A sparse glass-and-metal home may be complimented for its Miesian proportions, and any tower balancing on a curvaceous leg of concrete might get noticed for its debt to Niemeyer, but as far as the dictionary is concerned, just one architect is significant enough to be the official namesake of an architectural style. "Palladian," officially "of, relating to, or denoting the neoclassical style of Andrea Palladio," may not mean much to the common person, even though historians consider this 16th-century Italian one of, if not the most, influential architects in history. His legacy is the subject of a new exhibition, Palladian Design: The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected, which opened at the Royal Institute of British Architects this week According to exhibit co-curator Vicky Wilson, assistant curator of the RIBA Drawing and Archives Collection, while his work deserves wider recognition, even those who know his life and legacy may not realize how ingrained it has become over the centuries since he passed away.
Why the line from classical columns to the U.S. Capitol runs through Palladio.>>