The Palladian Ideal Book

The sixteenth-century builder Andrea Palladio of Vicenza was to become one of the most influential architects of all time. His famous and beautiful villas, built in the mainland territories of the Venetian Republic, provided his contemporaries and successors with a model for interpreting antique architecture through complex yet graceful proportion and simple, sometimes stark, ornament. He illustrated his buildings and explained his working methods in his Four Books on Architecture, which went through many editions and translation is; it had enormous influence, particularly in the English-speaking world.The Palladian Ideal presents several of Palladio's most important country villas, as well as well-known later works by others that continue the Palladian tradition, including Colen Campell's Mereworth Castle and Lord Burlington's Chiswick House in England, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux's Salt Works in France, Karl von Fischer's Prinz-Karl-Palais in Germany, and Thomas Jefferson's Rotunda at the University of Virginia. Also featured are two of Palladio's antique sources, the Roman Forum and Pantheon. For twenty-two buildings shown, renowned architectural historian Joseph Rykwert provides an introduction and commentary to Roberto Schezen's splendid photography.Read More