DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.56731#0120
54. THE ENGLISH INTERPRETATION OF PALLADIO: CHISWICK HOUSE
Chiswick House was built by Lord Burlington for himself and is therefore the best example
from which to estimate what Palladio meant to him and his circle. The inspiration for the general
idea—a villa over a perfect square with free-standing portico and central domed hall—derives
from Palladio’s Villa Rotonda (see a and d). But Burlington’s house is not a copy. He wanted
something at the same time more festive and more classical than the Rotonda. His deviations
from Palladio are, however, not free inventions but based on other models. He sought to achieve
an architectural whole out of a mosaic of single motives, each of which is covered by one or more
authorities; Palladio, Scamozzi and Inigo Jones provide the chief models and were regarded as
interpreters of the true spirit of classical antiquity.
In Palladio’s Rotonda all four fagades are identical and echo the arrangement of the interior.
The building has an organic and block-like quality which is typically Italian. In Burlington’s
villa the fagades are different from one another and unrelated, and the staircase is only loosely
connected with the main body of the building. There is here a neo-classical tendency towards the
creation of isolated balanced surface patterns (see 55).
Palladio’s mezzanine, which served domestic requirements, has been left out, and this
omission, with the grand staircase, the Corinthian order, and the high dome emphasize the more
formal character of the house. Burlington undoubtedly wanted to go beyond even Palladio’s
classicism and to re-create for modern use the ancient villa suburbana.
1. Front of Chiswick House. Designed by Lord Burlington before 1727; the interior of the
house was finished with the help of William Kent.
A comparison with the Villa Rotonda (see a) shows that Burlington did not slavishly follow
Palladio. The octagonal dome with segmental Roman windows with mullions, as well as other
features of the fagade, were borrowed from Scamozzi. The Corinthian hexastyle portico was based
on several classical models and the capitals with the stems under the rose gracefully intertwined
are faithful reproductions of those of the Castor and Pollux Temple in Rome. All these ancient
buildings had been published in Palladio’s Quattro libri. In the rusticated ground-floor with a
simple door and small windows at each side, Burlington followed Palladio’s Villa Malcontenta.
a. Palladio’s Villa Rotonda near Vicenza, built about 1550.
2. The original garden front with the old staircase, after Kent’s Designs of Inigo Jones, 1727.
5. The garden front in its present state, without the staircase. The wings added by Wyatt are
not shown. The front with the repetition of three identical “Venetian” windows under sharply
cut relieving arches derives from two drawings in Burlington’s collection, probably by Scamozzi
(see b and c), but attributed by Burlington to Palladio. Burlington regarded the Venetian window
as a Roman motive, adapted by Palladio to modern domestic use.
The garden front of Chiswick with its three large windows became the model for scores of
fagades between 1730 and 1800.
b. Palladian drawing (Scamozzi?) from Burlington’s collection. Now in the Royal Institute of
British Architects, London.
Burlington took from this drawing the three recessed windows in a plain wall, with small
arched niches between them.
c. Engraving after a Palladian drawing (Scamozzi?) from Burlington’s collection. Now in the
Royal Institute of British Architects, London.
Burlington had the drawing engraved at his own expense. In the garden front of Chiswick
he used the same relationship between the size of the window and the height of the wall and a
similar arched doorway and staircase, each arm of which consists of two flights. For the grouping
of entrance, staircase and Venetian window, Burlington had also the authority of Inigo Jones who
had used a similar arrangement in the garden front at Wilton (probably from the same model,
then in Jones’ collection).
This Palladian design provided also the mullioned windows of the dome and some features
of the ground-plan.
4. Ground-plan of Chiswick in its original state, before the additions built by Wyatt.
Compare this plan with Palladio’s plan of the Villa Rotonda (see d.) in which the same group
of two rooms is repeated four times. By contrast with this “static” plan, Burlington’s has a dynamic
quality. A suite of round, apsidal and octagonal rooms face the garden. The only Palladian feature
which remains is the long passage connecting the portico with the cupola room. The pattern of
the apsidal room axially connected with the cupola room is borrowed from the design, Fig. c,
while sequences of differently shaped rooms were familiar to Burlington from Palladio’s recon-
structions of Roman thermae in his collection (see 53, 4). Groupings similar to that of the garden
front rooms occur also in the reconstruction of the Roman house supplied by Palladio for Barbaro’s
edition of Vitruvius (first 1556).
