say astonishing,
[2.] library included, works by Serlio, Palladio, Scamozzi, Roland
Fréart de Chambray, Antoine de Desgodetz, Robert Castell, Sir
William Chambers, James Stuart and Nicholas Revett (see
Appendix 1 for a fuller list). While Jefferson also had a French
edition of I Quattro Libri and a copy of Godfrey Richards’
English translation of Book 1, edition unknown, three titles
conspicuous by their absence were Palladio’s original 1570
edition of I Quattro Libri, Colen Campbell’s Vitruvius
Britannicus (1715-1725) and Isaac Ware’s authoritative English
translation of Palladio, first published in 1737, but titlepages
dated 1738 (cat. 42).
Almost all these books in Jefferson’s library made a contri-
bution to his architecture. Benjamin Henry Latrobe remarked
rather unkindly: ‘Jefferson was an excellent architect out of
books’.9 Jefferson wrote of his preferences: ‘Palladio is my
bible’.10 While his anonymous design entry for the ‘President’s
House’ (cat. 57) is a direct and blatant copy of the Villa
Rotonda, and his first design or redesign of Monticello utilized
[3.] [4.] the Palladian double story portico directly (most famously used
at the Villa Cornaro [fig. 28.1]), his use of the ‘bible’ was often
considerably more subtle and imaginative and it was combined
and integrated with his other sources. The Lawn at the
University of Virginia (fig. 16, p. 15) is a synthesis of sources as
diverse as French hôtels particuliers, Claude Nicolas Ledoux, the
Pantheon in Rome, Palladio (the orders in particular), along
with a distinct Greek Revival character, presumably derived
from James Stuart and Nicholas Revett’s Antiquities of Athens.
116 In another vein, his Virginia State Capitol building of 1785
(cat. 56) modeled on the Maison Carrée at Nîmes (fig. 3), is the
first Roman neo-Classical revival public building in America
and is clearly a precursor of the ubiquitous governmental
temple. It is, however, based on the plates in Charles Louis
Clérisseau’s Antiquités de la France rather than on Palladio’s
illustrations. Contrary to Latrobe’s caustic remark, Jefferson
was considerably more than a copyist.
william buckland (1734-1774)
Until Thomas Jefferson assembled his architectural library, the
2. Upper Brandon, Spring
largest and most important collection of architectural books in Grove (va), c. 1765
Virginia and then Maryland belonged to William Buckland.
3. The Maison Carrée,
Buckland trained as a joiner and cabinetmaker in London, Nîmes from C.L.
where he had lived with his uncle, the noted bookseller James Clérisseau’s Antiquités
de la France (1778)
Buckland, before emigrating to the American colonies, and it
4. Wye House, Talbot
is likely that much of Buckland’s library came with him. It County (md)
contained fourteen architectural books,11 and though they were
mostly carpenters’ handbooks, there were also several major
treatises such as Gibbs’ A Book of Architecture (1728). Signifi-
cantly, there was no edition of Palladio’s I Quattro Libri,
although the translations by Leoni, Hoppus and Cole and
Ware were available at the time. Some of the contents of
Buckland’s library at the time of his death are listed in
Appendix 2.
Buildings attributed wholly or partially to William Buckland
include interiors at Whitehall, the Hammond-Harwood
House and portions of the Chase Lloyd House in Annapolis,
md, Gunston Hall and possibly interiors at Mount Airy, va,
and the Hynson-Ringgold House in Chestertown, md.
Buckland’s Hammond-Harwood House of the early 1770’s, in
particular, combines details, elements and motifs from several
of his books, particularly Gibbs’ A Book of Architecture. How-
ever, like many other five-part houses in the colonies, while it
is neo-Palladian in plan, it is as much Georgian as neo-
Palladian in elevation.
peter harrison (1717-1775)
Peter Harrison was the leading architect in Newport, ri, and
Boston, ma. For Newport he designed the Redwood Library
(cat. 53), the Brick Market and Touro Synagogue, all directly
related to neo-Palladian sources in his library. The Library
derives from Hoppus and Cole’s edition of Palladio,12 the Brick
Market from a plate depicting John Webb’s Gallery at Somerset
House, London, in Campbell’s Vitruvius Britannicus and the
Synagogue from Gibbs’s Rules for Srawing the Several Parts of
Architecture, Isaac Ware’s Designs of Inigo Jones and Others (1731)
and Batty Langley’s The City and Country Builder’s, and
Workman’s Treasury of Designs (1740; cat. 47). In Cambridge
and Boston, ma, Harrison left us King’s Chapel and Christ
Church, both of which owe more to Gibbs than Palladio, not
surprisingly as churches were not covered in I Quattro Libri.13
At Harrison’s death his library contained twenty-nine titles
(some of which are listed in Appendix 3).
117
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other collections in america 8

Ibid., p. 59. appendix 2
9
Ibid., p. 63.
10
Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Colonel Isaac Coles, Feb. 23, 1816, Cocke A partial list of books in the library of William Buckland at the time of
There were at least two other, somewhat later, major architect’s Papers, No. 640, Box 21, University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Also W.B. his death:
libraries in America: those of Charles Bulfinch (1783-1844)14 and O’Neal, Jefferson’s fine arts library, cit., p. 1. Thomas Chippendale The Gentleman and Cabinet 1754
Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820).15 These architects 11
B. Brown, ‘The ownership of architectural books in America’, in K. Makers Directory
cannot, however, be considered neo-Palladians. Bulfinch is Hafertepe, J.F. O’Gorman (eds), American architects and their books to 1848, James Gibbs A Book of Architecture 1728
considered chiefly a follower of William Chambers and Robert cit., p. 26. Also R. Beirne, J. Scarff, William Buckland: architect of Virginia Batty Langley City and Country Builder’s 1740
and Maryland, Baltimore (md) 1970, pp. 149-150. and Workman’s Treasury of Designs
Adam while Latrobe was very much a protagonist of the Greek 12
C. Bridenbaugh, Peter Harrison: first American architect, Chapel Hill (nc)
Revival: ‘I have followed the Greek, rather than the Roman Gothic Architecture 1747
1949, pp. 168, 169, 170 and figs 15, 16, 7.
Ancient Architecture, Restored 1742
style, in spite of Sir William Chambers’16 and, ‘I am a bigoted 13
D.D. Reiff, Houses from books: treatises, pattern books, and catalogs in
American architecture, 1738-1950: a history and guide, University Park (pa),
and Improved
Greek’,17 he said. Robert Morris Select Architecture 2nd ed. 1757
While the libraries of Jefferson, Harrison, Buckland and, 2000, chapter 2, p. 29.
14
J.F. O’Gorman, ‘Bullfinch, buildings and books’, in K. Hafertepe, J.F. William Salmon Palladio Londinensis: or, The London 1734
5. Palladian/Serlian
window, Mount Vernon, later, Bulfinch, and the Library Company of Philadelphia18 O’Gorman (eds), American architects and their books to 1848, cit., chapter vi, Art of Building
Fairfax County (va) contained the largest – and most directly used – collections of pp. 91 ff. Abraham Swan The British Architect: Or, The Builder’s 1745
6. Batty Langley, The City architectural books in eighteenth century America, there were 15
J.A. Cohen, ‘The architectural libraries of Benjamin Henry Latrobe’, ibid., Treasury of Stair-cases
and Country Builder’s other smaller collections, such as the libraries belonging to two chapter vii, pp. 109 ff. A Collection of Designs in Architecture 1757
and Workman’s Treasury 16
Ibid., p. 120. Designs in Carpentry 1759
of Designs (1740) major landowners: Edward Lloyd iv of Wye House in Talbot 17
Ibid., p. 118. Isaac Ware A Complete Body of Architecture 1756
County, md, whose library contained nine architectural titles 18
J.G. Schimmelman, Architectural books in early America, cit., pp. 198-199.
including both the Leoni and Ware editions of Palladio,19 and 19
E. Wolf, The library of Edward Lloyd IV of Wye House, Winterthur (de) 1969.
William Byrd ii of Westover, va, with twenty-three titles.20 20
B. Brown, ‘The ownership of architectural books in America’, cit., p. 22. appendix 3
21
Byrd’s library included two unspecified editions of Palladio, as Ibid., p. 23.
22
D.D. Reiff, Houses from books..., cit., p. 33. A partial list of books in the library of Peter Harrison at the time of his
well as an edition of Godfrey Richards’ translation of Book i of
I Quattro Libri, Vitruvius Britannicus (1715-1725), and two death:
carpenters’ handbooks by William Halfpenny, Practical Archi- Benjamin Cole Andrea Palladio’s Architecture 1735
& Edward Hoppus in Four Books
tecture (1724) and The Art of Sound Building (1725). William Kent The Designs of Inigo Jones 1727
Whether the Lloyd and Byrd libraries were actually used as appendix 1 James Gibbs A Book of Architecture 1728
design sources is uncertain. Wye House (fig. 4) is a five-part Rules for Drawing the Several 1738
[5.]
house like several of Palladio’s villas and many other houses in A partial list of books in Jefferson’s library, sold to the Library of Congress, Parts of Architecture
the tidewater, but it is not overtly Palladian in detail. Byrd’s 1815: Abraham Swan The British Architect 1745
Robert Castell Villas of the Ancients Illustrated 1728 Isaac Ware A Complete Body of Architecture either 1756
house, Westover, does not appear to have elements directly
Sir William Designs of Chinese Buildings, 1757 or 1767
derived from the books in the library,21 although Byrd could Chambers Furniture, Dresses, Machines & Utensils Designs of Inigo Jones and Others c. 1735
afford to import elaborate doorcases and fireplaces from Charles Louis Antiquités de la France 1778
London and these perhaps gave it enough contemporary Clérisseau There were also a large number of the more popular carpenters’
glamour. It was not a five-part house originally – the hyphens Antoine Desgodetz Les Edifices Antiques de Rome 1679 handbooks such as:
were added in the twentieth century. Roland Fréart Parallèle de l’Architecture Antique 1650 William Salmon Palladio Londinensis: or, The London 1734
Conversely, while George Washington’s library did not du Chambray et de la Moderne Art of Building
apparently contain any architectural books, his house, Mount James Gibbs A Book of Architecture 1728
William Kent The Designs of Inigo Jones 1727 From the evidence of his buildings, Harrison must have also had access
Vernon, va, is replete with details and elements taken from Johan Karl Kraft Plans, Coupes, Elevations des plus belles 1800 to Batty Langley’s The City and Country Builder’s, and Workman’s Treasury
Abraham Swan’s The British Architect (cat. 49) and Batty Maisons et des Hotels Construits of Designs (edition unknown) and Colen Campbell’s Vitruvius
Langley’s The City and Country Builder’s and Workman’s à Paris et dans les Environs Britannicus (1715-1725), although these books are not listed in his
Treasury of Designs (cat. 47). This certainly provided the Giacomo Leoni The Architecture of A. Palladio 1st ed. 1715 inventory.
prototype for Mount Vernon’s great Palladian/Serlian window in Four Books
(figs 5 and 6) on the ballroom and much of the detailing The Architecture of A. Palladio 2nd ed. 1721
inside.22 It is possible that Washington borrowed the books or in Four Books
The Architecture of A. Palladio 3rd ed. 1752
that they were owned by his craftsmen. in Four Books
Julien David LeRoy Les Ruines des Plus Beaux 1758
Monuments de la Grèce
Thomas Major The Ruins of Paestum 1768
1
H. Park, A list of architectural books available in America before the Revolution, Robert Morris Select Architecture 1755
new ed., Los Angeles (ca) 1973, pp. 39, 40, 42. Vincenzo Scamozzi The Mirror of Architecture 7th ed. 1734
2
J.G. Schimmelman, Architectural books in early America, New Castle (de) Sebastiano Serlio Seven Books of Architecture from 1537 to 1575
1999, p. 119. James Stuart The Antiquities of Athens volume i 1762
3
H. Park, A list of architectural books available in America..., cit., p. 39. & Nicholas Revett
4
J.G. Schimmelman, Architectural books in early America, cit., p. 163. Isaac Ware A Complete Body of Architecture 1756 or 1767
5
H. Park, A list of architectural books available in America..., cit., p. 39.
6
[6.] W.B. O’Neal, Jefferson’s fine arts library, Charlottesville (va) 1976; R.G.
Wilson, ‘Thomas Jefferson’s “bibliomania” and architecture’, in K.
Hafertepe, J.F. O’Gorman (eds), American architects and their books to 1848,
Amherst (ma) 2001, pp. 59-72.
7
R.G. Wilson, ‘Thomas Jefferson’s “bibliomania” and architecture’, cit., p.
118 60. 119
120-139_PalUsa_sche2.qxp:Layout 1
[38b.]
38a. The Villa
Valmarana
at Lisiera, The
Architecture of A.
Palladio, translated
by Giacomo Leoni,
London 1715, ii,
pl. xxxiii
38b. Conjectural
image of Palladio,
The Architecture
of A. Palladio,
translated by
Giacomo Leoni,
London 1715.
120 Frontispiece
13-03-2010 12:16 Pagina 120
38.
andrea palladio (author)
and giacomo leoni (editor)
The Architecture of A.
Palladio: In Four Books.
Containing A short Treatise
of the Five Orders, and the
most necessary Observations
concerning all Sorts of
Building, As Also The
different Construction of
Private and Publick Houses,
