Palladianism is the architectural and decorative movement inspired by the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio, which dominated taste in Britain for much of the first half of the eighteenth century. It sought to restore the dignity, symmetry and proportions of classical Roman architecture, in reaction against the exuberance of the English Baroque.
The movement gathered momentum around 1715 with the publication of Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus and an English translation of Palladio's treatise. Its leading patron was Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, whose protégé William Kent became the movement's most influential designer of interiors, furniture and gardens. Palladian interiors were often grand and architectural, with richly carved chimneypieces, pedimented doorcases, coffered ceilings and enfilades of rooms. Kent's furniture, typically made in gilded or parcel-gilt wood and mahogany, featured heavy scrolls, masks, shells, eagles and acanthus, designed as part of an overall architectural scheme. Palladianism was gradually overtaken by the lighter Neoclassicism of Robert Adam from the 1760s, but its principles of order and proportion continued to shape British domestic architecture. Collectors and designers today look to Palladian rooms for their timeless sense of balance and their marriage of architecture and furnishing.
