PALLADIO, ANDREA (1518–r 58o) , Italian architect, was born in Vicenza on Nov. 3o, 1518. His patron, Count Trissino, took him to study architecture in Rome. In 1547 he returned to Vicenza, where he designed many fine buildings—among the chief being the Palazzo della Ragione, and the Barbarano, Porti and Chieregati palaces. Most of these buildings which Palladio de signed to be executed in stone were mainly built of brick, covered with stucco, and are now in a very dilapidated condition. Pope Paul III. called him to Rome to report upon the state of St. Peters. In Venice, Palladio built many stately churches, S. Giorgio Maggiore, the Capuchin church, and some large palaces on the Grand canal. His last great work was the Teatro Olimpico at Vicenza, finished by his pupil and fellow citizen Scamozzi.
Palladio also designed many country villas in northern Italy. The villa of Capra is perhaps the finest of these, and has fre quently been imitated. Palladio was a great student of classical literature, and published in 1575 an edition of Caesar's Commen taries with notes. His I quattro libri dell' architettura, first pub lished at Venice in 1570, has been translated into every European language. The original edition is a small folio, richly illustrated
with well-executed woodcuts of plans, elevations and details of buildings. An edition with notes was published in England by Inigo Jones. The classical style adopted and partially invented by Palladio expressed a revolt against the extreme licence both of composition and ornament into which the architecture of his time had fallen. His drawings of ancient buildings are now of great value, as in many cases the buildings have ceased to exist.
See Montanari, Vita di Andrea Palladio (1749) ; Rigato, Osservazioni sopra Andrea Palladio (181I) ; Magrini, Memorie intorno la vita di Andrea Palladio (1845) ; Milizia, Memorie degli architetti, ii. 35-54 (1781) ; Symonds, Renaissance in Italy—Fine Arts, pp. Zanella, Vita di Andrea Palladio (Milan, 188o) ; Barichella, Vita di Andrea Palladio (Lonigo, 188o) ; B. F. Fletcher, A. Palladio, his life and works (1902).