Andrea Palladio (Art History)

Introduction

Andrea Palladio (b. 1508–d. 1580) is one of the most influential architects the Western world has produced. Over a career of five decades, he redefined the style and nature of the Renaissance villa, articulated a new design in church architecture reflecting his assimilation of ancient Roman buildings, and assured international fame for his creations through the publication of his treatise, the Quattro Libri dell’Architettura. His writings, works, and drawings have remained central to architectural theory since the 18th century. Palladio’s career was largely tied to the Veneto region of the northeastern Italy; born in Padua, he migrated to Vicenza in 1523; there he learned the elements of his trade in a stonemason’s workshop, specializing in architectural design. He also had the good fortune to attract the attention of a local Vicentine aristocrat and polymath, Giangiorgio Trissino, who helped the aspiring architect master the writings of the Roman architect Vitruvius and took him to Rome for the study of ancient architecture at first hand. This proved transformative, and Andrea—now called Palladio, thanks again to Trissino—began designing villas and palaces in the 1540s and also secured the commission as architect of the loggias of the Basilica, seat of the Vicentine government. Palladio won this conspicuous assignment over alternative proposals by older and more established architects, and it provided him with a secure if unspectacular income for the rest of his life. Palladio’s commissions grew in ever widening circles over the next decades as Venetian nobles began employing him to design their villas, and the patronage of two such figures, Daniele and Marc’antonio Barbaro, gave him entrée into ecclesiastical patronage in Venice itself, first with facades for two churches followed by the large monastic complex of San Giorgio Maggiore and state patronage with the votive church of the Redentore. Palladio also collaborated with Daniele on his illustrated translation and commentary on the treatise of the Roman architect Vitruvius (1556). He published his magnum opus, the Quattro Libri or Four Books of Architecture, in 1570, but the book had been in preparation since the 1550s. The date may have been prompted by the opportunity to succeed the elder Jacopo Sansovino (b. 1486–d. 1570) as architect of the influential Procurators of St. Mark’s Basilica. Although this did not happen, Palladio shifted his attention to Venice, where he served as consultant on the Doge’s Palace after two damaging fires and continued his private practice up to his death. This article addresses Palladio and his works, ranging from general studies and early sources to more specialist literature pertaining to categories such as building types, drawings, and Palladio’s own publications.

General Overviews

While there is an abundance of writings on Palladio, much of the earlier literature tends to be folded into later publications. Still, it was only in the 20th century that scholars began to examine the totality of Palladio’s production and not just the buildings or their illustrations in the Quattro Libri. Readers are now spoiled for choice in terms of variety, but the works indicated here offer either a monographic account of Palladio or a more general consideration of his place in the architecture of 16th-century Italy. Of the former, Ackerman 1991 and Tavernor 1991 provide concise introductions. Ackerman’s short book is a classic, although his emphasis upon harmonic proportions has been superseded by more specialist studies; Tavernor, on the other hand, gives equal weight to Palladio’s works and to the English Palladian architects inspired by him. The monograph Boucher 2007 has a more expanded view of the architectural career, including a chapter on Palladio’s bridge designs. The Beyer’s 1996 entry, Andrea Palladio in Oxford Art Online, has the merit of a bibliography that is continuously updated. The Burns 1975 catalogue marks a turning point in recent Palladian studies, particularly in its analysis of drawings and patronage. Lotz 1995 first appeared in the Pelican History of Art series and looks at Palladio in terms of stylistic evolution of Italian architecture across the century. The two volumes of Electa’s Storia dell’architettura italiana, Bruschi 2002 and Conforti and Tuttle 2001, give a more contemporary reading of the same period with emphasis upon the political dimension, patronage, and economic history.

Ackerman, James S. Andrea Palladio. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1991.
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Arguably the most lucid and concise introduction to Palladio. It offers essential biographical data and chapters devoted to his villas, palaces and public architecture, ecclesiastical architecture, and principles. Some aspects have been superseded by more recent research. Ideal for general readers and undergraduates.
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Beyer, Andreas, “Andrea Palladio.” In Grove Art Online: Oxford Art Online.
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A succinct overview of Palladio’s career, with an up-to-date bibliography that follows standard categories. It is helpfully cross-referenced with articles about other architects, patrons, and individual buildings such as the Villa Rotonda. Originally published in The Grove Dictionary of Art, Vol. 23 (New York: Grove, 1996), pp. 861–872.
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Boucher, Bruce. Andrea Palladio: The Architect in His Time. New York and London: Abbeville, 2007.
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The approach is a synthesis of recent research, combining a chronological and typological treatment of the architecture. It attempts to define the architect’s style in terms of his older contemporaries and formative influences. The photographs were taken especially for the book and under the author’s direction.
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Bruschi, Arnaldo, ed. Storia dell’architetura italiana: il primo cinquecento. Milan: Electa, 2002.
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An important and recent survey of the first half of the 16th century, with a major study of the first, crucial decade of Palladio’s career (i.e., the 1540s) by Burns. To be read in tandem with the volume edited by Conforti and Tuttle, below.
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Burns, Howard, ed. Andrea Palladio, 1508–1580: The Portico and the Farmyard. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1975.
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Drawing upon an earlier exhibition in Vicenza (1973), this catalogue situated the architect’s achievement within the culture of his time. Palladio’s graphic work is also read creatively for insights into his thinking, and there is an interpretation of Palladio’s architectural system, more Aristotelian than the Platonic interpretations inspired by the writings of Rudolph Wittkower.
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Conforti, Claudia, and Richard J. Tuttle, eds. Storia dell’architettura italiana: il secondo cinquecento. Milan: Electa, 2001.
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The articles by Calabi and Battilotti distill recent scholarship on Palladio, especially from the perspective of urbanism and the political importance of the architect’s manipulation of classical models as well as his impact on younger contemporaries like Vincenzo Scamozzi.
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Lotz, Wolfgang. Architecture in Italy, 1500–1600. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 1995.
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Revised by Deborah Howard, Lotz’s volume is informed by style as an architectural determinant, a persistent vein of 20th-century scholarship. The analysis of Palladio’s architecture is somewhat abstract, but Howard adds an excellent overview of Lotz’s approach as well as new developments since the original publication in 1974.
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Tavernor, Robert. Palladio and Palladianism. London: Thames & Hudson, 1991.
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Tavernor’s book builds upon recent scholarship and is especially useful for its linkage between the architecture of Palladio and his British and American followers. The section on Palladio’s theory and practice of architecture is useful although, like Ackerman’s, it assumes a preoccupation with harmonic proportions on Palladio’s part that recent scholarship has found debatable.
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Reference Works

