Image Details

Scala/Art Resource, NY

In designing the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore (begun in 1566), in Venice, the architect Andrea di Pietro, better known as Andrea Palladio, looked back 16 centuries to the master of classical architecture, Vitruvius. At the time, Palladio was also completing illustrations for a new Latin edition (with Italian translation) of De Architectura, which was published by Palladio’s patron Daniele Barbaro in 1567. For the facade of San Giorgio Maggiore, Palladio invented the notion of two interlocking white-marble temples: one tall and narrow with engaged columns, and the other low and wide with pilasters. Palladio was especially indebted to Vitruvius for the tall, slender portion of the facade; the Ionic columns follow Vitruvius’s plan of two pairs of columns framing a wider opening.