Giacomo Leoni (1686 – 8 June 1746), also known as James Leoni, was an Italian architect, born in Venice. He was a devotee of the work of Florentine Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti, who had also been an inspiration for Andrea Palladio. Leoni thus served as a prominent exponent of Palladianism in English architecture, beginning in earnest around 1720. Also loosely referred to as Georgian, this style is rooted in Italian Renaissance architecture.
2. Giacomo Leoni
Italian architect
• Also known as James Leoni
• He was a devotee of the work of Florentine Renaissance architect
Leon Battista Alberti, who had also been an inspiration for
Andrea Palladio.
• Leoni thus served as a prominent exponent of Palladianism in
English architecture
• Georgian style, this style is rooted in Italian Renaissance
architecture.
• Between 1715 and 1720 he published in installments the first
complete English language edition of Palladio's I Quattro Libri
dell'Architettura, which Leoni entitled The Architecture of A.
Palladio, in Four Books.
• On the frontispiece of his edition of Palladio, Leoni titled himself
"Architect to his most serene Highness the Elector Palatine." This
claim, however, remains unsubstantiated.
Palladianism - European architectural style derived from and inspired by the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea
Palladio (1508–1580)
Georgian style - Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural
styles current between 1714 and 1830.
I quattro libri dell'architettura (The Four Books of Architecture) is a treatise on architecture by the architect Andrea
Palladio (1508–1580), written in Italian.
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WORKS
○ Giacomo Leoni's principal architectural skill was to adapt
Alberti's and Palladio's ideals to suit the landed classes in the
English countryside, without straying too far from the
principles of the great masters.
○ He made Palladian architecture less austere, and adapted his
work to suit the location and needs of his clients.
○ Leoni would frequently build in both bricks & dressed stone,
depending on availability and what was indigenous to the area
of the site.
○ His first built design in England was Queensberry House, 7
Burlington Gardens.
○ This was to be an important architectural landmark, as the first
London mansion to be built in a terrace with an "antique
temple front.“
AUSTERE - having a plain and unadorned appearance
7 BURLING GARDEN
. later Queensberry House, London.
Leoni's first executed design in England,
an important architectural landmark as
the first London mansion to be built in a
terrace with an "antique temple front."
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7 building garden
Queensberry house
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LYME PARK
○ In the early 1720s, Leoni received one of his most important
challenges: to transform a great Elizabethan house, Lyme Hall,
into a Palladian palace.
○ large areas of the house remained completely unaltered, and the
wood carvings were left intact. In the central courtyard Leoni
achieved the Palladian style by hiding the irregularities and lack
of symmetry of the earlier house in a series of arcades around
the courtyard.
○ Leoni reconstructed Lyme with the secondary, domestic and
staff rooms on a rusticated ground floor, above which was a
piano nobile (1st floor), formally accessed by an exterior double
staircase from the courtyard. Above the piano nobile were the
more private room and less formal rooms for the family.
○ in a true Palladian house the central portion behind the portico
would contain the principal rooms, while the lower flanking
wings were domestic offices usually leading to terminating
pavilions which would often be agricultural in use. (it follows the
villa rotund )
"the boldest Palladian
building in England."
. both Palladian and Baroque styles.
squared buff sandstone rubble with
sandstone dressings; ashlar sandstone.
Welsh slates.
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o On the west side is a one-bay centerpiece with a window between
two Doric pilasters; on the south and north are three windows with
four similar pilasters; and on the east front is the grand entrance
with a portal in a Tuscan aedicule. This entrance is between the
first and second stories and is approached by symmetrical pairs of
stairs with iron balusters. In the centre of the courtyard is an Italian
Renaissance well-head, surrounded by chequered pink and white
stone, simulating marble.
o The house is measuring overall 190 feet (58 m) by 130 feet (40 m)
round a courtyard plan.
o The symmetrical north face is of 15 bays in three storeys ; its
central bay consists of a slightly protruding gateway.
o The arched doorway in this bay has Doric columns with a niche on
each side. Above the doorway are three more Doric columns with a
pediment, and above this are three further columns. Over all this
are four further columns with an open pediment bearing an image
of Minerva.
