palladio’s past and presence
Half a millennium later, the architect’s influence is
indelibly etched in the classical architecture of our region
Written by BRUCE IRVING
In the middle of the 18th century,
a couple of fashionable Italian imports
made it to New England, both by way
of Great Britain. One, the slang word
“macaroni,” signified a foppish, affected
fool and ended up being used by the British army to mock us crude Americans in a little
ditty called “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” We eventually turned that negative into a positive when we
claimed the song as our own and proudly threw
it back in the redcoats’ faces.
The other import, this one architectural,
worked out well from the start. A new style inspired by the work of the great Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, it was called
classical or Georgian, after the British kings
who ruled during its ascendancy. As the Colonies prospered, Georgian structures proliferated
across the land — nearly every town had at least
one Georgian church, and all the best houses
were in the style. After we kicked out the Brits, it
lived on, somewhat altered, as the Federal style.
It’s still with us today — some say haunting us,
as no McMansion would be complete without
an oversize Palladian window looming over its
oversize foyer. As the architectural world cel-
EVAN RICHMAN FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
ebrates Palladio’s 500th birthday this year, let’s
appreciate the man, the style, and the legacy.
Andrea di Pietro dalla Gondola was born
on November 30, 1508, in Padua, Italy. Trained
as a stonecutter, he showed such a talent with
classical forms that Baron Giancarlo Tressino
took him under his wing, traveling to Rome with
him to study the original classics of architecture
and probably bestowing his pseudonym, which
the touro synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island,
is the oldest Jewish house of worship in America. It
was designed in 1759 by Colonial architect Peter
Harrison, who was influenced by Palladio’s tome,
I Quattro Libri dell’Architecturra.
