Schoonheid op maat

Exhibition catalogue Royal Palace Amsterdam 30 June to 12 September 2010. Vincenzo Scamozzi was the most important pupil and follower of the famous Italian architect Andrea Palladio. Most of his designs were for palaces in Venice and Vicenza, or for villas in the countryside around Venice. Scamozzi’s relatively austere style typically incorporates the classical orders of columns and shows a feeling for balanced proportions. These distinctive elements of his work were to have a profound influence on the classicist architecture of the Dutch Golden Age. Jacob van Campen introduced Scamozzi’s style in his designs for the Town Hall of Amsterdam and the Mauritshuis and Noordeinde Palace in The Hague. Pieter Post, Philips Vingboons and other architects followed his example as the style gained favour with the Dutch elite.The exhibition examines Scamozzi’s architectural theory in the light of important models and drawings. It also looks at Scamozzi’s recently researched ’second life’ in Northern Europe, with reference to the architecture of the Royal Palace and other examples of his work in the Netherlands and Northern Europe.