High-ways, Bridges, Market-
Places, Xystes, and Temples,
with their Plans, Sections and
Uprights. To which are added
several Notes and
Observations made by Inigo
Jones, never printed before.
Revis’d, Design’d and
Publish’d By Giacomo Leoni
... Translated from the Italian
Original.
London : Printed by John
Watts, for the Author
[i.e. Leoni], 1715
Folio
Size: 450 × 280 mm
History and ownership: Bearing the
armorial stamp of the Watson family
on each board. The first owner from
this family was probably Lewis
Watson, 2nd Earl of Rockingham
(1714-1745); Fergusson Bequest 1886
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, E.d.267(1-2)
For all its shortcomings, this edition
of Palladio’s I Quattro Libri is a land-
mark in the history of Anglo-
Palladianism. The editor was Gia-
como Leoni, who described himself
on the titlepage as a Venetian but who
is first recorded in 1708 in Düsseldorf,
where he was involved in work for the
Elector Palatine at Schloss Bensberg.
This was a project directed by the
Venetian architect Count Matteo
d’Alberti, who was working in a
Palladian Revival style as a result of a
visit to London in 1683, where he had
seen work by Inigo Jones. A manu-
script in Leoni’s hand (now in McGill
University, Montreal)1 entitled Li cin-
que ordine dell’architettura civile nell
mis[u]re di Palladio suggests that he
was well qualified to become involved
in the incipient English Palladian
Revival. He probably arrived in
England in 1713, the same year that
Nicholas Dubois, a French-born,
Huguenot military engineer, was
retired on half-pay after the Treaty of
Utrecht. Eileen Harris has shown that
Leoni employed Dubois to make an
English translation of Fréart de
Chambray’s 1650 French edition of
Palladio, which disproves Leoni’s
claim on the titlepage that the work
was ‘Translated from the Italian
Original’. Leoni’s English was pre-
sumably inadequate to translate the
Italian original but it was perverse
then to publish the Italian text
alongside the French and English
texts, although Dubois’ version of the
Fréart text was amended somewhat
from the original. Subsequent edi-
tions printed only the English trans-
lation. Leoni’s claim that he would
include Inigo Jones’s annotations of
his 1601 edition of I Quattro Libri was
defeated by Dr George Clarke, who
owned the book and refused Leoni
access to it. Not until the third edi-
tion appeared in 1742 was Leoni able
to publish them, by which time
Clarke was dead and his library had
been bequeathed to Worcester
College, Oxford.
Proposals for the work were pub-
lished in April 1715 and it seems that
Book i was available by September,
although the frontispiece and (spuri-
ous) portrait of Palladio are dated
1716. The remaining books appeared
over four years, the final part of Book
iv being delivered in early 1720. The
work was available only to subscribers
and a second edition (in English only)
for general sale appeared in 1721.
Although Leoni’s plates are of high
quality, he undoubtedly took many
liberties in translating Palladio’s
woodcuts for contemporary taste.
Leoni’s introduction to Book iv drew
attention to the fact that ‘Such as are
true Judges will, by comparing the
Draughts of Palladio with mine, easily
discern a vast difference. His Wooden
Cuts i have chang’d in [sic] Copper
Plates, which, for the greater Per-
fection of the Work, tho’ much to my
own loss, I have procur’d to be
engrav’d in Holland by the famous
Monsieur [Bernard] Picart [of
Amsterdam] [...] I have not only
made the draughts myself, and on a
much larger scale than my Author;
but also made so many necessary
Corrections with respect to shading,
dimensions, ornaments, &c. that this
Work may be in some sort be rather
consider’d as an Original, than an
Improvement’. This may be why
Burlington and his circle so dis-
approved of the work.
The plate illustrated (plate 38a)
shows the Villa Valmarana at Lisiera.
Leoni adds a hipped roof and
substitutes domes for Palladio’s
pyramid roofs on the corners. He also
adds a great deal of architectural
ornamentation around the windows,
steps to the end bays and amends the
proportions of the whole. Only
thirty-nine of the plates were by
Picart, the remainder being by three
London engravers, Michael Vander-
gucht, John Harris and John Cole.
The printing by John Watts was also
of high quality. His press was where
many eminent printers, including
Benjamin Franklin, learned their
trade. The spurious bust of Palladio 121
[38a.]
120-139_PalUsa_sche2.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010
(plate 38b) (supposedly after a portrait
by Paolo Veronese), published as a
portrait and again in an allegorical
frontispiece, was by Sebastiano Ricci
(1659-1734), a Venetian painter who
stayed in London 1711-1716 and who
also did some work for Lord Burling-
ton.
Of all the English translations of I
Quattro Libri, Leoni’s (the second
appeared in 1721 and the third in
1742), this was the second most popu-
lar in the American colonies, after the
Hoppus and Cole edition of 1735.
Jefferson owned copies of all three
Leoni editions. Two houses that
appear to derive from its plates are
Drayton Hall, sc (1738-1742; see cat.
52) and Shirley Plantation, va (c.
1769).
1
Collins 1957, pp. 3-4.
Literature: estc t095463; Harris 1990,
p. 683; riba 2391; Colvin 2008, pp.
642-644.
charles hind
39.
andrea palladio (author)
and colen campbell (editor)
Andrea Palladio’s Five Orders
Of Architecture. With His
Treatises of Pedestals,
Galleries, Entries, Halls,
Rooms, Floors, Pavements,
Ceilings; various Arches,
Gates, Doors, Windows,
Chimnies, Stair-Cases, and
Roofs. Together with His
Observations and
Preparations for Building;
and his Errors and Abuses
in Architecture. Faithfully
Translated, and all the Plates
exactly copied from the First
Italian Edition printed in
Venice 1570. Revised by Colen
Campbell, ... To which are
added, Five Curious Plates
of Doors, Windows, and
Chimney-Pieces, invented
by Mr. Campbell.
London : Printed for
S. Harding ..., 1729
Folio
Size: 317 × 195 mm
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, E.e.349
This work is the beginning of a failed
attempt to supply an accurate and
complete English edition to compete
with the expensive and inaccurate
translation by Nicholas Dubois, pub-
lished by Giacomo Leoni between
1715 and 1720 (see cat. 38). Leoni’s
122 edition was an expensive one at 5
12:16 Pagina 122
guineas, so it was decided to offer this
one at 21/2 guineas for the large paper
copies and 11/2 guineas for the small.
There is no proof that Lord Burling-
ton was involved in this but it seems
very likely that he agreed to under-
write the costs, given that Colen
Campbell as editor, Samuel Harding
as publisher and Paul Fourdrinier as
engraver were all in Burlington’s
circle. Campbell described himself as
‘reviser’ of the text, an appropriate
term, as he did not translate Palladio’s
Italian text but carefully revised
Dubois’ English text. It is not certain
whether Campbell had been to Italy,
although he claimed to have studied
architecture abroad, nor whether he
spoke Italian, so he may have revised
Dubois’ text with a dictionary to hand
for checking against the Italian text.
The prime mover in this venture
seems to have been the publisher,
Samuel Harding, who invested
heavily in the work. When Campbell
died in September 1729, rather sur-
prisingly Harding abandoned the
venture, perhaps because he could not
find anyone of equal standing to
complete the work. Also Fourdrinier
was so busy working on Burlington’s
Fabbriche Antiche (see cat. 41) that he
had to ask Benjamin Cole to assist
with some of the additional plates
that Campbell had inserted of his
own designs. Cole turned out to be
something of a viper in the bosom for
in November 1732, he announced his
own proposals for an edition of
Palladio, with Book i being half the
price of Harding’s. After offering his
remaining copies at a reduced price,
Harding disposed of the copper
plates. In due course, they were
acquired by the bookseller Robert
Sayer, who used them to introduce a
collection of designs by William
Halfpenny, Robert Morris and
Timothy Lightoler, The Modern
Builder’s Assistant, which he published
in 1757. The plate illustrated (plate 39)
depicts staircases in Book i, the one
lettered F being the staircase in the
Carità, Venice, possibly the first
cantilevered staircase, which Palladio
says was invented by Marcantonio
Barbaro.
Literature: estc n030216; Harris 1990,
p. 687; Colvin 2008, p. 214.
charles hind
40.
andrea palladio (author)
and edward hoppus and
benjamin cole (revisers)
Andrea Palladio’s
Architecture, in Four Books
Containing a Dissertation on
the Five Orders & ye most
Necessary Observations
relating to all kinds of
Building, as also The
Different Constructions of
Public and Private-Houses,
High-ways, Bridges, Market-
Places, Xystes, & Temples,
wth their Plans, Sections,
and Elevations. The whole
containing 226 Folio Copper-
Plates Carefully Revis’d
and Redelineated By Edwd.
Hoppus...; and Embellish’d
with a Large Variety of
Chimney Pieces Collected
from the Works of Inigo
Jones & others.
London: Printed for & sold
by the Proprietor, and
Engraver, Benj: Cole... and
by ye Booksellers of London
and Westminster...
[1732]-1735
Folio
Size: 340 × 205 mm
History and ownership: Presented
to the riba by Robert Upton, 1835
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, E.e.346
Eileen Harris described Cole as ‘a
blatant and unscrupulous plunderer;
yet his motives, like Robin Hood’s,
were charitable’. According to his
proposal published in The Daily
Advertiser in November 1732, Cole’s
concern was ‘that all Journeymen,
Apprentices, &c.’ who could not
afford Leoni’s expensive edition at 4
guineas (cat. 38), or even Campbell’s
cheaper edition of Book i at 10s 6d
(cat. 39), ‘may be furnish’d with the
works of the great master’. Although
Cole was first and foremost an
engraver, he was also a Freemason, so
it was his duty to provide such
material to the lowest tradesmen.
Whatever his motives, his means of
achieving his end were very upsetting
to others in the field. The publisher of
Campbell’s Book i, Samuel Harding,
promptly halved its price to 5 shillings
and a war of words between Cole, on
the one hand, and Harding and his
engraver Fourdrinier, on the other,
took place in the advertising pages of
The Daily Advertiser, of which
Harding happened to own one third.
This died away when Cole produced
the remaining three books, completed
in 1735.
Cole’s unscrupulousness is clear
when one considers the sources of his
publication. He employed the sur-
veyor Edward Hoppus (cat. 46) to
recast the words of Campbell’s Book i
and Leoni’s Books ii-iv, so that he
could not be accused of copyright
infringement. As no copyright then
existed for images, he simply copied
their plates on a reduced scale, so that
they appeared as mirror images of their
originals (compare plate 40 and fig. 16,
p. 140). The plate illustrated depicts
the Villa Rotonda, Vicenza. Plates
from Isaac Ware’s recently published
Designs of Inigo Jones and Others (1731)
were also pirated to act as end-pieces.
The Hoppus and Cole edition was
the most popular of the Palladio
translations in America. Peter Harri-
son, who owned a copy, partly derived
his Redwood Library, Newport, ri
(cat. 53) from a headpiece vignette
(fig. 4, p. 144) that Cole cribbed from
Ware’s Designs of Inigo Jones and
Others, plate 45.1 Relatively few copies
of the edition survive today, probably
because it did exactly as Cole hoped
and served craftsmen well until they
fell to pieces.
1
Identified as a design for a garden seat for
Sir Charles Hothan.
Literature: estc t150562; Harris 1990,
p. 688; riba 2393.
charles hind
41.
richard boyle, 3rd earl
of burlington (editor)
Fabbriche Antiche Disegnata
Da Andrea Palladio Vicentino
e Date in Luce Da Riccardo
Conte di Burlington. London
1730 [i.e. c. 1735]
Folio
Size: 525 × 340 mm
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, E.b.138
In I Quattro Libri, Palladio promised
further books that he hoped ‘to put out
soon’ but which never appeared.
Certainly he would then have covered
the baths and amphitheatres in Rome
that he so assiduously measured, drew
and conjecturally reconstructed. The
drawings that Burlington acquired in
Italy in 1719 (see Provenance pp. xii-
xiii) included many of Palladio’s
drawings of the baths, so it was not
unnatural for Burlington to consider
issuing them to the public himself.
Work on redrawing and engraving the
drawings appears to have started
around 1730 and in 1734 George Vertue
visited Chiswick House, where he saw
‘infinite numbers of Designs of
Palladio of which some have been
engraved at his Lordships expence, to
make a book, wanting only one leaf
this two year’.1 Despite the titlepage
being dated 1730, it appears that
Burlington did not regard the book as
complete until at least 1735 and copies 39. Colen
were not offered for sale but given by Campbell,
Burlington to friends. His intro- Andrea Palladio’s
duction promised that a further Five Orders
of Architecture,
volume dealing with arches, theatres, London 1729, i,
temples and other ancient buildings pl. xxix 123
[39.]
120-139_PalUsa_sche2.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:16 Pagina 124

