Palladio's Villas: Life in the Renaissance Countryside

Palladio became one of the most influential architects in history and his villas designed in the countryside around Venice are amongst the most beautiful houses ever built. They aimed to express the ideals of reason, humanity and civilization in Renaissance life and to provide practical settings from which the sophisticated merchants or gentry from Vicenzia and Venice could exercise their privileges as landowners and their responsibilities as farmers. In this illustrated book the author explores special qualities of the architecture, provides a guide for visitors, and also sets them among the people, practicalities and beliefs which gave them life.

The villas designed by Palladio for the aristocracy of Venice and its subject city of Vicenza are among the glories of European architecture. Holberton has most satisfactorily articulated a sense of these structures within the ambience of Renaissance civilization in a manner marked by unpedantic scholarship and elegance of expression. Aside from his cogent consideration of the impact of the larger historical and economic situation on Palladio's smaller world, the author evokes the social and cultural milieu of his often interrelated circle of clients and, in turn, their probable impact upon the architect. The use of contemporary sources to indicate how the buildings were perceived, employed, and decorated is fascinating. Perhaps most interesting, however, is the survey of the various psychic, physical, and fiscal benefits thought to accrue to the villa's users. Because this volume essentially eschews traditional formal analysis, James Ackerman's Palladio (1967) offers an apposite complementary consideration. Recommended for informed readers.
- Robert Cahn, Fashion Inst. of Technology, New York
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.