Date of Birth: Apr 25, 1694
Date of Death: Dec 4, 1753
Nationality: English
Notes: Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, was entranced by the Grand Tour and brought back to England a collection of Palladio's drawings that he purchased from the Bishop of Verona and from the Manin family (who had inherited the Villa Barbaro, also known as the Villa di Maser). Another discovery Burlington made in Italy was the young Yorkshireman William Kent, for whom he had great plans - he wanted to make him England's great history painter. Though this did not come to pass, Kent did become a successful architect and garden designer and is considered by many historians to be the father of modern gardening. Another protégé was Isaac Ware, who put together Palladio's drawings of Roman imperial baths and published them in 1730. Lord Burlington, known as the "Apollo of the Arts," was made a Knight of the Garter and became an extremely powerful patron, supporting poetry, architecture, and music (he was the benefactor of an Italian opera company and Handel was his pensioner). Howard Colvin on Burlington: "For more than thirty years he was the acknowledged arbiter of English architectural taste." The discovery that Burlington designed buildings, and was not simply an arbiter of taste, was made in the early 20th century by Fiske Kimball, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Chiswick House is considered Lord Burlington's masterpiece.