[41.]

41. Baths of
40. The Villa Agrippa, Richard
Rotonda, Vicenza, Burlington,
Andrea Palladio’s Fabbriche Antiche
Architecture, Disegnata da
Hoppus and Cole Andrea Palladio
edition, London Vicentino, London
124 1735, pl. 15 1730, pl. 2 125
[40.]
120-139_PalUsa_sche2.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:16 Pagina 126
‘when there is time’ but there is no
evidence that anything further was
prepared.
The engraved copies were redrawn
by Isaac Ware from Palladio’s ori-
ginals, sometimes reducing a series of
drawings to a standard size to enable
them to fit on the sheet. The en-
gravings were printed in bistre, to
render them as close as possible to
Palladio’s original drawings. The
engraving illustrated (plate 41) depicts
the Baths of Nero (completed c. 64
ad, restored 227 ad), which fortu-
nately Palladio surveyed and drew in
some detail, as his drawings are the
only surviving record of the building,
subsequently destroyed.
1
Vertue 1933-1934, p. 73.
Literature: estc t035115; Harris 1990,
p. 669; riba 2379.
charles hind
42.
andrea palladio (author)
and isaac ware (editor)
The Four Books of Andrea
Palladio’s Architecture:
Wherein, After a short
Treatise of the Five Orders,
Those Observations that are
most necessary in Building,
Private Houses, Streets,
Bridges, Piazzas, Xisti,
and Temples are treated of.
London : Published by Isaac
Ware
[1737]-1738
Folio
Size: 400 × 247 mm
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, E.d.269
Benjamin Cole’s unscrupulous publi-
cation of Palladio spurred the Burling-
tonian establishment to produce an
authoritative edition of I Quattro Libri.
Isaac Ware had acted as a drauftsman
for Burlington, redrawing Palladio’s
bath drawings for Fabbriche Antiche
(cat. 41), and he was also an official in
the Office of the King’s Works for over
thirty years. His first publication was
the octavo volume Designs of Inigo Jones
and Others (London 1731), which also
contained designs by Burlington and
William Kent. Ware’s edition of I
Quattro Libri was a careful and
scholarly work in which ‘particular care’
was taken ‘to preserve the Proportions
and Measures from the Original, all the
plates being engraved by the Author’s
own hand’. It must have given Ware
particular pleasure to see off Cole’s
edition, given his personal grievance
[42.]
against Cole for copying elements from
his earlier work. In the announcement
126 in the London Evening Post that the
book was in the press in April 1737,1
Ware promised subscribers there would
be no liberties taken with the ‘Beautiful
Proportions of that Correct and
incomparable Author, no deviations
from the drawings (Ware of course had
access to drawings in Burlington’s
collection and reminded readers of this)
[...] no fanciful decorations intro-
duced’. Cole was explicitly attacked by
the mention of the fact that his
dedication to Burlington was without
the latter’s ‘Approbation and Know-
ledge or his so much as having heard of
the author [...] or seen his Book’ and
secondly in the flattening statement
that the book was ‘done with so little
understanding and so much neg-
ligence, that it cannot but give great
offence to the judicious, and be of very
bad consequences in misleading the
unskillful, into whose hands it might
happen to fall’.
Presumably with Burlington’s con-
siderable financial support, the price of
a copy of this work was kept down to
£1/10/-, the same as Cole’s, and was also
available in weekly parts costing six-
pence. Ware was helped by eight agents,
who happened to include Samuel
Harding and Paul Fourdrinier, the
publisher and engraver who had lost so
much in Campbell’s abortive edition
(cat. 39). Burlington’s assistance was
acknowledged in the dedication (plate
42) as having revised and corrected the
text with his own hands and the
headpiece to the dedication plate 42 was
designed by another key member of
Burlington’s household, William Kent.
Ware’s authentic edition (a second
edition appeared in 1753-1754) survived
as ‘the’ authoritative English text until
the late twentieth century.
Ware’s edition was less well known
in the American colonies than either
the Leoni and Hoppus and Cole
editions. However, copies were owned
by Thomas Jefferson and the Phila-
delphia carpenter Robert Smith, who
acquired his 1737 edition in 1754.
1
Despite clear evidence that the book was [43.]
available in 1737, the titlepages are dated
1738.
Literature: estc t040073; Harris 1990,
p. 691; riba 2395.
charles hind
43.
batty langley (1696-1751) 42. Dedication,
The Builder’s Chest-Book; The Four Books
of Palladio’s
or A Complete Key to the Architecture,
Five Orders of Columns in translated by Isaac
Ware, London 1738
Architecture ... by B. Langley
... 43. Fold out plate
on the orders,
London : printed for Batty Langley,
J. Wilcox ... The Builder’s Chest
1727 Book, London 1772 127
120-139_PalUsa_sche2.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010
Quarto
Size: 165 × 105 mm
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, E.h.86
Batty Langley is not known to have had
any training or experience in building,
yet he has come to be associated particu-
larly (perhaps because of his memorable
name as much as for his considerable
output) with builder’s manuals and
pattern books of the mid-eighteenth
century. The origins of his own name are
unknown but he burdened his children
with names suitable to his interests;
Euclid, Vitruvius, Archimedes and
Hiram. What we do know of his career
as a designer is summarized by Colvin,1
but it was his lack of success in this field
that doubtless made him turn to
writing. Langley’s background (and
earliest publications) were connected
with gardening and garden design, but
Harris2 describes him as ‘a pioneer of the
rococo, a leading spokesman of the
opposition to the Burlington establish-
ment, a champion of English craftsmen
and above all an avid Freemason,
passionately devoted to the education of
his brethren’. So his motives were similar
to those of Benjamin Cole (cat. 40) in
providing cheap texts and illustrations
for the benefit of the craftsmen and
builders, rather than the gentlemen
amateur architects, whom he despised.
Harris provides the best available
account of Langley and his publishing
career.3 The Builder’s Chest-Book was the
second of Langley’s publications, most of
which contained pirated illustrations.
The majority of his works dealt with two
themes, the orders (plate 43) and geom-
etry, on which he could endlessly
provide variations. There is little new
material in his books, but ‘they were
plentiful, understandable, much in de-
mand and evidently useful’.4 His sub-
scribers were numerous, scattered all
over Britain, and were predominantly
carpenters, joiners, glaziers, masons,
surveyors, carvers and craftsmen. It is
small wonder then that Langley had an
enormous impact on British buildings of
his day and also in the American
colonies, where together with Abraham
Swan (cats 49 and 50), he was the author
most commonly found in colonial
libraries used by colonial designers.
1
Colvin 2008, pp. 630-631.
1
Harris 1990, p. 262.
3
Harris 1990, pp. 262-270.
4
Harris 1990, p. 265.
Literature: estc t106322; Harris 1990,
p. 413; riba 1730; Colvin 2008.
44. ‘A House
of 58 by 44 feet, charles hind
containing six
rooms on a floor,
with two
staircases’, James
Gibbs, A Book
of Architecture,
London 1728,
128 pl. 63
12:16 Pagina 128
44.
james gibbs (1682-1754)
A Book of Architecture,
Containing Designs Of
Buildings and Ornaments.
By James Gibbs.
London: [printed
by W. Bowyer for the author].
1728
Folio
Size: 425 × 280 mm
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, E.c.63
Gibbs’s book was intended to be ‘of
use to such Gentlemen as might be
concerned in Building, especially in
remote parts of the Country, where
little or no assistance for Designs can
be procured. Such may be here
furnished [...] which may be executed
by any Workman who understands
Lines [...]’ (p. i). Although the utili-
tarian nature of the work is stressed,
its high price (4 guineas) meant that it
was too expensive for many builders.
Nevertheless the book was a com-
mercial success (the list of subscribers
runs to 481 names) and its influence
on design, and on architectural pub-
lishing in the eighteenth century was
immense. Not surprisingly, Thomas
Jefferson owned a copy.
Gibbs was almost forced into
publishing his own work as he had
been excluded from the three-volume
Vitruvius Britannicus (1715-1725),
Colen Campbell’s survey of con-
temporary British architecture that
included examples of Campbell’s own
speculative (and neo-Palladian)
designs. He was also acutely aware of
the tides of Palladian taste ex-
emplified by the publication of The
Designs of Inigo Jones (though also
containing designs by Burlington and
William Kent), edited by Kent and
published in 1727. That work was
published only for subscribers, of
whom Gibbs was one, so he will have
seen the proof plates late in 1726. He
issued proposals for his own book in
March 1727, using the same pub-
lishers as Kent, James Woodman and
Daniel Lyon. He also used the same
engraver, Henry Hulsbergh. The
most influential element of Kent’s
work were the plates of doors,
windows and niches, an idea that
Gibbs took up in his own A Book of
Architecture and which subsequently
became a standard feature of eight-
eenth-century pattern books. Gibbs’s
plates were a popular source of
inspiration on both sides of the
Atlantic for decades to come. Mount
Airy, va (1748-1758), for example (cat.
54), is based on plate 58, Tryon
Palace, nc (1767-1770), relies heavily
on plate 63 (illustrated is plate 44),
while the Hammond-Harwood
House, Annapolis, md, calls on
Gibbs for its elevations and many
details. Gibbs’s alternative designs for
St. Martin-in-the-Fields were fre-
quently copied or adapted until well
into the nineteenth century.
According to an inscription, this
copy was presented to Thomas Henry
Wyatt by his uncle James Wyatt.
Although both were of the famous
Wyatt dynasty of architects and
builders (Thomas Henry became
President of the riba in 1870), James
was not the eminent architect who
was a serious challenge to the aging
Robert Adam, but his first cousin
once removed, the James Wyatt (1779-
1854) who manufactured cement.
Literature: estc t022978; Harris 1990,
p. 257; Reiff 2000.
charles hind
45.
william salmon
(1703-1779)
Palladio Londinensis: Or,
The London Art of Building.
In Three parts. Part 1.
Containing such Geometrical
Problems as are necessary in
describing Squares, Circles, ...
Part II. Containing plain and
easy Directions for the
Construction of the Five
Orders of Architecture,
with their Pedestals, Imposts,
Arches, elevations and
Profiles. ... Part 111. Contains
a Description of the several
kinds of Stair-Cases; ...
Likewise the Ground Rules
necessary to be observed
in Architecture and Building
in general.
London : Printed for Mess.
Ward and Wicksteed, ...
1734
Quarto
Size: 225 × 170 mm
History and ownership: Nathanael
Burtenshaw, 1736; Luke Weller,
by whom sold to John Durrant; John
Durrant, 1778; W.H. Simms, 1828;
H.A. Fraser-Spooner, by whom
presented to the riba, 1935
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, E.g.745
William Salmon was a carpenter from
Colchester, Essex, who advertised in
The Builder’s Guide (1736) that he
‘draws Draughts or Designs for
Gentlemen, and estimates the same;
or undertakes to Build, or gives Dir-
ections to Workmen in performing
the executive Part, according to Art,
agreeable to any situation, and the
most beautiful proportions in Archi-
tecture’. However no works of his are
known and his reputation is based on
the large numbers of modestly priced
and eminently practical builder’s
manuals that he wrote, which went
through various editions between the
1730s and 1770s. At least three titles
ran to eight editions. As a designer, he
was probably typical of many in his
trade, who designed anonymously but
added immeasurably to the range of
modest but attractive buildings of
eighteenth century England and
America.
Palladio Londinensis remained a
standard builder’s manual from 1734
to its eight edition in 1773, after which
it was superseded by William Pain’s
publications (cat. 51). Its success was
based on Salmon’s abilities as a
compiler, for he offered nothing new
himself. For the first time, builders
were presented in a single volume
material on carpentry of roofs and
stairs, instructions on geometry and
the five orders and a summary of the
building regulations in London laid
down in various acts from 1666 to
1725. Most importantly, however,
Salmon gave ‘clear directions for
finding the diameter in feet and
inches of the five orders, with or
without entablatures and pedestals, in
proportion to a given height, arith-
metically, geometrically with ruler
and compass, and on inspectional
tables’ (plate 45).1 His reason for so
doing is given in the preface: ‘In all
the Treatises written by Palladio,
Scamozzi, Serlio, Vignola, Le Clerc,
and Evelyn, there is not a Word
mentioned for the instructing a young
Architect how to module, or find the
diameter of an Order’. He goes on to
commend William Halfpenny’s The
Art of Sound Building (1725) and Batty
Langley’s The Builder’s Chest-Book
(1727; cat. 43) as containing the best
rules for calculating quantities and
dimensions. Salmon’s genius was to
bring them together, with minor
variations and improvements of his
own. Thus the proportions of the five
orders, laid down by Palladio and his
successors, were popularized and
made accessible to eighteenth century
building tradesmen and craftsmen
who rarely read the original Re-
naissance texts on the subject.
The riba copy bears three owner-
ship inscriptions that suggest that it
remained in use as a practical
workshop reference tool from 1736 to
after 1830.
1
Harris 1990, p. 40.
Literature: Archer 1985, p. 438; estc
t139013; Harris 1990, p. 793; riba
2888.
charles hind
129
[44.]
120-139_PalUsa_sche2.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:16 Pagina 130
46.
edward hoppus (d. 1739)
The Gentleman’s and
Builder’s Repository: Or,
Architecture Display’d. ... The
whole embellished, not only
with fourscore plates, in
Quarto, but such Variety
of Ceiling-Pieces, Shields,
Compartments, and other
curious and uncommon
Decorations, as must needs
render it acceptable to all
Gentlemen, Artificers, and
others, who delight in, or
practise, the Art of Building.
The Designs Regulated
and Drawn by E. Hoppus,
and Engraved by B. Cole.
London : printed for James
Hodges, ... and Benjamin
Cole, Engraver
1737
Quarto
Size: 255 × 195 mm
History and ownership: John William
Hiort (1772-1861); Presented
by Wyatt Papworth, 1861
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, E.f.262
Edward Hoppus was a surveyor and
is best known for his Practical
Measuring (first edition 1736), a
manual for building surveyors that
went into many editions over the
next two centuries and the last
revised edition of 1942 (many times
reprinted) was only rendered obsolete
in Britain by the advent of metrifi-
cation in 1973. He was responsible for
redrawing Leoni’s and Campbell’s
prints (cats 38 and 39) for Books ii-iv
of Cole’s unscholarly edition of I
Quattro Libri (cat. 40) and for
recasting the texts of those two earlier
editions to avoid charges of plagiar-
ism. The present work was patently
modeled on Edward Oakley’s
Magazine of Architecture (1730),
engraved by Cole, and following
Cole’s by now standard practice, its
plates also derived from other
publications. The sources of many of
them are rather surprisingly
acknowledged. The plate illustrated
(plate 46) is copied from William
Kent’s Designs of Inigo Jones and
Others (1727, plate lvi), representing
one designed by Kent for Sir Robert
Walpole at Houghton Hall, Norfolk.
[45.] It was almost certainly this plagiar-
ized plate that was the source for
chimneypieces in Drayton Hall
(1738-1742), near Charleston, sc, and
45. Scale for
working out the John Wentworth House (c. 1763),
proportions of the near Portsmouth, nh. Hoppus was
orders, William evidently a common work in colonial
Salmon, Palladio America. Helen Park has found it
Londinensis: or, the
London Art of listed no less than nineteen times by
Building, London owners and booksellers.
130 1734, pl. xi
Literature: Park 1973, p. 39; estc
t127988; Harris 1990, p. 355; Reiff
2000, pp. 30-31; riba 1553.
charles hind
47.
batty langley (1696-1751)
The City and Country
Builder’s, and Workman’s
Treasury of Designs: Or, The
Art Of Drawing, and Working
The Ornamental Parts
of Architecture ... By Batty
Langley.
London : printed by J. Ilive,
for Thomas Langley
1740
Quarto
Size: 275 × 215 mm
History and ownership: James Pigott
Pritchett of York (1789-1868);
Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932), by whom
presumably given to Sir Edwin
Lutyens (1869-1944)
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, E.f.302
The range of Langley’s publications
are discussed in the note to cat. 43.
Most of them were available in the
American colonies before the Revo-
lution, sometimes soon after publi-
cation. The Philadelphia carpenter
Robert Smith bought the 1750
edition of The Treasury of Designs the
following year. Here one can add
that Langley was providing designs
for imitation (plate 47) rather than
his usual variations on the orders,
and they were enthusiastically taken
up in the colonies. Two ceilings
derived largely from plates in the
present work were made for Ken-
more, va, about 1752, while plate 33
provided the main doorcases at the
Vassall-Longfellow House, Camb-
ridge, ma (1749) and Mount Vernon,
va (1758-1759). George Washington
returned to Langley when he en-
larged the house 1774-1779, and the
distinctive Serlian window at the east
end of the ballroom is meticulously
copied from plate li (figs 5 and 6, p.
118), whilst parts of the chimneypiece
in the library are based on plate
lxxxi.
The present copy is of particular
interest in terms of provenance. Its
earliest recorded owner was a York-
shire architect but it subsequently
belonged to the distinguished garden
writer and designer Gertrude Jekyll
and her protégé Sir Edwin Lutyens,
the most distinguished British archi-
tect of the first half of the twentieth
century. It was very much used in the
office, one of his assistants recalling
that Lutyens would supply his drafts-
men with a few scribbles, basically
dimensioned. ‘You would then go
away and thrash it out with the aid of
Batty Langley (“the Bible”)’, wrote
W.A.S. Lloyd.1 It is a fascinating
thought that this copy may have been
of importance in creating details of
the Viceroy’s House, New Delhi, the
largest palace hitherto built since
Versailles. With his dislike of archi-
tects, as opposed to craftsmen, one
wonders what Langley would have
made of it.
1
Quoted in Hussey 1951, p. 488.
Literature: estc t011861; Harris 1990,
p. 449; Park 1973, p. 42; Reiff 2000;
riba 1742.
charles hind
48.
robert morris (1701-1754)
Select Architecture: Being
Regular Designs Of Plans and
Elevations Well suited to both
Town and Country; In Which
The Magnificence and Beauty,
the Purity and Simplicity of
Designing For every species of
that Noble Art, Is accurately
treated, and with great Variety
exemplified, From the Plain
Town-House to the Stately
Hotel, And in the Country
from the genteel and
convenient Farm-House to
the Parochial Church. With
Suitable Embellishments.
Also Bridges, Baths, Summer-
Houses, &c. to all which such
Remarks, Explanations and
Scales are annexed, that the
Comprehension is rendered
easy, and Subject most
agreeable. Illustrated with
Fifty Copper Plates, Quarto.
By Robert Morris, Surveyor.
London : Sold by Robert
Sayer, opposite Fetter-Lane,
in Fleet-Street.
1755
Quarto
Size: 310 × 245 mm
History and ownership: Purchased
from the Library of the Earls of
Lonsdale, Lowther Castle, Cumbria,
c. 1957
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, E.e.322
A surveyor by occupation, but an
author by inclination, as Eileen Harris
asserts, Morris has long been con-
sidered one of the leading English
theoretical writers of the first half of the
eighteenth century. Having published
his first book, An Essay in Defence of
Ancient Architecture (1728) while still in
his twenties, he later described his own
identity as that of ‘a poetical architect
or an architectural poet’. His Art of
Architecture (1748), a poetic trans-
position of the two volumes of his
Lectures on Architecture (1734 and 1736)
contrast with the more utilitarian
nature of the English architectural
publications in this period. In Select
Architecture (the original title Rural
Architecture (1750) had been changed in
the second edition), Morris strives to
combine his theoretical stance of
‘Simplicity, Plainness, and Neatness,
with just Proportion’ with the practical
nature of his designs.
The black and red title page of
Select Architecture shows an etching of
a Palladian elevation overlaid with
circles that represent proportional
relationships. The image, first used in
his Lectures, is accompanied by a line
from Horace’s Ars poetica, Studium
sine divite vena ‘study lacking a wealth
of talent’. Morris’s interest in the
theoretical, influenced as it might
have been through the evocation of
the Renaissance architectural treatises
was based on the available translations
into English. His effort to fit the
musical harmonies into a neat trans-
position to architectural proportions
(which Harris described as ‘a pedi-
greed alternative to feet and inches’),
was forced largely because he failed to
comprehend their meaning. Morris
revisits these ideas in the Introduction
to Select Architecture, where he ex-
pressed the hope that ‘[...] to so few
Persons, residing in this country, that
are capable of Designing, something
of this Nature might be acceptable
[...] I hoped, at least, for Success to it:
And I have earnestly endeavored to
render it useful in the Appropriation,
and intelligible to every Capacity’.
It has been pointed out that the
‘Explanation of the Plates’ had been
almost certainly edited by the author
before his death in order that the costs
of executing the building designs
could be added. Colvin quotes
Morris’s will in which he bequeathed
‘his real and personal estate, goods,
books, copper plates, copyright to
Books wrote printed and published by
me, my drawings, manuscripts, etc.’
On the following
to his children with the probable pages
result that Robert Sayer bought not
only the copyrights to the material for 46. After William
Select Architecture but also to The Kent, designed
for a chimneypiece
Architectural Remembrancer (1751) and for Houghton
Lectures on Architecture (1734, second Hall, Norfolk,
edition 1759), all of which he re- Edward Hoppus,
The Gentleman’s
printed in the three years following and Builder’s
Morris’s death. Repository, London
The make-up of an ideal copy of 1737, pl. lvi
the second edition has been a subject
47. Designed for
of debate, with some examples having a venetian window
the ‘Introduction’ bound after the of the Ionic Order,
explanation of the plates. Several Batty Langley, The
copies were recorded as containing an City and Country
Builder’s and
additional double-page inserted after Workman’s Treasury
the ‘Preface’ and bearing a list of of Designs, London
subscribers. It has been reported that 1740, pl. liii 131
120-139_PalUsa_sche2.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:16 Pagina 132