In addition to general works, there are a number of more specialized publications that contain entries on individual buildings or projects by Palladio with a corresponding digest of bibliographic information. Of these, Puppi and Battilotti 1999 stands out, especially in this revised edition by Donata Battilotti. Beltramini and Padoan 2000 is more succinct but especially useful for its complement of photographs and plans. Howard 1980 is a survey of Palladian literature, included here because it provides an incisive account of changing responses to Palladio’s work over four centuries in an attractive essay format. If any entity can be said to have influenced Palladian studies the most in the last sixty years, it would be the Vicentine Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura “Andrea Palladio” (This is the name of the Palladio research center in Vicenza, which published the Bollettino and Corpus volumes as well as the current publication, Annali di Architettura; Beltramini and Burns 2008 is a catalogue). Bollettino del Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura “Andrea Palladio” served as a focal point and platform for research into all aspects of Palladio and the architecture of his native Veneto region. It has been succeeded by the Centro’s Annali d’Architettura—a larger and glossier publication that has also been a magnet for new research since its first number. The Centro also launched a series of monographic volumes on individual projects, the Corpus Palladianum, which has been published intermittently since 1968 (see Cevese and Cappelletti 1968). Finally, Barbieri and Battilotti 2008 offers a tour d’horizon of the subject as seen on the five-hundredth anniversary of the architect’s birth.

Annali d’architettura: Rivista del Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio. 1989–.
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The successor of the Centro’s original Bollettino, this publication has become a focal point for Palladian studies as well as special seminars, on issues such as public squares in the Renaissance, and construction techniques.
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Barbieri, Franco, and Donata Battilotti. Palladio, 1508–2008: Il simposio del cinquecentenario. Proceedings of an itinerant symposium held in Padua, Vicenza, Verona, and Venice, Italy, 5–10 May 2008. Venice: Marsilio, 2008.
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The published proceedings of a symposium in honor of the five-hundredth anniversary of Palladio’s birth, the essays are divided into sections considering the architect’s life, his architectural contemporaries, Vitruvius, Venice, and bridges, among others.
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Beltramini, Guido, and Howard Burns. Andrea Palladio 500. Vicenza and London: Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura “Andrea Palladio” and Royal Academy of Arts, 2008.
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A celebratory exhibition catalogue of Palladio’s life and times, marking the five-hundredth anniversary of the architect’s birth; it was also an opportunity to assemble a large number of drawings by Palladio for commentary by Beltramini, Burns, and other specialists.
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Beltramini, Guido, and Agostino Padoan. Andrea Palladio: Atlante delle architetture. Venice: Marsilio, 2000.
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Also available in French and English editions, this elegantly produced volume aims for a “portrait of Palladio” through more than 250 photographs by Pino Guidolotti, together with long captions on each work, detailed bibliographies, and helpful plans and details. The works themselves are arranged chronologically according to the themes of Vicenza, villas, the terraferma, and Venice.
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Bollettino del Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura “Andrea Palladio.” 1959–1987.
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The Bollettino grew out of the annual, intensive course on Palladio’s architecture held by the Centro for its first thirty years. While it gradually embraced broader issues, from urbanism to Neoclassicism, it contains a number of classic studies on Palladio’s drawings and his buildings.
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Cevese, Renato, and Abelardo Cappelletti, eds. Corpus Palladianum. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1968–.
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Commissioned by the Centro Andrea Palladio, the series aimed at a monographic treatment of individual buildings by Palladio, but only nine have appeared so far. They follow the same format of a short text with some color plates and numerous black and white photographs; there are also measured plans, elevations, and sections
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Howard, Deborah. “Four Centuries of Palladian Architecture.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 39.3 (1980): 224–241.
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A review essay that surveys early accounts of Palladio’s career, his own writings, and later studies through the 1970s. It is written in a clear style that is accessible to both neophytes and specialists. Of particular use are the sections on the editions of the Quattro Libri and 20th-century literature on Palladio.
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Puppi, Lionello, and Donata Battilotti. Andrea Palladio: L’opera completa. Milan: Electa, 1999.
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Written for specialists, the book assumes an advanced knowledge of the subject, but as the catalogue raisonée of all the works—with an updating to 1999 by Battilotti—is an indispensible reference work. An English translation of 1975 strains to capture the author’s alembicated prose style.
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Early Sources

The first phase of Palladian studies can be said to have begun in Palladio’s lifetime and ended with Magrini 1845. Of these, the accounts Vasari 1878–1885 and Gualdo 1959 were written by contemporaries and reflect direct knowledge of the architect by those who knew him. Temanza 1966 knew Gualdo’s unpublished work and referred to it in this lengthier biography, which focused mainly on documentary sources. Although interest in the Quattro Libri was kept alive by various editions and partial translations throughout the 17th century, it was only in the 18th century that architects and travelers began to focus on the actual buildings as opposed to Palladio’s published designs in order to understand what he had actually built. Among these, Muttoni 1740–1748 and Bertotti Scamozzi 1968 stand out as the earliest attempts to arrive at a complete oeuvre. Magrini’s un-illustrated volume appeared on the occasion of the interment of Palladio’s supposed remains in Vicenza’s cimitero maggiore, and it was a wide-ranging compilation of documentary sources, which furnished substantial new information on Palladio’s life and works, together with previously published primary sources. After this publication, little new information appeared until the early 20th century. While much of this information has filtered through to later publications, it is useful to return to these early sources for their unmediated accounts of Palladio. See also the Quattro Libri dell’architettura and Drawings and Antiquity.

