Customer Reviews

The Perfect House: A Journey with Renaissance Master Andrea Palladio

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Witold Rybczynski does it again. This book is definately up there with Home, A Clearing in the Distance and One Good Turn. Rybczynski's travelogue style suits his subject matter perfectly, turning a potentially dry academic subject into a gripping read for anyone remotely interested in history or architecture or both. In this hard-to-put-down book Rybczynski describes the genius and creativity that was Palladio, a man who is to architecture as Shakespeare is to the English language. Rybczynski uses this one telling comparison to make a clear point that as we walk through our world of 2001, echoes of Palladio are all around us. I'd recommend new readers to Rybczynski to follow this up with Rybczynski's One Good Turn.

Rybczynski has written a book that is part social history, part art history, and part travelogue, as he describes his journey through Northern Italy visiting and discovering the remaining country villas created by the great architect Andrea Palladio.

Rybczynski manages to write about the "art" side of the architecture in a way that is both scholarly and accessible; however, the best feature of this book, from my perspective, is the insight he brings to architecture and the role of the architect in creating spaces for living. How did the Pisani family live in its villa? How did Palladio integrate the main house of the Villa Badoer with its farm buildings? How did Palladio himself interact with his clients? Above all, what did it feel like to live in buildings that were both magnificent designs and truly "home" to their owners?

The book is so vibrant and Rybczynski's passion for his subject so profound you will want to jump on a plane tomorrow to see what he has seen!

Excellent prose. Fantastic selection of villas. It would be helpful if subsequent editions had more illustrations. I found myself constantly flipping back to try to determine what the author was mentioning. All in all, though, a worthwhile read.

Who is the greatest architect who ever lived? It's an impossible question, of course. Perhaps one that might get closer to a real answer is, Who is the most influential architect who ever lived? Witold Rybczynski has an answer, and it is a convincing one: Palladio. In _The Perfect House: A Journey with the Renaissance Master Andrea Palladio_ (Scribner), Rybczynski looks at the villas Palladio produced around the mainland of Venice in the sixteenth century, not as historic monuments but as useful and beautifully architectured homes. He places Palladio firmly within his times, but drawing on the classical architecture of Rome and drawn on by Inigo Jones, Thomas Jefferson, and countless others. It is hard to disagree with Rybczynski's conclusion about Palladio's influence, and after this book, a reader is likely to see Palladian themes not only in grand homes, but in diminished form in modern suburban ones as well.

Palladio was merely the son of a miller or maker of millstones; the historical record is not clear. He was trained as a stonemason, and early showed enough talent that Count Giangiorgio Trissino, of an old Vicenza family, noticed his ability. This was his introduction to higher things, especially his ticket to Rome, where the ancient buildings proved a continuing inspiration for his villas. He designed about thirty of them, several of which never were started and if started were not completed; clients of architects then and now faced over-optimism and reversals of fortune. Seventeen survive, some in excellent preservation and some a bit seedy. They are Palladio's main legacy, and remain beautiful and durable; most are still lived in. Rybczynski gives a wonderful introduction to the tools at Palladio's disposal - pediments, porches, entablatures, apses, and more. These were all juggled and adjusted in each specific case. And while there is a unity to the composition of the villas, Rybczynski demonstrates that there is no such thing as a "typical" Palladian villa: "Some of his designs incorporate temple fronts, some do not; some have pedimented windows, some have plain openings; some porticoes are supported by elaborate Corinthian columns, others by unadorned piers. His fertile imagination brimmed with ideas." Architects and artists have been learning from Palladio ever since. The book has the author's line drawings of each of the buildings, and some reproductions of Palladio's sketches or plans, but they are really not sufficient to understand the massings of space Palladio so expertly managed. When I read the book, I checked up on various websites to get fuller pictures.

Rybczynski has lived for a short time in one of the villas, and his words on what make them special are worth reading, although no one will fully be able to explain it. He gives enough examples from all over the world (in America, Monticello, the White House, local courthouses and countless southern mansions are Palladian buildings) to make entirely sufficient his argument about the architect's influence. It is easy to catch Rybczynski's enthusiasm. Those who don't know Palladio will find this book, which is a capsule biography, travelogue, and architectural appreciation, a fine introduction. Those who are already Palladians will rejoice in the clear descriptions and the first hand accounts, coming from an experienced observer and an entertaining storyteller.