Keywords

• In the past four decades the phenomenon of «Palladianism in France» has attracted increasing scholarly attention. The expression is usually invoked in reference to the growing interest in Palladio showed by French architects after the 1750s.
• But although this interest is largely recognized by historians
• an understanding of Palladianism between Revolution and Restoration remains elusive. Rarely do historical sources offer a clear and precise explanation of the reasons that led French architects to study Palladio at the beginning of the nineteenth century. For this purpose
• influential studies derive architects' approach to Palladio from the biographies which the erudite Quatremère de Quincy devoted to the sixteenth-century architect
• even though he did not publish them before 1825. The dense and unpublished Journal written by the architect pensionnaire Hubert Rohault de Fleury during his stay in Vicenza in 1804
• more than any other document known to date
• appears to be a useful prism through which to re-examine important aspects of French Palladianism.
• In studying these pages
• I ask whether there were different expectations and modalities of looking at Palladio's architectures in the 1750s
• in the 1800s and at the time of Quatremère's publications. More specifically
• by noting Rohault's great (atypical) enthusiasm for the Basilica built by Palladio in Vicenza
• I question which factors helped Hubert shape the direction of his interest. This puzzle lies at the centre of this investigation. But though Vicenza is a geographical location which conditions the present inquiry
• it did not mark the outer limit of Rohault's interest in the Renaissance. In his Journal
• Hubert offered graphic evidence of this. Hence this account is closed by three drawings related to his stay in Tuscany