132 133
[46.] [47.]
120-139_PalUsa_sche2.qxp:Layout 1
[48.]
48. ‘A plain
structure, the body
of the house is 70
feet square, ...’,
Robert Morris,
Select Architecture,
134 London 1755, pl. 11
13-03-2010 12:16 Pagina 134
the Jefferson copy also had the
subscribers’ list bound-in following
the explanation of the plates.
The fifty plates designed by Morris
and engraved by the etcher Regimius
Parr are reissues of those in the first
edition. Morris states in the Preface
his aspirations to address himself to a
broader audience than most authors
of similar works. He complains ‘that
most who have wrote on this Subject,
have raised nothing, but Palaces
glaring in Decoration and Dress;
while the Cottage, or Plain little Villa,
are passed by unregarded. Gaiety,
Magnificence, the rude Gothic or the
Chinese unmeaning Stile, are the
Study of our Modern Architects;
while Grecian and Roman Purity and
Simplicity, are neglected’. In his
admiration for the Classical precedent
and his attention to more modest
buildings, he does echo both Pal-
ladian engagement with Rome and
his validation of simple structures in
the hierarchy of the landscape and the
villa.
Select Architecture was not amongst
the most popular works in American
colonies before the Revolution, but it
and other books by Morris were
influential. Copies are recorded in the
libraries of William Buckland and
Thomas Jefferson and others were
available for sale from booksellers in
New York and Philadelphia in the
early 1760s. It was a source for
Jefferson’s Monticello i (cat. 55) and
Monticello ii, while plate 11 (illus-
trated here in plate 48, for a house
described simply as ‘a plain structure’)
was also the closest model for John
Hawk’s first drawing for Governor
Tryon’s palace at New Bern, nc.1
1
Drawing illustrated in Reiff 2000, p. 30,
fig. 30.
Literature: estc t152204; Harris 1990,
p. 575; Park 1973, p. 55; riba 2202;
Reiff 2000, pp. 29-30; Colvin 2008, p.
705.
irena murray
49.
abraham swan
(fl. c. 1725-1768)
The British Architect: Or,
The Builder’s Treasury of
Stair-Cases. Containing, I.
An easier, more intelligible
and expeditious Method of
drawing the Five Orders, than
has hitherto been published,
by a Scale of Twelve equal
Parts, free from the
troublesome Divisions called
Aliquot Parts. Shewing also
how to glue up their Columns
and Capitals. II. Likewise
Stair-Cases (those most
useful, ornamental, and
necessary Parts of a Building,
though never before
sufficiently described in any
Book, Ancient or Modern);
shewing their most
convenient Situation, and the
Form of their Ascending in
the most grand Manner: With
a great Variety of curious
Ornaments, whereby any
Gentleman may fix on what
will suit him best, there being
Examples of all Kinds; and
necessary Directions for such
Persons as are acquainted
with that Branch. III. Designs
of Arches, Doors and
Windows. 1v. A great Variety
of New and Curious
Chimney- Pieces, in the most
elegant and modern Taste.
VI. Corbels, shields, and other
beautiful Decorations. VII.
Several useful and necessary
Rules of Carpentry; with
the Manner of Truss’d Roofs,
and the Nature of a splay’d
circular Soffit, both in a
straight and circular Wall,
never published before.
Together with Raking
Cornices, Groins, and Angle-
Brackets, described. The
Whole being illustrated with
upwards of One Hundred
Designs and Examples,
curiously engraved by the best
Hands on Sixty Folio Copper-
Plates. By Abraham Swan,
Carpenter. London, Printed
for the Author : And Sold
by Thomas Meighan, over-
against Earl’s-Court in Drury-
Lane; and W. meadows, over-
against the Royal-Exchange
in Cornhill.
1745
Folio
Size: 422 × 262 mm
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, E.d.345
Informed as it is by Renaissance
models such as English translations of
Palladio, even whilst its author
claimed to prefer British exemplars
such as Wren, Hawksmoor and Gibbs,
Swan’s The British Architect occupies a
singular position among the mid-
century publications in the British
tradition of carpenters’ manuals.1 Well
established as a successful carpenter
and joiner, Swan could afford to
engage Edward Rooker (1724-1774), a
skilled engraver and part-time actor, to
realize the plates based on his designs.
Subsequently, Rooker gained popular-
ity by executing line engravings of
Inigo Jones’s Palace at Whitehall, as
well as of built and unbuilt projects by
Christopher Wren. Horace Walpole
referred to him as the ‘Marc Antonio
of Architecture’.2
Given the evident success of Swan’s
publication, it is conceivable that the
income derived from the book’s
ostensibly modest price of thirteen
shillings helped sustain his handbook
through four more editions in Eng-
land (1750; 1758; 1765?; 1768). Had he
lived for another decade, Swan would
have seen The British Architect
become the first architectural book to
be published in the colonies (cat. 50),
albeit a pirated edition! Apart from
the two woodcut ornaments signed
with the initials of Francis Hoffman
(one on the title page, one as a tail-
piece on p. 20), Swan designed all
sixty plates that constitute the main
body of the book and are mostly
based on his original artwork. Rooker
etched, engraved and signed at least
forty-eight of them, with plate
imprints indicating that the whole
had been published ‘according to Act
of Parliament’ between 26 December
1745 and 9 February 1746. The first
third of the book (twenty-two plates
in total) follows the Renaissance
model of progressively introducing
the orders and their composites,
concluding with intercolumniation
and a section entitled ‘Several Designs
from Palladio of Arches over Arches’
(plate 49). Examination of plates in
this section shows the highly eclectic
method used by Swan to buttress his
own designs, probably sourced from
the Hoppus and Cole edition of
Palladio, by linking them to Palladio’s
Books ii and iii. Later on, Swan
introduced the subject of doors and
windows, followed by a substantial
section concerning stairscases, rails,
balusters, moldings, groins and finally
trusses and frames.
In his Introduction, Swan identifies
the intended audience for his treatise
which, he claims, is ‘chiefly design’d
for the Benefit of such, as have had
less Practice therein’. In a confident
tone, he pays homage to Palladio,
Scamozzi and Vignola as ‘most cele-
brated Authors who have wrote on
Architecture’ but is hardly shy in
critiquing them or asserting his own
role in adapting their ideas for popu-
lar (practical) use. ‘Palladio tells us’,
he concedes, ‘that all Care imaginable
must be taken in placing the Stair-
Cases; that it is difficult to find a
proper Situation for them, which will
no Ways damage the rest of the
Fabrick; that the less they are con-
cealed from such as enter the House,
the more ornamental they will appear;
and that you should have a Sight of
the best Part of the House before you
arrive at them, by which means the
Fabrick will seem larger than it really
is. With such general Directions he
contents himself; and pretty much the
same might be said of Chimney-Pieces.
But in both these Subjects I have laid
down several Rules, and shewn several
Examples, which will be found useful
both for Drawing and Working’ (p.
[iii-]iv). His references to Palladio’s
writing and built works flow freely
throughout the introduction and the
text of his book (‘The Doric Order is
so far from having a Pedesta, that in its
origin had no Base, as Palladio has
shewn in his Calonnades [sic]’, p. [v]).
Although Swan subsequently pub-
lished three other books (the copi-
ously illustrated A Collection of
Designs in Architecture (1757); Designs
in Carpentry (1759) and Designs for
Chimnies of 1765), none achieved the
critical level of success enjoyed by The
British Architect. The large format
showed Swan’s handsome illustrations
to best advantage and made copying
of plates or their parts much easier.
Even though his own designs might
have lacked originality and those he
copied from others, including Pal-
ladio, do not always show complete
understanding of the original intent
(see p. 112), the fact that he managed
to keep The British Architect in print
for the rest of his life made the trans-
mission of his designs to the New
World a natural continuance. It is not
surprising therefore that, seven years
before the publication of Swan’s
British Architect in Philadelphia, the
Massachusetts ship builder and
wealthy merchant, Jeremiah Lee, used
some of Swan’s designs (fig. 1, p. 111)
as major features of the interior of his
grand colonial mansion in the seaport
town of Marblehead near Boston, ma.
1
Harris 1990, p. 451.
2
odnb 698.
Literature: estc t134793; Harris 1990,
p. 860; Park 1973, p. 79; Schimmel-
man 1999, p. 134; Colvin 2008.
irena murray
50.
abraham swan
(fl. c. 1725-1768)
The British Architect: Or,
The Builder’s Treasury of
Stair-Cases. Containing, I.
An easier, more intelligible
and expeditious Method of
drawing the Five Orders, than
has hitherto been published,
... II. Likewise Stair-Cases. ...
III. Designs of Arches, Doors
and Windows. IV. A great
Variety of New and Curious
Chimney-Pieces, ... 135
120-139_PalUsa_sche2.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:16 Pagina 136

49. ‘Several
Designs from
[50.]
Palladio, of Arches
over Arches’,
Abraham Swan, 50. Title page,
The British Abraham Swan,
Architect: or the The British
Builder’s Treasury Architect: or the
of Stair-cases, Builders Treasury
London 1758, of Stair-cases,
136 pl. xxii Philadelphia 1775 137
[49.]
120-139_PalUsa_sche2.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010
V. Corbels, shields, and other
beautiful Decorations. VI.
Several useful and necessary
Rules of Carpentry; with the
Manner of Truss’d Roofs, ...
The Whole being illustrated
with upwards of One
Hundred Designs and
Examples, curiously engraved
on Sixty Folio Copper-Plates.
By Abraham Swan, Architect
Philadelphia : Printed by R.
Bell, Bookseller Third Street,
next Door to St. Paul’s
Church, For John Norman
Architect Engraver, in Second
Street.
1775
Folio
Size: 420 × 270 mm
Winterthur Library
As Herbert Mitchell notes in his
description for Avery’s Choice, the first
American edition of Swan’s was to be
published by subscription, and was
advertised by the engraver John
Norman (1748?-1817) in the 5 Decem-
ber 1774 issue of Pennsylvania Packet.
Price details were further given in the
11 January 1775 issue of the Penn-
sylvania Journal, where Norman
stated that ‘the book is only thirty
shillings [or four dollars]... ten less
than the London edition’. With speci-
mens of the copper plates and letter-
press already available at the shop,
two hundred subscribers, carpenters
for the most part, made a swift
publication of the book possible. By
late June, further announcements
appeared of the completed book
being available in the Philadelphia
shop of Robert Bell (1732?-1784), a
successful printer and publisher of
Scottish origin, whose business
acumen made him keep a close watch
on the titles of books popular in
England at the time and who traded
in both original and pirate editions. A
shrewd advertiser, Bell not only
included the list of subscribers to the
British Architect in the copy but also
heralded his immediate plans to
publish Swan’s second book, A Col-
lection of Designs, the first (and only)
part of which was published before
the end of the year.
John Norman, eventually joined by
his son William, pursued his interest
in English architectural pattern books
following his move from Philadelphia
to Boston where, in addition to his
own compilations and Pain’s Practical
Builder he published the second
American edition of The British
Architect in 1794. Based on her
research and personal provenance
records, A.L. Cummings contends
that ‘the [two] most popular
architectural authors in eighteenth
138 century New England appear to be
12:16 Pagina 138
Batty Langley and Abraham Swan for
the period before Revolution’.1
As Swan’s first book went through a
total of seven editions in Britain and
America in the span of fifty years and
it was owned by a number of import-
ant pre- and post-colonial libraries, it
could not but impact on the work of
amateur gentlemen-architects whose
collections were such an important
source of inspiration. The affinity of
Swan’s designs with specific interior
details at Washington’s Mount
Vernon, such as the dining room
chimneypiece (cf. plate l) and
portions of another in the west parlor
(cf. plate li, fig. 1, p. 111) is but one
example. The same plate was also the
source for another chimneypiece in
the Jeremiah Lee House in Marble-
head, ma. Swan’s distinctly Palladian
design (plate x) from his Collection
was a source for William Thornton’s
famous façade for the Library
Company of Philadelphia. In the
nineteenth century, the influence of
the American edition of The British
Architect is noted in the work of a
Kentucky architect Gideon Shryock.
Gideon was apprenticed in Phila-
delphia under William Strickland
(architect of the Parthenon-inspired
Second Bank of Philadelphia). There
he also purchased a copy of the
American edition of The British
Architect and brought it back to
Lexington to study Swan’s designs of
staircases as he worked on the Greek
Revival State Capitol in Frankfort,
ky.2
1
Cummings 2001, p. 3.
1
See www.nps.gov/Lexington/architecture.
Literature: estc t134793; Harris 1990,
p. 860; Park 1973, p. 79; Schimmel-
man 1999, p. 134; Avery’s Choice 1997,
pp. 140-141; Reiff 2000, pp. 28, 34, 42.
irena murray
51.
william pain
(c. 1730-1794?)
Pain’s British Palladio: Or,
The Builder’s General
Assistant. Demonstrating, In
the Most Easy and Practical
Method, All the Principal
Rules of Architecture, From
the Ground Plan To
The Ornamental Finish.
Illustrated With Several
New and Useful Designs
of Houses, with their Plans,
Elevations and Sections. Also
Clear and Ample Instructions,
annexed to each Subject,
in Letter-Press; with a List
of Prices for Materials and
Labour, and Labour only.
This Work will be universally
useful to all Carpenters,
Bricklayers, Masons, Joiners,
Plaisterers, and others,
concerned in the several
Branches of Building, &c.
...To which are added, Scales
for enlarging or lessening
at Pleasure, if required. Also,
Great Variety of Stair-Cases;
shewing the practical Method
of executing them, in any
Case required, viz. Groins,
Angle-Brackets, Circular
Circular [sic] Flewing
and Winding [col.2] Soffits,
Domes, Sky-Lights, &c.
all made plain and easy
to the meanest Capacity.
The Proportion of Windows
for the Light to Rooms.
Preparing Foundations;
the Proportion of Chimneys
to Rooms, and Sections of
Flews. The principal Timbers
properly laid out on each
Plan, viz. the Manner of
framing the Roofs, and find
the Length and Backing of
Hips, either square or bevel.
Scantlings of the Timbers,
figured in Proportion to their
Bearing. The Method for
trussing Girders, Scarfing
Plates, &c. And many other
Articles, particularly useful
to all Persons in the Building
Profession. The Whole
correctly Engraved on Forty-
two Folio Copper-Plates,
from the Original Designs
of William and James Pain.
London : Printed by H.D.
Steel, in Lothbury, for
the Authors ....
1786
Folio
Size: 432 × 276 mm
London, riba, British Architectural
Library, E.d. 260
One of the most prolific and
commercial architectural writers in
London of the second half of the
eighteenth century, William Pain,
sometimes assisted by his son James,
produced a steady stream of publi-
cations, many of which were reissued,
updated and re-edited on both sides of
the Atlantic. In addition to the British
Palladio, Pain published and success-
fully marketed a range of carpenter and
builders’ manuals including The Buil-
der’s Companion (1758), The Builder’s
Pocket Treasure (1763); The Practical
Builder (1774); The Carpenter’s and
Joiner’s Repository (1778), The Practical
Measurer (1783), The Builder’s Golden
Rule (1781) and The Practical House
Carpenter (1788), the last republished
in Philadelphia and Boston in three
editions in the 1790s alone. An experi-
enced joiner and carpenter, he pro-
pounded the values of practical know-
ledge gained over time in all aspects of
the building craft, a stand that
informed not just the titles but their
content and the visual clarity of his
published work. His handbooks were,
as he commented in the preface to The
Practical Builder, ‘not meant to instruct
the professed artist, but to furnish the
Ignorant, the uninstructed’ (Harris).
This conforms with the more recent
observations that many of the pattern
books and building manuals published
and used in America were not just for,
but by craftsmen, both sides aspiring to
social improvement (Reiff).
There is evidence that Pain’s British
Palladio was initially issued in parts
between September 1785 and 1786. It
was the only work that the Pains
produced with H.D. Steel as both the
copper plates and the remaining stock
were purchased shortly after publi-
cation by I. and J. Taylor and re- issued
in 1788 with the old plates but with a
new preliminary text.
Pain’s British Palladio is considered a
rather ambitious work in the context
of Pain’s other publications, focusing
primarily on domestic architecture and
intended, as its subtitle claims, to guide
all practical applications ‘From The
Ground Plan to The Ornamental
Finish’. Emphasizing the practical
values that were at the heart of Pain’s
approach, the forty-two plates of the
British Palladio introduce in the first
instance plans, elevations and sections
of five domestic buildings, instead of
the standard opening with the orders,
here banished to the end of the book,
ahead of moldings, cornices, friezes
and vaults. The middle section pre-
sents the interior details, with
considerable emphasis on chimney-
pieces, staircases and banisters. There
was in fact, precious little evidence of
‘Palladio’ in Pain’s ambitiously-titled
book, not only because of the brevity
of its text, but also because the number
of domestic buildings offered in evi-
dence was extremely small. Never-
theless, as Harris points out, ‘Palladio,
a naturalized Briton by the second half
of the eighteenth century, is dutifully
and often praised’ in Pain’s books and
the symmetry, in the title at least, with
Campbell’s Vitruvius Britannicus sug-
gests that he might have been aware of
the benefits of such association. Pain’s
legacy in American architecture can be
seen in details of such houses as
51. ‘A design
Homewood, md (cat. 59).
for a town-house,
with a rustic front’,
Literature: estc t096023; Harris 1990, William Pain,
p. 634; Reiff 2000, p. 43; riba 2368. Pain’s British
Palladio: or the
Builder’s General
irena murray Assistant, London
1790, pl. xii 139
[51.]
140-155_PalUsa_sag3.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:17 Pagina 140

