The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 6 (of 7)Malkin, Arthur Thomas
History
The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 6 (of 7)
Malkin, Arthur Thomas
Biography
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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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