Skrevet af James S. Ackerman
Palladio (1508-80) combined classical restraint with constant
inventiveness. In this study, Professor Ackerman sets Palladio in the
context of his age - the Humanist era of Michelangelo and Raphael,
Titian and Veronese - and examines each of the villas, churches and
palaces in turn and tries to penetrate to the heart of the Palladian
miracle. Palladio's theoretical writings are important and illuminating,
he suggests, yet they never do justice to the intense intuitive skills
of "a magician of light and colour". Indeed, as the photographs in this
book reveal, Palladio was "as sensual, as skilled in visual alchemy as
any Venetian painter of his time", and his countless imitators have
usually captured the details, but not the essence of his style. There
are buildings all the way from Philadelphia to Leningrad which bear
witness to Palladio's "permanent place in the making of architecture",
yet he also deserves to be seen on his own terms.