Part III

140 141
140-155_PalUsa_sag3.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:17 Pagina 142
Palladio’s legacy to America
calder loth
Americans might ask why they should be concerned about an
architect who lived so long ago and far away. Indeed, most
Americans have never heard of Andrea Palladio. Be that as it
may, this gifted Italian, born five centuries ago, has had a
profound impact on the nation’s architecture. The primary
conduit of his pioneering talents has been his treatise I Quattro
Libri dell’Architettura, or The Four Books on Architecture,
perhaps the most influential work on architecture ever
produced. First published in 1570, it became the primary agent
of Anglo-Palladianism, an architectural movement that began
in early seventeenth century England with the introduction of
the Palladian style there by Inigo Jones. Versions of Palladio’s
treatise found their way to the American colonies by the early
eighteenth century. As the century progressed, various editions
of I Quattro Libri, either in the original Italian or French or
English translations, were available in institutional libraries in
Boston, Salem, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore,
and Charleston, as well as in the libraries of Harvard and Yale
universities.1 The Virginia planter William Byrd of Westover
owned three editions of Palladio’s work.2 In 1751, Williams-
burg’s Virginia Gazette advertized that Isaac Ware’s translation
of I Quattro Libri had ‘Just arrived’.3
Book 1 of I Quattro Libri was devoted to illustrations and
descriptions of how to construct the five orders or styles of
columns. For colonial-era architects and builders the first book
served as the principal authority for the use of the Classical
vocabulary. While numerous English pattern books offered
instructions on the orders, most of their authors mined their
information from Palladio. Moreover, the clarity of Palladio’s
drawings and explanations of the orders enabled his treatise to
remain a textbook for architects well into the twentieth century
(fig. 1).
In Book ii of I Quattro Libri, Palladio offered more than forty
of his own designs for villas and town palaces, each illustrating
how the ancient Classical vocabulary could be applied to con-
temporary works. In this section Palladio demonstrated how the
columned portico, the signature motif of ancient temples, could
be applied to domestic buildings, mainly rural ones. The use of
this stately antique form for residential structures was a highly
significant innovation. With designs such as the Villa Emo the
portico could lend a dignity of appearance to otherwise relatively
plain buildings (fig. 2). Probably the first use of a canonically
correct Classical portico on an American house is Whitehall,
1. Ionic Capital, Andrea near Annapolis, md, built in the 1760s for Governor Horatio
Palladio, The Four Books
of Andrea Palladio’s Sharpe (fig. 3). However, what is perhaps America’s earliest use of
Architecture, translated a temple-form portico is found on the Redwood Library in
by Isaac Ware, London
142 1737, Bk i, pl. xix Newport, ri, designed by Peter Harrison, one of America’s
earliest professional architects (plate 53). Completed in 1750, its
design is based on a garden pavilion published in a 1736 English
edition of I Quattro Libri by Benjamin Cole and Edward
Hoppus4 (cat. 40 and fig. 4). With its flanking half-pedimented
wings, the Hoppus pavilion echoes Palladio’s famous church of
San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. San Giorgio was not illustrated
in I Quattro Libri but the building was well known in the
eighteenth century through various renderings and published
illustrations (fig. 5).
Particularly important among Palladio’s innovations was the
use of the two-level or two-tiered portico, which he employed
on six of his published villa designs. Both elegant and practical,
the two-tiered portico found great favor in America. Its earliest
application is seen on Drayton Hall (cat. 52), built c. 1740 near
Charleston, sc. This stately plantation house is perhaps Amer-
ica’s first fully developed expression of Anglo-Palladianism.5
Palladian precedents for Drayton’s façade are the Villa Cornaro
and the Villa Pisani at Montagnana, both of which appeared in
I Quattro Libri (figs 6 and 7). The two-tiered portico continued
well into the nineteenth century, particularly in the south where
we find scores of examples, some dating to within the last
century. A well-known colonial-era example in Virginia is
Shirley, built in the 1730s with identical porticoes added to its
land and river fronts in the 1770s (fig. 8). The 1820s Rosedale in
Charlotte, nc, typifies a later, more provincial expression of the
Palladian accent (fig. 9).
As the Villa Saraceno demonstrates, Palladio could offer an
engaging design for a relatively modest dwelling without a
portico. The character-defining feature of Saraceno’s façade is
its three-bay arcaded loggia set in a central pedimented
pavilion (fig. 10). This feature was adapted by the eighteenth
century English architect James Gibbs for a country house
design illustrated in his highly influential work: A Book of
Architecture (1728) (cat. 44 and fig. 11). In his introduction
Gibbs stated that a work such as this would be of use to
‘Gentlemen as might be concerned with Building, especially in
the remote parts of the Country, where little or no assistance
for Designs can be procured’.6 Gibbs’ architectural catalog soon
became a primary source book for the very remote American
colonies. His elevation on plate 58 served as the inspiration for
Mount Airy, the 1758 Virginia plantation mansion of John
Tayloe, one of America’s purest expressions of eighteenth
century Anglo-Palladianism (cat. 54).
Palladio’s design for the Villa Barbaro at Maser had a
particularly far-reaching influence on American house design.
Barbaro’s elevation consists of a central two-story residence
flanked by lower hyphens connecting to taller terminal service 143
[1.]
140-155_PalUsa_sag3.qxp:Layout 1
2. Detail of the center
section of the Villa Emo,
Andrea Palladio, The
Four Books of Andrea
Palladio’s Architecture,
translated by Isaac Ware,
London 1737, Bk ii,
pl. xxxviii
3. Whitehall (md)
4. Garden pavilion after
William Kent, Andrea
Palladio, Andrea Palladio’s
Architecture, London,
1736, unnumbered plate
5. Henry Flitcroft,
elevation drawing
of San Giorgio Maggiore,
Venice, c. 1735
144
13-03-2010 12:17 Pagina 144
structures (fig. 12). This five-part format became the prototype
for many of America’s high-style dwellings dating from the
eighteenth century through the mid-nineteenth century. An
early example is Battersea in Petersburg, va, erected in 1768 for
John Banister. Battersea’s design may have been influenced by
Thomas Jefferson, as Jefferson and Banister were both friends
and distant relatives. The dwelling’s Italian flavor was strength-
ened during an early nineteenth century alteration when its
brick walls were stuccoed and ‘Palladian’ windows added in its
wings7 (fig. 13).
America’s most notable example of a Federal-period, five-
part scheme is Baltimore’s Homewood, the 1803 suburban villa
of Charles Carroll, Jr. Its façade is Palladian in form but its
refined detailing is Adamesque, making the house a demon-
[2.]
stration of Palladianism expressed in a different architectural
dialect (cat. 59). Homewood became a prototype for many five-
part houses throughout the eastern half of the United States.
The form attracted particular popularity in Kentucky as seen in
the 1810 Morton house in Lexington, which also features
stuccoed walls and Palladian windows (fig. 14). Finally, a late
and exaggerated use of the five-part format is the 1850s Moss
Neck Manor near Fredericksburg, va. The house stretches 68.5
metres from end to end and is highlighted by a central two-
tiered portico (fig. 15).
Thomas Jefferson was Palladio’s foremost American disciple.
[3.]
When a friend sought his advice for a house design, Jefferson
declared Palladio to be the ‘Bible’. He said: ‘You should get it
and stick close to it’.8 In his first version of his home,
Monticello, built around 1772 overlooking Charlottesville,
Jefferson determined that it should be a model for the correct
use of Classical orders, a rarity in Virginia at the time. As seen
in his own elevation drawing, the two-tiered portico,
superimposed orders, and hipped-roof wings, made the
original Monticello a reduced version of Palladio’s Villa
Cornaro (cat. 55). Although Monticello’s first version was a
precedent-setting tripartite scheme, Jefferson later transformed
the house into the domed version we know today, a
combination of Palladian and French Neoclassical influences.
Jefferson’s fascination with both Palladio and domes was
vividly demonstrated in his proposed design for the United
States’ President’s House, submitted anonymously in the 1792
[4.] design competition for the official executive residence (cat. 57).
Modeled after Palladio’s Villa Rotonda, Jefferson’s scheme
closely paralleled the version of the Rotonda published in
Giacomo Leoni’s 1715 edition of I Quattro Libri (cat. 38 and fig.
16). Although Leoni took liberties with Palladio’s original
plates, mainly adding ornaments and other details, the Leoni
edition remained Jefferson’s primary source for Palladian
design. Jefferson’s submission varied from the Villa Rotonda
mainly in the use of pairs of bays flanking each of porticoes
rather than a single bay and in the use of free-standing columns
rather than arches on the sides of the porticoes. However, a
striking proposal was the inclusion of glass panels between the
dome’s ribs, a feature Jefferson observed with wonder in Nicolas
Le Camus de Mézières’ Halle au Blé while living in Paris. He
also proposed Paris-style skylights for the attic rooms.9
For better or worse, Jefferson’s potentially arresting Rotonda-
like counterpoint to the domed United States Capitol was not
to be. George Washington, along with the other competition
[5.]
commissioners, selected the more conservative design sub-
mitted by the Irish-born architect James Hoban. Hoban’s
winning proposal followed the Anglo-Palladian tradition of
James Gibbs, and looked more like an English country house
than a Palladian villa (cat. 58). Hoban is said to have modeled
his White House design on Leinster House, the 1740s Dublin
mansion designed by Richard Cassels. Originally built without
the projecting north portico (added in 1829), the White House
also had a strong similarity to Seacomb Park, a Gibbs country
house illustrated in A Book of Architecture (fig. 17).
Nevertheless, with its hipped roof and long, multi-bay façade,
Hoban’s White House has a visual affinity with Palladio’s
6. Villa Cornaro, Andrea
project for Count Giacomo Angarano, pictured in I Quattro Palladio, The Architecture
Libri’s, Book ii, although the engaged portico on the Palladian of A. Palladio, translated
by Giacomo Leoni,
scheme is two-tiered rather than full height. London 1715, pl. xxxviii
Jefferson’s most influential architectural work, the Virginia
7. Villa Pisani
State Capitol in Richmond, begun in 1785, marked the first at Montagnana,
garden front
effort of modern times to give architectural expression to the
Republican form of government (cat. 56). Jefferson’s use of the 8. Shirley (va), land front
ancient temple form was a groundbreaking concept, the
creation of a temple of democracy. The Capitol’s connection to
Palladio is not with any of Palladio’s own designs but rather to
his reconstruction drawings of ancient Roman temples in Book
iv of I Quattro Libri. The Capitol’s temple form was directly
inspired by the Maison Carrée, the near-perfectly preserved
Roman temple at Nîmes in southern France. Jefferson first [6.]
became familiar with this edifice through Palladio’s illustrations
in I Quattro Libri (fig. 18). The Maison Carrée also was the one
ancient temple that Jefferson actually visited. With the
assistance of the French architect, Charles Louis Clérisseau,
Jefferson worked up the designs employing the Ionic order
rather than the Corinthian of the original. Along with the
drawings sent to Richmond, Jefferson also sent a plaster model
of his scheme, crafted by the celebrated French model maker,
Jean-Pierre Fouquet. Fouquet’s model may be the earliest if not
the first architectural model for an American building, and is
also Fouquet’s earliest surviving model10 (fig. 19).
In selecting the Capitol’s site, in a public square on a
promontory above the small town of Richmond, Jefferson
must have had Palladio in mind. Palladio wrote in I Quattro
Libri: ‘But we [...] should choose sites for temples in the most [7.]
dignified and prestigious part of the city, far away from
unsavory areas and on beautiful and ornate squares where
many streets end, so that every part of the temple can be seen
in all its majesty and arouse devotion and awe in whoever sees
and admires it. And if there are hills in the city, one should
choose the highest part’.11 The proudly situated Virginia
Capitol marked the birth of the Classical Revival movement in
America and established the precedent for designing the
nation’s public buildings in the monumental Classical style.
A discussion of Jefferson’s Virginia Capitol prompts a closer
look at Book iv of I Quattro Libri. This is the section in which
Palladio presented his restoration drawings of ancient temples
and other public buildings based on his study and
measurements of the ruins. In his foreword to Book iv Palladio
wrote: ‘I intend therefore to illustrate in this book the form and
ornaments of many ancient temples of which one can see the [8.]
ruins and which I have recorded in drawings, so that anyone
can understand the form and ornaments [...] and although one 145
140-155_PalUsa_sag3.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:17 Pagina 146

9. Rosedale, Charlotte
(nc)

10. Villa Saraceno, Finale

11. Design for a Country

House, James Gibbs,
A Book of Architecture,
London 1728, pl. 58

12. Villa Barbaro, Maser,

Andrea Palladio,
The Architecture of A.
Palladio, translated by
Giacomo Leoni, London
1715, pl. xli

13. Battersea, Petersburg

(va)

14. Morton House,

Lexington (ky)

15. Moss Neck Manor, [13.] [14.]

Fredricksburg (va)

16. Villa Rotonda, Andrea

Palladio, The Architecture
of A. Palladio, translated [9.] [10.]
by Giacomo Leoni,
London 1715, pl. xv

[11.]

[15.] [16.]

146 147
[12.]
140-155_PalUsa_sag3.qxp:Layout 1
17. Design for Seacomb
Park, Hertfordshire,
James Gibbs,
A Book of Architecture,
London 1728, pl. 53
18. The Maison Carrée
facade, Andrea Palladio
The Architecture
of A. Palladio, translated
by Giacomo Leoni,
London 1715, pl. lxxxviii
19. Virginia State Capitol,
model by Jean-Pierre
Fouquet
20. Temple of Minerva,
Forum of Nerva, Rome
Andrea Palladio, The Four
Books of Andrea Palladio’s
Architecture, translated
by Isaac Ware, London
1737, iv, pl. xii
148
13-03-2010 12:17 Pagina 148
can see only portions of some of them standing above ground,
I have nonetheless proceeded to deduce from them what they
must have been like when they were complete [...]’.12
It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of Palladio’s
efforts. They represented one of the first concentrated study
and recording projects involving above-ground archaeological
remains. The results were amazing from the standpoint of their
quality and understanding. Moreover, it was an invaluable
accomplishment because it is mainly through his published
woodcuts that we have any idea of the probable appearance of
much of ancient Roman architecture. Palladio’s restoration
drawings also are a priceless documentation since several of the
ruins he recorded were subsequently destroyed. For instance,
the likely appearance of the Temple of Minerva in the Forum
of Nerva, with its Corinthian portico and side wings topped by
bold attics, is known only through Palladio’s images. The ruins
were pulled down in 1606 (fig. 20).
The impact of Book iv has been profound. Its pages
presented for the first time a credible and captivating image of
the grandeur and beauty of ancient Classical architecture.
Palladio praised the temples, stating: ‘the ancient Greeks and
Romans expended the greatest care on them and composed
them with the most beautiful architecture so that they were
built with the most magnificent ornaments and finest
proportions [...]’.13 Through I Quattro Libri, Palladio deter-
mined to make a record of these ornaments and proportions.
While many studies of the ruins have been undertaken since
Palladio, his drawings and commentary provided a primary
source of inspiration for some of the most ambitious buildings
of the ‘American Renaissance’ of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries.
A prodigious display of the fruits of this architectural
movement is found in the remarkable assemblage of Classical
works in Washington dc. Outstanding among them is Arthur
Brown Jr’s Andrew Mellon Auditorium, the central building of
the Federal Triangle complex. Completed in 1934, this
imposing work is a heroic vision of Palladio’s ideal of ancient
Roman splendor (fig. 21). America regarded itself in this period
as a new Rome, an empire for Liberty, and took the imperial
Roman image for its own. Palladio’s reconstruction drawings of
Roman Corinthian temples had also their impact on America’s
greatest Corinthian temple, Cass Gilbert’s United States
Supreme Court, completed in 1935 (cat. 62). Its imposing
octastyle portico directly references the Temple of Mars the
Avenger in Rome, an image of which was first published by
Palladio (fig. 22). We must remember that the porticoed temple
was a form developed by the ancients to inspire awe and the
Supreme Court’s Classical architecture vividly commands a
sense of awe and respect for the institution it houses.
The Corinthian order, moreover, was used to provide an
image of dignity and permanence to hundreds of govern-
mental, institutional, and commercial building across the
country. It was particularly favored for banks, both great and
small. The nerve center of our financial system, the 1903 New
York Stock Exchange, makes use of an engaged Corinthian
portico on an imperial scale to comfort us into thinking that
our investments are secure within this temple of finance (cat.
61). Designed by George B. Post, this enormous façade adheres
to Palladio’s comments on temple fronts: ‘Temples must have
wider porticoes and taller columns that those needed for other
buildings, and it is appropriate that they should be large and
splendid’.14 Despite the vicissitudes of the Stock Market, the
Stock Exchange’s portico remains a reassuring symbol.
The Corinthian order was also used to lend ceremony to the
most famous of all American buildings, the National Capitol.
Through additions and expansion, the Capitol has become an
amalgam of various Classical traditions. The Capitol was
originally designed by William Thornton in 1793, and executed
in fits and starts with the involvement of many architects and
revisions over many years. Thornton’s scheme was in the
Anglo-Palladian tradition of a half-century earlier and called
for a central rotunda topped by a Pantheon-type saucer dome.
The Capitol’s defining feature today, Thomas U. Walter’s
enormous cast-iron dome, was added in 1860-1863 to replace a
lower and somewhat awkward dome by Charles Bulfinch,
constructed as part of the rebuilding of the Capitol following
the war of 1812 (cat. 60).
Walter’s magnificent dome, one of the world’s most familiar
landmarks, owes its form to Donato Bramante’s Tempietto, the
tiny shrine built in 1502 on the traditional site of St. Peter’s
martyrdom. The Tempietto is the one Renaissance building
that Palladio believed worthy to be illustrated in I Quattro
Libri. Palladio wrote: ‘[...] since Bramante was the first to make
known that good and beautiful architecture which had been
hidden from the time of the ancients till now, I thought it
reasonable that his work should be placed among those of the
ancients; accordingly I have included the following temple
designed by him on the Janiculan Hill’15 (fig. 23). With its [17.] [18.]
colonnade encircling a high drum supporting a dome, the
Tempietto became the prototype source for hundreds of stately
domes throughout the Western World. However, Palladio’s
attraction to the Tempietto may have stemmed from its
similarity to his concept drawing of the Vitruvian peripteros
temple as well as other ancient circular structures.
The Pantheon-style dome that William Thornton originally
proposed for the National Capitol established the precedent for
making the dome a signature feature for many of the nation’s
public buildings. Thomas Jefferson declared the Pantheon to
be the most perfect example of what he termed ‘spherical’
architecture and used its form for the library, known as the
Rotunda, that he designed as the focal point for his scheme for
the University of Virginia. One of the latest manifestations of
the Pantheon was incorporated into John Russell Pope’s
monumental design for the National Gallery of Art, conspicu-
ously sited on the Washington Mall. As originally planned, the
gallery lacked this central domed feature but at Pope’s
insistence it was added for stylistic reasons as well as for its
symbolic associations.16 With its portico, dome, and extensive
wings, Pope’s resulting composition, completed in 1941, recalls
in both in form and scale Palladio’s reconstruction drawings of
ancient Roman baths (cat. 63).
Three of Palladio’s conjectural reconstructions of ancient
baths – Agrippa, Caracalla, and Constantine – show a domed [19.] [20.]
central feature flanked by sprawling appendages of vaulted
spaces. Although Palladio’s drawings of the baths were not
included in I Quattro Libri, they eventually were published in
the eighteenth century in Lord Burlington’s Fabbriche Antiche
disegnate da Andrea Palladio Vicentino (c. 1730), and later in 149
140-155_PalUsa_sag3.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:17 Pagina 150

