Proportion and Ratio in Palladio’s Redentore

A recent survey was undertaken of the church interior at Palladio’s Il Redentore in Venice, using contemporary laser technology. The survey findings provide a significant body of evidence that Palladio used specific ratios to establish the proportional relationships of the most important horizontal and vertical dimensions in the church interior. The large number of instances (thirty-one) that were found, and the close match between the ratios and the actual built dimensions in the church, make a strong case that the ratios Palladio used were those cited in his list of preferred ratios in Book 1 of the Quattro Libri , or those that can be found repeatedly in the dimensions of his villa plans in Book 2. Interestingly, and despite the earlier prediction by Rudolph Wittkower, the irrational number ratio 1:√2 was found in several significant places in the nave and tribune of the church, as well as the ratio 1:√3.