080067 UE Course: Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), Vincenzo Scamozzi (1548-1616) and their Followers. (2021S)

Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), Vincenzo Scamozzi (1548-1616) and their successors. Venetian architecture and the mutual influence of building practice and treatises.

The highlights of the careers of the great Venetian architects Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), Vincenzo Scamozzi (1548-1616) and their successors, as well as their long-lasting posthumous effects in Italy and Europe, are to be reexamined on the basis of recently published research results - and according to different methodological approaches. This can only be done by taking into account part of the theoretical literature from their environment and, above all, their own texts: first and foremost Palladio's "Handbook" (The Four Books of Architecture), published around 1570 to methodically implement his so-called "usanza nuova" ("new architectural custom"), then the Vitruvian editions published by Daniele Barbaro with Palladio's collaboration, and Scamozzi's main work with the highly ambitious title Idea dell'architettura universale (1615; Germ. translation Nuremberg as early as 1678; English translation 2003), which is considered as the proof of the powerful impact of his Paduan model or - rather - forerunner. The numerous writings of these architects sopra le antichità di Roma and the relevant perspective treatises (first Barbaro, then twice Scamozzi; from the latter curated new edition by Sebastiano Serlio) must also be taken into account.
The seminar will primarily offer a contextualisation of selected and representative buildings by these architects between 1550 and 1650 on the basis of recent research and analyses of the mainly profane architecture from the tracts - in German translation - together with the graphic material. The considerable discrepancies with the realised buildings have to be analysed.
Aspects of monument preservation should also be discussed, possibly on the basis of how European monument offices have dealt with the surviving building substance of Palladian/istic villa complexes since the middle of the 20th century: conservation, deconstruction and reconstruction as well as examples of the highly problematic marketing of the world heritage in all former Venetian areas, including Friuli.

Method
Architectural-theoretical analysis of buildings. Evidence of technical innovations introduced by architects in Italy around 1550. Visual comparisons between designs and realised buildings. Drawing on passages from the treatises of Palladio, Vignola, but also earlier theorists such as Alberti (always available in German translations).