Andrea Palladio and Architectural Virtues

Vocabulary flashcards covering the biographical details, core architectural virtues, key works, and written principles of Andrea Palladio.

Vicenza

A town located 25 miles inland from Venice that is one of the leading sites of global architectural tourism due to its many works by Andrea Palladio.

Andrea Palladio

An architect born at the end of November in 1508 in Padua who began as an apprentice stonemason and emerged in his 60s as the top architect of Venice.

Calm (Palladian Virtue)

A psychological virtue achieved in architecture by reducing distraction through centered, balanced, symmetrical elements, simple geometrical shapes, plain walls, and minimal furniture.

Harmony (Palladian Virtue)

A psychological virtue achieved when every member of a building agrees with its fellow and the whole, where every opening is aligned and every room is a clear, simple shape.

Dignity (Palladian Virtue)

A psychological ambition in architecture to grant greater status and honor to utilitarian parts of life that had been unfairly regarded as unworthy.

Villa Barbaro

A farmhouse located about 40 miles north of Venice where barns, stables, and grain stores are presented as grand, honorable, and important rather than being hidden away.

The Four Books of Architecture

A 1570 publication by Andrea Palladio that serves as an early 'How-To' guide containing practical building instructions and rules of proportion based on simple mathematical ratios.

Palladian Proportion Rules

Guidelines establishing that room length and height should be $\frac{3}{5}$ of the width, and that sides should feature an odd number of openings such as 3, 5, or 7.

Pattern Book Ideal

The principle that visually elegant buildings can be put up as a standard by following craftsman rules, working against the idea that architecture requires a special genius.

Authentically Palladian

A quality of buildings that are devoted to Calm, Harmony, and Dignity on the basis of widely reusable rules, portraying our calmest and most dignified selves.