Palladio: His Life and Legacy
Royal Academy, until 13 April
In a truly civilised society, a basic understanding and appreciation of architecture would be taught in schools. After all, most of us spend a large portion of our lives in buildings. Yet you only have to look around you to see that architecture is dishonoured and despised in England. How have we come to this? We have a good share of fine buildings scattered about the land, and even poor desperate built-upon London retains quite a few architectural marvels. Why then are we prepared to accept almost without comment acres of disfiguring ugliness? I refuse to believe that the English have no visual sense — though this is often said of our triumphantly literary nation. No, I think it’s more to do with using our eyes and forming our own judgments. Somewhere we lost faith in our ability to assess the visual.
An exhibition of the quality and enjoyableness of Palladio at the RA should do something to reaffirm an interest in buildings. Most architectural shows are boring — full of plans and elevations not always easy to decipher— but this one is a feast. Not just because the drawings are clear and of a very high quality, but because there are a quantity of beautiful architectural models made from beech and lime with porcelain biscuit details, a number of fine paintings and, last but by no means least, the exhibition has been designed, by Eric Parry Architects, with a fitting elegance and clarity. I have only one quibble, though it’s quite a serious one: the labelling is not always legible. White lettering on a grey ground may look good, but it’s not easy to read.
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