Lord Burlington was born in
Yorkshire into a wealthy
Anglo-Irish aristocratic family, the only son and heir of
Charles Boyle, 2nd Earl of Burlington by his wife Juliana Noel (1672–1750), the only daughter and heiress of
Hon. Henry Noel, the second son of
Baptist Noel, 3rd Viscount Campden. He succeeded to his titles and extensive estates in
Yorkshire and Ireland at the age of nine, after his father's death in February 1704. During his minority, which lasted until 1715, his English and Irish lands, as also his political interests and patronages, were managed by his mother. Burlington showed a fondness for music at an early age.
Georg Frideric Handel dedicated two operas to Burlington while staying at his residence
Burlington House:
Teseo and
Amadigi di Gaula. According to Hawkins,
Francesco Barsanti dedicated the six recorder sonatas of his Op. 1 to Lord Burlington, although the dedication must have appeared on the edition sold by
Peter Bressan, before Walsh & Hare engraved the works c. 1727. Three foreign
Grand Tours taken between 1714 and 1719, and a further trip to Paris in 1726, gave him opportunities to develop his taste. His professional skill as an architect (always supported by a mason-contractor) was extraordinary in an English aristocrat. He carried his copy of
Andrea Palladio's book ''
I quattro libri dell'architettura'' with him when touring the
Veneto in 1719, but made notes on a number of blank pages, having found the region flooded and many villas inaccessible. It was on this tour that he acquired the passion for Palladian architecture. In 1719, he was one of the main subscribers of the
Royal Academy of Music, a corporation that produced
baroque opera on stage. Lord Burlington's first project, appropriately, was one of his own London residences, Burlington House, where he dismissed his
baroque architect
James Gibbs when he returned from the continent in 1719, and employed the Scottish architect
Colen Campbell, with the history-painter-turned-designer
William Kent assigned for the interiors. The courtyard front of Burlington House, prominently sited in
Piccadilly, was the first major executed statement of
Neo-Palladianism. In the 1720s, Burlington and Campbell parted, and Burlington was assisted in his projects by the young
Henry Flitcroft ("Burlington Harry"), who developed into a major architect of the second Neo-Palladian generation,
Daniel Garrett, a straightforward Palladian architect of the second rank, and some draughtsmen. Lord Burlington never closely inspected
Roman ruins or made detailed drawings on the sites; he relied on Palladio and
Scamozzi as his interpreters of the classic tradition to do so. Burlington's Palladio drawings include many reconstructions of
Vitruvius' Roman buildings, which he planned to publish. In the meantime, he adapted the palazzo facade in the illustration for the London house of
General Wade at
Old Burlington Street in 1723, which was published for
Vitruvius Britannicus iii (1725). This publication put a previously unknown Palladio design into circulation. Another source of his inspiration were drawings he collected, some drawings of Palladio himself which had belonged to
Inigo Jones, and many more of Inigo Jones' pupil
John Webb, which
William Kent published in 1727 (although a date of 1736 is generally accepted) as "Some Designs of Mr Inigo Jones"... with some additional designs that were by Kent and Burlington. The important role of Jones' pupil Webb in transmitting the palladian-neo-palladian heritage was not understood until the 20th century. of Burlington By the early 1730s, Palladian style had triumphed as the generally accepted manner for a British country house or public building. For the rest of his life, Lord Burlington was "the Apollo of the arts" as
Horace Walpole phrased it— and Kent, "his proper priest." In 1731,
Alexander Pope, who had been a friend of Burlington since about 1715, addressed the first of his
Moral Essays to him, on the subject
Of False Taste. This described good taste in specific interests of his, such as landscaping, gardens and architecture. Lord Burlington was a
Freemason, Lord Burlington's status as an important Freemason is indicated by his inclusion in the ''Freemason's Pocket Companion'' of 1736 and in a poem in James Anderson's
Constitutions of the Free-Masons of 1723 where he is linked to an illustrious line of personalities important in Masonic lore. It has been argued that Chiswick House was a symbolic temple, based on so-called Royal Arch Freemasonry, involving a Hermetic intervention designed to heal the sufferings of the exiled Jews. After completion of the Chiswick House villa in 1729, Burlington provided inspiration to other Masonic architects for numerous other buildings, such as
Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester at
Holkham Hall, Norfolk
Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, at
Goodwood House, and the
Mansion House, nicknamed the "Egyptian Hall" for its columns. In 1739, Lord Burlington was involved in the founding of a new charitable organisation called the
Foundling Hospital. Burlington was a governor of the charity, but did not formally take part in planning the construction of this large
Bloomsbury children's home, completed in 1742. The architect for the building was a
Theodore Jacobsen, who took on the commission as an act of charity. Many of Lord Burlington's projects have suffered from rebuilding or additions, from fire, or from losses due to
urban sprawl. In many cases, his ideas were informal: at
Holkham Hall, the architect
Matthew Brettingham recalled that "the general ideas were first struck out by the Earl of Burlington and the
Earl of Leicester, assisted by Mr. William Kent." Brettingham's engraved publication of Holkham credited Burlington specifically with the ceilings for the portico and the north dressing room. Lord Burlington's architectural drawings, inherited by his son-in-law,
William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, are preserved at
Chatsworth House, and enable attributions that would not otherwise be possible. In 1751, he sent some of his drawings to
Francesco Algarotti in
Potsdam, together with a book on Vitruvius. Image:PalladioPalazzoJonesBurlingon.jpg|Palazzo facade drawn by
Andrea Palladio, purchased in Italy by
Inigo Jones. Burlington purchased it from the heirs of Jones' pupil
John Webb and adapted it for the London house of General Wade. Note the
Palladian window. Image:Burlington house1855.gif|
Colen Campbell's Burlington House as it was in 1855, before a third storey was added. Image:Chiswickoctagon.jpg|Plate 72, Cross-section of Octagon at Chiswick House, Richard Boyle, 1727, V&A Museum no. 12957:33. ==Major projects==