PALLADIO, ANDRKA. 



PALLADIO, ANDREA. 



i Palgrave wu one of the four who did not sign the General 

 Report, and in Uie same yemr be published tbo 'Protest of Sir 

 Francis Palgrave agaiuHt the First Report of the C'ouimiuionera 

 appointed to inquire into the Municipal Corporations of England and 

 Wale*,' in wliich he controverted many of the statements contained 

 in the General Report, and expressed bis dissent from the reasoning* 

 mod views founded upon those statements. The Municipal Reform 

 Act however, founded on the views of the General Report, was pa send, 

 and received the royal assent Sept , 1835. 



Sir Francis Palgrave wu not long afterwards appointed Deputy 

 Keeper of her Mnjeety'i Public Records, on office which be still holds, 

 and the dntiee of which he performs with general approbation, lie 

 present* a 'Report ' annually to parliament : bia last 'Report,' printed 

 by order of the House of Commons in 1856, wu the seventeenth. In 

 1SS5 he published 'Rotuli Curia) Regis,' 2 vols. roy. 8vo. His edition 

 of the ' Calendars and Inventories of the Treasury of the Exchequer,' 

 8 vola. roy. 8vp, 1886, some of which were compiled as early u the 

 Hth century, is very interesting, as exhibiting the ancient modes in 

 which record* were preserved. Sir Francis has given illustrative 

 figure* of the pouches or bags, cheats, coffers, and such like, in which 

 they were kept, and of the ' signs,' or small drawings, by which they 

 were marked, and which in most case* have Home analogy to the sub- 

 ject* of the documents. In 1887 he published 'Documents illus- 

 trating the History of Scotland,' voL i., and ' Truth* and Fiction* of 

 the Middle Ages the Merchant and the Friar,' 12mo ; and in 1844 

 u ' Ksaay upon the Authority of the King'* Council,' 8vo. 



In 1861 Sir Francis Palgrave published the first volume of ' The 

 History of Normandy and of England : ' VoL i. General Relations of 

 Medieval Europe ; the Carloviugian Empire ; the Danish Expeditions 

 in the Gauls; and the Establishment of Kollo, 8vo, 1851. This First 

 Volume compriies the First Book of the entire work, according to the 

 general scheme of the author. The Second Volume is now (February 

 1857), we believe, nearly ready for publication. Book II. is to give 

 the History of Capetian Normandy; Richard I., or Richard-cans- 

 Peur ; Richard II., or Le Bon ; Richard III. ; Robert I., or Robert le 

 Diable; and William the Bastard, or the Conqueror. In Book III. 

 fa to be given the History of Duke William as king of England. 

 Book IV. is to comprise the History of the son* of William the Con- 

 queror Courthose, RufuK, and Beauclerc ; and the History of the 

 First Crusade. Book V. will be occupied with the History of Robert 

 Courthose and Henry I. Book VI., completing the work, will include 

 the reign* of Stephen of I)loin and Henry Plantagenet. 



Sir Francis Palgrave married Elizabeth, one of the daughters of 

 Dawon Turner, Esq., F.R.S. and 8.A., of Yarmouth. She died in 

 August 1852, at hi* residence, Hampstead. 



PALLA'DIO, ANDRE'A, an Italian architect whoso name hu 

 become almost proverbial through Europe, and whom many critics 

 till consider u one of the greatest masters of his art, more especially 

 in all that appertain* to tute. He was born on the 30th of November 

 1518, at Vicenza in the Venetian territory, a city which is distinguished 

 by the numerous structure* with which be adorned it. Of his family, 

 his early youth, and bis first studies, scarcely anything certain is 

 now known. It appears however that he studied with great diligence 

 the writing* of Vitrnviu* and Albert!, and that he found an encou- 

 raging patron in hi* countryman Gian-Giorgio Triasino, whose name 

 still holds a conspicuous plaee in the annals of Italian literature. 

 Ity him Andrea was token to Rome three several timen, and ha turned 

 these opportunities to such excellent account that scarcely on ancient 

 edifice of any note escaped hi* examination, while of many of them he 

 made drawing* and studies, and carefully noticed their construction. 



He appears to have returned from the lost of these journeys in 1547, 

 when he wan in bis twenty-ninth year, and to have settled at Vicenza. 

 Hu first work, or rather one in which he bad a share, was the 

 Palazzo Publico at Udinc, begun by Qiov. Fontana, a Viceutine archi- 

 tect and sculptor, and by aome supposed to have been Palladio's 

 instructor; but the first work of any importance entirely designed 

 by himself was the Basilica or Palazzo dclla Ragione at Vicenza, a 

 Urge ancient Gothic structure, the exterior of which he entirely 

 remodelled. He surrounded it on throe sides by open loggie or 

 portico*, forming two orders, Doric and Corinthian, in half columns, 

 each including a smaller order of insulated column* whose entablature 

 forma the impost to the archea which occupy the upper part of the 

 larger mtsreolnmn*. So great wu the reputation he at once acquired 

 by thi* edifice that he wu shortly after summoned to Rome by 

 1*101 III., who wuhed to consult him respecting the works then in 

 progress at 8t Peter**. He accordingly visited that city for the fourth 

 time, bat Paul died before be arrived. 



