English Palladian architecture (1722) – among the first, and largest, of the Neo-Palladian houses; the image is from Colen Campbell's
Vitruvius Britannicus.|alt=See caption The Baroque style proved highly popular in continental Europe, but was often viewed with suspicion in England, where it was considered "theatrical, exuberant and Catholic." It was superseded in Britain in the first quarter of the 18th century when four books highlighted the simplicity and purity of classical architecture. These were: •
Vitruvius Britannicus (The British Architect), published by
Colen Campbell in 1715 (of which supplemental volumes appeared through the century); • ''
I quattro libri dell'architettura (The Four Books of Architecture)'', by Palladio himself, translated by
Giacomo Leoni and published from 1715 onwards; •
(On the Art of Building), by
Leon Battista Alberti, translated by Giacomo Leoni and published in 1726; and •
The Designs of Inigo Jones... with Some Additional Designs, published by
William Kent in two volumes in 1727. A further volume,
Some Designs of Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent was published in 1744 by the architect
John Vardy, an associate of Kent. The most favoured among patrons was the four-volume
Vitruvius Britannicus by Campbell, The series contains architectural prints of British buildings inspired by the great architects from Vitruvius to Palladio; at first mainly those of Inigo Jones, but the later works contained drawings and plans by Campbell and other 18th-century architects. These four books greatly contributed to Palladian architecture becoming established in 18th-century Britain. Campbell and Kent became the most fashionable and sought-after architects of the era. Campbell had placed his 1715 designs for the colossal
Wanstead House near to the front of
Vitruvius Britannicus, immediately following the engravings of buildings by Jones and Webb, "as an exemplar of what new architecture should be". On the strength of the book, Campbell was chosen as the architect for
Henry Hoare I's
Stourhead house. Hoare's brother-in-law,
William Benson, had designed
Wilbury House, the earliest 18th-century Palladian house in Wiltshire, which Campbell had also illustrated in
Vitruvius Britannicus. , South front (1734) – the four flanking wings are elevated, in height and importance, almost to the status of the central block.|alt=See caption At the forefront of the new school of design was the "architect earl",
Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, according to
Dan Cruikshank the "man responsible for this curious elevation of Palladianism to the rank of a quasi-religion". In 1729 he and Kent designed
Chiswick House. This house was a reinterpretation of Palladio's Villa Capra, but purified of 16th century elements and ornament. This severe lack of ornamentation was to be a feature of English Palladianism. In 1734 Kent and Burlington designed
Holkham Hall in
Norfolk.
James Stevens Curl considers it "the most splendid Palladian house in England". The main block of the house followed Palladio's dictates, but his low, often detached, wings of farm buildings were elevated in significance. Kent attached them to the design, banished the farm animals, and elevated the wings to almost the same importance as the house itself. It was the development of the flanking wings that was to cause English Palladianism to evolve from being a pastiche of Palladio's original work. Wings were frequently adorned with porticos and pediments, often resembling, as at the much later
Kedleston Hall, small
country houses in their own right. (1746) – designed by Burlington's student
Henry Flitcroft and showing further development of the wings|alt=See caption Architectural styles evolve and change to suit the requirements of each individual client. When in 1746 the
Duke of Bedford decided to rebuild
Woburn Abbey, he chose the fashionable Palladian style, and selected the architect
Henry Flitcroft, a protégé of Burlington. Flitcroft's designs, while Palladian in nature, had to comply with the Duke's determination that the plan and footprint of the earlier house, originally a
Cistercian monastery, be retained. The central block is small, has only three bays, while the temple-like portico is merely suggested, and is closed. Two great flanking wings containing a vast suite of
state rooms replace the walls or colonnades which should have connected to the farm buildings; the farm buildings terminating the structure are elevated in height to match the central block and given
Palladian windows, to ensure they are seen as of Palladian design. This development of the style was to be repeated in many houses and town halls in Britain over one hundred years. Often the terminating blocks would have blind porticos and pilasters themselves, competing for attention with, or complementing the central block. This was all very far removed from the designs of Palladio two hundred years earlier. Falling from favour during the
Victorian era, the approach was revived by Sir
Aston Webb for his refacing of
Buckingham Palace in 1913. The villa tradition continued throughout the late 18th century, particularly in the suburbs around London.
Sir William Chambers built many examples, such as
Parkstead House. But the grander English Palladian houses were no longer the small but exquisite weekend retreats that their Italian counterparts were intended as. They had become "power houses", in Sir John Summerson's words, the symbolic centres of the triumph and dominance of the
Whig Oligarchy who ruled Britain unchallenged for some fifty years after the death of
Queen Anne. Summerson thought Kent's
Horse Guards on Whitehall epitomised "the establishment of Palladianism as the official style of Great Britain". As the style peaked, thoughts of mathematical proportion were swept away. Rather than square houses with supporting wings, these buildings had the length of the façade as their major consideration: long houses often only one room deep were deliberately deceitful in giving a false impression of size.
