C O N T E X T 1 1 0 : J U LY 2 0 0 9 37 Several articles in the historic buildings and conservation press last year were devoted to the 500th anniversary of Palladio’s birth in 1508. Very little was made of where he came from, however, in the architectural sense at least.While no one doubts Palladio’s contribution to high renaissance architecture, there are others who should be included in his success. At the very least they should be allowed to bask in his reflected glory. The groundwork of these significant others provided the springboard from which Palladio leapt to lasting greatness. In particular, it was the combined genius of three men: Bramante, Peruzzi and Serlio. Certainly other key classicists of the era also influenced Palladio – men such as da Vinci and both the Sangallos – but Bramante, Peruzzi and Serlio stand out as having made individual as well as complementary contributions to the success of Palladio’s work. Donato Bramante (1444–1514) was, and still is, considered to be the unquestionable founder of high renaissance architecture. Although he trained as an artist, excelling in Montagnesque illusionism, he developed a specialism in architecture at the Court of Lodovico Il Moro’s court in Milan. Here Bramante was exposed to the full, creative force of Leonardo da Vinci, who had knowledge of Brunelleschi’s architecture and particularly his centrally-planned church designs. Brunelleschi’s designs were absorbed whole-heartedly by Bramante, and were unabashedly used and re-used by Palladio in later years. One of the most recognisable features of Palladianism, as we understand it today, is its reliance on central planning in its designs. This can be seen in many examples, such as the Villa Rotunda in Vicenza and its facsimile at Mereworth. When Bramante moved to Rome in the service of the pope, his interest in classical form burgeoned. He turned to establishing a clear set of correct architectural principles from which all correct design could be extrapolated. Surrounded by the buildings and ruins Architecturally speaking of antiquity, Bramante developed a language of classical architecture which his contemporaries accepted as architectural truth. Such was the contemporary success of Bramante’s work that the little tempietto he designed in 1502 at S Pietro in Montorio was given the great accolade of being called an ancient building, despite its 16th century origin. His language was based largely on the Roman ruins and buildings he studied, but it was tempered by the designs and ideas of fellow classicists and artists. Once established, this language could be copied, adapted and extended. Palladio was one of many who made full use of Bramante’s work. The second classicist in this trio of men contributing to Palladio’s success was the Siennese artist Baldassare Peruzzi (1481–1536). Peruzzi was an excessively timid man, but one of great originality and invention.Working on St Peter’s under Antonio Sangallo the Younger, Peruzzi produced endless experimental and technical solutions to enhance classical construction.Widely considered to be Peruzzi’s masterpiece, the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne, with a curved façade, displays clearly his individual and mannerist approach to classicism. He rejected Vitruvian dogmatism in his search for a more beautiful, mannerist interpretation of classical architecture. Peruzzi’s training in both painting and perspective, combined with his extraordinary skills as a draughtsman, gave his architectural designs a unique edge, which the Bolognese designer Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554) was swift to capitalise on. Serlio is the third man in this trio whose career aided Palladio immeasurably. His architectural masterpiece was arguably the Grand Ferrare at Fontainebleu (1544–46), which established the standard for the French town house and hotel for the next century. He is most famous for his production of a series of architectural treatises which disseminated the classical language of architecture across the civilized world. His books were a successful fusion of his own thoughts and ideas, Bramante’s classical language and, to a large extent, the unpublished theories of the shy Peruzzi, who had left him his entire literary collection upon his death. Serlio’s real genius perhaps lay in the commercial savvy which led him to combine and publish all these different strands. His volumes L’architettura, published between 1537 and 1551, were the blueprint for Palladio’s much better known I Quattro Libri Dell Architettura, which was published in 1570. The layout form that Serlio chose for his volumes consisted of one woodcut plate facing a short piece of text on the opposite page – nearly always the exact form favoured by Palladio. The important point about our celebration of Palladio last year seems to have been that he was a singular genius of great individuality. Perhaps the point should be made that although undoubtedly a talented architect, Palladio was raised to greatness by standing on the shoulders of other great renaissance classicists, whether they were architects, artists, men of commerce, or all three. Carole Fry, a director of AHC Consultants
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=