Charles Cameron’s The Baths of the Romans Explained and 11

A. Palladio, The four books on architecture, translated by R. Tavernor and R.
Illustrated (1772). The completed National Gallery in particular Schofield, Cambridge (ma) 1997, p. 215.
12
Ibid., p. 213.
resembles Palladio’s elevation of the Baths of Agrippa although 13
Ibid.
Palladio mistakenly assumed that the Pantheon was an integral 14
Ibid., p. 216.
part of Agrippa’s complex (cat. 41 and fig. 24). Whether Pope 15
Ibid., p. 296.
ever saw either the original drawing of the Baths of Agrippa or 16
C.A. Thomas, The architecture of the west building of the National Gallery of
a published reproduction cannot be documented. Neverthe- Art, Washington (dc) 1992, p. 32.
17
Quoted in D. Lewis, The drawings of Andrea Palladio, New Orleans (la)
less, it is not unreasonable to assume that the well-educated 2000 (1st edition, Washington (dc) 1981) p. 12.
and well-traveled Pope was aware of such images and that they
influenced his final scheme for the nation’s premier museum
building.
While it is difficult if not impossible to capture in a limited
21. Andrew Mellon
essay the full breadth of Palladio’s influence on American Auditorium, Washington
architecture, it is to safe say that the architectural landscape of dc, by Arthur Brown Jr
our country would look very different if Palladio had never 22. Temple of Mars the
existed. The several examples discussed here illustrate how Avenger, Rome, Andrea
Palladio, The Four Books
Palladio cast his shadow on some of our most iconic buildings. of Andrea Palladio’s
Architecture, translated
However, these works are merely a hint of the hundreds, if not by Isaac Ware, London
thousands of other structures that bear some reference, be it 1737, Bk iv, pl. vii
sophisticated or naïve, to the Italian master’s studies and 23. Bramante’s Tempietto,
designs. In Paolo Gualdo’s 1616 description of Palladio we have San Pietro in Montorio,
Rome, Andrea Palladio,
a foretaste of what he would mean to the Western World’s The Four Books of Andrea
architectural scene. Gualdo stated: ‘He [Palladio] left many Palladio’s Architecture,
translated by Isaac Ware,
disciples, especially in his home town of Vicenza; they London 1737, Bk iv,
pl. xlv
subsequently, with recollections of Palladio’s style, have built
both public and private buildings that are very beautiful in 24. Sections of the Baths
of Agrippa after Andrea
that city and abroad’.17 As for abroad, we can certainly say that Palladio, Richard Boyle,
his disciples have built many beautiful public and private Earl of Burlington,
Fabbriche Antiche disegnate
buildings in his style in America. da Andrea Palladio
Vicentino, London 1730,
pl. 1

1
J.G. Schimmelman, Architectural treatises and building handbooks available
in American libraries and bookstores through 1800, Worchester (ma) 1986, pp.
386-387, 422-423, 456-458.
[21.] [22.] 2
K. Hafertepe, J.F. O’Gorman (eds), American architects and their books to
1848, Amherst (ma) 2001, p. 22.
3
Ibid., p. 20.
4
K. Jurgens, ‘The impact of Palladio’s basilican church designs in Britain and
North America’, in The classical tradition: from Andrea Palladio to John Russell
Pope (abstracts of the Sixth Annual Architectural History Symposium, Virginia
Commonwealth University, 1998), Richmond (va) 1998, pp. 7-9.
5
A recently discovered watercolor of Drayton Hall, dated 1765, shows the
main house connected by curved colonnades to dependencies, features
strongly reinforcing Drayton Hall’s Palladian character. The image is
published in Palladiana. Journal of the Center for Palladian Studies in America,
Inc., Fall 2009, p. 3. Archaeological investigation is planned to confirm the
existence of the colonnades.
6
J. Gibbs, A Book of Architecture: Containing Designs of Buildings and
Ornaments, London 1728 (reprinted Mineola (ny) 2008), Introduction, p. i.
7
A substantive analysis of Battersea’s architecture can be found in C. Novelli,
‘Petersburg’s Battersea fostered Palladian villa form in America’, in
Palladiana. Journal of the Center for Palladian Studies in America, Inc., Fall
2008, pp. 6-7.
8
Col. Isaac Coles to John Hartwell Cocke, Feb. 23, 1816, Cocke Papers,
Special Collections, Alderman Library, University of Virginia,
Charlottesville.
9
See C. Brownell, ‘“Necessary corrections” to Four Books continue to distort
Palladian legacy’, in Palladiana. Journal of the Center for Palladian Studies in
America, Inc., Fall 2008, pp. 2-5.
10
A thorough discussion of the history of the model and its conservation is
[23.] [24.]
found in Carey Howlett’s essay in F. Kimball, The Capitol of Virginia: a
landmark of American architecture, Richmond (va) 2002 (revised and
150 expanded from the 1989 edition), pp. 49-69. 151
140-155_PalUsa_sag3.qxp:Layout 1
1. Model of the Pantheon,
152 Rome (cat. 7)
13-03-2010 12:17 Pagina 152
Reflections on the model
- Venice 2009
timothy richards
I am walking against the flow of tourists pushing towards St.
Mark’s Square through the narrow street of La Frezzeria, searching
for the publishing house of Andrea Palladio’s I Quattro Libri. In
the morning I had sought the help of the University and by
midday was buried amid the shelves of an antique bookseller deep
within the alleys of Venice. I’d hoped to find a publisher’s mark, a
clue to the address so familiar to Palladio, where the printing plates
turned single pages into a volume, aligning the author’s modern
designs with the 1000 year old ruins of Rome.
The previous evening I had visited Villa Cornaro in the rolling
country beyond the city, seen the wonderful form and symmetry
and sat within its cool stone walls. Today, my last in Venice before
I fly back to my workshop in Bath, I know that I am close to the
printshop where the master architect would have stood proofing
and refining his text – the scant information that I could find
pointing me here, to this street. It happened here.
Looking at my childhood I see clearly the influences which
contributed to my work. As a boy walking across the fields to
school, a landscape of trees and farms taught me to understand
natural limits, strengths and scale. It was here that I developed an
instinct for the physical and practical, within me still. In later
years, working as a carpenter, potter and teacher, I began to
understand that natural materials always record exactly what has
happened to them; they never lie. I learnt early that you have to
deal with materials on their own terms and that this is the secret
of getting the best from them.
At the head of the Avon Valley, some three miles from my
home, is the great Georgian city of Bath – a short bus ride away. I
took that journey every day on my way to school and thought
nothing of the city at the time. In retrospect, I realized its strong
Palladian pattern, proportion and grace had made a deep
impression. Bath gave me a strong resource and knowledge with
which to judge and understand other places and the shameful and
needless demolition of large parts of the city in the 1960s and 1970s
was a shock which, as a teenager, I recorded and brooded over. The
violence of the burning and clearance, the destruction of complete
Georgian terraces, beautifully carved townhouses and bow-fronted
shops shook me and I saw then that even the most beautiful cities
were vulnerable to poor management, greed and ignorance. I
knew it was wrong and that the architectural character needed to
be cherished and recognized. Most crucially, I thought, it needed
to be understood. I think the didactic nature of my work stems
from this time, an attempt to celebrate and reconnect with the
language and nature of buildings. Having said that, I was never
interested in joining the many firms competing for architectural
model making work. Using modern synthetics to replicate detail
wasn’t for me. I wanted to deal with pure material and subject.
Years later I discovered that my work had a precedent, an earlier
tradition of plaster model making practiced in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries by the Parisian father and son team of Jean-
Pierre and François Fouquet who counted among their patrons
America’s then Emissary to France, Thomas Jefferson. The
Fouquets’ models became well known in France and England as
interest in the classical grew – their models of plaster being bought
in preference to cork and terracotta alternatives for instruction and
reference by such architectural luminaries as Soane, Nash and
Clérisseau. These models are the closest relations I have found to
my own; I am the only person working with this media or
methodology today.
In 2006 I travelled to the first of the Fouquets’ two workshops:
11 Rue de Lille, not 300 yards from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. I
would have liked to lever up a floorboard of the elegant five-story
Parisian terrace and see if there was any hidden remnant of the
original plaster dust, a physical link to their model making process.
In 1786, Thomas Jefferson’s model (fig. 19, p. 149) of his
proposal for the new Capitol building at Richmond was shipped
from the same workshop to America. He would later justify the
expense of the model as ‘absolutely necessary for the guide of
workmen’ and I see the models in this exhibition, 224 years later,
as endowed with a similar spirit of explanation and guidance,
providing the audience with instant rapport.
These models serve to embody the genius of Palladio’s vision
and of those who, like Jefferson, followed him for all models are
the same in one respect; they are only as good as the research
provided to make them. This is one of the many reasons why
architects commission models; to test the quality of their plans.
Gaps appear in presumed knowledge as models are built and
one of the joys of my work is the closing of these gaps and dis-
covering the answers to questions probably asked only by the
builder and model maker. The making of the building is a process
which provides direct contact and discourse with the original
architect, a connection which remains vital and strong whether
they are still alive or long dead. It often occurs to me that my
models are probably the first three-dimensional representation of
the building made since the original was built.
In my travels across America I have witnessed how Americans
are rooted in their landscape – still a nation of frontiersmen. The [1.]
models chosen chart how individuals reinterpreted the language of
Palladio and Rome and reveal the genus of a distinctly American
architecture.
153
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2. Model of the Villa 4. Model of Redwood

Rotonda, Vicenza Library, Newport (ri)
(cat. 26) (cat. 53)

3. Model of Drayton 5. Model of Jefferson’s

Hall, Charleston (sc) first design for
(cat. 52) Monticello,
Charlottesville (va)
(cat. 55)

[2.] [4.]

154 155
[3.] [5.]
156-165_PalUsa_sche3.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:18 Pagina 156
52.
unknown architect
Drayton Hall, near
Charleston, South Carolina
1738-1742
Plaster model by Timothy Richards,
2010
Height 200 mm; width 305 mm;
depth 200 mm
Scale: 1:85
Built between 1738 and 1742, Drayton
Hall’s two-tiered portico and regular
proportions place it among America’s
earliest expressions of Palladianism (fig.
3, p. 154). A portico with two levels of
superimposed orders was promoted by
Palladio in seven of his I Quattro Libri
villa designs. The feature was particu-
larly favored in the American south
where scores of examples can be found,
dating from the colonial period to the
present. Drayton’s portico was most
likely inspired by Palladio’s Villa
Cornaro (fig. 6, p. 145), although with
its three bays and partial recess into the
mass of the structure, the house is also
similar to Palladio’s Villa Pisani at
Montagnana (fig. 7, p. 145). As origin-
ally built, Drayton Hall had depend-
encies connected by curved colon-
naded wings, giving it an even stronger
Palladian character. A recently dis-
covered watercolor of the plantation
house of 1765 shows these connections.
Drayton’s designer remains unknown.
Interior details are copied from English
pattern books, such as Edward
Hoppus’s The Gentleman’s and Builder’s
Repository (1737; cat. 46). The property
is now owned by the National Trust for
Historic Preservation.
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53.
peter harrison
Redwood Library, Newport,
[52.]
Rhode Island
1748-1750
Plaster model by Timothy Richards,
2010
Height 180 mm; width 305 mm;
depth 280 mm
Scale: 1:60
The colonial architect Peter Harrison
(1716-1775) gave America its first
temple-form building with the Red-
wood Library (fig. 4, p. 155). The
library’s center section is dominated by
a fully developed Roman Doric
portico. The precedent for a temple
form flanked by half-pedimented
wings is Palladio’s church of San
Giorgio Maggiore in Venice (fig. 5, p.
144). Though not published in I
Quattro Libri, the building was well
known in the eighteenth century. San
Giorgio’s façade in turn inspired the
English architect William Kent (1684-
156 1748) to design a garden pavilion that
was published in Isaac Ware’s Designs of
Inigo Jones and Others (1731). This was
then pirated by Benjamin Cole and
included as a tailpiece in his edition
(with Edward Hoppus) of a 1732-1734
translation of I Quattro Libri (cat. 40),
of which he owned a copy. This
pirated representation was the source
for Harrison’s building (see Appendix
3, p. 119 and fig. 4, p. 144), which was
built of wood and sheathed with
boards cut to resemble stone ashlar.
The building is still a working library
and has been considerably expanded in
size. Peter Harrison designed several
colonial works in the Anglo-Palladian
spirit including Newport’s Brick
Market (1762-1772) and Touro
Synagogue (1759-1763), as well as
Boston’s King’s Chapel (1740-1749).
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54.
unknown architect
Mount Airy, Richmond
County, Virginia
1748-1758
Plaster model by Timothy Richards,
2010
Height 280 mm; width 330 mm;
depth 200 mm
Scale: 1:75
The unknown architect of this colo- [53.]
nial plantation house based its garden
elevation on a Palladian-style country
house published in James Gibbs’ A
Book of Architecture, published in 1728
(cat. 44 and fig. 11, p. 146). Gibbs’
work was an important design source
for colonial architects and builders.
Although Mount Airy is smaller than
the Gibbs scheme, Gibbs’ central
pedimented pavilion, employing an
arcaded loggia and rusticated stone-
work, was faithfully reproduced in the
Virginia house. Although he was
outside Lord Burlington’s inner
Palladian circle, Gibbs was one of the
leading figures in British architecture
and often infused his Anglo-
Palladianism with elements of the
baroque, in which he had been
trained in Rome. He adapted the
pedimented pavilion with loggia from
Palladio’s design for the Villa
Saraceno, published in I Quattro
Libri (as built fig. 10, p. 146). Mount
Airy’s Palladian character was re-
inforced through the use of curved
hyphens connecting to two-story
dependencies framing the opposite
elevation. Mount Airy was built for
John Tayloe ii who employed the [54.]
architect and joiner William Buck-
land (1734-1774) to craft its interiors.
Buckland’s work was lost when the
house burned in 1844 and the interior
was rebuilt with its original walls.
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55.
thomas jefferson
Monticello, first version,
near Charlottesville,
Virginia
begun 1771
Plaster model by Timothy Richards,
2010
Height 190 mm; width 405 mm;
depth 190 mm
Scale: 1:80

Thomas Jefferson determined that his

home, Monticello, should be a model
for the correct use of the Classical
orders. This was a rarity in Virginia
where Jefferson wrote: ‘a workman
could scarcely be found capable of
drawing an order’.1 His passion for
Palladian design as well as proper
application of the orders is conspicu-
ously demonstrated in his 1771 ele-
vation drawing of the first version of
the house, begun about 1772. The
two-tiered portico, superimposed
orders, and hipped-roof wings with
attic stories (fig. 5, p. 155) made the
original Monticello a reduced version
of Palladio’s Villa Cornaro (fig. 6, p.
145). Jefferson’s enthusiasm for
Classical details extended to his
chimneys which are classical ped-
estals. This first version of Monticello
was a precedent-setting tripartite
scheme for America, but it was never
fully completed. Following his return
from France in 1789, Jefferson trans-
formed the unfinished house into the
domed version we know today, a
combination of Palladian and French
Neoclassical influences.
1
Jefferson 1964, p. 146.

