Spread of Palladianism
La influencia de Palladio ha sido enorme en la arquitectura occidental; de modo particular en la tradición anglosajona, que ha tenido como consecuencia que tanto la arquitectura colonial norteamericana, como la arquitectura colonial inglesa, en territorios tan extensos como la India, China o Australia puedan verse diseños derivados de Palladio.
En 1570, Palladio publicó su tratado I quattro libri dell'architettura, compendio de sus ideales arquitectónicos, obra que inspiró a arquitectos de toda Europa. En el siglo muchos de ellos estudiaron en Italia, analizando in situ la obra de Palladio. Esta influencia se manifestó al regresar a sus países de origen cuando adaptaron el estilo a las diferentes circunstancias climatológicas y topográficas y al gusto de sus clientes. Así fue extendiéndose el ideal palladiano por toda la geografía europea, alcanzando el cenit de su popularidad en el siglo , primero en Inglaterra e Irlanda y, posteriormente, en Estados Unidos. También sirvió de precedente a la arquitectura neoclásica de finales del siglo y principios del siglo .
English Palladianism
One of those students was the English architect Inigo Jones, who was directly responsible for the importation of Palladian influence to England. The "Palladianism" of Jones and his contemporaries, as well as that of his followers, was a style that fundamentally sought the aesthetics of the façade, so the mathematical formulas for the distribution of rooms were never strictly applied. Numerous country houses were built in England between the years 1640 and 1680, such as Wilton House, among others. The first works of Íñigo Jones were very successful and marked the style of all those later constructions. They were the palace called Queen's House of Greenwich "Greenwich (London)") and the Banquet House of Whitehall Palace, an unfinished royal palace in London, commissioned by King Charles I of England. The Palladian designs made by Jones, who became a royal surveyor, were so closely associated with the court of Charles I that their influence did not survive the turmoil produced by the English Civil War. The ensuing Stuart Restoration, in an attempt to disassociate itself from the previous monarchy, eclipsed Jones's Palladianism with a taste for the baroque architecture of architects such as William Talman, Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor, and even Jones's disciple John Webb.
English Neopalladianism
The baroque style, so popular on the European continent, never really took hold in the British Isles. It was quickly supplanted when four books highlighting the simplicity and purity of classical architecture were published in Britain in the first quarter of the century:
The most famous of these was the Vitruvius Britannicus, the four volumes published by Campbell, architect and editor. The treaty is basically a book of projects, which collected engravings of the most important English buildings inspired by the great architects, from Vitruvius to Palladio. The first are mainly works by Iñigo Jones, but later it includes original creations of drawings and projects by Campbell himself and other architects of the century.
These four treatises contributed greatly to the revival of English Palladian architecture, becoming the country's predominant style during the century. Its three authors therefore managed to become well known and among the most sought after to work with. Campbell, for example, due to Vitruvius Britannicus was chosen as the architect of the banker Henry Hoare I for whom he built Stourhead House, a masterpiece directly inspired by Palladio's villa Emo, and which, in turn, inspired dozens of similar houses throughout England.
At the forefront of this new school of design was the architect-aristocrat Richard Boyle, who conceived the Baroque as a symbol of foreign absolutism. In 1729, Burlington designed, together with William Kent, Chiswick House, a reinterpretation of the Capra villa, purifying the elements and ornaments of the 17th century. Severity in ornamentation was the most prominent element of English Neo-Palladianism.
In 1734, William Kent and Lord Burlington created one of the best examples of Neo-Palladian houses, Holkham Hall in Norfolk "Norfolk (England)"). The main block scrupulously follows Palladio's dictates, but the agricultural outer wings, normally missing in Palladianism, were significantly highlighted in this case. Kent attached them to the project, banishing their agricultural use, and gave these wings equal importance to the main house. The use spread to other buildings and usually those wings were adorned with porticos, pediments and entablatures, as in the much later Kedleston Hall, which converted the wings into small terraced houses. This evolution of the auxiliary wings, from being complementary to merely superimposed buildings, was the cause of English Palladianism becoming a pastiche of Palladio's original work.
The style evolved and changed to adapt to the demands of each client. When in 1746, John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, decided to remodel his house at Woburn Abbey, he preferred Palladianism for the reconstruction, as it was the fashionable style at the time. For this he chose the architect Henry Flitcroft, a disciple of Burlington. Flitcroft's project in Woburn could not be recognized by Palladio himself, due to the substantial modifications of the Italian master's construction philosophy. The central core is small, the portico with three openings is merely sketched, and unlike the Palladian loggias, it is completely closed. The side wings house the bulk of the rooms, replacing the original wall that led to the worker colonies and agricultural facilities. The ends (where the warehouses and stables would be) were raised to a higher height than the central building and as decoration it has Palladian windows, which evoke its original influence. This evolution of the style will be repeated in the typology of English country houses for a hundred years. Even in the decline of Neo-Palladianism, already in the Victorian era, the architect Edward Blore used it for the remodeling of the façade of the building. Buckingham Palace in 1913. There the Greco-Roman portico was replaced by a blind portico with pilasters, which decorate the central part of the façade. This latest twist on the Palladian style, two centuries later, is only vaguely inspired by Palladio's own architecture.
