Research Essay Bernardo Vittone

POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF TURIN

In Vallinotto Research on Vittone’s use of Geometry

Politecnico Di Torino AA 2014/2015 Student | Ivanna Sanchez Moretti S176402 Professor | Prof. Edoardo Piccoli February 09, 2015

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Table of Contents Introduction............................................................................................................................ 82 Quotes ................................................................................................................................. 86 Visionary................................................................................................................................. 86 Religion............................................................................................................................. 88 Dome................................................................................................................................. 89 Geometry........................................................................................................................... 90 Light.................................................................................................................................. 91 Vallinotto............................................................................................................................ 92 After Vallinotto................................................................................................................... 93 Istruzioni diverse Passage..................................................................................................... 94 Istruzioni diverse Passage Translation.................................................................................. 95 Istruzioni diverse Tav. 78........................................................................................................ 96 2D Plans................................................................................................................................. 97 Paolo Portoghesi Geometry Plan........................................................................................... 107 3D Elevations......................................................................................................................... 108 3D Axonometric...................................................................................................................... 111 3D Model Renders ................................................................................................................ 112 Photographs by Ivanna Sanchez Moretti............................................................................... 117 Vallinotto by Franco Zampetti’s Eye....................................................................................... 124 Bibliography............................................................................................................................ 125

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Introduction Bernardo Antonio Vittone was an architect in the eighteenth century with such a rare ability, although he had no equal in Italy, he took on a path differently than what others had expected.

He was devoted to his work more than to his talents, he was called an “anachronistic architectu1

ral author and practitioner” with a capacity equaled by some of the greatest architects. He did not invent or rebel, but he perfected and refined the ideas of his predecessors. “They, Guarini 2

and Juvarra, were the pioneers.” And from them in the late 1730’s, he found his own style, being the only architect who combines both Guarinesque and Juvarresque conceptions. Juvarra gave him the extreme simplicity inherent in his structure and the flooding light, while Guarini exploited the religious meaning implied by its rejection of evident enclosed space. He was a true visionary.

As a self-taught artist, he was surely influenced by the people around him at an early age.

He was born in a religious family: his step-brother Matteo Filiberto who eventually raised Bernardo as a child after the death of his mother, was a priest of the Cathedral of Turin and three out of four step-sisters were nuns. His father Giuseppe Nicola Vittone was a business man, and his uncle Gian Giacomo Plantery was only second to Juvarra among the Turinese architects. All of them had a major influence on Vittone. “Bernardo Vittone was unquestionably devout.”

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Vittone dedicates his first treatise Istruzioni elementari to God, stating that “He is the archi4

tect of the universe.”

_______________________________ 1 Wittkower, Rudolf. Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1971) p.130 2 Pommer, Richard. Eighteenth-Century Architecture in Piedmont. The Open Structures of Juvarra, Alfieri, and Vittone.

(New York: New York University Press, 1967) p.120 3 Pommer, Richard. Eighteenth-Century Architecture in Piedmont. The Open Structures of Juvarra, Alfieri, and Vittone.

(New York: New York University Press, 1967) p.107 4

Vittone, Bernardo Antonio. Istruzioni elementari per indirizzo dei giovani allo studio dell’Architettura Civile. (Lugano: Presso gli Agnelli, 1760) p. 2

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“Without a doubt Facio addressed Bernardo Vittone” for the religious project in Carignano, the Chapel of the Visitation in Vallinotto, known to be Vittone’s first building. Vallinotto was built in 1738 for the Turinese banker Antonio Facio. Behind Vittone’s involvement in Facio’s projects we came to discover the importance of Antonio Facio and Giuseppe Sebastiano Frichieri’s close relationship. Frichieri’s image is presented as a saint for his mysticism, with his obsessive chastity and sackcloth carrier, a notary and a great benefactor. Fascinated by his beliefs, Facio considered Frichieri as his secretary and agent of their banking, appointing him heir of his estate. In his will Facio, who dies in 1739, states the nomination of the cleric Giovanni Battista Micha, his cousin, as the former chaplain of the new institution. Among the duties of the chaplain, there was to celebrate a daily mass, confessions, teaching of the Gospel and catechism. One in particular was the prohibition of collections among the inhabitants of the houses and farms in the area as an act of charity, all to be under the supervision of Frichieri.

