Art and Architectural History - Essay Example

His life transformed in the year 1537, at the age of 30 when Andrea Palladio started to work under the famous designer Gian Giorgio Trissini Trissini shaped the life of Palladio, became his mentor, introduced him to the principles of classical architecture and other disciplines of renaissance. Trissini also introduced his protg to a wide circle of patrons and more importantly, gave him his name 'Palladio; suggesting 'Pallas Athene', the Greek goddess of wisdom', by which he was to later become famous1.

Palladio's earlier commissions were to build palaces and villas for aristocracy. Later, he began design of religious buildings. Palladio learnt the principles of Vitruvius, the famous architect of olden days, (whose treatise was rediscovered in the prior century) through his books and the renaissance commentator Alberti. He became acquainted with the ideas and pioneering works of his contemporaries like Romano, Falconetto, Serlio and Sanmicheli. His mentor took him to visit cities like Padua, Venice and Rome and further introduced him to classical Roman and early Renaissance works.

The socio-political situation at that time was instrumental in triggering a fundamentally different thought process in his design. Venice had by then become the center of a vast empire with not only military but also commercial enclaves around the area, because it controlled the Mediterranean region and it's trade routes. Noble families thus prospered economically and were turning towards large-scale agricultural activities. This prompted these Neo-rich families to shift their residences to rural areas, so that they could work close to home, as well as enjoy the peace and calm of country life.

They needed homes, which had the magnificence of the royal Venetian palaces, but at much lower costs. Additionally these homes had to have the functional efficiency, which would allow supervision and storage of agricultural production, as well as serve as a place for repose and contemplation for it's owners. It is in this context, that his 20 odd villas were constructed.Design ideas developed by Palladio:As stated earlier, the central problem for design for Palladio was to synthesize a solution, which took care of the contemporary needs like functionality and comfort for the residents, while retaining the magnificence and keeping the cost low.

He found a 3-point solution to the problem:1. Dramatic external motifs: The external faade had a clear classical influence including column orders but with understated grace and symmetry rather than elaboration.2. Economic materials: His earlier working experience with brick-laying and masonry prompted him to use bricks clad in stucco instead of marble and stone which had to be procured from far off places, thus reducing costs substantially.3. Inner harmony and balance of interior spaces: This is where much of his innovative design work was done.

His rationality concluded that a sense of space is closely connected with its purpose2, and that the successful synthesis of forms, materials and purpose becomes 'space' (Palladian design, Reading Architectural History - Dana Arnold, pp135). So, his fundamental premise was that the interior parts of the house should correspond to the whole as well as to one another. We will have a sense