Andrea Palladio : his life and legacy

Exhibition at the Royal Academy which looks at the life and work of Andrea Palladio.

The tape tour admitted straight away that it is strange to have an exhibition about architecture in a gallery as you can’t show their major works there however it pointed out that it was going to concentrate on the influences on him and how he influenced others. The tour was worth taking as the layout of the exhibition was a bit confused as it was in quite a small space and the tour directed you to the next piece and gave you a route around the works.

I loved the models of buildings. They were all built on the same scale so you could tell their relative size. The rooms were beautifully decorated to match the themes. I loved moving from the slightly austere classical early room into the luscious red Venetian room. I hadn’t noticed it coming so it came as a surprise.

I had thought I would go round quickly but was in there for about two hours as there was so much to see and discover, I thought I knew my Palladio quite well but I learnt so much and am now desperate to visit his home town of Vicenza and the various villas.

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