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03 · Renaissance, Baroque & Rococo

High Renaissance / Palladian

c. 1500–1600s

Temple fronts applied to villas and civic buildings, strict symmetry, and triple windows with an arched center.

Look for

Portico Pediment Symmetrical facade
Villa La Rotonda, Vicenza, Italy: an example of High Renaissance / Palladian architecture
Villa La Rotonda, Vicenza, Italy. Photo: Quinok, CC BY-SA 4.0
Tempietto, Rome, Italy
Tempietto Rome, Italy · Labicanense, CC BY 4.0
Basilica Palladiana, Vicenza, Italy
Basilica Palladiana Vicenza, Italy · Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0
Palazzo Farnese, Rome, Italy
Palazzo Farnese Rome, Italy · Myrabella, CC BY-SA 3.0
San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy
San Giorgio Maggiore Venice, Italy · Anton Volnuhin, CC BY 4.0

what it is

High Renaissance architecture applies the Roman orders more strictly and at larger scale than earlier work, with temple fronts, domes on drums and symmetrical plans around a central space. Andrea Palladio applied these rules to country houses: main rooms on a raised floor, a portico (a porch of columns under a triangular pediment) like a Roman temple front, and rooms sized in simple ratios such as 2:3 and 3:4. The Palladian window, or Serliana, is a central arched opening flanked by two lower rectangular ones.

Bramante's Tempietto in Rome (about 1502) is a small round temple ringed by Tuscan columns. Palladio's Villa La Rotonda near Vicenza (begun 1567) has a square plan with a portico on each side and a domed central hall, and his Basilica Palladiana in Vicenza uses the Palladian window on both stories. In England, Chiswick House in London (1729) is based on La Rotonda, and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Virginia follows Palladian models. Early Renaissance facades used flat pilasters; Palladio's villas have porticoes of full columns.

how to spot one

Portico A porch at a building's main entrance with a roof carried on columns, often topped by a pediment (a low triangle). It is common on Neoclassical, Greek Revival and Palladian buildings. Pediment A low triangle over columns, a door or a window, framed by a projecting ledge called a cornice. It comes from Greek temple roof ends and is common on Neoclassical and Greek Revival buildings. Symmetrical facade A facade, or main front, whose left and right halves mirror each other, usually with the main door at the center. It is standard on Georgian, Federal, Neoclassical and Beaux-Arts buildings.

Also look for

Classical columnDomeBalustradeRound arch

history

The High Renaissance centered on Rome in the early 1500s. Donato Bramante completed the Tempietto about 1502 and laid the foundation stone of the new St. Peter's Basilica on 18 April 1506. Michelangelo took over St. Peter's in 1547 and redesigned its dome, which Giacomo della Porta completed in 1590. In the Veneto, Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) built villas, palaces and churches, and in 1570 he published I quattro libri dell'architettura (The Four Books of Architecture).

Palladio's book carried his designs abroad. Inigo Jones studied his buildings in Italy in 1613-1614 and designed the Queen's House at Greenwich (begun 1616), the first Palladian building in England, and the Banqueting House in London (completed 1622). After Colen Campbell published Vitruvius Britannicus in 1715, Palladian country houses were built across Britain, including Chiswick House and Holkham Hall (begun 1734). In America, Thomas Jefferson used Palladian forms at Monticello and at the University of Virginia Rotunda (1822-1826). In the 19th century, Neoclassical and Gothic Revival styles displaced Palladianism.

where to find it

The Villa Rotonda near Vicenza, the Tempietto in Rome, Chiswick House in London, and Monticello in Virginia.

architects

Andrea PalladioDonato BramanteMichelangelo

easy to confuse with

Florence Cathedral, an example of Early Renaissance Early Renaissance Round arches on slender columns, flat wall pilasters, and calm, measured symmetry. Royal Crescent, an example of Georgian Georgian Disciplined brick symmetry: sash windows in even rows, a paneled door with a fan shaped window above, and quiet classical trim. Panthéon, an example of Neoclassical Neoclassical Buildings modeled closely on Greek and Roman temples: grand columned porches, domes, and plain, symmetrical walls.