Palladio in time
Fictitious pasts and imaginary futures
Keywords:
Andrea Palladio, Palladian, Theory, Classicism, HistoriographyAbstract
Andrea Palladio has attracted an unparalleled amount of scholarly attention and has provided, by way of his treatise the Quattro libri dell’architettura, very many architectural practitioners with a fount of inspiration, and a pivotal point of reference between past accomplishments and future endeavours. This article examines the writing on Palladio to determine the extent to which it has arrived at a full and objective understanding of his architecture, and why certain aspects of it have remained underinvestigated. It also explores how it was that the treatise came to have such an influence on the architect’s ‘Palladian’ followers and what they would have understood from it about Palladio’s architecture and its relevance to their times. It considers, finally, how in recent writing Palladio has become ever further disconnected from his own time to become conceived as mythic figure to whom modern architects and their buildings can be regarded as being connected. Throughout is an emphasis on time: on how perceptions of Palladio and his work have changed over time, on how Palladio and his followers saw the best kind of architecture as being rooted in the past but ever relevant to the present and future, and on how Palladio’s past architectural achievements are still perceived as providing a model for present and potentially future endeavours.
References
Ackerman, J. S. (1966). Palladio. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Bak Mortensen, M. Ed. (2015). Palladian Design: The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected. RIBA.
Barbaro, D. (1556). I dieci libri dell’architettura di M. Vitruvio. Per Francesco Marcolini.
Bertotti Scamozzi, O. (1776–1783). Le fabbriche e i disegni di Andrea Palladio raccolti e illustrati, 4 vols, Francesco Modena.
Beltramini, G. & Burns, H., Eds (2008) Palladio. Royal Academy of Arts.
Beltramini, G., (2015). Jefferson and Palladio. In Guido Beltramini & Fulvio Lenzo, Eds, Jefferson and Palladio: Constructing a New World, pp. 21–37. Officina Libraria.
Boucher, B. (1994). Andrea Palladio: The Architect in His Time. Abbeville Press.
Brindle, S. (2023). Architecture in Britain and Ireland, 1530-1830. Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
Burns, H. (1975), Andrea Palladio 1508–1580: The Portico and the Farmyard. Arts Council of Great Britain.
Cevese, R. (Ed.). (1973). Mostra del Palladio: Vicenza, Basilica Palladiana. Electa.
Muttoni, F. (1740). Architettura di Andrea Palladio, vicentino, vol. 1. Angiolo Pasinelli.
Cooper, T. E. (2005). Palladio’s Venice: Architecture and Society in a Renaissance Republic. Yale University Press.
Dalla Pozza, A. (1943). Palladio. Edizioni del Pellicano.
Ebert, M. (2024). Fact and Fiction. In Ebert, M., & Bürklin, T., Eds, The Palladio Method, Draughtsman and Designer, Mason and Engineer: Learning From the Master, pp. 211- 238. Verlag.
Eisenman, P., & Roman, M. (2015). Palladio virtuel. Yale University Press.
Fletcher, R. (2000). Golden Proportions in a Great House: Palladio’s Villa Emo. In Kim Williams, Ed., Nexus III: Architecture and Mathematics, pp. 73-85. Paccini.
Forssman, E. (1965). Palladios Lehrgebäude: Studien über den Zusammenhang von Architektur und Architekturtheorie bei Andrea Palladio. Almqvist & Wiksell.
García-Salgado, T. (2009). Perspective Analysis of the Proportions of Palladio’s Villa Rotonda: Making the Invisible Visible. In Nexus Network Journal, No. 10, pp. 269-282.
Hemsoll, D. (2025a). Palladio and the ‘secrets’ of architectural proportion. In Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, No. 84, pp. 4-38.
Hemsoll, D. (2025b). Method and meaning in the architecture of Andrea Palladio. In Architectural History, No. 68, pp. 15-56.
Howard, D (1980). Four centuries of literature on Palladio. In Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, No. 39, pp. 224-241.
Howard, D. (2011). Venice Disputed: MarcAntonio Barbaro and Venetian Architecture, 1550-1600. Yale University Press.
March, L. (2001). Palladio’s Villa Emo: The Golden Proportion Hypothesis Rebutted. In Nexus Network Journal, No. 3, pp. 85-104.
Marcomini, F. (2024). I ‘Principi architettonici’ secondo Rudolf Wittkower e la loro eredità tra storiografia e architettura (1949-2015). In Annali di architettura, No. 36. pp. 139-56.
Millon, H. A. (1972). Rudolf Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism: Its Influence on the Development and Interpretation of Modern Architecture. In Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, No. 31, pp. 83-91.
Mitrović, B. (1990). Palladio’s Theory of Proportions and the Second Book of the Quattro Libri dell’Architettura. In Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, No. 49, pp. 279-292.
Mitrović, B. (2004), Learning From Palladio. W. W. Norton.
Mitrović, B. & Wassell, S. R. (2006). Andrea Palladio: Villa Cornaro in Piombino Dese. Acanthus.
Palladio, A. (1570). I quattro libri dell’architettura. Dominico de’Franceschi.
Payne, A. A. (1994). Rudolf Wittkower and Architectural Principles in the Age of Modernism. In Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, No. 53, pp. 322-342.
Paternò, D. (2015). Palladio nel tempo: Trasformazioni, autenticità, mito tra Ottocento e Novecento. Il prato casa editrice.
Puppi, L. (1973). Andrea Palladio. Electa. Reissued (1999) as Andrea Palladio: L’opera completa, with additional catalogue entries by Donata Battilotti.
Rowe, C. (1947). The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa. In Architectural Review, No. 101, pp. 101-104. Republished in Rowe, C. (1976). The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays, pp. 1-27. MIT Press.
Semenzato, C. (1968). The Rotonda of Andrea Palladio (Corpus Palladianum 1). Pennsylvania State University Press.
Streitz, R. (1973). Palladio: la Rotonde et sa géométrie. Bibliothèque des Arts.
Temanza, T, (1762). Vita di Andrea Palladio Vicentino egregio architetto. Giambatista Pasquali.
Wittkower, R. (1973), Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism (4th edition). Academy Editions.
Worsley, G. (1995). Classical Architecture in Britain: The Heroic Age. Yale University Press.
Zorzi, G. (1958). I disegni delle antichità di Andrea Palladio. Neri Pozza Editore.
Zorzi, G. (1964). Le opere pubbliche e i palazzi privati di Andrea Palladio. Neri Pozza Editore.
Zorzi, G, (1966). Le chiese e i ponti di Andrea Palladio. Neri Pozza Editore.
Zorzi, G. (1969). Le ville e i teatri di Andrea Palladio. Neri Pozza Editore.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 David Hemsoll (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
