Palladianism

Palladian Architecture

Outline• Background/History of Style• Characteristics• Essential Elements• Floor & Wall Treatments• Color• Soft furnishing & Accessories, Ornaments• Fabrics• Furniture• Examples of Palladian Architecture

Background/History of Style- a European style of architecture derived from and inspired by the

designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580)- The term "Palladian" normally refers to buildings in a style inspired by

Palladio's own work; that which is recognized as Palladian architecture today is an evolution of Palladio's original concepts.

- Palladio's work was strongly based on the symmetry, perspective and values of the formal classical temple architecture of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.

- From the 17th century Palladio's interpretation of this classical architecture was adapted as the style known as Palladianism.

- It continued to develop until the end of the 18th century.

CharacteristicsPlain exteriors based on rules of proportion. Interiors were richly decorated.Highly symmetrical. Symmetry and balance implemented by Greco-Roman Pediments over doors, windows, mirrors, fireplaces Palladian objects follow architectural elements

Villa Barbaro, Maser (1557-58) was the first example of a temple front used extensively on

a domestic building.

was his most famous residential design. It is square in plan with a central 2 story rotonda. The central domed space

radiates out to the 4 porticoes and to the elegantly proportioned rooms in the corner. It is a powerful yet simple

scheme, one that would be copied many times.

Essential ElementsScallop shellsScallop shells are a typical motif in Greek and Roman art. The shell is a symbol of the Roman goddess Venus, who was born of the sea, from a shell.

PedimentsPediments were used over doors and windows on the outside of buildings. They are also found over inside doors. The design of objects in the Palladian style often incorporates this sort of architectural element.

SymmetryPalladian design tends to be highly symmetrical. This means that when a line is drawn down the middle, each side is a mirror image of the other. Symmetry and balance were important in the ancient Greek and Roman architecture that inspired Palladianism.

MasksMasks are faces used as a decorative motif. They are based on examples from ancient Greek and Roman art.

TermsTerms are based on free-standing stones representing the Roman god, Terminus. They consist of a head and upper torso, often just the shoulders, on top of a pillar and were originally used as boundary markers.

SYMMETRY

SCALLOP SHELLS MASK

TERM

Essential Elements

Externally, architraves surrounded all the openings, often partly rusticated with heavy stones. Internally, doors, windows, and fireplaces were all surrounded by richly decorated classical architraves, columns, and pediments. While many ceilings were coved and coffered, as at Woburn and Holkham, others include pictorial scenes in plaster.

architrave

Coved and coffered ceiling

Floor & Wall TreatmentStone walls were again preferred, crowned by correctly proportioned stone cornices. The external appearance of the building was now considered so important that some rooms were unlit rather than spoil a façade with unwanted windows.

Walls now had plaster panels and decorative plaques, although many were covered in silk damask.

Floor & Wall Treatment• Begin to be carpeted with Axminster and Wilton;• Oriental rugs still in use.

ColorPine panelling was usually painted in brown, grey, olive green or off-white and mouldings were picked out in gilt. Walls were similarly painted in muted tones like

white, stone, drab or olive, as well as in brighter colours like pea green, sky blue, straw, yellow and deep green. Chocolate brown was often used on woodwork.

Printed fabrics came in reds, browns, purples and black, and silk and velvets

in green, blue, and gold. Imported calicoes (a type of cotton cloth) from India

were in strong colours -crimson to shell-pink, deep violet to pale lavender, indigo blue, lemon yellow and sage green.

Soft furnishing & Accessories, Ornaments

• Metal, gilt, wood and glass, chandeliers all in use;

• Candelabras and wall sconces also used.

• Heavily architectural over mantel with broken pediment containing painting.

• Sash with shutters;• Curtains and upholstery made

to match walls.

Fabric | Textile• Silks, damasks, needlework;• Checked Holland covers are often used to protect upholstery.

Furniture• Heavy carved gilt pieces for state rooms upholstered in damasks and velvets;• Early Georgian mahogany pieces in smaller rooms;• Architectural bookcases, bureau, chest of drawers, and drop-leaf dining table

appears.

Examples of Palladian Architecture

Drayton Hall, South Carolina(begun in 1738 and completed in 1742)

Examples of Palladian ArchitectureRedwood Library, Newport

The Redwood Library and Athenaeum is a private subscription library at 50 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island. Founded in 1747, it is the oldest community library still occupying its original building in the United States.

Examples of Palladian ArchitectureMorris-Jumel Mansion, New York City (1765)

The Morris–Jumel Mansion (also known as the Roger and Mary Philipse Morris House), located in Washington Heights, is the oldest house in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It served as a headquarters for both sides in the American Revolution.

Examples of Palladian ArchitectureHammond-Harwood House in Annapolis, Maryland, USA (1774)

is one of the premier colonial houses remaining in America from the British colonial period (1607–1776). It is the only existing work of colonial academic architecture that was principally designed from a plate in Andrea Palladio’s I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura, 1570, (The Four Books of Architecture). The house was designed by the architect William Buckland in 1773-74 for wealthy farmer Matthias Hammond of Anne Arundel County, Maryland. It was modeled on the design of the Villa Pisani in Montagnana, Italy in Book II, Chapter XIV of I Quattro Libri dell’Achitettura.

Examples of Palladian ArchitectureThomas Jefferson's Monticello and Poplar Forest, Virginia

-built by Thomas Jefferson-began building in 1806 and finished it in 1809-Constructed of brick, it is octagonal in shape and has pedimented porticoes on low arcades at the north and south facades. The interior was rebuilt following a fire in 1845; thus, only the walls, chimneys, and columns are original. Although interior woodwork is not original, the house follows the same floor-plan as designed by Jefferson. In addition to the main house, the original separate kitchen, as well as the smokehouse and two octagonal outhouses still exist.

San Giorgio Maggiore, 1566-1610

San Giorgio Maggiore is a 16th century Benedictine church on the island of the same name in Venice, designed by Andrea Palladio and built between 1566 and 1610. The

church is a basilica in the classical renaissance style and its brilliant white marble gleams above the blue water of the lagoon opposite the Piazzetta and forms the focal point of the

view from every part of the Riva degli Schiavoni.

Palladio offered a new solution to the Renaissance problem of placing a classical facade in front of a basilican cross section. He

combined two temple fronts: a tall one consisting of four Corinthian columns on pedestals that support a pediment at the

end of the nave, superimposed over a wide one, with smaller Corinthian pilasters, that matches the sloping aisle roofs.

Sourceshttp://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/style-guide-palladianism/

http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/439906/Palladianism

http://www.adriennechinn.co.uk/interior-design-styles/palladian.htm

http://wallpanelling.co.uk/history/history-oak-wall-panelling-6.html

http://www.architecture.com/LibraryDrawingsAndPhotographs/Palladio/PalladianBritain/PalladianInteriors/PottedHistory/PottedHistory.aspx

http://www.designerscall.com/blog/2011/12/05/history-lesson-palladian-architecture/