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56.
thomas jefferson
Virginia State Capitol,
Richmond, Virginia
begun 1786
Plaster model by Timothy Richards,
2010
Height 180 mm; width 230 mm;
depth 380 mm
Scale: 1:170
[55.]

For the design of Virginia’s new

Capitol, Thomas Jefferson drew
inspiration from the Maison Carrée,
the near-perfectly preserved Roman
temple in Nîmes, France. Although
Jefferson had visited the temple and
had studied its design in Charles Louis
Clérisseau’s Antiquités de la France
(1778), he was first introduced to
images of the building in his copy of
[56]
Palladio’s I Quattro Libri (fig. 18, p.
149). With Clérisseau’s assistance,
Jefferson produced design drawings for
158 the Capitol, which he sent from 159
156-165_PalUsa_sche3.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:18 Pagina 160

France to Richmond together with a

plaster model crafted by the celebrated
French model maker, Jean-Pierre
Fouquet (fig. 19, p. 149). Jefferson’s
design substituted the Maison Carrée’s
Corinthian order with an Ionic one, an
adaptation that the pragmatic Palladio
would undoubtedly have approved.
Further modifications were made in
construction. However, in siting the
Capitol, Jefferson followed Palladio’s
dictum for temples, which he said
should be: ‘far away from unsavory
areas and on beautiful and ornate
squares where many streets end, [...].
And if there are hills in the city, one
should choose the highest part’.1
1
Palladio (ed. Tavernor, Schofield) 1997,
iv[5].

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57.
thomas jefferson
Competition design
for the President’s House,
Washington, DC
1792
Plaster model by Timothy Richards,
2010
Height 279 mm; width 430 mm;
depth 430 mm
Scale: 1:95

Thomas Jefferson’s fascination with

both Palladio and domes was vividly
demonstrated in his proposed design
for the President’s House, submitted
anonymously in the 1792 competition [58.]
for the United States executive resi-
dence. Modeled after Palladio’s Villa
Rotonda, Jefferson’s scheme closely
paralleled the version of the Rotonda
published in Giacomo Leoni’s 1715
edition of I Quattro Libri (fig. 16, p.
147). Although Leoni took liberties
with Palladio’s design and added
various embellishments, the Leoni
edition (cat. 38) remained Jefferson’s
primary authority for Palladianism.
Jefferson’s submission varied from
Leoni’s version of the Villa Rotonda
by using pairs of bays flanking each
portico rather than a single bay, and
in the use of free-standing columns
rather than arches on the sides of the
porticoes. A striking proposal, how-
ever, was the inclusion of glass panels
between the dome’s ribs, a feature
Jefferson observed with wonder in the
[57.]
Halle au Blé in Paris (built 1763-1767
by Nicolas Le Camus de Mézières).
He also proposed Parisian-style sky-
lights for the attic rooms.

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160 161
156-165_PalUsa_sche3.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:18 Pagina 162
58.
james hoban
Revised design
for the President’s House,
Washington, DC
1792-1803
Plaster model by Timothy Richards,
2010
Height 165 mm; width 470 mm;
depth 230 mm
Scale: 1:140
In the 1792 competition for the design
of the President’s House, President
George Washington and the three
competition commissioners passed
over Jefferson’s Rotonda scheme and
selected a more conservative design
submitted by the Irish-born architect
James Hoban (1762-1831). Hoban’s
original prize-winning entry (now
lost) was identified by the early
nineteenth century as owing a debt to
Leinster House, Dublin, a house built
in 1745-1748 by Richard Cassels, and
known to Hoban, who had trained in
Dublin. After comments from
Washington, the design was consider-
ably revised and now looks closer to
Gibbs than to Cassels.1 As built,
Hoban’s design followed the Anglo-
Palladian country house tradition
rather than a villa of the Veneto.
Originally built without the pro-
jecting portico (added in 1829), the
north front of the White House has a
strong similarity to Gibbs’s design for
Seacomb Park, Hertfordshire (fig. 17,
p. 149), a country house illustrated in
his A Book of Architecture but never
built, owing to the death of the client.
1
Recent research challenging the orthodox
story of Hoban’s design is summarized in
Reiff 2000, p. 35 and footnote 71.
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59.
charles carroll, jr.
Homewood,
Baltimore, Maryland
1801-1803
Plaster model by Timothy Richards,
2010
Height 150 mm; width 485 mm;
depth 190 mm
Scale: 1:85
The Villa Barbaro (fig. 12, p. 146)
shows how Palladio’s incorporation of
service and storage sections into a
[60.] formal composition could make a
villa an impressive architectural state-
ment. The Villa Barbaro’s five-part
format became the prototype for
numerous eighteenth and nineteenth-
century high-style residences through-
out the eastern United States. This
five-part layout is elegantly expressed
162 in Homewood, the suburban villa of
Charles Carroll, Jr. While its form is
Palladian, Homewood’s refined
detailing is Adamesque, making the
house a demonstration of Palladian-
ism expressed with a different
Classical vocabulary. Homewood was
largely planned by Carroll himself,
who was well-educated and well-
informed on the subject of archi-
tecture. Much of Homewood’s
detailing is based on illustrations in
several English pattern books by
William Pain, including Pain’s British
Palladio (cat. 51). Homewood is now a
museum owned and administered by
Johns Hopkins University.
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60.
william thornton
and others
United States Capitol,
Washington, DC
begun 1793
Plaster model by Timothy Richards,
2010
Height 330 mm; width 190 mm;
depth 165 mm
Scale: 1:340
The Capitol was originally designed
by William Thornton in 1793, rebuilt
after the 1814 fire and expanded over
many years (by Benjamin Henry
Latrobe, Charles Bulfinch and
Thomas Ustick Walter). Thornton’s
scheme was in the Anglo-Palladian
tradition of a half-century earlier and
called for a central Pantheon-type
saucer dome. The Capitol’s most
defining feature today, Walter’s
enormous cast-iron dome, was added
in 1860-1863 to replace a lower dome,
reconstructed after the 1814 fire.
Walter’s magnificent dome, one of the
world’s most familiar landmarks, owes
its form most directly to Michel-
angelo’s dome for St. Peter’s, in Rome,
but there is a line of descent back
through Donato Bramante’s Tem-
pietto, a tiny shrine built in 1502 on
the traditional site of St. Peter’s
martyrdom (fig. 23, p. 150) to the
Temple of Hercules at Tivoli, which
Palladio measured and published in I
Quattro Libri. The Tempietto was the
one Renaissance building that
Palladio believed worthy of illus-
trating in I Quattro Libri. He wrote: ‘I
thought it reasonable that his work
should be placed among those of the
ancients’.i
1
Palladio (ed. Tavernor, Schofield) 1997,
iv[64].
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61.
george b. post
New York Stock Exchange,
New York City
1901-1903
Plaster model by Timothy Richards,
2010
Height 230 mm; width 255 mm;
depth 85 mm
Scale: 1:260
Palladio’s reconstruction drawings of
temples in I Quattro Libri presented
for the first time a credible and
captivating image of the grandeur and
beauty of ancient Roman architecture
(fig. 22, p. 150). The Corinthian order
employed in the majority of the
temples was used to provide an image
of dignity and permanence to hun-
dreds of governmental, institutional,
and commercial building across the
usa. It was particularly favored for
banks, both great and small. The
nerve center of the American financial
system, the New York Stock Ex-
change, makes use of an engaged
Corinthian portico on an imperial
scale to comfort people into thinking
that their investments are secure
within this temple of finance.
Designed by George B. Post (1837-
1913), its enormous façade adheres to
Palladio’s recommendations on temple
fronts: ‘Temples must have wider
porticoes and taller columns that
those needed for other buildings, and
it is appropriate that they should be
large and splendid’.i
1
Palladio (ed. Tavernor, Schofield) 1997,
iv[7].
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62.
cass gilbert
United States Supreme
Court, Washington, DC
completed 1935
Plaster model by Timothy Richards,
2010
Height 180 mm; width 430 mm;
depth 190 mm
Scale: 1:230
The American Renaissance move-
ment was an outgrowth of the
Centennial Exposition of 1876, which
ushered in a period of confidence and
artistic vigor. The nation saw itself as
heir to ancient civilization and took
on the image of Greek and Roman
Classical architecture for its own.
Palladio’s reconstruction drawings of
temples in I Quattro Libri served as a
primary source of inspiration for
many monumental public buildings
erected from 1876 into the 1930s.
America’s most imposing, temple-like
structure of this period is the United
States Supreme Court by Cass Gilbert
(1859-1934). With its great octastyle,
Corinthian portico, the Supreme
Court directly references the Temple
of Mars the Avenger in Rome (fig. 22,
p. 150), a conjectural image of which
was first published by Palladio. The
porticoed temple was a form
developed by the ancients to inspire
awe. The Supreme Court’s Classical
architecture vividly commands a sense
of awe and respect for the institution
it houses.
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63.
john russell pope
National Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC
1936-1941
Plaster model by Timothy Richards,
2010
Height 205 mm; width 430 mm;
depth 230 mm
Scale: 1:270
The Pantheon-style dome originally
proposed for the National Capitol
established the precedent for making
the dome a signature motif for many
American public buildings. John
Russell Pope (1874-1937) used the
Pantheon form for the central feature
of his design for the National Gallery
of Art, conspicuously sited on the
Washington Mall. Pope’s compo-
sition, with its sprawling wings,
resembles in outline Palladio’s re-
construction drawings of ancient
Roman baths. Although not pub-
lished by Palladio, these drawings
were eventually engraved for Lord
Burlington’s Fabbriche Antiche dise-
gnate da Andrea Palladio Vicentino
(1730 [1735], cat. 41), while Charles
Cameron remeasured and surveyed
the baths for his own publication, The
Baths of the Romans (1772). Pope’s
composition particularly resembles
Palladio’s elevation of the Baths of
Agrippa although Palladio mistakenly
assumed that the Pantheon was part
of Agrippa’s complex. We cannot be
sure that Pope saw this engraving, but
it is not unreasonable to assume that
Pope was aware of such images and
that they influenced the nation’s
premier museum building. Plate 63
shows a rendering of the building
attributed to John Russell Pope and
Otto R. Eggers.
calder loth
163
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[62.]

[63.]

