Lord Burlington and Chiswick House

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Baroque era arose during the late 16th century in Italy. Baroque style is characterized by the new invention of lights and forms which was evolved out of Renaissance architecture in Italy.
Chiswick house is one of the many titles and estates inherited by Lord Burlington when he was only ten. His interest in arts grew day by day and he finally set off to Italy for his first ‘Grand Tour’ that lasted for four months.
His passion in architecture was mainly inspired by the publication of two important volumes in 1715. One was the first English translation of The Four Books of Architecture by Andrea Palladio, the 16th century Venetian architect and the other was Volume One of Vitruvius Britannicus, a compilation of compendium of British classical architecture by Colen Campbell, a Scottish architect. Campbell made it clear that he admired Palladio and Inigo Jones, his early 17th century English disciple. Campbell became Burlington’s first architecture mentor and he tried to design a building for the first time in 1717. The Bagnio- a garden pavilion at Chiswick was the result but it was very much in Campbell’s style.
Sooner in 1719, he started his second tour to Italy. His main focus for this tour was more to architecture. He spent ten to twelve days touring in Venice and the surrounding areas looking specifically at the buildings by Palladio and as he went, he annotated his copy of Quatro Libri. He purchased a number of architectural drawings and studies by Palladio. Burlington was more inspired as a new designer with his increasing collection of books on the architecture of the Renaissance and Roman antiquity as the main source of provision.
Instead of following the design of Palladio’s Villa Rotonda at Vicenza produced by Campbell ...

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...te the ideas of Palladio and Inigo Jones. While some historian said that Burlington imitated the design of Palladio from several oeuvre he did in Italy, it appeared as a coincidence in conveying the Roman antiquity architecture into his designs. Burlington’s massive legacy of collection of drawings done by Inigo Jones and Andrea Palladio leads Burlington to take a step closer to understand the Roman antiquity and he included all the ideas and designs that inspires him to become a successful architect compared to his only interest in arts when Burlington was a young boy.

Works Cited

Bibiography
T.Barnard and J.Clark, 1995. Lord Burlington: Architecture, Art and Life. London.
J.Harris, 1994. The palladian Revival: Lord Burlington, His Villa and Garden at Chiswick. New Heaven and London.
White Roger, 2001. Chiswick House and Gardens. (English Heritage guide book)

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