Works
Giacomo Leoni's principal architectural skill was to adapt Alberti's and Palladio's ideals to suit the landed classes in the English countryside, without straying too far from the principles of the great masters. He made Palladian architecture less austere, and adapted his work to suit the location and needs of his clients. The use of red brick as a building component had begun to replace dressed stone during the William and Mary era. Leoni would frequently build in both, depending on availability and what was indigenous to the area of the site.
Leoni's first commissions in England, though for high profile clients the Duke of Kent and James, Earl Stanhope, first lord of the Treasury, remained unexecuted. His first built design in England was Queensberry House, 7 Burlington Gardens, for John Bligh, Lord Clifton, in 1721. This was to be an important architectural landmark, as the first London mansion to be built in a terrace with an "antique temple front."
Throughout this career in England, Leoni was to be responsible for the design of at least twelve large country houses and at least six London mansions. He is also known to have designed church monuments and memorials.
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Every thing is kin of mine.”
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Thoughts long knitted into a single thought,
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