Bertotti Scamozzi, Ottavio. Le fabbriche e I disegni di Andrea Palladio. London: Alec Tiranti, 1968.
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Bertotti Scamozzi’s motivation was to rescue Palladio’s work from ambiguities found in the plates of the Quattro Libri and its corrupt later editions, in particular the edition by Muttoni. With detailed surveys of Palladio’s buildings, Bertotti Scamozzi strove for conclusions about the architect’s original intentions and his essential style as an architect. His engravings became standard illustrations for several generations.
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Gualdo, Paolo. Vita di Andrea Palladio. Estrato da Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell’Arte 2. Venice: Neri Pozza Editore, 1959.
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Edited with a commentary by Giangiorgio Zorzi, this brief account had already been published and challenged in the 18th century, but its validity has been confirmed by subsequent studies. It is especially valuable for confirming Palladio’s birth date of 1508, the early patronage of Giangiorgio Trissino, projects not recorded elsewhere, and a “fifth book” on antiquities, left unpublished at his death.
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Magrini, Antonio. Memorie intorno la vita e le opere di Andrea Palladio. Padua, Italy: Tip. del Seminario, 1845.
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A fundamental assemblage of documentary evidence about Palladio’s life and career, Magrini’s book brought to a close the first phase of Palladian studies. It is particularly useful for its appendix of twenty-seven letters and other writings by Palladio, relating to his publications and consultations on public buildings in Venice, Bologna, and elsewhere.
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Muttoni, Francesco. Architettura di Andrea Palladio Architettura . . . di nuovo ristampata . . . corretta, e accresciutadi moltissime fabbriche inedite; con le osservazioni dell’architetto N N. 8 vols. Venice: Angiolo Pasinelli, 1740–1748.
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Published anonymously by the Vicentine architect Muttoni, the work included Italian and French texts on each page and engravings by Giorgio Fossati. The motivation was to correct errors in earlier editions of the Quattro Libri as well as publishing for the first time buildings such as Palladio’s churches and villas like Caldogno. Despite a confusing layout, it represents an important attempt to define Palladio’s works. (Reprint by Editrice “La Roccia,” Trent: 1973.)
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Temanza, Tommaso. Vite dei più celebri architetti e scultori veneziani. Edited by Liliana Grassi, 284–408. Milan: Edizioni Labor, 1966.
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A reprint of Temanza’s volume of 1778. The author saw his work as a continuation and amplification of Vasari’s Lives, informed by Enlightenment ideals of the perfection of classical architecture. Temanza relied mainly upon published sources and an attentive reading of Palladio’s own writings. There is some reference to drawings, but the lengthy biography is largely nonvisual.
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Vasari, Giorgio. “Jacopo Sansovino.” In Le vite de’ più eccllenti pittori, scultori ed architettori. Vol. 7. Edited by Gaetano Milanesi. Florence: Sansoni, 1878–1885.
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Vasari’s account of Palladio comes as an appendix to the biography of the sculptor-architect Sansovino, in the second edition of his Vite (1568). The extensive account is informed by Vasari’s cognizance of the draft version of the Quattro Libri and a fairly glowing account of the early stages of his ecclesiastical work.
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Palladio’s Occasional Writings and Minor Publications

Palladio’s minor writings have always been overshadowed by the Quattro Libri; yet, taken as a whole, they indicate a strategy that employed publications as a means of advancing his career. Palladio was doubtless encouraged in this by his first mentor, Giangiorgio Trissino, who took him to Rome in the 1540s and introduced him to the antiquarian circles around the papal court. Trissino also led him to the critical study of the Roman architect Vitruvius as well as Julius Caesar’s Commentaries and Polybius’s Histories—both of which loomed large in Palladio’s literary efforts. Beltramini 2009 represents the latest and last word on the military publications by Palladio. According to the Vitruvius, an architect should be a learned man and conversant with a variety of subjects, and Palladio’s occasional publications reflect these ambitions, much as the publication of the Quattro Libri signaled his intention to establish himself as a leading architectural force. Hart and Hicks 2006 helpfully places the early guides to Rome in their historical context, but Davis 2007 dropped the equivalent of a bombshell into this backwater by pointing out not only the derivative nature of these books, but also the likelihood that they were authored by a prolific writer named Tarcagnota. Davis’ thesis would fit into the prevailing opinion that Palladio’s publications were meant to raise his profile and give him the status of a learned author. Puppi 1988 furnishes the best annotated edition of Palladio’s occasional writings in one volume. They round out the architect’s development from the mid-1550s until the year before his death, allowing one to trace the evolution of the Quattro Libri from an earlier, projected three books to the work we know now. Correspondence concerning the new cathedral of Brescia and the façade of San Petronio in Bologna illuminate Palladio’s approach to church design, and the report on the Doge’s Palace of 1577 illustrates Palladio’s hostility toward the gothic as well as confirming a statement of his earlier biographer, Paolo Gualdo, that he advocated a wholesale rebuilding of the chief palace of the Venetian state. See also General Overviews and Early Sources.

Beltramini, Guido, ed. Andrea Palladio e l’architettura della battaglia: con le illustrazioni inedite alle Storie di Polibio. Venice: Marsilio, 2009.
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A sumptuously illustrated and exhaustive study of Palladio’s engagement with ancient warfare, the book reproduces the illustrations designed by Palladio for editions of Caesar and Polybius, together with discussions of warfare in 16th-century Italy. Beltramini also reconstructs the history of the lost edition of Polybius and its subsequent reappearance in the collections of Consul Smith and George III of England.
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Davis, Margaret Daly. “Andrea Palladio’s ‘L’antichità di Roma’ of 1554.” Pegasus: Berliner Beiträge zum Nachleben der Antike 9 (2007): 151–192.
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In an exhaustive comparison of Palladio’s book and its sources, the author demonstrates that the project was a literary enterprise, heavily indebted to earlier writers such as Biondo, Fluvio, Fauno, and Marliani. Following a comment from Pirro Ligorio, she suggests the book was actually written by Giovanni Tarcagnota.
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Hart, Vaughan, and Peter Hicks. Palladio’s Rome: A Translation of Andrea Palladio’s Two Guidebooks to Rome. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 2006.
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The best modern edition of two of Palladio’s minor publications from 1554, together with an extended introduction and the important “Letter to Leo X” by Raphael and Baldassare Castiglione as an appendix. The authors highlight the transitional nature of the books, reflecting both an older medieval tradition, based upon miracles and legends, and a more modern, quasi-archeological approach.
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Puppi, Lionello, ed. Andrea Palladio: scritti sull’architettura (1554–1579). Vicenza, Italy: Neri Pozza Editore, 1988.
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This volume assembles all of Palladio’s writings on architecture, including early drafts of the Quattro Libri. Of particular importance are the critiques of the project for a new cathedral in Brescia, the façade of San Petronio in Bologna, and the Doge’s Palace in Venice, for the light they throw on Palladio’s principles of design for religious and civic buildings.
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The Quattro Libri dell’architettura

