His interests in Palladio have led him to serve as a co-‐curator of the exhibition “Palladio and His Legacy, a Transatlantic Journey,” and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Palladian Studies in America. He drafted the Congressional Resolution No. 259, honoring the 500th anniversary of Palladio’s birth, passed by Congress in 2010.
Embassy of Italy Washington, DC
Composite photo of Frascati House (1820) in Virginia and Villa Emo (1559) in Veneto
Palladio and the American Architectural Image Andrea Palladio, Conjectural reconstruction of the Baths of Agrippa, Rome, 1540s Royal Institute of British Architects, Library Drawings and Archives Collections
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An Architect and Theorization Francesco II Zucchi (1692-1764) Engraving based on Giovanni Battista Mariotti's portrait of Andrea Palladio Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France.
Andrea Palladio (Andrea di Pietro della Gondola -‐ Padua, November 30th 1508 – Maser, August 19th 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Republic of Venice. He gained his first experiences as a stonecutter in the sculpture workshop of Bartolomeo Cavazza da Sossano. His talents were recognized in his early thirties by Count Gian Giorgio Trissino, an influential humanist and writer. Trissino stimulated the young architect to appreciate the arts, sciences and Classical literature and granted him the opportunity to study Antique architecture in Rome. It was also Trissino who gave him the name by which he is now known, Palladio, an allusion to the Greek goddess of wisdom, Pallas Athena. Palladio's work was strongly based on the symmetry, perspective and values of the formal classical temple architecture of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. The Palladian style adhered to the classical Roman principles he rediscovered, applied and explained in his works. His teachings, summarized in the architectural treatise I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura (The Four Books of Architecture) gained him wide recognition. He designed many palaces, villas and churches, all located in northern Italy. The city of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of Veneto are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Palladian Influence on the United States Architecture Palladio's influence in North America is evident almost from the beginning of architect-‐designed building. A feature of American Palladianism was the re-‐emergence of the great portico, which again, as in Italy, fulfilled the need of protection from the sun; the portico in various forms and size became a dominant feature of American colonial architecture. In Virginia and North and South Carolina, the Palladian manner is epitomized in numerous Tidewater plantation houses, such as Mount Airy or Battersea, or Drayton Hall near Charleston. Thomas Jefferson once referred to Palladio's Quattro Libri as his bible. His intense appreciation of Palladio's architectural concepts is reflected in the designs of his own Monticello, the James Barbour Barboursville estate, and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. In particular Jefferson's Pantheon or Rotunda, at the University of Virginia, is Palladian in concept and style. The Capitol Building and the White House are also examples of a slightly evolved version of Palladio's influence.
The Speaker Calder Loth attended the University of Virginia where he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Architectural History. He is Senior Architectural Historian for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources where was employed for forty-‐one years, from 1968 to 2009, and now serves part time. He is author or co-‐author of several books and articles relating to American architecture including: The Virginia Landmarks Register, 3rd and 4th Editions; Lost Virginia: Vanished Landmarks of the Old Dominion. In 2008, he was the recipient of the first Secretary of the Interior’s Preservation Award for service to state preservation programs, and in 2010 he received the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art’s Board of Directors Honors Award.