Palladian architecture is the style of building based on the work and writings of the sixteenth-century Venetian architect Andrea Palladio. It is characterised by symmetry, harmonious proportions, temple-fronted porticos with columns and pediments, and a strict use of the classical orders derived from ancient Roman buildings.
Palladio's villas in the Veneto and his treatise I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura, published in 1570, influenced architects across Europe and America. In England, Inigo Jones introduced the style in the early seventeenth century with buildings such as the Queen's House at Greenwich and the Banqueting House in Whitehall. A powerful revival followed in the early eighteenth century, led by Colen Campbell, Lord Burlington and William Kent, which produced Chiswick House, Holkham Hall in Norfolk and many other country houses with central blocks, flanking wings and grand porticos. Typical features include the Venetian or Palladian window, with an arched central opening flanked by two lower rectangular ones, as well as rusticated ground floors and a raised principal floor known as the piano nobile. The Palladian Bridge at Wilton House is another celebrated example. Palladian architecture shaped the Georgian country house and remains a model of calm, ordered classical design.