If none of Palladio’s buildings had survived, he would still have been reckoned among the most influential of architects, thanks to the Quattro Libri dell’architettura or Four Books of Architecture. First published in 1570, it has enjoyed the status of a bestseller because of the high quality of its illustrations and the directness of its language. Over the centuries, it has been translated into every major language as well as being adapted and cannibalized in popular editions. Indeed, it was through the medium of this book that Palladio’s ideas were spread throughout the western world, forming the basis of the movement, which bears his name: Palladianism. The book was long in the making, and references to it can be found in print as early as the mid-1550s. It drew upon a variety of sources, from architectural sketchbooks and the multi-volume, illustrated work by Serlio, as well as earlier authors like Vitruvius and Alberti. The novelty of Palladio’s work lay in its systematic account of building, literally from the ground up; it offered a retrospective showcase of his own designs in books two and three as well as the most comprehensive account of ancient architecture in Book IV. Early translations focused on Book I, dealing with the orders, and it was not until 1650 that the whole text was available in a foreign language, French. Major English editions came in quick succession in the 18th century, and these fixed the image of Palladio’s architecture for subsequent generations as recounted in Harris and Savage 1990. Subsequent editions were not always accurate; neither did they reflect the integration of text and image, which is one of the treatise’s greatest strengths. Since the 18th century, a constant theme of Palladian studies has been the accuracy of the Quattro Libri in its representation of the architect’s designs. Travel and measurement of individual buildings have drawn attention to discrepancies as well as similarities, with some scholars dismissing the accuracy of the book as a whole. The need for an accurate new edition with commentary and annotations was first satisfied with Magagnato and Marini 1980. This edition places Palladio’s magnum opus in the context of Renaissance architectural treatises and provides copious notes on every page of text. Its one drawback lies in not following Palladio’s original pagination, but this is rectified in Tavernor and Schofield 1997, which not only observes Palladio’s original layout, but also gives the most accurate translation available in English. This edition is further complemented by diagrams of architectural terms employed by Palladio as well as a glossary. It is indispensible for those who find Palladio’s original Italian text inaccessible. Günther 1990 and Howard and Longair 1982 reflect more recent, nuanced inquiries into the genesis of individual books of Palladio’s treatise. Günther 1990 identifies Palladio’s individual contribution to the Renaissance definition of five classical orders in Book I; Howard and Longair 1982 demonstrates that the plans in Book II of the Quattro Libri are remarkably faithful to the measurements of executed portions of the corresponding buildings. Still, the relationship between image and reality remains subtle and elusive in the Quattro Libri. Carpo 2001 reflects the broader examination of the impact of printing on the transmission of knowledge; although only tangentially about Palladio, it places the Quattro Libri within the context of the transition from sketchbooks to printed texts in the 16th century. Payne 1999 and Beyer 2008 apply recent critical theories to Palladio’s treatise with stimulating results. See also General Overviews.

Beyer, Andreas. “Opere senza giorni. I Quattro Libri: un’autobiografia.” In Palladio,1508–1580: Il simposio del cinquecentenario. Edited by Franco Barbieri, Donata Battilotti, et al., 199–201. Venice: Marsilio, 2008.
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A stimulating attempt to read Palladio’s magnum opus as an essay in autobiography. Beyer sees the motives behind this publication as reaffirming the importance of architecture among the arts and preserving his own fame through the printed page. Palladio’s writings are thus seen in the Renaissance tradition of account books and personal accounts.
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Carpo, Mario. Architecture in the Age of Printing: Orality, Writing, Typography, and Printed Images in the History of Architectural Theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.
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Although focusing on the role of Sebastiano Serlio, Carpo’s book offers an inventive if contested study of the ways in which Renaissance architecture adapted to the age of printing. He stresses the link between the five orders and the new medium of print, thus providing a rich context for Palladio’s achievement in this relatively new field.
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Günther, Hubertus. “Palladio e gli ordini di colonne.” In Andrea Palladio: Nuovi contributi. Edited by André Chastel and Renato Cevese, 182–197. Milan: Electa Editrice, 1990.
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An authoritative examination of Palladio’s place in the High Renaissance pursuit of a system for the orders. The author demonstrates that Palladio’s Book I combines elements of the classic system of the orders expounded by Vignola with the privileging of the Composite order in Serlio’s earlier presentation. Palladio also refined and elevated the concept of the Tuscan and Composite orders.
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Harris, Eileen, and Nicholas Savage. “Palladio, Andrea.” In British Architectural Books and Writers, 1556–1785. By Eileen Harris, and Nicholas Savage, 348–365. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
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The best account of the early and crucial editions of Palladio’s works in 18th-century England. It clarifies the publishing history of Burlington’s Fabbriche Antiche and its relationship to other publications on the Roman baths as well as the first translations of the Quattro Libri, notably those by Leoni and his successors.
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Howard, Deborah, and Malcolm Longair. “Harmonic Proportions and Palladio’s Quattro Libri.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 41.2 (1982): 116–143.
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This was a pioneering and first systematic study of whether harmonic proportions underlay Palladio’s domestic architecture in Book II. The authors found the presence of harmonic proportions in some later projects, but the evidence was equivocal as to whether this was deliberate or owing to a single reason, as advocated by Rudolph Wittkower.
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Maganato, Licisco, and Paola Marini. Andrea Palladio: I Quattro libri dell’architettura. Milan: Edizioni il Polifilo, 1980.
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The most comprehensive modern edition of Palladio’s text, with an exhaustive assessment of the role of the treatise in Palladio’s oeuvre as well as Renaissance architectural history. It is especially helpful for its critical commentary on each page of text, with full bibliographies up to the date of publication.
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Payne, Alina A.. “Palladio and the Aesthetics of Necessità.” In The Architectural Treatise in the Italian Renaissance: Architectural Invention, Ornament and Literary Culture. By Alina A. Payne, 170–213. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
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Payne discusses Book I in terms of the Renaissance debate over invention and embellishment in the use of the orders. She makes the important point that Palladio invites the reader to deduce the rules from a perusal of his work; she also has an extensive discussion of chapter 20, the most theoretical portion of the treatise.
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Tavernor, Robert, and Richard Schofield. Andrea Palladio: The Four Books of Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997.
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The best version in English, this edition adheres to Palladio’s integration of word and text, which is crucial to an understanding of the treatise. It contains a useful introductory essay, a list of foreign editions, and an excellent glossary of architectural terms with clear diagrams of parts of the orders.
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Villas

Palladio is best known as a designer of villas, and in this field his contribution to domestic architecture emerges most clearly. He imposed order upon the chaos of late medieval farms, grafting onto them principles of symmetry coupled with the classical orders, expressing thereby a visual and social hierarchy. His villas are best understood as ranging across a spectrum from simple agricultural structures to monumental statements of political dominion. He was also successful in integrating the temple portico in a proper scale to the exigencies of domestic architecture, making it the focal point of the owner’s dwelling. With the celebrated Villa Rotonda, Palladio even borrowed the sacred aura of the dome and conferred it upon secular architecture, a gesture that would reverberate for centuries. The works mentioned in the general section all engage with Palladio’s villas, and there are individual volumes in the Corpus Palladianum series (see Cevese and Cappelletti 1968 cited under Reference Works) dealing with the Villas Rotonda, Emo, and Badoer. The works listed here serve as a guide to the rich literature on all aspects of Palladio’s villa architecture from patronage to the boom in agriculture witnessed by the Veneto in Palladio’s lifetime as well as Palladio’s design process. They begin with Zorzi 1969, the monumental account of patronage, and an examination of cultural, economic, and artistic forces in Bollettino del Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura “Andrea Palladio”. They include Palladio’s evolution as a villa designer in Burger 2004 as well as the relationship between the villa and its surrounding landscape in Cosgrove 1993, which opened a new way to contextualize Palladio’s villas, an approached developed in Burns 1999. Bentmann and Müller 1981 represents a stimulating Marxist interpretation of land and hegemony fashionable in the post-World War II era, one whose economic analysis continues to reverberate today. Beltramini and Burns 2005 is more nuanced but comprehensive as a fresh overview. Among the many photographic surveys of the villas, Smienk and Niemeijer 2011 stands out as having excellent aerial photography, which places the villas in their larger, geographic context. It also conveys something of the excitement of first-hand field studies. See also the sections General Overviews, Quattro Libri dell’architettura, and Theory.

