Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/189

SLOAN'S ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW AND BUILDERS' JOURNAL. AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY. CONDUCTED BY SAMUEL SLOAN, ARCHITECT: ASSISTANT EDITOR, CHARLES J. LUKBNS. PUBLICATION OFFICE, No. 153 SOUTH FOURTH STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PA. MONTHLY REVIEW. PALLADIO AND HIS STYLE. IN Northern Italy, less than thirty-five miles from the Adriatic sea, and not more than sixty from its head, forty miles west of Venice, on the Baccbig- lione,-- surrounded with empty moats and mined walls, but full of well-pre- served palaces, — with the blue spurs of the Alps within easy reach, upon her northwestern quadrant, and their white crests looming up beyond, — stands the ancient city of Vicenza. Within it was born, in the year 1518, Andrea Palla- dio, who, " Though from an humble stock, undoubtedly Was fashioned to much honor from his cradle." We hardly know, which most to ad- mire ; his good fortune, yielding him the direction of highly important con- structions in his early youth ; the force of character, which enabled him to be- come eminently learned, not only in his chosen profession of architecture and the general science of that day, but also in the classic languages ; or the rare social engagingness, to gain such esteem among his fellow-townsmen, as to be first mad« free of his native city ; and, after- wards, to-be admitted into the bod}' of the nobility. Palladio's professional master was the celebrated Giovanni Giorgio Trissino, under whom he studied exhaustively the most curious points of civil and military with architecture, and stored his mind all sorts of erudition." He chiefly delighted in the personal inspection, and exact measurement, of the grand remains of old Rome ; so much so, that he " traveled divers times " to various regions of Italy and other " foreign parts, on purpose to find, " through the remains of some ancient " erections, what the whole must once " have been ; and to give the designs of "them." His posthumous work on " The Ro- man Antiquities," though imperfect, conclusively shows how thoroughly he had mastered the ideas of the ancients, for, " searching many years, amid vari- ous clangers," amongst the rubbish of their monuments, he discovered the true rules of the Art of Building, which, unsuspected in their completeness, even by his contemporaries, Brunelleschi and Michael Angelo, remained unknown, until after his exposition. The exact- ness of his designs is equally remarka- ble and satisfactory. His appreciative townsmen and com- peers were culpably careless of the fu- ture reputation of their most noted citi- zen, as all the authors, who mention him, are silent on the particulars of his life. They have taken great pains to provide for us a detailed list of the noble edifices, wherewith he adorned his coun- Vol. I. — Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year Court of the United States, in and for 1S6S, by Samuel Sloan, in the Clerk's Office of the District the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. (161)