On bis return he seem* to hare been overwhelmed with commissions, 

 almost every one in Vieenza and it* neighbourhood, who could afford 

 to build, employing him to design a mansion or villa, of which clam 

 of subject* the majority of hi* works consist. Though he executed 

 comparatively few structure of great magnitude and importance, he 

 had numerous opportunities for displaying his invention upon a 

 moderate scale, and creating a style of domestic architecture till then 

 almost unknown which no doubt is one reason why he hu so gene- 

 rally been taken as a model by architect* of other countries. Among 

 the numerous private mansions erected or designed by him at 

 Vicenza are the palauri Tiene, Valmarana, Chieracnti, Porti, Capitanale, 



Barbarino, Ac., and the celebrated Villa Capra or Rotonda at a short 

 distance from the city, besides n great many villa* and country-seats 

 along the Brenta. But some of the mansions at Vicenza have never 

 been completed, and others too evidently attest either the poverty or 

 the excessive negligence of their present possessors. 



The reputation acquired by these and similar works led to Palladio's 

 being invited to Venice, u Sanoovino, the chief architect there, wu 

 growing infirm. He was at first employed with some alteration* at 

 the convent Delia Carita, consisting of a Corinthian atrium, and a 

 cloister beyond it. This atrium is merely an open court about 42 

 feet wide by 56 in depth, with a colonnade of four Corinthian columns 

 on each side, and on each band within these colonnades is the entrance 

 to what were affectedly called Tablini, which were merely two tolerably 

 spacious rooms, one intended for the sacristy, the other for a chapter- 

 bouse. The atrium just mentioned communicates immediately, through 

 a door facing the entrance, with the larger inner court or cloister, about 

 80 by 66 feet, whoso elevations present three orders, viz. a Doric and 

 Ionic with open archea between the column* (six on each of the 

 longer, five on each of the shorter sides), forming open galleries quite 

 around, while the Coriutbian order above them bos windows of rather 

 small proportion*. Two churches afterwards erected by him in the 

 same city afforded him an opportunity of displaying his talent." in 

 buildings of that class. The (irst uf them, Sau Giorgio Maggiore, wu 

 begun in 1556, though the facade wu not erected till Isln. The 

 plan consists of a nave with two aisles, but so short in proportion to 

 the rest, there being only three arches on each aide, that the whole 

 approaches to the form of a Greek cross. Of decoration too there is 

 very little besides columns and entablatures, and the small columns 

 and pediments forming the altar tabernacles; even the va 

 and dome being quite plain, with merely arcs-doubleaux formed by 

 the tipper semicircular windows. The front has a large composite 

 order of four three-quarter columns supporting a pediment, and placed 

 on very lofty pedestals, with a small order in Corinthian pilast 

 each side, surmounted by a half pediment, the horizontal cornice and 

 rest of their entablature being continued as a facia between the larger 

 columns. Tet although there is no lack of decoration, the inter- 

 columne, except the centre one (occupied by a lofty door, square- 

 headed but with an arch over it), being filled by niches and panels, 

 and there being, besides, festoons between the composite capitals, the 

 architecture itself is by no means rich ; none of the inouldin 

 carved, and the modillions of the cornices are mere blocks. The 

 same may be caid of the still more celebrated church called 11 Reden- 

 torc, begun in 1578, about two years before the architect's death. In 

 description the facade of this edifice agrees very nearly with that of 

 the preceding, being similarly disposed, with a large composite order 

 and a lesser Corinthian one, with half pediments. At the same time 

 there are considerable differences, for instead of being raised upon 

 pedestals, the larger order stands upon the platform of u flight of 

 steps occupying the centre division of the front, and, instead of four 

 three-quarter columns, consists of two half-columns and two pilasters. 

 The proportions again are quite dissimilar, owing to the omission of 

 pedestals, the greater width of the intercoluuina, and the relative 

 sizes of the two orders, the Corinthian one being here much larger 

 than in the other instance, so that the cornice of its entablature is 

 nearly level with the top of the shaft* of the larger columns, wl 

 at San Giorgio the smaller cornice is not higher than two-thirds of the 

 larger columns. Neither is the lesser entablature here coin 

 throughout, but its architrave alone, except in the centre inter- 

 column, where there are two Corinthian hulf-columus to the door, 

 surmounted by on entablature and pediment, besides which there are 

 smaller column* and eegmental pediments to the niches in the hii. i ! 

 division* of this centre compartment. All these different c<>! 

 pediments, and half-pediments tend to produce quite as much mono- 

 tony as variety. In its plan this church greatly surpasses the other, 

 having a good deal of play and elegance in its arrangement, and being 

 more imposing iu it< proportions. Still here, again, the order itself 

 constitutes the whole of the architecture all the rest being bare and 

 cold, and plain almost to nakedness. 



The facade of San Francesco delta Vigna was also designed by Pal- 

 ladio in 1562, although tho church itself is said to be by Sansovino. 

 This front is very much like that of San Giorgio, except that instead 

 of a large panel there is a semicircular window (in three compartments, 

 or of the kind called a Palladian window) over the doorway, also a 

 circular sculptured ornament within the pediment, and an inscription 

 on the frieze. 



One of his last, if not his very latest work, was the Tcatro Olympico 

 at Vicenza, which he did not live to complete, for he died on the 6th 

 of August 1560, at the ago of sixty-two, ami that structure was not 

 entirely finished till Ifou. It has been extravagantly extolled by 

 many, and severely condemned by others as a piece of puerile archi- 

 tectural pedantry. It may indeed be asserted of Palladio's winks 

 generally that they have been greatly and indiscriminately overpraised 

 by successive writers, who seem to have merely repeated one another. 

 Among the many wbo have extolled Palladio's extraordinary merits, 

 but without attempting to show wherein they consist, are the names 

 of Qotbe, Quatremcre de Quincy, Fomyth, Hope, and Beckford. 



Judging Palladio dispassionately, it is impossible to deny that hi* 

 works abound with defects and solecisms that would hardly be tola- 