Beltramini, Guido, and Howard Burns. Andrea Palladio e la villa veneta: da Petrarca a Carlo Scarpa. Venice: Marsilio, 2005.
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An exhibition catalogue providing a comprehensive survey of the villa as a cultural and architectural phenomenon, with Palladio at its center. It presupposes some familiarity with the subject but contains important essays by Howard Burns on Palladio’s villas, Michael Knapton on the governance of the Veneto by the Venetian Republic, and Salvatore Ciriacono on agriculture, among others.
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Bentmann, Reinhard, and Michael Müller. Die Villa als Herrschaftsarchitektur. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1981.
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An agile critique of the purely aesthetic and cultural-historical analysis of the villa phenomenon, the authors interpret the villa instead as a symbol of political and social hegemony. They see the Venetian movement to capitalize on the land as driven by economic considerations, clothed in acceptable aesthetic associations by Palladio. The second edition also contains a lengthy postscript.
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Bollettino del Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura “Andrea Palladio” 11 (1969).
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The theme of this volume is “the villa: genesis and development.” It contains important studies by Frommel, Puppi, Rosci, Tafuri, and others on all aspects of villas, from Palladio’s predecessors to his patrons and the economic background to land investment in the Veneto.
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Burger, Fritz. Le ville di Andrea Palladio: contributo alla storia dell’evoluzione dell’architettura rinascimentale (1909). Translated by Elena Filipppi. Turin, Italy: Umberto Allemandi, 2004.
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Although outdated in some respects, Burger’s investigation sought to break the Neoclassical hold on Palladian studies by focusing upon the physical nature of each building, the significance of its site, the history of its patron, and new evidence found in Palladio’s drawings. Burger also analyzes for the first time a development of Palladio’s villa style across his career. Commentary by Elena Filippi and Lionello Puppi.
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Burns, Howard. “Palladio’s Designs for Villa Complexes and Their Surroundings.” In Architecture, jardin, paysage: l’environment du château et de la villa aux XVe et XVIe siècles. Edited by J. Guillaume, 45–72. Paris: Picard, 1999.
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The article focuses on Palladio’s novel approach to the design of the whole villa complex and its immediate surroundings. It stresses Palladio’s unifying concept of the villa as a whole composition that orchestrated the various elements into a unified composition, with the patron’s house as its central point.
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Cosgrove, Denis. The Palladian Landscape: Geographical Change and Its Cultural Representations in Sixteenth-Century Italy. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993.
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A pioneering interdisciplinary study, Cosgrave’s book is an ambitious interpretation of the Palladian villa in terms of cultural geography. It considers the interaction of conscious and unconscious processes behind the organization of the landscape of the Veneto in Palladio’s lifetime. There is a special focus on the Palladian villa as an estate and the impact of irrigation and land drainage on cultivation.
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Smienk, Gerrit, and Johannes Niemeijer. Palladio, The Villa and the Landscape. Basel, Switzerland: Birkhauser, 2011.
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This book provides an in-depth analysis of ten of the surviving eighteen villas by Palladio. Together, they offer a good cross-section of Palladio’s work, and the aerial photography of Peter van Bolhuis is a revelation. There is an interesting examination of the relationship between Palladio’s designs and their landscape as well as crucial issues such as irrigation.
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Zorzi, Giangiorgio. Le ville e I teatri di Andrea Palladio. Vicenza, Italy: Neri Pozza, 1969.
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A fundamental text for later villa studies, this book is one of a series by its author, covering Palladio’s architectural career. What it may lack in synthesis, it more than makes up in its wealth of detailed analysis of documentation, preparatory drawings, and differences between the actual building and Palladio’s representation in the Quattro Libri.
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Palaces and Public Buildings

With the exception of sources listed in General Overviews, Palladio’s palaces and public buildings have not received the same level of attention as his villas. Still, they offer a key to Palladio’s early success and his belief, expressed in the introduction to Book II of the Quattro Libri, that he had found patrons in Vicenza who listened to his ideas and abandoned old ways of building “without grace or beauty,” as cited in Tavernor and Schofield, 1997 (p. 78; Quattro Libri, II, cap. III). Both Vicenza’s wealth and a pent-up demand for new housing created a building boom in the middle decades of the 16th century, and Palladio was one of its chief beneficiaries. Barbieri, et al. 1956 is still an invaluable guide to Palladio’s contribution to Vicenza’s urban history and its appearance. That work was later supplemented in Zorzi 1965, which buttressed visual analysis of the palaces and the Basilica with a close study of archival history and the surviving drawings. Two early projects helped to secure Palladio’s reputation as the unofficial architect of Vicenza: the Palazzo Thiene and the new loggias of the Basilica or seat of civic government. Beltramini, et al. 2007 supplies the most detailed account of the bold project for the Thiene family, which would have encompassed a city block if it had been realized as a whole. The book confirms the case made for Giulio Romano as the original designer, whose work was executed and subsequently adapted by Palladio as the executant architect. Barbieri 1973 documents the history of the Basilica as well as elucidating the challenge of creating new arcades for the medieval structure; Palladio’s winning solution propelled him to the forefront of contemporary architects working in the Veneto. Pée 1941 was a pioneering study of the civic architecture, very much following the pattern of Burger 2004 (cited under Villas) for the villas. Berger 1978 is one of the few, modern works that focuses in some detail on this early part of Palladio’s Vicentine career. Venditti 1971 and Magagnato 1992 address two crucial examples of Palladio’s later style in public architecture, the latter enhanced by a report on results from the conservation of the Teatro Olimpico.

