Palladio

Palladio, Andrea, born at Vicenza in 1518, devoted himself as a youth to sculpture, which he abandoned for architecture. His genius brought about a reaction against the Gothic style, and he had the ability to adapt ancient forms to modern requirements. The churches of St. Georgio Maggiore, Il Redemptore, and part of the Doge's palace at Venice, and many palaces and villas in northern Italy, are his chief works. His treatise on Ancient Monuments is very valuable, but his great work, I Quatro Libri del' Architettura (1570), effected a revolution in taste throughout Europe. He died in 1580.