MINERVA :- The goddess of handicrafts, widely worshiped and regularly identified with the Greek goddess Athena,
which led to her being regarded also as the goddess of war.
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o The bottom storey is rusticated with arched windows, and the
other storeys are smooth with rectangular windows.
o The middle three bays consist of a portico of which the lowest
storey has three arches.
o Above this arise four giant fluted Ionic columns supporting a
triangular pediment. Standing on the pediment are three lead
statues, of Neptune, Venus and Pan. The pediment partly hides
Wyatt's blind balustraded ashlar attic block. The other bays are
separated by plain Ionic pilasters and the end three bays on each
side protrude slightly.
o The nine-bay three-storey east front is mostly Elizabethan in style.
The courtyard was remodeled by Leoni, who gave it a rusticated
cloister on all sides. Above the cloister the architecture differs on
the four sides although all the windows on the first (piano nobile)
floor have pediments.
RUSTICATED WINDOW :-The windows are surmounted by rusticated wooden jack arches with superimposed keystones, and a
heavy modillion cornice crowns the bold Georgian proportions of the facade.
CLOISTER :- a covered walk in a convent, monastery, college, or cathedral, typically with a wall on one side and a colonnade
open to a quadrangle on the other.
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○ On the west side is a one-bay centerpiece with a window
between two Doric pilasters; on the south and north are three
windows with four similar pilasters; and on the east front is
the grand entrance with a portal in a Tuscan aedicule. This
entrance is between the first and second story's and is
approached by symmetrical pairs of stairs with iron balusters.
In the centre of the courtyard is an Italian Renaissance well-
head, surrounded by chequered pink and white stone,
simulating marble.
o The ground floors of the three outer bays on each side are
rusticated, and their upper stories are divided by large
Corinthian pilasters.
o The west front is also in three stories, with nine bays, the
outer two bays on each side projecting forward. The ground
floor is rusticated and the upper floors are smooth.
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○ The Entrance Hall, which is in the east range, was
remodeled by Leoni.
○ It is asymmetrical and contains giant pilasters and a
screen of three fluted Ionic columns.
○ The doorway to the courtyard has an open pediment.
○ A hinged picture can be swung out from the wall to
reveal a squint looking into the Entrance Hall.
○ Also in the Entrance Hall are tapestries which were
woven at the Mortlake Tapestry Works.
○ In order to accommodate them, the interior decorator,
Amadée Joubert, had to make alterations, including the
removal of a tabernacle and cutting out four of the
pilasters.
○ To the south of the Entrance Hall is the Library, and to
the east is Wyatt's Dining Room, which has a stucco
ceiling and a carved overmantel both in a late 17th-
century style, as well as a frieze.
○ The decoration of this room is considered to be a rare
early example of the Renaissance style.
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○ To the north of the Entrance Hall are the two principal Elizabethan
rooms, the Drawing Room and the Stag Parlor.
○ The Drawing Room is paneled with intersecting arches above which
is a marquetry frieze. The ceiling has studded bands, strapwork
cartouches and a broad frieze. Over the fireplace is a large stone
overmantel, which is decorated with pairs of atlantes and caryatids
framing the arms of Elizabeth I.
○ The stained glass in this room includes medieval glass that was
moved from the original Lyme Hall to Disley Church and returned to
Lyme in 1835. The Stag Parlor has a chimneypiece depicting an
Elizabethan house and hunting scenes, and it includes the arms of
James I. The other Elizabethan rooms in the house are the Stone
Parlor on the ground floor, and the Long Gallery, which is on the top
floor of the east range.
○ The Long Gallery also has a chimneypiece with the arms of Elizabeth
I. The Grand Staircase dates from the remodeling by Leoni and it has
a Baroque ceiling.
○ The Saloon is on the first floor of the south range, behind the
portico. Its ceiling is decorated in rococo style, and the room
contains wooden carvings that have been attributed to Grinling
Gibbons. The Chapel, in the northeast corner of the ground floor,
also contains detailed carvings.
