Oppressed (says Scamozzi) by the multiplicity and fatigue of his studies, and distressed by the loss of his sons (Leonida and Orazio), he sank under the influence of an epidemic, which terminated his life August 19, 1580, at the age of sixty-two. The Olympic Theatre had only been commenced on the 23rd of May preceding his death, and its completion was intrusted to his surviving son Silla, who, with Leonida, had studied architecture. The Olympic Academicians attended their deceased brother to the grave, and gave public testimony of their feelings by the recital of funeral odes, and by the observance of all the “pomp and circumstance” consistent with the sepulture of so eminent a man. He was interred in the church of the Dominicans at Vicenza.
Palladio was no less remarkable for modesty than for professional eminence. The affability of his conduct won for him the perfect love of all workmen engaged in his buildings. He was small in stature, but of admirable presence; and united, to the most respectful bearing, a jocose and lively manner.
Palladio’s Treatise on Architecture, in four books, published at Venice in 1570, has been several times reprinted. A magnificent edition in three volumes, folio, appeared in London in 1715; and another has been since issued from the Venetian press. He also composed a work on the Roman Antiquities generally, and left many manuscripts on the subject of military as well as civil architecture. He illustrated the Commentaries of Cæsar, by annexing to Badelli’s translation of that work, a preface on the military system of the Romans, and by supplying numerous copper plates, designed for the most part by his sons Leonida and Orazio. He also studied Polybius, and dedicated a (yet imprinted) work on the subject to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. His manuscripts, having been left to the senator Contarini, were subsequently dispersed, and the Earl of Burlington became possessed of many of them. The latter nobleman in 1732 published the fruits of Palladio’s researches concerning the Roman baths; and, some time after, appeared a truly beautiful work, intitled ‘Le Fabbriche ei Disegni di Andrea Palladio, raccolti ed illustrati da Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi.’ The latter is by far the most interesting book connected with the name of Palladio. It enables us, at once, critically to examine his numerous designs, and to estimate them by a standard far superior to that which is merely founded on Vitruvian precept and Roman example. Our present acquaintance with all that Palladio had the means of knowing, and with very much more of which he was entirely ignorant, gives us a power and a right of censorship which the bigot alone will oppose and deny. Since the day of this celebrated architect, the Roman remains have been measured with more minute accuracy, and examined with a more philosophical regard to the principles which regulated the arrangement of their component parts. The volume of Greek art, compared with which that of Rome was but a debasing translation, has since that time been opened to the world; and, however we may continue to admire the industry by which Palladio obtained his then extended knowledge, the fancy and pictorial beauty which pervade many of his designs, and the worth of the architect himself as a man of genius, taste, and letters, it is yet our duty to direct the architectural student to look much farther than Vicenza for examples of pure design, and for principles of essential value.
The authorities for the life of Palladio, in addition to those already referred to, are the works of Vasari, Tiraboschi, and Milizia.
[Villa di Capri.]
Engraved by W. Holl.
ELIZABETH.
From a Picture in His Majesty’s collection at St. James’s Palace.
Under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street.