Neo-Palladian houses were not the small, exquisite rest havens that Italian architects envisioned. They are not villas, but large mansions, symbolic centers of power of the lords who ruled Great Britain. As the British style evolved, all mathematical conceptions of proportion and distribution were discarded. These buildings have large facades and rooms designed to give a greater impression of size.
Irish Palladianism
During the Neo-Palladian period in Ireland, even the most modest mansions were made in this style. Palladian architecture in Ireland differed subtly from that made in England. As the different countries adhered to the constructive ideals given by Palladio, they gave themselves their own personality. In Ireland, paradoxically, they built more closely to the Italian original, because the architects took their references directly from Italy, instead of the style that followed its own evolution in England. Ireland, due to its more remote and provincial condition, caused Palladian fashion to change more slowly than anywhere else. However, whatever the reason, Palladianism had to adapt to the wetter and colder climate of Ireland.
One of the pioneering Irish architects was Sir Edward Lovett Pearce (1699–1733), who is considered the greatest exponent of Irish Palladianism. Pearce, Sir John Vanbrugh's cousin and disciple, rejected the Baroque and spent three years studying architecture in France and Italy, before returning to Ireland. His best Palladian work was the first Parliament in Dublin. Pierce was a prolific architect and also designed the south facade of Drumcondra House in 1727 and Cashel Palace in 1728.
Another notable example of Irish Palladianism is Castletown House, near Dublin. Designed by the Italian architect Alessandro Galilei (1691–1737), it is perhaps the only house in Ireland built following Palladian mathematical ratios and one of two Irish mansions clearly inspiring the design of Washington's White House.
Also notable is the architect Richard Cassels, of German origin, who designed the Russborough House, the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin and Florence Court, in County Fermanagh, following the Palladian style. The Irish Palladian country houses used to have a peculiarity, the rococo decoration in plaster, almost always the work of the Lafranchini Brothers), which made their interiors more extravagant than their English contemporaries. Much of Dublin was built in the century in Georgian style. Many of these buildings remain standing today although in ruinous conditions. After the crises of 1922 in Ireland, lead from the roofs of these empty houses Palladian houses were looted for their scrap value. Many Palladian houses without roofs can still be admired in the depopulated rural areas of the country.
Palladianism in the United States
US President and amateur architect Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) once referred to Palladio's I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura as his Bible. Jefferson had a great appreciation for Palladian architectural concepts and the designs of his house at Monticello "Monticello (Virginia)"), in Charlottesville, (Virginia "Virginia (United States)"), as well as those of the University of Virginia were based directly on Palladio's treatise drawings. Jefferson's philosophy related the political significance of his buildings to the architecture of Ancient Rome and thus he designed numerous civic buildings in the Palladian style. Monticello "Monticello (Virginia)") (remodeled between 1796 and 1808) is clearly based on Palladio's Capra villa, which with its modifications, is classified in the United States as Georgian colonial style. The Pantheon, or the Rotunda, designed by Jefferson at the University of Virginia is undoubtedly Palladian in concept and style and its dome is based on that of Agrippa's Pantheon in Rome.
In Virginia "Virginia (United States)") and Carolina, Palladian forms became common in Tidewater plantation houses, such as Stratford Hall, Westover Plantation, or Drayton Hall near Charleston "Charleston (South Carolina)"). They are examples of the so-called American colonial architecture that adopted the Palladian form as shown in engravings of the time. The use of Palladianism in the United States was because the builders and masons, even the owners, did not have the personal experience in building construction, nor the knowledge of their European colleagues.
A characteristic feature of American Palladianism was the reappearance of the large entrance porch, which was again intended to protect the dwelling from the sun. The portico, with or without a pediment and of different shapes and sizes, became essential in American colonial architecture. In the countries of Northern Europe, due to the climate, the porch for this purpose became merely symbolic, usually closed or simply outlined by a pilaster design, and even in later examples of English Palladianism adapted as a carriage door. In America, however, it regained its former glory.
Thomas Jefferson must have taken particular pleasure in being the second occupant of the White House in Washington, which was conceived, doubly inspired, by Irish Palladianism. Both Castletown House and Leinster House, designed by Richard Cassel in Dublin, inspired the architect James Hoban to build this official residence, erected between 1792 and 1800. Hoban, who was born in Callan, County Kilkenny, in 1762, studied architecture in Dublin, where Leinster House (built c. 1747) was one of the most beautiful buildings of the time. The Palladianism of the is interesting because it is almost an early example of neoclassical architecture, especially on its south façade, which imitates James Wyatt's design for of 1790, also in Ireland. Ironically, the north facade is one story lower than , while the south facade rises one story higher than and has one more staircase, in the Palladian style. Coole Castle is, in the words of historian Gervase Jackson-Stops, "a culmination of Palladian traditions, almost strictly neoclassical in its chaste ornamentation and noble austerity." The same can be said of many of the houses of American Palladianism.