Barbieri, Franco. The Basilica of Andrea Palladio (Corpus Palladianum VIII). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1973.
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Barbieri’s study of the Basilica is one of the most fully realized of the Corpus series. It provides a detailed account of the palaces that occupied the site of the Basilica from the 12th century as well as the developments leading up to Palladio’s winning design of 1546 and its subsequent execution. There is a helpful assemblage of photographs and plans of the complex.
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Barbieri, Franco, Cevese, Renato, and Licisco Magagnato. Guida di Vicenza. Venice: Editrice Eretenia, 1956.
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Still an unrivaled guide to Vicenza and written by three master Palladian scholars. It has a solid historical introduction as well as detailed appreciations of Palladio’s buildings in their urban context.
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Beltramini, Guido Howard Burns, Fernando Rigon, and Antonio Paolucci. Palazzo Thiene a Vicenza. Milan: Skira, 2007.
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The most lavish and comprehensive study of a crucial, early project by Palladio. Burns furnishes an extensive analysis of its origin in a design by Giulio Romano as well as the tradition of Renaissance palace projects going back to Francesco di Giorgio. The building history and complex ownership of the block on which the palace rose is also discussed, as is the décor of individual rooms.
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Berger, Ursel. Palladios Frühwerk: Bauten und Zeichnungen. Cologne and Vienna: Böhlau, 1978.
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The author’s dissertation in Munich contains the first systematic study of Palladio’s early palaces and villas after Zorzi 1965. Berger places Palladio’s development within the context of early influences, both within Vicenza and beyond. Of particular importance are her comments on the drawings for unexecuted palace facades.
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Magagnato, Licisco. Il teatro olimpico (Novum Corpus Palladianum). Edited by Lionello Puppi. Milan: Electa, 1992.
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Magagnato’s volume is the most authoritative survey of Palladio’s late foray into the world of classical theater design; it also addresses the relationship between the Olimpico and Palladio’s later architectural style. The book contains an informative account of the conservation of the theater’s frons scaenae and draws distinctions between Palladio’s plans and what occurred after his death in 1580.
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Pée, Herbert. Die Palastbauten des Andrea Palladio. Würzburg, Germany: Konrad Triltsch Verlag, 1941.
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In this pioneering study of Palladio’s development as a designer of palaces, Pée judges the early work as influenced by Trissino and contemporary architects like Serlio and Sanmicheli, while the later works enter a dialogue with Michelangelo. The author’s findings are inevitably vitiated by misdating of the earlier palaces and limited knowledge of the London drawings.
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Venditti, Arnaldo. The Loggia del Capitaniato (Corpus Palladianum IV). University Park and London: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971.
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Following the format of this series, the author presents an accessible survey of the building’s history as well as a formal analysis of its iconography. There is a helpful review of the debate over the number of bays intended for the structure, but the identification of Vicenza drawing D19r with an early project for the Loggia seems implausible.
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Zorzi, Giangiorgio. Le opere pubbliche e i palazzi privati di Andrea Palladio. Venice: Neri Pozza, 1965.
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The first comprehensive study of all of the palaces and projects for public buildings. Zorzi was also the first to have studied the drawings in London exhaustively and connected many with early projects for Palazzo Civena, Porto, and Thiene, among others. The book also makes copious use of documents, citing them extensively as few other reference works do.
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Churches and Ecclesiastical Commissions

Palladio’s forays into ecclesiastical architecture occupied a considerable amount of time during the latter part of his career, and two churches, San Giorgio Maggiore and the Redentore, are among his most conspicuous monuments in Venice. Despite this, Palladio’s religious architecture has never been as influential as his domestic architecture, even within Catholic countries. Modern studies of Palladio’s ecclesiastical commissions began with Zorzi 1967, which, like the author’s other monographic volumes, provides the most detailed and accessible presentation of primary sources, albeit without offering much in the way of synthesis or analysis. Isermeyer 1968 furnishes an innovative study of how reform movements within the Catholic Church and particularly in Venice helped to shape the ground plans of San Giorgio and the Redentore. Timofiewitsch 1971 lays out a complementary study of the history and design of the Redentore. Patronage has also emerged as a defining trend in more recent studies of the ecclesiastical projects, with Foscari and Tafuri 1983 embodying an exemplary treatment of the history of the Venetian church of San Francesco della Vigna. The book follows in the tradition of Carlo Ginzburg’s “microstoria,” using the church as a prism through which to view changing attitudes toward architectural forms and meaning; the book underscores a favorite theme of Tafuri’s, namely, the shift in generational patronage that favored Palladio for the design of the façade of San Francesco. Cooper 2005 is an ambitious and descriptive study of the circle of patrons that advanced Palladio’s Venetian career, not only his churches, but also his work on the doge’s palace. In recent years, the study of San Giorgio Maggiore has been fixated on the question of whether or not Palladio’s original design called for a free-standing portico; Guerra 2002 furnishes the most convincing case in the affirmative while also documenting the later participation of other architects in turning the façade into an early example of Palladianism. Piana 1998–1999, as well as earlier, archaeological studies in the same vein, has thrown new light on the building practices of Palladio as an ecclesiastical architect. Ackerman 2011 illustrates a fruitful avenue of inquiry in terms of the concept of magnificence as a key to understanding the public face of Palladio’s churches. See also General Overviews.

Ackerman, James S. “Palladio, Michelangelo, and publica magnificentia.” Annali di architettura 22 (2011): 63–78.
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Ackerman discusses the Renaissance concept of magnificence as manifest in Palladio’s religious and secular architecture and argues that Palladio’s imposing façades were inspired by Michelangelo’s colossal order in Rome. Computer generated reconstructions based on Palladio’s original drawings allow detailed visualization of several famous but unexecuted projects.
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Cooper, Tracey E. Palladio’s Venice: Architecture and Society in a Renaissance Republic. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 2005.
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The most complete account available of Palladio’s activities in Venice, with his church architecture as the focal point. It is strongest on issues of patronage and handsomely illustrated. It contains a judicious account of the issues surrounding the construction of San Giorgio Maggiore.
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Foscari, Antonio, and Manfredo Tafuri. L’armonia e i conflitti: la chiesa di San Francesco della Vigna nella Venezia del ‘500. Turin, Italy: Einaudi, 1983.
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The authors painstakingly document the change of architect in the Franciscan church of San Francesco della Vigna. They interpret the introduction of Palladio as part of a generational shift in Venetian patronage from the proponents of Jacopo Sansovino, the original architect, to Palladio, as well as a shift from a Neoplatonic to a more Aristotelian approach to architectural design.
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Guerra, Andrea. “Moveable Facades: Palladio’s Plan for the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice and Its Successive Vicissitudes.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 61.3 (2002): 276–295.
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A painstaking and perceptive reexamination of the evidence covering design changes to the façade of San Giorgio. The author establishes a gradual movement away from Palladio’s original plan of a free-standing portico toward a modified portico, perhaps adapted by Vincenzo Scamozzi, later abandoned in favor of the more sober, extant façade, a victory for conservative cultural forces in Venice.
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Isermeyer, Christian Adolf. “Le chiese del Palladio in rapporto al culto.” Bollettino del Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura “Andrea Palladio” 10 (1968): 42–58.
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One of the best and earliest surveys of the impact of liturgical practice and reform on the design of Palladio’s religious architecture. The author explains how reform and an awareness on the part of the Benedictines shape the creation of the retro-choir at San Giorgio, which became an even more pronounced feature at the Redentore.
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Piana, Mario. “Il Convento della Carità: materiali, techniche, strutture.” Annali di architettura 10–11 (1998–99): 310–321.
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A detailed and comprehensive analysis of one of Palladio’s major religious commissions. Piana suggests the extensive use of brick reflects the austerity of the Lateran Canons but also enabled Palladio to demonstrate his mastery of brickwork. Palladio’s departure from the project is shown through the abrupt change in brickwork in the architrave of the upper floor of the courtyard.
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Timofiewitsch, Wladimir. The Chiesa del Redentore (Corpus Palladianum III). University Park and London: Pennsylvania University State Press, 1971.
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Consonant with this series, the text offers a solid overview of the circumstances surrounding the creation and executive of this votive church. The design is analyzed in terms of functionality if not iconography, and there is an appendix with selected documents concerning the building history.
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Zorzi, Giangiorgio. Le chiese e i ponti di Andrea Palladio. Venice: Neri Pozza Editore, 1967.
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A massive account of all religious and engineering projects by Palladio, the volume follows the formula of the other book-length studies by Zorzi. It contains copious documentation, descriptive commentary, and numerous illustrations. There is a substantial section on Palladio’s bridge designs.
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Drawings and Antiquity

