On 1 December 2008 the RIBA British Architectural Library will celebrate the 500th birthday of Andrea Palladio by launching a major online resource: Palladio and Britain. This web-hub will enable users to explore the RIBA’s unparalleled collection of Palladio’s books and drawings – over 80 percent of those in existence. As well as viewing Palladio’s design drawings and books, visitors can learn about Palladio’s influence on British architects from the 16th century to the present day.

Britain’s love affair with Palladio began in the early 17th century when Inigo Jones brought to England a large collection of his drawings. Many more were acquired by Lord Burlington who also bought Jones’s collection and who in turn left these to the Duke of Devonshire. In 1894, the drawings were given to the RIBA by the Duke of Devonshire as a gift in trust. The RIBA Library is now home to over 330 of Palladio’s drawings. These drawings are greater in number than for all other Italian Renaissance architects put together.

Visitors to the site will be able to feast their eyes on Palladio’s own design drawings for villas, palaces and churches, preliminary drawings for woodcuts in his seminal work I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura, and drawings and reconstructions of Roman buildings. They can explore British Palladian villas, interiors and elegant country houses through the outstanding collection of photographs held in the RIBA Photographs Collection. Visitors can also browse the Library’s collection of early books, drawings and archives and find out how and why writers, artists, architects and patrons have been captivated by Palladio through the centuries.

Sunand Prasad, RIBA President says:

“Andrea Palladio’s buildings and drawings supremely exemplify the practice of architecture as a compositional art. 500 years later his three dimensional imagination, organisational rigour and mastery of scale and proportion inspire us and set standards that transcend architectural style. The RIBA is fortunate that British architects were amongst the first to recognise the quality of his drawings and, in the conviction that Palladio’s relevance will last and last, we will continue to make these treasures available for study and pleasure as widely as possible.”

Charles Hind, the RIBA’s H.J. Heinz Curator of Drawings says:

‘The RIBA’s collection of Palladio’s drawings is a treasure trove of international importance. Their purchase by two Englishmen, a century apart, saved them from destruction and their constant use as a reference by generations of architects have reinforced Palladio’s supreme position in Western architecture.’

The exhibition ‘Andrea Palladio: His Life and Legacy’, currently open in Vicenza, will open in London on 31 January 2009 at the Royal Academy of Arts.

With thanks to the generous support of the Italian Cultural Institute.

Andrea Palladio (1508-80)

Andrea Palladio (1508 – 1580) was born in Padua to a relatively humble background from which he rose to become the most influential western architect in history. He is famous for both his buildings and books, above all I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura [the Four Books of Architecture].

Most of his career was based in and around the city of Vicenza. It was here that he was apprenticed as a stone mason, where he learnt to handle materials and understand the practicalities of construction. It was also here that he met Giangiorgio Trissino, Renaissance scholar and amateur architect.

Trissino took Andrea under his wing. He gave him his first architectural commission, educated him, and introduced him into polite society. He took him to Rome, and gave him a new name – Palladio.

Travel transformed Palladio’s understanding of architecture. In Rome he observed and sketched ancient Roman ruins and buildings. He also journeyed throughout Italy, Provence and Croatia, studying and drawing wherever he went.

Palladio’s understanding of architecture was developed further by extensive reading. He was particularly influenced by Vitruvius’s De Architectura, the only architectural treatise to survive from antiquity, and fifteenth and sixteenth-century writers such as Alberti, Serlio and Vignola.

As a result of this study, Palladio’s career took off. He designed many villas and palaces for the noble families of Vicenza, transforming the city and surrounding countryside. After 1560, he gained commissions in Venice, notably the great churches of San Giorgio Maggiore and Il Redentore.

His reputation was cemented by the publication of the I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura (1570). A landmark in book design, it was the first time an architect published his own works.

Palladio died in 1580, leaving an outstanding legacy, built and in print. Stylistically, his understated manner became a central tenet of Georgian architecture. The classic 18th century English country house is a direct heir of his pioneering work, notably his villas, from where it was exported far and wide, to the United States.

Email: beatrice.cooke@inst.riba.org