164 165
[61.]
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Index
All references are to page numbers;
those in bold type indicate catalog
entries, and those in italic type
indicate illustrations in essays and in
introductions to sections. Footnotes
and the Bibliography have not been
indexed.
Ackerman, James S. 73, 75
Adam, James 114
Adam, Robert 114, 118, 128
Agrippa, Emperor Marcus 41
Albano 36
Alberti, Leon Battista 2, 4, 8, 11, 13,
31, 42, 44, 45, 48, 112
Alberti, Count Matteo d’ 120
Almerico, Paolo 86
Ammannati, Bartolomeo 22, 68, 106
Ancona, Arch of Trajan 106
Angarano, Count Giacomo 145
Annapolis, md 117, 142
– Chase Lloyd House 117
– Hammond-Harwood House 117,
128
– Whitehall 117, 142, 144
Arnaldi, Vincenzo 8, 11
Arundel, Earl and Countess xii
Assisi 24, 38, 40, 41, 88, 90
– Santa Maria Sopra 40
– Temple of Minerva 24, 38, 41, 88,
90
Augustus, Emperor 15, 56
Ayers, Philip 99
Bacci, Andrea 104
Baltimore, md 142, 144, 163
– Homewood 144, 163
Banister, John 144
Barbaro, Daniele 16, 42, 44, 45, 46,
48, 50, 90, 93, 95, 98, 142
Barbaro, Marcantonio 5, 84, 122
Barry, Sir Charles 86
Bartoli, Cosimo 8
Bassano del Grappa
– Bridge at Bassano 13, 14
Bassano, Leandro 90
Battersea, Petersburg, va 144, 146
Battilotti, Donata 22, 60, 65, 76
Bell, Robert 113, 138
Bembo, Cardinal Pietro 38, 54
Benavides, Marco Mantova 54
Bologna 5, 7, 8
– Church of San Petronio 5
Boston, ma 112, 113, 114, 117, 135, 138,
142, 157
– King’s Chapel 117, 157
Boucher, Bruce 22, 72
Bramante, Donato 2, 5, 16, 66, 72,
99, 148, 162, 163
Brescia, Loggia 81
Brown, Arthur, Jr 148
Buckland, William 117, 118, 119, 135,
157
Bulfinch, Charles 118, 148, 163
Burger, Fritz 22, 51, 72
Burlington House xii
Burlington, Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl
of xii, 2, 22, 26, 28, 31, 33, 36, 38,
42, 45, 48, 51, 54, 58, 60, 62, 66, 68,
70, 73, 85, 78, 83, 88, 93, 96, 99, 98,
100, 102, 106, 112, 120, 122, 125,
126, 128, 148, 151, 157, 163
Burns, Howard 4, 5, 22, 28, 38, 41, 51,
54, 60, 65, 68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76,
80, 92, 93, 95, 96, 102, 104
Byrd ii, William 118, 142
Caesar, Julius 56
Calderari, Ottone 62
Cambridge, MA, Vassall-Longfellow
House 131
Cameron, Charles 151
Campbell, Colen xii, 70, 87, 110, 112,
117, 119, 122, 123, 126, 128, 131, 138
Carroll, Charles, Jr 144, 163
Cassels, Richard 145, 163
Cassiodorus 56
Cavazza, Bartolomeo 22
Cevese, Renato 68
Charleston, sc 131, 142, 154, 156
Charlotte, nc, Rosedale 142, 146
Charlottesville, va 7, 144, 155, 159
– Monticello 7, 144, 155, 159
– University of Virginia 7, 15, 16,
41, 117, 148
Chatsworth xiii
Chestertown, md 117
– Hynson-Ringgold House 117
Clarke, Dr George xii, 120
Clérisseau, Charles Louis 117, 119,
145, 152
Colchester, Essex 128
Cole, Benjamin 110, 117, 119, 122, 124,
126, 128, 131, 135, 142, 156
Cole, John 120
Coner, Codex 23, 26, 45, 102
Contareno, Giacomo 106
Contarini, Paolo 76
Contarini, Pietro, Bishop of Paphos
76
Contarini, Zaccaria 76
Cornaro family 87
Cornaro, Alvise 50, 54, 73
Crace, John Dibblee xiii
Cummings, A.L. 138
Dante 16
Davies, P. 68
de l’Orme, Philibert 16
Devonshire, Dukes of xii
Dio, Cassius 36
Domitian, Emperor 41
Donaldson, Thomas Leverton xii
Drayton Hall, Charleston, sc 87, 122,
130, 142, 154, 156
Dublin 70, 122, 144, 145, 162, 163
– Leinster House 145, 163
– Trinity College 70
Dubois, Nicholas 122
Düsseldorf 120
Eggers, Otto R. 163
Evelyn, John 128
Fairbairn, Lynda 81
Falconetto, Giovanni Maria 4, 28,
30, 66, 73
Falkener, Edward xiii
Fano, Basilica of 96, 98
Flitcroft, Henry 144
Florence, Uffizi Gallery 33, 64
Forssman, Erik 22
Fouquet, François 152
Fouquet, Jean-Pierre 144, 145, 148,
152, 161
Fourdrinier, Paul 122, 126
Francesco di Giorgio 2, 8, 73, 93
Frankfurt 73
Franklin, Benjamin 120
Fréart de Chambray, Roland 50, 98,
110, 112, 119, 120
Frederick v, The Elector Palatine xii
Geertman, Herman 45
Genazzano, Nymphaeum 75
Gibbs, James 112, 114, 117, 119, 128,
135, 142, 145, 146, 148, 157, 163
Gilbert, Cass 148, 163
Giocondo, Fra Giovanni 42, 44, 45,
46, 48
Gioseffi, D. 22, 24
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von 41, 86
Gualdo, Paolo 22, 106, 151
Günther 73, 93, 95
Hadrian, Emperor 41
Halfpenny, William 112, 113, 114, 117,
118, 122
Hancock, John 113
Harding, Samuel 122, 126
Harris, Eileen 112, 120, 122, 128, 131,
138
Harris, John 120
Harrison, Peter 7, 117, 118, 119, 142,
156, 157
Hartington, Charlotte, Marchioness
xii
Harvard University 114, 142
Hawk, John 135
Hawksmoor, Nicholas xii, 110, 135
Hemsoll D. 68
Henry iii, King of France and
Poland 106
Hoban, James 145, 163
Hodges, James 131
Hoffman, Francis 135
Homer 16
Hook, Robert xii
Hoppus, Edward 110, 117, 119, 122,
124, 126, 131, 135, 142, 156, 157
Hoppus, William 112
Houghton Hall, Norfolk 131
Hulsbergh, Henry 128
India, Bernardino 24, 84
Jefferson, Thomas 7, 15, 16, 41, 114,
117, 118, 119, 122, 126, 128, 135, 144,
145, 148, 152, 155, 159, 161, 163
Jekyll, Gertrude 131
Jeremiah Lee House 110, 113, 135, 138
John Wentworth House 131
Jones, Inigo xii, 2, 11, 26, 31, 42, 45,
48, 51, 52, 54, 58, 60, 62, 64, 65, 65,
68, 70, 73, 78, 86, 88, 93, 96, 106,
110, 117, 119, 120, 122, 126, 128, 131,
135, 142, 157
Keith W. Grant 22
Kent, William xii, 119, 126, 128, 131,
144, 156
Kentucky 138, 144, 146
King James i xii
Labacco, Antonio 36, 38, 90
Landmark Trust 87
Langley, Batty 112, 113, 114, 117, 118,
119, 126, 127, 128, 131, 138
Langley, Thomas 131
Latrobe, Benjamin Henry 117, 118,
119, 163
Le Camus de Mézières, Nicolas 144,
161
Le Clerc 128
Le Corbusier 13, 86
Le Muet, Pierre 110
Leo x, Pope 4, 88, 106
Leoni, Giacomo 7, 110, 119, 120, 122,
144, 145, 146, 148, 161
Lewis, Douglas 22, 33, 51, 54, 60, 62,
64, 68, 76, 80, 81, 96, 98, 120
Lexington, ky 138, 144, 146
– Morton House 144, 146
Lightoler, Timothy 122
Ligorio, Pirro 38, 54, 55, 56, 90, 104
Lloyd iv, Edward 118
Lloyd, W.A.S. 131
London 4, 7, 26, 68, 90, 100, 106,
110, 112, 113, 114, 117, 118, 120, 122,
123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 131, 134,
135, 136, 138, 139, 142, 144, 145, 146,
148, 151
– 29 Old Burlington Street 68
– Chiswick House xii, xiii, 99, 122
– National Gallery 90
– Sir John Soane Museum 4, 26
– Somerset House 117
– St. Martin-in-the-Fields 129
– Westminster Abbey Library xii,
122
Lotz, Wolfgang 22, 26, 28
Luciolli, Girolamo 58
Lutyens, Sir Edwin 131
Lyon, Daniel 128
Macky, John xii
Magagnato 84
Maganza, Giambattista 22
Magrini, Antonio 22, 106
Mantegna, Andrea di 106
Mantua 31, 58
– Palazzo Te 58, 60
– Portico of Sant’Andrea 31
Marcellinus, Ammianus 56
Martini, Francesco di Giorgio 73, 93
Maser 5, 7, 50, 65, 82, 84, 93, 142, 146
– Barbaro Chapel 7
– Maser Church 82
– Villa Barbaro xii, 5, 7, 50, 65,
84, 93, 142, 146, 163
Matteo, Priuli 5, 7, 65, 84, 93, 142,
146
Maxentius, Emperor 5, 93
Maximilian, Emperor 5
McGill University, Montreal 120
Meighan, Thomas 135
Michelangelo 7, 11, 16, 106
Mocenigo, Alvise 54
Mocenigo, Leonardo 51, 52, 54, 106
Montano, Giovanni Battista 56
Monza, Fabio 22
Moro, Battista del 24, 84
Moro, Marco 58
Morris, Robert 114, 119, 122, 131, 134,
135
Moss Neck Manor, Fredericksburg,
va 144, 146
Mount Vernon, md 113, 118, 131, 138 177
166-184_PalUsa_apparati.qxp:Layout 1 13-03-2010 12:19 Pagina 178
Muttoni, Francesco 76 Poynter, Ambrose xiii
Pozza, Antonio Dalla 72
Nash, John 152 Praeneste 54
New York 112, 135, 142, 148, 163 Puppi, Lionello 22, 51, 106
– Stock Exchange 148, 163
Newport, ri 117, 122, 142, 155, 156, Rakob, Friedrich 45
157 Raphael 2, 5, 11, 16, 66, 72, 73, 80, 88
– Brick Market 117, 157 Reiff, Daniel 138
– Redwood Library 7, 117, 122, Repeta, Mario 81
147, 155, 156 Revett, Nicholas 117, 119
– Touro Synagogue 117, 157 Ricci, Sebastiano 122
Nîmes, Maison Carrée 117, 145, 148, Richmond, va 145, 152, 156, 159, 161
159, 161 – Mount Airy 87, 117, 128, 142, 157
Norman, John 113, 138 – Virginia State Capitol 145, 148,
Noyen, Sebastian van 102, 104 152, 159
Ridolfi, Cardinal 106
Oakley, Edward 131 Rigetti, Girolamo 76
Oliver, John xii Romano, Giulio 5, 16, 35, 56, 58, 60,
Ostia, Trajan’s Port 7, 24, 36, 38 73, 96
Oxford, Worcester College xii, 64, Rome 2, 4, 5
65, 80, 120 – Appian Way 5, 51, 93
– Arch of Constantine 54, 106
Padua 4, 22, 35, 50, 54, 66, 68, 75, – Arch of Janus 106
106 – Arch of Septimius Severus 106
– Monte di Pietà 66 – Arch of Titus 106
– Padua Cathedral 35 – Baptistry of Constantine 33, 38
– Palazzo Mantova Benavides 68, – Basilica of San Giovanni in
106 Laterano 33, 35
– Palazzo Vescovile 35 – Basilica of San Sebastiano 93
– Piazzola sul Brenta 75, 76 – Basilica of Santa Maria degli
– Villa Contarini 75 Angeli 106
– Villa dei Vescovi 35 – Baths of Agrippa 22, 93, 106, 125,
– Villa Garzoni, Pontecasale 52 148, 151, 163
Pagello, Elisabetta 44 – Baths of Caracalla 5, 31, 33, 93,
Pain, James 114, 138 106, 148
Pain, William 12, 113, 114, 128, 138, – Baths of Constantine 106, 148
139, 163 – Baths of Diocletian 5, 7, 24, 75,
Palestrina 15, 18, 25, 36, 38, 54, 55, 56 100, 102, 104, 106
– Temple of Fortune 15, 24, 54, – Baths of Nero 106, 126
55, 56 – Baths of Titus 106
Palladio, Marcantonio 98 – Baths of Trajan 106
Palladio, Silla xii, 106 – Belvedere 72
Pane, Roberto 82 – Colosseum 31, 33
Paris, Halle au Blé 144, 161 – Cortile del Belvedere 72
Park, Helen 112, 114, 131 – Forum of Augustus 15
Parr, Regimius 135 – Forum Boarium 45, 46, 93
Peruzzi, Baldassarre 8, 38, 40, 41, 81 – Forum of Nerva 90, 91, 148
Petrarch 16, 102 – Hadrianeum 31
Philadelphia 112, 113, 114, 118, 130, – Lateran Baptistry 33, 35
135, 137, 138, 142 – Mausoleum of Augustus 54, 55, 56
Piazza Castello 41 – Mausoleum of Romulus 7, 15, 16,
Piazza dei Preti 33 91, 93
Picart, Bernard 120 – Palazzo Branconio dall’Aquila 80
Pisani family 22, 72 – Palazzo Caprini 66
Pisani, Cardinal Francesco 35, 54, 73 – Palazzo Massimo 81
Pisani, Daniele 70 – Palazzo of San Marcho 33
Pisani, Marco 70 – Pantheon 5, 7, 15, 16, 24, 31, 33,
Pisani, Vettore 72 41, 45, 73, 86, 88, 90, 93, 95, 117,
Pittoni, Girolamo 26 148, 151, 152, 163
Pius ii, Pope 36 – Portico of Octavia 86
Pius iv, Pope 106 – Round Temple of the Forum
Pliny the Younger 15, 18, 36 Boarium 45, 46, 93
Poiana, Giovanni Battista 33 – San Giovanni in Laterano 33, 35
Pola 12, 90, 106 – Santa Maria Rotonda see
– Arch of the Sergi 106 Pantheon
Temple of Augustus 90 – St. Peter’s 163
Pope, John Russell 148, 151, 163 – Tempietto di San Pietro in
Porlezza, Giovanni da 26 Montorio 91, 151
Port of Claudius 36 – Temple of Hadrian 5, 33
Porta di Santa Maria 36 – Temple of Mars the Avenger 148,
Porto, Iseppo da 5, 7, 25, 60, 96, 98 151, 163
Porto, Palazzo da 24, 38, 41, 58, 60, – Temple of Minerva in the Forum
62, 64, 68, 70, 80, 91, 96, 98, 112 of Nerva 24, 38, 41, 88, 90, 91,
178 Post, George B. 148, 163 148
– Temple of Saturn in the Forum
13
– Temple of Vesta see Round
Temple of the Forum Boarium
above
– Temples of the Sun and the
Moon 93
– Theatre of Marcellus 22, 26, 28,
48, 60, 62
– Tomb of Priscilla 51
– Tomb of Valerius Romulus 5
– Tomb of the Orazi on the Via
Appia 51
– Villa Madama 72
Ronzani, Francesco 58
Rooker, Edward 135
Rusconi, Giovanni Antonio 90
Salem 142
Salmon, William 112, 113, 114, 119,
128, 130
Salviati, Giuseppe 50
Sangallo the Younger, Antonio da 8,
11, 16, 31, 33, 72, 73, 75, 95, 104
Sangallo, Giuliano da 38, 73, 93
Sanmicheli, Michele 16, 26, 28, 58,
60, 66
Sansovino, Jacopo 16, 26, 52, 64, 106
Saraceno, Biagio 87
Saraina, Torello 90
Sayer, Robert 122, 131
Scamozzi, Ottavio Bertotti 5, 22, 30,
66, 72
Scamozzi, Vincenzo xii, 8, 24, 26, 50,
62, 64, 68, 73, 82, 86, 104, 106, 117,
128, 135
Scolari, Filippo 22
Seacomb Park, Hertfordshire 145,
148, 163
Septimius Severus, Emperor 36, 38
Serlio, Sebastiano 2, 5, 8, 11, 26, 28,
33, 36, 38, 51, 52, 62, 72, 73, 87, 90,
91, 93, 95, 99, 102, 104, 106, 110,
112, 117, 119, 128
Sharpe, Horatio 142
Shirley, va 122, 142, 145
Shryock, Gideon 138
Siena 8
Smith, Robert 126, 131
Spielman, Heinz 22, 33
Spoleto, Temple of Clitumnus 72
Steel, H.D. 138
Strabo 54, 56
Stuart, Princess Elizabeth xii
Susa, Arch of Caesar 106
Swan, Abraham 110, 112, 113, 114, 118,
119, 128, 135, 136, 137, 138
Talman, John xii, 26, 31, 42, 45, 48,
51, 54, 58, 60, 62, 66, 68, 70, 73, 75,
78, 88, 93, 96, 106
Talman, William xii
Tayloe, John 142, 157
Temanza, Tommaso 22
Thiene, Adriano 60
Thiene, Francesco 62
Thiene, Lavinia 60
Thiene, Marcantonio 60
Thiene, Marco 35, 36, 54
Thiene, Orazio 62
Thornton, William 138, 148, 163
Tivoli 36, 45
Tivoli, Temple of Hercules 163
Trevisan, Bernado xii
Trezza, Luigi 28
Trissino, Giangiorgio 16, 22, 24, 26,
35, 38, 45, 50, 66
Tryon’s Palace, New Bern, nc 128, 135
Udine, Palazzo Antonini 25, 62, 64,
65
Valle, Battista Della 51
Valmarana, Antonio 7, 76
Valmarana, Giuseppe 76
Vanbrugh xii
Vandergucht, Michael 120
Vasari, Giorgio 8, 22, 81, 99
Venice
– Carità 64, 112, 122
– Church of the Redentore 5, 22,
25, 82, 84, 93, 95
– Correr Museum 99
– Doge’s Palace 16
– Libreria Sansoviniana 64
– Loggetta, St Mark’s Square 106,
152
– Palazzo Ducale 31
– Procuratie Nuove 64
– Rialto Bridge 64, 84
– Sala del Maggior Consiglio 16
– San Giorgio Maggiore 4, 33, 142,
144, 156
– San Pietro di Castello 96
Ventura 28
Verona
– Arch of Jupiter Ammon 4, 28,
30, 31, 81, 106
– Arch of the Gavi 78, 81, 106
– Arch of the Leoni 68
– Church of San Bernardino,
Cappella Pellegrini 93
– Palazzo Bevilacqua 68
– Palazzo Canossa 58, 60
– Palazzo Pompei 66, 68
– Porta Leoni 81
– Porta Palio 68
– Roman Theatre 28, 68, 70
Veronese, Paolo 122
Vertue, George 122
Vicenza
– Basilica 11, 13
– Casa Cogollo 81
– Civico, Museo 33, 106
– Loggia del Capitaniato 78, 80
– Loggia of the Palazzo della
Ragione 28, 38, 64, 68
– Palazzo Barbarano 11, 12, 30, 31,
81
– Palazzo Caldogno 62
– Palazzo Camillo Volpe 11
– Palazzo Chiericati 5, 11, 12, 60,
64, 80, 81, 96
– Palazzo Civena 66, 68, 73
– Palazzo Conti 68
– Palazzo da Porto 24, 38, 41, 58,
60, 62, 64, 68, 70, 80, 81, 96, 98,
112
– Palazzo Garzadori 66, 68
– Palazzo Iseppo Porto 5, 7, 25, 60
– Palazzo Loschi 62
– Palazzo Poiana 68
– Palazzo Thiene 18, 48, 60, 96, 112
– Palazzo Trissino 62
– Palazzo Valmarana 24, 41, 40, 96,
98
– Ponte degli Angeli 106
– Porta del Castello 106
– Porto Breganze 7 Westover, va 118
– Roman Theatre 48 White, W.H. xiii
– Teatro Berga 41, 51 Whitehall, Maryland 144
– Teatro Olimpico 13, 14, 50, 98 Woodman, James 128
– Villa Rotonda 7, 13, 14, 15, 41, 86, Wren, Sir Christopher xii, 110, 135
87, 117, 122, 124, 144, 146, 154, 161 Wyatt, James 128
– Villa Trissino at Cricoli 66, 68, Wyatt, Thomas Henry 128
72
Victoria, Queen and Empress xiii Yale University 142
Vigardolo 5
Vignola, Giacomo da 2, 11, 128, 135 Zelotti, Battista 24
Villa Arnaldi, Meledo Alto 8, 11 Zorzi, Giangiorgio 22, 28, 45, 51, 60,
Villa Contarini, Piazzola 25, 75, 76 68, 81
Villa Cornaro, Piombino Dese 64,
87, 117, 142, 144, 145
Villa dei Vescovi, Luvigliano 35, 54,
72
Villa della Torre, Fumane 54
Villa Emo, Fanzolo 142, 144
Villa Garzoni, Pontecasale 52, 54
Villa Godi, Lonedo 73
Villa Mocenigo, Brenta Canal 4, 8,
24, 25, 51, 52, 54
Villa Molin alla Mandria 73
Villa Muzani, Rettorgole 81
Villa of Poggio Reale 51
Villa Pisani, Bagnolo 4, 22, 25, 44,
48, 70, 72, 73, 75, 102, 104
Villa Pisani, Montagnana 64, 87, 142,
145
Villa Poiana, Poiana Maggiore 11, 14,
18
Villa Repeta, Campiglia 25, 78, 80,
81, 87
Villa Saraceno, Finale 87, 142, 146,
157
Villa Sarego, Santa Sofia 7
Villa Soranza 60
Villa Thiene, Quinto 76
Villa Trissino, Cricoli 66, 68, 72
Villa Valmarana, Lisiera 120
Villa Valmarana, Vigardolo 73, 86,
120
Virgil 16
Vitruvius, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio 2,
5, 11, 25, 41, 42, 45, 46, 48, 50, 64,
90, 93, 95, 96, 98, 99, 106, 112, 1127,
118, 119, 128, 138
Vittoria, Alessandro 82
Volpaia, Bernardo della 4, 26
Wade, General George 68
Walpole, Horace 135
Walpole, Sir Robert 131
Walter, Thomas Ustick 148, 163
Ware, Isaac 110, 112, 113, 114, 117, 118,
119, 122, 126, 127, 142, 144, 148, 151,
157
Washington dc 148
– Andrew Mellon Auditorium 148,
151
– us Capitol 163
– National Gallery of Art 163
– President’s House 7, 161, 163
– us Supreme Court 163
– White House see President’s
House
Washington, George 113, 118, 131, 144,
163
Watts, John 120
Webb, John xii, 26, 31, 42, 45, 48, 51,
54, 58, 60, 62, 64, 65, 66, 68, 70,
73, 75, 78, 88, 93, 96, 106, 117
Webb, William xii 179
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