The study of Palladio’s drawings emerged over the 20th century as part of a new discipline in architectural history, with an emphasis upon the design process. That is not to say that they were ignored before; indeed, the remarkable fact that over 300 drawings by Palladio survive today reflects the esteem in which his work was held across the centuries. After Palladio’s death, Inigo Jones acquired the majority of the drawings between 1613–1614, in Vicenza; together with later additions of Lord Burlington, they now form the basis of the Palladio holdings at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London. A second, smaller group of drawings was owned by Palladio’s Venetian patron, Giacomo Contarini and are now in the Museo Civico of Vicenza. While some of these were published by Burlington and others in the 18th century, modern study began with the availability of the drawings through photographic reproductions in publications (see also the Quattro Libri dell’architettura and Villas). Recent developments have focused upon dating Palladio’s drawings through changes in his calligraphy and also watermarks on paper as well as his relationship to earlier architectural draftsmen. The work of Zorzi 1959 and Spielmann 1966 stand out as foundations upon which the later methodology for study was based. They were the first to engage in identifying and sorting the large number of studies after the antique; Spielmann 1966, in particular, distills the aesthetic underpinnings of Palladio’s approach to the antique from his reconstructions of the baths and temples. From the 1970s onwards, Howard Burns has dominated the study of Renaissance drawings, especially those of Palladio, through a series of articles and catalogues. Like Fancelli 1974, Burns 1973 focused upon what the drawings reveal of Palladio’s design process and how inextricably linked drawing was to his identity as an architect. Lewis 2000 offers a somewhat different approach to dating as well as the reliability of the illustrations in the Quattro Libri. Gros 2006 demonstrates that the example of earlier Renaissance theoreticians as well as his reading of Vitruvius guided Palladio’s drawings after the antique. Ghisetti Giavarina 2006–2007 underscores a common theme of research into Palladian drawings over the past forty years, namely, that his reconstructions of ancient buildings were a synthesis of other architects’ drawings as well as his own theory of the antique because Palladio lacked the time and resources to investigate all the sites he studied. See also General Overviews.

Burns, Howard. “I disegni.” In Palladio: catalogo della mostra. Edited by Renato Cevese, 131–154. Vicenza, Italy: Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura “Andrea Palladio,” 1973.
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Burns’s essay marked a fresh attempt to formulate a classification of Palladio’s drawings, based upon his handwriting as it changed from his earliest to mature works. Burns also paid particular attention to marginal sketches, which adumbrated later projects as well as the impact of orthogonal projections in elevation drawings on Palladio’s later palace and religious architecture.
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Fancelli, Paolo. Palladio e Praeneste: archeologia, modelli, progettazine. Rome: Bulzoni Editore, 1974.
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A focused account of Palladio’s engagement with the Roman hillside complex of Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste (Palestrina), south of Rome. Fancelli discusses eleven sheets by Palladio in the context of Renaissance architecture and shows how his recreations evolved into new spatial complexes, which impacted his own villa architecture, especially at Maser, the Rotonda, and Trissino at Meledo.
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Ghisetti Giavarina, Adriano. “Palladio e le antichità dell’Umbria.” Annali di architettura 18–19 (2006–2007): 115–128.
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The author analyses Palladio’s drawings of Umbrian antiquities and concludes that although he probably visited the region more than once, he lacked time to make detailed studies. He posits lost drawings by Michele Sanmicheli of the temples of Assisi, Clitumnus, and Spoleto, which were used by Palladio and possibly Pirro Ligorio as well.
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Gros, Pierre. Palladio e l’antico. Venice: Marsilio, 2006.
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A stimulating and densely written series of interconnected essays, Gros’s book sheds new light on Palladio’s relationship with Vitruvius as well as Renaissance theoreticians of ancient architecture, such as Alberti, Serlio, and Vignola. Successive chapters engage with themes like the orders, Roman temples and domestic architecture in the Quattro Libri, and the Vitruvian theater.
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Lewis, Douglas. The Drawings of Andrea Palladio. New Orleans, LA: Martin & St. Martin, 2000.
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A comprehensive survey of all of Palladio’s drawings, based upon an exhibition catalogue of 1981, this is still the only monographic study of Palladio’s drawings. It contains a useful account of the history of the architect’s drawings and specialized terminology. The sheets are studied chronologically and in terms of subject matter.
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Puppi, Lionello. Palladio: Corpus dei disegni al Museo Civico di Vicenza. Milan: Berenice, 1989.
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The book contains excellent photographs of thirty-three sheets now in Vicenza. The author traces the history of the drawings from Giacomo Contarini through a series of Veneto architects to Gaetano Pinali, who presented them to the museum in 1839. The catalogue is divided into groups, ranging from temples, porticos and basilicas, to antiquities, and Venetian projects like the Rialto Bridge.
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Spielmann, Heinz. Andrea Palladio und die Antike. Munich and Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1966.
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Spielmann’s study marks the first major attempt to catalogue Palladio’s drawings after the antique according to types, relating them to his architectural predecessors as well as the Quattro Libri. It contains an important concluding chapter on the aesthetic preconceptions guiding Palladio’s reconstructions and his relationship with the larger Renaissance discussion linking architecture to classical philosophy. Despite some questionable chronology, it still bears rereading.
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Zorzi, Giangiorgio. I disegni delle antichità di Andrea Palladio. Venice: Neri Pozza, 1959.
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One of Zorzi’s series of monographic studies on all aspects of Palladio’s work, the book follows the architect’s engagement with the antique and the formation of Book IV of the Quattro Libri. Other topics are grouped according to projected “books” dealing with arches, theaters, baths, and temples; there is also an early, unpublished draft of Palladio’s treatise. Zorzi’s attribution of some early drawings to Falconetto has been disproved.
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Theory