d. Ground-plan of Palladio’s Villa Rotonda near Vicenza (see a).
d
c
Chiswick House was built by Lord Burlington for himself and is therefore the best example
from which to estimate what Palladio meant to him and his circle. The inspiration for the general
idea—a villa over a perfect square with free-standing portico and central domed hall—derives
from Palladio’s Villa Rotonda (see a and d). But Burlington’s house is not a copy. He wanted
something at the same time more festive and more classical than the Rotonda. His deviations
from Palladio are, however, not free inventions but based on other models. He sought to achieve
an architectural whole out of a mosaic of single motives, each of which is covered by one or more
authorities; Palladio, Scamozzi and Inigo Jones provide the chief models and were regarded as
interpreters of the true spirit of classical antiquity.
In Palladio’s Rotonda all four fagades are identical and echo the arrangement of the interior.
The building has an organic and block-like quality which is typically Italian. In Burlington’s
villa the fagades are different from one another and unrelated, and the staircase is only loosely
connected with the main body of the building. There is here a neo-classical tendency towards the
creation of isolated balanced surface patterns (see 55).
Palladio’s mezzanine, which served domestic requirements, has been left out, and this
omission, with the grand staircase, the Corinthian order, and the high dome emphasize the more
formal character of the house. Burlington undoubtedly wanted to go beyond even Palladio’s
classicism and to re-create for modern use the ancient villa suburbana.
1. Front of Chiswick House. Designed by Lord Burlington before 1727; the interior of the
house was finished with the help of William Kent.
A comparison with the Villa Rotonda (see a) shows that Burlington did not slavishly follow
Palladio. The octagonal dome with segmental Roman windows with mullions, as well as other
features of the fagade, were borrowed from Scamozzi. The Corinthian hexastyle portico was based
on several classical models and the capitals with the stems under the rose gracefully intertwined
are faithful reproductions of those of the Castor and Pollux Temple in Rome. All these ancient
buildings had been published in Palladio’s Quattro libri. In the rusticated ground-floor with a
simple door and small windows at each side, Burlington followed Palladio’s Villa Malcontenta.
a. Palladio’s Villa Rotonda near Vicenza, built about 1550.
2. The original garden front with the old staircase, after Kent’s Designs of Inigo Jones, 1727.
5. The garden front in its present state, without the staircase. The wings added by Wyatt are
not shown. The front with the repetition of three identical “Venetian” windows under sharply
cut relieving arches derives from two drawings in Burlington’s collection, probably by Scamozzi
(see b and c), but attributed by Burlington to Palladio. Burlington regarded the Venetian window
as a Roman motive, adapted by Palladio to modern domestic use.
The garden front of Chiswick with its three large windows became the model for scores of
fagades between 1730 and 1800.
b. Palladian drawing (Scamozzi?) from Burlington’s collection. Now in the Royal Institute of
British Architects, London.
Burlington took from this drawing the three recessed windows in a plain wall, with small
arched niches between them.
c. Engraving after a Palladian drawing (Scamozzi?) from Burlington’s collection. Now in the
Royal Institute of British Architects, London.
Burlington had the drawing engraved at his own expense. In the garden front of Chiswick
he used the same relationship between the size of the window and the height of the wall and a
similar arched doorway and staircase, each arm of which consists of two flights. For the grouping
of entrance, staircase and Venetian window, Burlington had also the authority of Inigo Jones who
had used a similar arrangement in the garden front at Wilton (probably from the same model,
then in Jones’ collection).
This Palladian design provided also the mullioned windows of the dome and some features
of the ground-plan.
4. Ground-plan of Chiswick in its original state, before the additions built by Wyatt.
Compare this plan with Palladio’s plan of the Villa Rotonda (see d.) in which the same group
of two rooms is repeated four times. By contrast with this “static” plan, Burlington’s has a dynamic
quality. A suite of round, apsidal and octagonal rooms face the garden. The only Palladian feature
which remains is the long passage connecting the portico with the cupola room. The pattern of
the apsidal room axially connected with the cupola room is borrowed from the design, Fig. c,
while sequences of differently shaped rooms were familiar to Burlington from Palladio’s recon-
structions of Roman thermae in his collection (see 53, 4). Groupings similar to that of the garden
front rooms occur also in the reconstruction of the Roman house supplied by Palladio for Barbaro’s
edition of Vitruvius (first 1556).
d. Ground-plan of Palladio’s Villa Rotonda near Vicenza (see a).
d
c