Andrea Palladio

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Discussion of the Work of Andrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio became an apprentice in 1521 to a local stonecutter on a contract of six years. Still, he broke it midway and moved to Vicenza, where he was enrolled in the guild of stonecutters and masons. He later became of the leading artists of the Italian Renaissance by designing excellent forms of architecture. The most commonly known pieces of architecture include the Villa Barbaro and Villa Capra. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explain the significance of the villas by Andrea Palladio and depict how his work influenced architecture in America. The document shows that Andrea Palladio’s designs were excellent to the point that they sparked an American Renaissance in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
Villa Capra, also known as Villa Almerico-Capra, is an excellent piece of artwork located to the west of Venice, near Vicenza. The building was constructed between 1550 and 1590, and its completion was after Palladio’s death. It is a portrayal of the late Renaissance architectural style called Palladian architecture. Palladio designed the villa to express the Renaissance era that represented the values of humans. The design was similar to the Roman Pantheon, and it was one of the 20 villas in the mainland of Venice. It illustrates symmetry with a domed interior and a temple porch toward the front. It has a circle within a square design that is called a Rotunda. It also has four facades to ensure that visitors face the front of the building.
Villa Barbaro is one of the best buildings by the architect. It is an excellent masterpiece that weaves various designs reminiscent of Renaissance architecture like Villa Capra. The central block resembles a Roman temple’s portico, and it has a motif and four columns. It also has two symmetrical wings that are flanking it, and they have floors that open into an arcade. It has a complicated ground floor plan with perpendicular rooms along the axis. The interior constitutes paintings of an artist reminiscent of the Renaissance era. They are inspired by other artists who are working at that time on various buildings. The excellent interior of the building depicts the best style from the artist because of the side walls decorated with landscape scenes of everyday life and portraits.
Americans have been copying several artworks from Palladio. Restoration drawings from ancient Roman monuments concerning Palladio the primary source of inspiration for the Renaissance in America in the latter part of the 19th and 20th centuries. Several houses in America follow the pieces of art that are reminiscent of Andrea Palladio. The designs have influenced how people have constructed their homes from the Colonial period until the present. The influence can be seen on Main Street in Murfreesboro. An excellent example is Palladio’s American champion, Thomas Jefferson.
Thomas Jefferson was an architect and statesman in America. He drew inspiration from Villa Capra by Palladio to design Monticello, which was home in Virginia. The masterpiece combined American domesticity with the grand European tradition of Andrea Palladio. The only difference with Villa Capra was the modern gadgets and underground service rooms, as well as long horizontal wings. All other aspects were similar to the building by Andrea Palladio. The house was deemed an experiment with European ideas that would help in the exploration of new approaches to architecture and design that begin with aesthetics in the neoclassical era.
As a conclusion, Andrea Palladio was an excellent artist of the Renaissance era. He knew that buildings had to be constructed using the best materials available in society. He took the time to design and build various structures and used the best artists of the time to paint them, which depicted his liking for magnificence. Americans like Thomas Jefferson copied his style of building and construction into the homes they built. The technique has been reminiscent of America from the colonial era until the current moment.