Modern theoretical studies of Palladio’s architecture can be said to have begun with the publication of Wittkower 1971. Originally composed as a series of essays in the 1940s, Wittokower’s research shifts the discourse from formalist analysis toward a study of the intellectual milieu in which Palladio worked and came to maturity. Wittkower’s focus upon the underlying theme of harmonic proportions as evidenced in the ground plans of a select number of villas raised Palladio’s design process to a level of abstraction that found favor with a new generation of contemporary architects; in addition, Wittkower read Palladio’s church facades as reflecting two interpenetrating temple fronts, which appeared to make sense of the architect’s deployment of the classical orders. The underpinnings of Wittkower’s theories passed into the mainstream of subsequent Palladian studies, and it was only with the more recent studies of Palladio’s drawings and approach to design, advanced in Gioseffi 1972 and Burns 1975 (cited under General Overviews), that Wittkower’s interpretation of Palladio’s temple facades begin to be seriously challenged. Subsequently, Howard and Longair 1982 (cited under Quattro Libri dell’architettura) seriously questions the mathematical assumptions behind Wittkower’s assessment of harmonic proportions in Palladio’s villa designs. More recently, Payne 1994 and Mitrovic 2004 place Wittkower’s interpretation of Palladio’s architecture in its proper historical context as a reaction to earlier assessments of Renaissance architecture by John Ruskin and Geoffrey Scott; among others, they criticize Wittkower’s emphasis upon the centrality of ground plans to Palladio’s architectural system at the expense of the five orders of columns. Other tendencies in Post-Wittkowerian studies of Palladio are embodied in works like Tafuri 1985, which is grounded in the author’s engagement with the French historical studies of the Annales School and the more polemical writings of Michel Foucault. Tafuri’s attempt to define Palladio’s career in terms of political and intellectual struggles among the Venetian ruling class is bolstered by archival research but also deeply informed by the left-right political spectrum of Italy during the decades after World War II. The tendency to return to more formal and even semiotic analysis informs the work of Burroughs 1988 and, to a degree, Mitrovic 2004. They point to an interpretation of a design process grounded in formal and visual solutions not corresponding to verbal language. Burns 2009 opens a new avenue of research through a close reading of Palladio’s critical vocabulary, in this case a meticulous analysis of the term ornamenti as applied by Palladio to the orders. Finally, Howard 2010 revisits the inquiry first conducted in Howard and Longair 1982, but this time the subject is the science of acoustics and the degree to which it did or did not play a role in the design of his Venetian churches. This is a line of inquiry still in its early stages, but it seems to point to the sense of harmony Palladio occasionally referred to in his writings as essentially a visual metaphor.

Burns, Howard. “‘Ornamenti’ and Ornamentation in Palladio’s Architectural Theory and Practice.” Pegasus: Beiträge zum Nachlaben der Antike 11 (2009): 37–84.
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Ornamenti or architectural details were fundamental to Palladio’s concept of architecture, expounded in a limited sense in his account of the orders in Book I of the Quattro Libri, but more expansively in Book IV. Burns argues that Palladio’s approach to ornament was more flexible than that of Serlio or Vignola and constituted an important element in his “poetics of architecture.”
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Burroughs, Charles. “Palladio and Fortune: Notes on the Sources and Meaning of the Villa Rotonda.” Architectura 18 (1988): 59–91.
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Through a detailed comparison of Palladio’s and Ligorio’s recreations of antiquity, the author interprets the design of the Villa Rotonda as a crystallization of classical associations as opposed to the tendency to read Palladio’s designs as purged of ideological or historical associations. The author champions the symbolic and semiotic values of Palladio’s work.
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Gioseffi, Decio. “Il disegno come fase progettuale dell’attività palladiana.” Bollettino del Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura “Andrea Palladio” 14 (1972): 45–62.
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The first of two studies published in the Vicentine Bollettino, which analyzed the impact of orthogonal projection of the “layered” effect seen in Palladio’s facades. This spatial ambiguity is especially notable in works from the 1560s onwards, offering a novel interpretation of the relationship of Palladio’s facades and his vision of the antique.
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Howard, Deborah. “Reflections on Palladio’s ‘soave armonia.’” In Some Degree of Happiness: studi di storia dell’architettura in onore di Howard Burns. Edited by Maria Beltramini and Caroline Elam, 383–392. Pisa, Italy: Edizioni della Normale, 2010.
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Building upon her earlier study of harmonic proportions, Howard expands her purview here to look at the relationship between Palladio’s architecture and the science of acoustics with respect to the churches of San Giorgio Maggiore and Il Redentore. While Palladio invoked “sove armonia” in writing of churches, this seems to have been essentially a visual metaphor.
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Mitrovic, Branko. Learning from Palladio. New York and London: Norton, 2004.
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With a sophisticated analysis of Palladio’s design principles and their relevance for modern architecture, Mitrovic rejects Wittjkower’s thesis of harmonic proportions and stresses the five orders as fundamental to Palladio’s theory of design. Palladio is interpreted as a Platonist in his approach to forms, and Mitrovic takes a postmodernist stance in favor of Palladianism as appropriate to today’s architecture.
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Payne, Alina. “Rudolf Wittkower and Architectural Principles in the Age of Modernism.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 53 (1994): 322–342.
DOI: 10.2307/990940Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author sets Wittkower’s analysis of Renaissance architecture within the historical traditions of both early 20th-century German art history and the modernist aesthetic of figures like Giedion and Pevsner. She critiques Wittkower’s avoidance of the orders and ornament in favor of numbers and ratios and places it within the historicity of constructions of the Renaissance.
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Tafuri, Manfredo. Venezia e il rinascimento: religione, scienza, architettura. Turin, Italy: Einaudi, 1985.
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A dense survey of the intellectual, political, and economic forces shaping Venetian architecture in Palladio’s lifetime. Tafuri sees Palladio’s advancement and the limitations of his success in terms of “Romanist” aristocrats, who employed the architect as a tool to modernize the city-state, much as an earlier generation had employed Jacopo Sansovino. The English translation is not particularly reliable.
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Wittkower, Rudolf. Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism. New York: Norton, 1971.
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A wide-ranging and pioneering work. Originally issued as articles, it changed the study of Renaissance architecture by moving away from formalist critiques toward a more scientific and objective agenda, stressing the centrality of mathematics and harmonic proportions. Its discussions of Palladio’s church facades and villa design were influential, although both have come under criticism in recent studies highlighted here.