Irish Palladian architecture (1722) – an Irish Palladian house where the wings flank, but are separate from the house and are joined by colonnades, closely following Palladio's approach During the Palladian revival period in Ireland, even modest mansions were cast in a neo-Palladian mould. Irish Palladian architecture subtly differs from the England style. While adhering as in other countries to the basic ideals of Palladio, it is often truer to them. In Ireland, Palladianism became political; both the
original and the
present Irish parliaments in
Dublin occupy Palladian buildings. The Irish architect Sir
Edward Lovett Pearce (1699–1733) became a leading advocate. He was a cousin of Sir John Vanbrugh, and originally one of his pupils. He rejected the Baroque style, and spent three years studying architecture in France and Italy before returning to Ireland. His most important Palladian work is the former
Irish Houses of Parliament in Dublin. Christine Casey, in her 2005 volume
Dublin, in the
Pevsner Buildings of Ireland series, considers the building, "arguably the most accomplished public set-piece of the Palladian style in [Britain]". Pearce was a prolific architect who went on to design the southern façade of
Drumcondra House in 1725 and
Summerhill House in 1731, which was completed after his death by
Richard Cassels. Pearce also oversaw the building of
Castletown House near Dublin, designed by the Italian architect
Alessandro Galilei (1691–1737). It is perhaps the only Palladian house in Ireland built with Palladio's mathematical ratios, and one of a number of Irish mansions which inspired the design of the
White House in
Washington, D.C. Other examples include
Russborough, designed by Richard Cassels, who also designed the Palladian
Rotunda Hospital in Dublin and
Florence Court in
County Fermanagh. Irish Palladian country houses often feature robust
Rococo plasterwork – an Irish specialty which was frequently executed by the
Lafranchini brothers and far more flamboyant than the interiors of their contemporaries in England. In the 20th century, during and following the
Irish War of Independence and the subsequent
civil war, large numbers of
Irish country houses, including some fine Palladian examples such as
Woodstock House, were abandoned to ruin or destroyed.
North American Palladian architecture (1774) – modelled after the
Villa Pisani from ''I quattro libri dell'architettura''|alt=See caption Palladio's influence in North America is evident almost from its first architect-designed buildings. The Irish philosopher
George Berkeley, who may be America's first recorded Palladian, bought a large farmhouse in
Middletown, Rhode Island, in the late 1720s, and added a Palladian doorcase derived from Kent's
Designs of Inigo Jones (1727), which he may have brought with him from London. Palladio's work was included in the library of a thousand volumes amassed for
Yale College.
Peter Harrison's 1749 designs for the
Redwood Library in
Newport, Rhode Island, borrow directly from Palladio's ''I quattro libri dell'architettura'', while his plan for the Newport Brick Market, conceived a decade later, is also Palladian. Two colonial period houses that can be definitively attributed to designs from ''I quattro libri dell'architettura'' are the
Hammond-Harwood House (1774) in
Annapolis, Maryland, and
Thomas Jefferson's first
Monticello (1770). Hammond-Harwood was designed by the architect
William Buckland in 1773–1774 for the wealthy farmer Matthias Hammond of
Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The design source is the Villa Pisani, and that for the first Monticello, the
Villa Cornaro at
Piombino Dese. Both are taken from Book II, Chapter XIV of ''I quattro libri dell'architettura''. Jefferson later made substantial alterations to Monticello, known as the second Monticello (1802–1809), making the Hammond-Harwood House the only remaining house in North America modelled directly on a Palladian design. (1772)|alt=See caption Jefferson referred to ''I quattro libri dell'architettura'' as his
bible. Although a statesman, his passion was architecture, and he developed an intense appreciation of Palladio's architectural concepts; his designs for the
James Barbour Barboursville estate, the
Virginia State Capitol, and the
University of Virginia campus were all based on illustrations from Palladio's book. Realising the political significance of ancient Roman architecture to the fledgling American Republic, Jefferson designed his civic buildings, such as
The Rotunda, in the Palladian style, echoing in his buildings for the
new republic examples from the
old. In
Virginia and the
Carolinas, the Palladian style is found in numerous
plantation houses, such as
Stratford Hall,
Westover Plantation and
Drayton Hall. Westover's north and south entrances, made of imported English
Portland stone, were patterned after a plate in William Salmon's
Palladio Londinensis (1734). The distinctive feature of Drayton Hall, its two-storey portico, was derived from Palladio, as was
Mount Airy, in
Richmond County, Virginia, built in 1758–1762. A particular feature of American Palladianism was the re-emergence of the great portico which, as in Italy, fulfilled the need of protection from the sun; the portico in various forms and size became a dominant feature of American colonial architecture. In the north European countries the portico had become a mere symbol, often closed, or merely hinted at in the design by pilasters, and sometimes in very late examples of English Palladianism adapted to become a
porte-cochère; in America, the Palladian portico regained its full glory. ,
University of Virginia (1822–1826)|alt=See caption
The White House in Washington, D.C., was inspired by Irish Palladianism. He studied architecture in Dublin, where
Leinster House (built ) was one of the finest Palladian buildings of the time. Another example is
Government House in
St. John's, Newfoundland.
Palladianism elsewhere (1743)|alt=See caption The rise of neo-Palladianism in England contributed to its adoption in
Prussia. Count
Francesco Algarotti wrote to Lord Burlington to inform him that he was recommending to
Frederick the Great the adoption in his own country of the architectural style Burlington had introduced in England. By 1741,
Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff had already begun construction of the
Berlin Opera House on the
Unter den Linden, based on Campbell's
Wanstead House. Palladianism was particularly adopted in areas under
British colonial rule. Examples can be seen in the
Indian subcontinent; the
Raj Bhavan, Kolkata (formerly Government House) was modelled on
Kedleston Hall, while the architectural historian Pilar Maria Guerrieri identifies its influences in
Lutyens' Delhi. In South Africa, Federico Freschi notes the "
Tuscan colonnades and Palladian windows" of
Herbert Baker's
Union Buildings. == Legacy ==