Andrea Palladio
By Troy Meservey
Biography
Palladio was born November 30, 1508 in Padua, Italy. He spent most of his life in Vicenza, Italy, were a lot of his work is, and Rome. At a young age, Giangiorgio Trissino taught Palladio of architecture and showed him the works of Sebastiano Serlio. Later, Palladio traveled Rome and learned from the ancient Roman architecture. As a child Andrea worked as a stone cutter and then became influenced by Sebastiano Serlio's work. As an architect and novelist, Palladio built the Villa Godi, Villa Capra or Rotonda and lquattro libri dell' architettura. The patron of Palladio was Trissino. The most connected -ism was humanism because Andrea's humanist last name was given to him by Trissino referencing the goddess Pallas Athene.
The Work
This piece by Andrea Palladio is the Villa Rotonda, created in 1566-1569. This ancient building can be seen in Vicenza, Italy. The design of this building references that of an early Renaissance church. This makes this piece very significant. The Villa Rotonda to me has some similarities to that of the pantheon. The front with the columns and the dome reminds me of the pantheon. The many human statues around the building are posing. I like how the building has 6 columns on all 4 sides. Also the fact that the dome is still in great condition after 600 years is amazing. The Rotonda is also interesting because it references ancient Roman architecture so much. This piece of work references secularism because is shown by Palladio's usage of the portico and cupola. This references secularism because the usage of the cupola and portico have been used for sacred usage only.
Bibliography
"Andrea Palladio." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Biography in Context. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=4iFCeTg4NCciJy8laCt2KngqVXkgdlB4f A%3D%3D
"Andrea Palladio." Science and Its Times. Ed. Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Biography in Context. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Palladio, Andrea. The Four Books of Architecture. Translation of Quattro libri dell'architettura. New York, 1965
Creator : Andrea Palladio
Title : Villa Rotonda; facade
Date : c. 1566-1569
ARTstor : SCALA_ARCHIVES_1039929405
URL : http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=4iFCeTg4NCciJy8laCt2KngqVXkgdlB4fA%3D%3D