Palladio

Georges M. Cantacuzino (1899-1960) was a citizen of the world from the old Romanian aristocracy. Born in Vienna, he grew up speaking Romanian, French and German; he worked as a stonemason, studied architecture in Paris, was fascinated by Palladio, Goethe and Valéry, and was inspired by the Groupe des Architectes Modernes around Auguste Perret. He wrote, painted, became a correspondent for L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui (when the famous Berlin architectural historian Julius Posener was its secretary), an honorary correspondent of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and an honorary citizen of New York. Throughout his life he pursued liberal politics - against the fascist Iron Guard in Romania as well as against communism after 1945. Cantacuzino's classical approach made him a doyen and integrative figure of modernist architecture in Romania. In this time of extremes, his intellectual honesty seems as remarkable as his plea for the combination of tradition and modernity. Cantacuzino sees this embodied above all in Andrea Palladio. He was a frequent and welcome guest at Villa Foscari, the Vicenza architect's masterpiece on the Brenta river, and his movable feast in the 1930s. During one of his visits to Villa Foscari, the Romanian architect asked: "In front of the simple and pure façade of the Malcontenta - could we not agree with everything? Couldn't we trust what this house seems to be telling us, sincerely and without ulterior motives? A perfect balance between knowledge and emotion. These words are as fresh and relevant today as they were in 1928, when Cantacuzino wrote them in his essay on Palladio. This edition offers the first annotated translation into English of this unjustly forgotten gem of Palladio literature. We are planning a German edition in the near future.