The Perfect House A Journey with Renaissance Master Andrea Palladio [Paperback]

Palladio is the Bible, Thomas Jefferson once said. You should get it and stick to it. With his simple, gracious, perfectly proportioned villas, Andrea Palladio elevated the architecture of the private house into an art form during the late sixteenth century -- and his influence is still evident in the ample porches, columned porticoes, grand ceilings, and front-door pediments of America today.

InThe Perfect House,bestselling author Witold Rybczynski, whose previous books (Home,A Clearing in the Distance,Now I Sit Me Down) have transformed our understanding of domestic architecture, reveals how a handful of Palladio's houses in an obscure corner of the Venetian Republic should have made their presence felt hundreds of years later and halfway across the globe. More than just a study of one of history's seminal architectural figures,The Perfect Housereflects Rybczynski's enormous admiration for his subject and provides a new way of looking at the special landscapes we call home in the modern world.
contents

foreword

I Godi

II Che Bella Casa

III The Arched Device

IV On the Brenta

V Porticoes

VI The Brothers Barbaro

VII An Immensely Pleasing Sight

VIII Emo

IX The Last Villa

X Palladio's Secret

Afterword

The Villas

Glossary

Acknowledgments 

Notes 

Index 

Ross King author ofBrunelleschi's Dome[A] wonderfully informative and evocative guide to both the elegant rooms of Palladio's villas and the fascinating history of how a humble stonemason from Padua became one of the most influential architects of all time.The Philadelphia InquirerRybczynski has applied all his usual grace, style, and curiosity to explore an important chapter of domestic history.Los Angeles TimesRybczynski's clear description of what he sees and his lucid explanations of Palladio's ideas anl“P