FEBRUARY 2007 » book review

Renovatio Urbis

Palladio's Venice: Architecture and Society in a Renaissance Republic
by Tracy E. Cooper
Yale University Press, New Haven; 2005
392 pp.; hardcover; 100 b&w and 80 color illus.; $65
ISBN 0-300-10582-7

Reviewed by Victor Deupi

The title of Tracy E. Cooper's sumptuous book, Palladio's Venice, could have easily been reversed, for this fascinating and beautifully illustrated work is primarily concerned with La Serenissima, or La Dominante, as she was also called in the latter half of the 16th century, when her finest architect was involved in a wide range of building activity. Similarly, the first two terms of the subtitle, Architecture and Society in a Renaissance Republic, could have also been inverted, as the author's principal vehicle for examining Palladio's Venice is the city's different types of patrons and their complex social networks.

Admittedly, as Cooper notes in her preface, the study of patronage as a means of assessing the cultural achievements of a society is nothing new. Ever since Abbot Suger described his account of the building of St. Denis just outside of Paris (1140s), patronage has been understood as a political virtue. Leon Battista Alberti argued in his treatise on the art of building (De re aedificatoria, 1485) that there is nothing more noble, aside from virtue, than gifted civic activism. It comes as no surprise then that the study of patronage – the idea that history and art history are reciprocally related – has become a standard academic approach to evaluating cultural excellence. Yet Palladio's career in Venice has not been adequately examined from this perspective. Only his major churches there, S. Giorgio Maggiore, S. Francesco della Vigna, and Il Redentore – a fraction of what he had hoped to achieve – have been given any considerable attention. Therefore Cooper's clever structure, with an emphasis on the larger context of the city's fabric and its rich patronage, rather than on the architect himself, posits a refreshing alternative to the "myth" of Palladio as a heroic genius and highly successful architect.

It may very well be that Palladio was the most influential architect that Western Europe has produced. Certainly his much celebrated villas, palaces and churches attest to this resonance, and his reputation has been solidified largely through the publication of his bestselling I Quattro libri dell'architettura (Venice, 1570). But Cooper's suggestion that he is a kind of "Renaissance Rem Koolhaas" (ugh!) – an absurd claim, curiously inserted late in the book for reasons that are dubious at best – must be rejected. Aside from, perhaps, a handful of critics who believe that architects are somehow exempt from cultural context, most readers of architectural history – and lovers of Renaissance culture in particular – demand far more rigor in the study of architectural achievement. Fortunately, the preposterous comparison with today's "delirious" architectural culture is the author's only major gaffe. The rest of the book takes an altogether different approach, providing a compelling story of how an established architect struggles to enter a new market, and how a major Renaissance city in the midst of sweeping change responds to its self image (imago urbis) through "ideal vision[s] of urban architecture executed on a grand scale."

To do this, Cooper traces not only Palladio's major churches in Venice, but also a wide range of partially built and unbuilt interventions in the city's fabric, including designs for ephemeral structures, civic pageantry, infill housing, renovations and repairs to existing buildings. Moreover, the network of people and institutions that employed Palladio – the Venetian State, its patriarchs, religious orders and charitable institutions such as schools and hospitals – provides a more profound understanding of the complex relations between mecenati (patrons of the arts) and clienti (private allegiances).

Cooper also examines Palladio's intellectual activities by studying the Venetian book industry and its impact on his architectural ambitions. Associations with the humanist academics in Venice, such as Giangiorgio Trissino and Daniele Barbaro, set Palladio apart from other practitioners and put him in contact with the city's elite minds. Finally, the author includes a wealth of cultural artifacts including a splendid selection of paintings (by many of Venice's greatest Renaissance masters) statuary, sketches, prints, photographs and subsequent reconstructions by architects and historians throughout history, to provide a large canvas for the depiction of Venice's artistic culture in the late 16th century. The result is a large, heavy and portentous feast of civic architecture; big and small, public and private, sacred and secular – Albertian to the core and a far cry from the typologically structured monographs that usually comprise Palladio's life and work.

As impressive as the aim of the work is, it is important to keep in mind that aside from the major monuments and written works, none of Palladio's Venetian projects provided him with the success that he had acquired in Vicenza and hoped to achieve when he first arrived in the city in the mid-1550s. This unexpected turn of circumstances is carefully examined by Cooper throughout the book, for architectural ambition can be a double-edged sword. Already well-established in the terra firma for his country villas, palaces and public buildings, Palladio came to Venice with the hope of becoming its state architect or proto – a position that was firmly occupied by the great Jacopo Sansovino from the late 1530s to the 1560s. Palladio, perhaps naturally confident, assumed that he would succeed Sansovino, bringing to perfection the bella maniera of his predecessor with a much greater sense of classical rigor – an approach that clearly evolved from his many trips to Rome and studies of ancient monuments.

The architectural culture of Venice at the time was clearly divided between the severita repubblicana (republican severity) of the vecchi (the elder generation) and the usanza nuova (new use) alla romana (in the manner of the ancient Romans) of the giovanni (the younger generation). The former was inclined to recognizable Venetian typologies and a sense of established power rather than the luxury of Roman grandeur. Palladio wanted to "vie with the ancients," providing Venice with an ideal vision of itself on a magnificent and unprecedented scale.

Today, such distinctions between Classical architects who reinforce existing cultural and social paradigms and those who seek a renovatio urbis (urban renewal) may seem somewhat superficial and out of date. Both approaches are indeed part of the Classical legacy and established patterns that can be traced through every great period of city building and architectural activity. It would be unfortunate to equate the "old" with the "obsolete," and the "new" with the "enlightened," and to Cooper's credit she stays away from such simple classifications and instead explores the complex political, social and cultural forces that shaped both modes of thought and inevitably impacted Palladio's lesser-known commissions in Venice.

Finally, there are the buildings, books and projects that constitute Palladio's legacy in Venice. His major church commissions – with their highly scenographic facades and complex planimetric arrangements – not only transformed the face of Venice, but also helped shape similar responses elsewhere in Italy with architects like Vignola in Rome and Galeazzo Alessi in Milan. Palladio's followers in Venice, in particular Scamozzi, Longhena, Muttoni and Massari, fulfilled his vision of transforming the city's appearance and establishing the discipline of architecture as a noble profession. Equally intriguing are the artists such as Veronese, Palma il Giovane and Tintoretto, who incorporated Palladian-inspired elements in their work, giving new form to the very stories they were creating on canvas. Future artists such as Canaletto, Visentini and even Nicolas Poussin sought in Palladio an inspiration that could only have come from a profound understanding of his urban architecture.

Cooper notes in her conclusion that "[t]he outcome of Palladio's career in Venice led to his being addressed as Architectus Illustrissimi Dominii Veneti (Architect of the Most Illustrious Dominion of the Venetians)," and here the emphasis is placed on the location rather than the individual. Seen in this light, it can be said that Palladio was not just one of the most influential architects who ever lived, but perhaps more importantly, also an urban architect of one of the greatest Renaissance cities that Europe has produced. It can also be argued that the lessons gleaned by examining Palladio's work in Venice are valuable not only as historical documents but also as practical guides to contemporary architectural practice.

Clearly, a better understanding of the cultural forces that help shape architecture today would result in a built environment that is far healthier than the one we are currently facing. If only more cities and architects were so disposed to civic virtue that they would uphold whatever can be most beautifully fitted out for the noble needs of mankind, then society and architecture could flourish again in a way not unlike that of the Renaissance Republic of Venice. This is indeed the material with which all architects – and contemporary Classicists in particular – should be equipped. TB

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