Andrea Palladio, probably the most famous architect of the Western world, stands at the beginning of the movement called Palladianism. For the landed gentry of sixteenth-century Venice he evolved a version of Renaissance architecture, combining classical authority, dignity and comfort, which he made available to the whole of Europe in his book, the Quattro libri dell'architettura . So successful was the Palladian formula that it was consciously revived in other countries and in other times: by Inigo Jones at the court of Charles I in the early seventeenth century, by Colen Campbell and Lord Burlington in the early eighteenth century, and by Thomas Jefferson and others in the New World. In each case, what was appealing about Palladianism was more than a matter of style: it was the fact that it expressed a way of life and a humanist moral philosophy, deriving ultimately from ancient Rome but enriched by the thinkers of the Renaissance and the Augustan age.
Sir John Summerson, reviewing the book in Architecture Today, 18 December, 1998 wrote: 'Andrea Palladio, probably the most famous architect in the western world, stands at the beginning of the movement called Palladianism. So successful was the Palladian formula that it was consciously revived outside of Italy and in other times, first by Inigo Jones at the court of Charles I in the early 17th century, by Colen Campbell and Lord Burlington in the early 18th century, and by Thomas Jefferson and others in the New World. In each case, what was appealing about Palladianism was more than a matter of style: it was the fact that it expressed a way of life and a humanist philosophy, deriving ultimately from ancient Rome but enriched by the thinkers of the Renaissance and the Augustan Age. In comparison to James Ackerman's The Villa, and Paul Holberton's Palladio's Villas 'Tavernor's book is the most erudite and the best written of the three books....Tavernor has done a first-rate job. His study is the most up-to-date Palladian book currently on the market....Rudolf Wittkower would, I know, have admired Tavernor's book as much as I do.'
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