Palladian Architecture

The architecture of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) became popular in England not long after the English architect and state designer Inigo Jones (1573-1652) acquired a copy of Palladio's "Quattro libri dell'architecttura," now at Worcester College, Oxford, when he first visited Italy c. 1600.

After his second visit to Italy Inigo Jones became Surveyor to the Crown in 1615. His most famous buildings are the Queen's House, Greenwich, 1616-35 and the Banqueting House, Whitehall, London, 1619-22 (seized from Wolsey by 1629).

Whitehall Palace was erected on the site of an old Jacobean Banqueting House that burned in 1619. The new palace facade had a rusticated lower storey and two upper stories each using a Classical order. The Palladian style became increasingly popular during the 18th century largely through the efforts of Lord Burlington.