Book: Palladio Virtuel

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Palladio Virtuel

Peter Eisenman, the Charles Gwathmey Professor in Practice; with Matt Roman ARC ’09, architect and teacher

(Yale University Press)

Many historians of architecture have viewed the villas of Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) as physical manifestations of the classical architectural principles described in his treatise “The Four Books of Architecture (I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura).” Written toward the end of his life, “The Four Books” illustrate Palladio’s built work, redrawn the way he wanted it to be. In this new study, Peter Eisenman, with Matt Roman, analyzes twenty of Palladio’s villas, offering a radical interpretation of the Renaissance master’s work.

Working from an architect’s perspective, the authors shows the evolution of Palladio’s villas from those that exhibit classical symmetrical volumetric bodies to others that exhibit no bodies at all, just fragments in a landscape. This conclusion stands in contrast to studies that emphasize principles of ideal symmetry and proportion in Palladio’s work. “Palladio Virtuel” features more than 300 new analytic drawings and models.

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