Geometry, Harmony and Life. The Architecture of Andrea Palladio from Antiquity to Classicism
Italian and English translation and editing of the trilingual catalogue published by Treccani.
Beijing, National Museum of China, 3 February – 14 May 2026.
To present a systematic overview of the career and artistic legacy of Andrea Palladio and to promote cultural exchange between China and Italy, the National Museum of China and the Embassy of Italy in the People’s Republic of China, with the support of the Italian Encyclopaedia Institute (Treccani) and the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing, and in collaboration with the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio and the Politecnico di Torino, present for the first time in China the exhibition “Geometry, Harmony and Life. The Architecture of Andrea Palladio from Antiquity to Classicism.”
Andrea Palladio occupies a central position in the history of Western architecture, both as a leading figure of the Italian Renaissance and as the author of a system of thought capable of transforming the study of antiquity into a coherent and reproducible design language destined for global dissemination.
Thanks to the collaboration of international scholars and curators, and to the exceptional presentation of drawings and models of his works — as well as paintings, historical maps, sketches, agricultural tools, and images of urban and rural life — the exhibition offers Chinese audiences an accessible and multifaceted interpretation of Palladio’s work.
The juxtaposition of architectural treatises — the Qing-dynasty manuscript copy of the Yingzao Fashi (Treatise on Architectural Methods), originally compiled in 1103, presented alongside Palladio’s Four Books on Architecture, published in Venice in 1570 — forms the intellectual foundation of the exhibition and highlights striking affinities between Eastern and Western architectural thought. Beyond the differences in cultural context and material techniques, both traditions reveal a profound aspiration toward order, harmony, and proportion.
The trilingual structure of the catalogue — Italian, Chinese, and English — reflects the intention to make this body of scholarship accessible to a broad international audience, fully embodying the spirit of cultural cooperation that underpins the entire project.