The Villa

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ART HISTORY/ARCHITECTC'RH
THE VILLA
Form and Ideology of Country Houses JAMES S. ACKERMAN
"To read this stimulating book is to meet an erudite scholar who has thought a great deal about the subject, and is willing to entertain, as well as inform, to patiently explain, as well as to make pronouncements. Moreover, one has the impression that the author has visited—and found pleasure in—the buildings he is describing." —Witold Rybczynski, The New York Review of Books
"Among the several histories of the country house published in 1990, this is easily the best."
—Martin Filler, The New York Times Book Review
The eminent architectural historian James Ackerman, author of classic studies on Pal-ladio and Michelangelo, discusses villa building in Western countries at various times and places from ancient Rome to twentieth-century France and America. In this richly illustrated volume Ackerman uses the phenomenon of the "country place" as a focus for examining not only the relationship... Tovább

Fülszöveg

ART HISTORY/ARCHITECTC'RH
THE VILLA
Form and Ideology of Country Houses JAMES S. ACKERMAN
"To read this stimulating book is to meet an erudite scholar who has thought a great deal about the subject, and is willing to entertain, as well as inform, to patiently explain, as well as to make pronouncements. Moreover, one has the impression that the author has visited—and found pleasure in—the buildings he is describing." —Witold Rybczynski, The New York Review of Books
"Among the several histories of the country house published in 1990, this is easily the best."
—Martin Filler, The New York Times Book Review
The eminent architectural historian James Ackerman, author of classic studies on Pal-ladio and Michelangelo, discusses villa building in Western countries at various times and places from ancient Rome to twentieth-century France and America. In this richly illustrated volume Ackerman uses the phenomenon of the "country place" as a focus for examining not only the relationship between urban and rural life but also that between building and natural environment and between social, cultural, economic, and political forces and architectural design.
"The villa," Ackerman reminds us, "accommodates a fantasy which is impervious to reality": through the ages it has been the pleasure factor that has distinguished the villa estate from the farm. Since their earliest representation in Roman literature, the coveted country delights of relaxation, healthy living, hunhng, reading, and conversation with friends have been an ideological construct of those who could afford to escape the city, often by expropriating rural land. Farmers and peasants usually do not see the country as an idyllic location, but city dwellers have frequently idealized country life and wanted to own property where it could be enjoyed. Hence the villa—which, unlike the farmhouse, typically asserts its modernity and its status as a product of the architect's imagination. In the course of this study, Ackerman illuminates such topics as ancient Roman villas, the early villas of the Medici, the Palladian villa in England, and the modern villas of Wright and Le Corbusier.
James S. Ackerman is Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Fine Arts at Harvard University. He has been Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge University, editor of The Art Bulletin, and a Fellow and Trustee of the American Academy in Rome.
THE A. W. MELLON LECTURES IN THE FINE ARTS BOLLINGEN SERIES XXXV: 34 Vissza