La Rotonda

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La Rotonda One of the great architects in time was Andrea Palladio, who was made famous for his magnificent Villas built in Italy in the fifteen hundreds. To do so he drew from the Greek and Roman’s architecture, studying many of their finest works, to create his masterful villas. This process would develop into a style of architecture, which became known as Palladianism. This style has inspired buildings which have dominated the landscape for the last four hundred years. These buildings include: English castles, American public buildings, Swiss railroad stations, Spanish libraries, Tuscan villas and Canadian hotels. Many of these buildings are considered to be the great buildings of the world. Andrea Palladio was born in 1508A.D. in Italy. At a very young age he became a stone mason, however his journey into architecture began when he met Gian Giorgio Trissino who immediately saw ability in him and decided to mentor Palladio. Trissino combined a study of classical architecture with architecture of the time, all the while allowing Palladio room to develop a style of his own. In time Palladio was constructing villas through out the country side of Italy, in all he constructed 30 villas, 18 of which are still standing today. Perhaps Palladio’s most famous work was the Villa Rotondra or La Rotondra which was started around 1565 and took approximately 4 years to build and was greatly inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. It is interesting to note that la Rotondra is different from Palladio’s other villas in a number of ways, and it is evident that these differences help distinguish it from the rest. The main differences between Palladio’s Rotondra and his other work are, The Rotonda is set on a hilltop, it is located near a... ... middle of paper ... ...to see why many regard Andrea Palladio as one of the most influential architects of all time, he was able to create some of the most stunning, graceful, and awe-inspiring villas in the world. Unfortunately, Palladio died before his masterpiece, La Rotonda, was complete. The project was completed by his protégé Vincenzo Scamozzi. Work Cited 1.) http://boglewood.com/palladio/life.html, Wednesday September, 28 2.) Mathew McCann Feton, “Time: Great Buildings of the World” © 2004, New York, NY. 3.) http://kuleuven.ac.be/bwk/materials/Research/KVB/EDAMM_intro.html, Wednesday September, 28 4.) http://studentwebs.coloradocollege.edu/~A_LIVESAY/palladio.html, Wednesday September, 30 5.) http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0837370.html, Wednesday September, 28 6.) http://architecture.about.com/b/a/2003_11.htm, Wednesday September, 28

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