A
Vicenza is a pleasant, prosperous city in the Veneto region, 60 km west of Venice. Its grand families settled and farmed the area from the 16th century. But its principal claim to fame is Andrea Palladio, an architect so influential that a neoclassical style is known as Palladian. The city itself is a permanent exhibition of some of his finest buildings. Since Palladio was born—specifically in Padua—500 years ago, the International Centre for the Study of Palladio’s Architecture has found an excellent reason to mount la grande mostra, or “the big show.”
B
The exhibition has the special advantage of being held in one of Palladio’s own buildings: Palazzo Barbaran da Porto. Its bold façade is a mixture of rustication and decoration, set between two rows of elegant columns. On the second floor, the pediments are alternately curved or pointed—a Palladian trademark. The harmonious proportions of the atrium at the entrance lead to a dramatic interior with fine fireplaces and painted ceilings. Palladio’s design is simple, clear, and never over-crowded. According to Howard Burns, the architectural historian who co-curated the show, the exhibition itself follows the same principles.
C
Palladio’s father was a miller who settled in Vicenza, where the young Andrea was apprenticed to a skilled stonemason. How did a humble miller’s son become a world-renowned architect? The exhibition explains that Palladio excelled at carving decorative stonework on columns, doorways, and fireplaces. He was clearly intelligent, and fortunate enough to meet a wealthy patron, Gian Giorgio Trissino, a landowner and scholar. Trissino organized Palladio’s education and took him to Rome in the 1540s, where he studied classical Roman and Greek architecture, as well as the works of influential architects like Donato Bramante and Raphael.
D
Burns argues that social mobility was also key to Palladio’s success. Entrepreneurs who had prospered through agriculture in the Veneto commissioned Palladio to design both their country villas and urban mansions. In Venice, the aristocracy also welcomed talented artists. Palladio was given opportunities to design the churches of San Giorgio Maggiore and the Redentore, which are admired today for their visibility from the city’s historical center across the water.
E
He even tried his hand at bridge design. His unbuilt version of the Rialto Bridge was decorated with a large pediment and temple-style columns. After a fire at the Ducal Palace, Palladio proposed an alternative design that strongly resembled the Banqueting House in Whitehall, London. Since that was designed by Inigo Jones, Palladio’s first foreign disciple, the similarity is unsurprising.
F
Jones, who visited Italy in 1614, bought a trunk full of Palladio’s architectural drawings. These passed through the hands of the Dukes of Burlington and Devonshire before being placed at the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1894. Many are now on display at Palazzo Barbaran. They show how Palladio used ancient Roman buildings as models. A major theme in his rural and urban buildings was temple architecture—strong pointed pediments supported by columns, accessed by wide steps.
G
Although Palladio worked mainly for wealthy landowners—earning some criticism from Italian leftist commentators—the exhibition includes his designs for low-cost housing in Venice. His legacy was greatly strengthened by a book he wrote and illustrated: “I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura” (The Four Books of Architecture). His influence reached cities like St. Petersburg and even Charlottesville, Virginia, where Thomas Jefferson commissioned a Palladian-style villa named Monticello.
H
The exhibition in Vicenza contains detailed models of Palladio’s major buildings and is enriched by portraits of his teachers and clients by painters such as Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto. Paintings of his Venetian buildings are by Canaletto, no less. This is a serious exhibition—many drawings are small and faint, and there are no interactive displays for children—but the impact of the harmonious lines and proportions gives visitors a sense of benevolent calm. Palladio may be history’s most therapeutic architect.
I
“Palladio, 500 Anni: La Grande Mostra” is being held at Palazzo Barbaran da Porto, Vicenza, until January 6th, 2009. The exhibition then moves to the Royal Academy of Arts in London from January 31st to April 13th, and later travels to Barcelona and Madrid.