Andrea Palladio: The Architect in His Time [Paperback]

Bruce Boucher (Author), Paolo Marton (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1998

Presenting photographs of his buildings, as well as plans and drawings, this work examines the the life of Renaissance architect Palladio. It traces his rise from his time as an apprentice stonesman to the construction of peerless villas that are associated with his name: the imposing Malcontenta and the aristocratic Rotonda. While the buildings are discussed in terms of their importance in art history, Palladio's career is also defined against the backdrop of the dramatic events and personalities of the age.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This comprehensive volume on the most influential architects in Western history is meant to be, in the words of its author, "user-friendly." Bruce Boucher suggests that Andrea Palladio might "fit comfortably into a suitcase or a backpack for a trip to Vicenza," the city west of Venice where the 16th-century architect Palladio lived and where most of his villas stand.

For art historians and architects, Boucher effectively synthesizes the more than 30 years of research that has been accomplished since James Ackerman's seminal 1966 work on Palladio. Boucher's style is balanced and highly readable. In discussing the architect's bridges, he paraphrases Palladio's advice that "an even number of piers should be used because nature endows every creature with an even number of legs to support its weight." "This last observation," Boucher writes, "is typically Palladian in its appeal to the natural world as a justification of what was simply an aesthetic preference."

Thanks to the extraordinary photographs of Paolo Marton, you will find yourself dreaming of an Italian vacation even before you begin reading Boucher's text. Marton's pictures make the exteriors of Palladio's villas, churches, bridges, and palaces look as if they were appearing before us, bathed in fresh spring light and set against a startlingly blue sky. His interior exposures are minutely sensitive to shadow as well as to light, and Marton precisely captures the soaring, airy volumes of Palladio's incomparable spaces.

This perfectly designed book also includes photographs of the original floor plans and elevations, as well as several helpful addenda, such as maps showing the locations of Palladio's buildings, a glossary, and a chronology.

From Publishers Weekly

Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), supremely empirical in his reformulation of classical style, built villas, palaces and churches whose influence echoes in Jefferson's Monticello and the contemporary renewal of classical forms. In this careful, comprehensive, stunningly illustrated survey, Boucher, an art history professor at the University of London, capably illuminates Palladio's stylistic evolution, though he is less successful in placing this elusive, extremely private man in the cultural milieu of the High Renaissance. Among the 300 plates are more than 100 newly commissioned photographs of building interiors and exteriors, which superbly capture Palladio's distincitve blend of simplicity and grandeur. Chapters cover Palladio's elegant wood and stone bridges, his influential treatise Four Books on Architecture and his mature fusion of the monumental and domestic.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Abbeville Press; Revised Edition edition (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789203006
• ISBN-13: 978-0789203007
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 7.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,842,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Architecture is all around us, but few ever pay attention to the men behind these constructions, July 12, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Andrea Palladio: The Architect in His Time (Paperback)

Architecture is all around us, but few ever pay attention to the men behind these constructions. Now in a newly updated and expanded second edition, "Andrea Palladio: The Architect in His Time" looks at the man who revolutionized western architecture during his long life in the sixteenth century (he was a master of the arts and a true Renaissance man). "Andra Palladio: The Architect in His Time" covers his life and the inspirations for his craft, enhanced with photographs of Palladio's work. A seminal coverage, "Andrea Palladio: The Architect in His Time" is highly recommended for community library Biography and Architectural Studies collections.