The vaults are the first thing that the eyes of the spectator are drawn to following the playfulness of light and spaces that it creates.

As Guarini, Vittone abandons the spherical dome that symbolizes a finite dome and repla6

ces it with a “dome with its mysterious suggestion of infinity” . Vittone uses his first diaphanous shell of intersecting ribs. It is the idea of having a solid spherical dome with a large opening that allows a view into another dome, such as Guarini’s Church San Lorenzo in Turin. In Vallinotto Vittone produces a dome with three different vaults (four counting the lantern): the vaulting ribs, two diaphanous shells, and the small dome of the lantern. The hierarchy of angels are painted _______________________________ 5 Canavesio, Walter. Il voluttuoso genio dell’occhio. Nuovi studi su Bernardo Antonio Vittone. Torino: Societa Piemontese

di Archeologia e Belle Arti, 2005) p. 46 6 Wittkower, Rudolf. Art and Architecture in Italy 1600 to 1750. (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd, 1958) p.274

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on each vault, where Bernardo Vittone writes in his Istruzioni diverse: “The visitor’s glance travels through the spaces created by the vaults and enjoys, supported by the concealed light, the variety of the hierarchy which gradually increases.”

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As gazing into the body of the church of Vallinotto and the depth of its diaphanous vault, the playfulness of light and spaces exists through a system of windows, openings, and arches. As an architect and a religious man this relationship between light and space was the aim to represent the presence of God in his work, as he so desired the merging of the two highest realities: Heaven and Earth. This merge of the two worlds is represented by the geometric use throughout the church’s plan and elevation. In other words the basic shapes used for the ground plan of Vallinotto, which are the circle, the hexagon and semi-circle side chapels, are then reflected on each of the diminution tiers of the church.

The ground plan starts with the basic shape of a perfect circle, when in fact many of Vittone’s churches are centralized or derive from centralized planning. From that perfect circle a hexagon is formed within, in addition six side semi-circles are placed on the six edges of the hexagon for the six side chapels. This basic geometry is then shifted into a more complex shape in the ground floor making its geometrical simplicity vanish within the walls. As the elevation raises, this complex shape returns to its original shape of the perfect circle as it reaches its peak, creating a mirroring affect of the two worlds.

There is no clear image of God; God is represented in the Catholic religion as a divine light.

This divine light is a concept that allows you to visualize and experience the communication through emotional and spiritual means, rather than through physical capacity, and therefore, _______________________________ 7

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Vittone, Bernardo Antonio. Istruzioni diverse concernenti l'officio dell'architetto civile. (Rome: Presso gli Agnelli, 1766)

there is no necessity of an image of God. Vittone’s design allows for direct light to enter and 8

travel through the chapel as if it had “hands and feet”. In the structure of the interior, Vittone designs a system of windows, openings, and arches that allows light to travel through these different passages throughout the space of the church.

Above the ground floor, the small vaults of the side chapels functioning as a strong sky-light letting light from the windows of the first drum illuminate the side chapels. This light is also shared in the main room through Vittone’s introduction of a second ring of high arches above the arches of the chapels, which creates an opening for the light to travel into the main room. “It is evident that the arrangement of the arches as well as the lighting of the main room and the 9

chapels derive from Juvarra’s Camine.” As the windows of the ground floor and first drum lit the lower body of the church, there are in fact other circular windows invisible to the spectators from any point in the church lighting the different realms of the dome. The second dome has no source of light, while in the other hand the second dome is directly lit by these circular windows that pass through the small openings of the dome.

Vallinotto was therefore designed according to Vittone’s strong religious beliefs, along with Antonio Facio, with the aim of the interpretation of God on Earth. Vallinotto, as Cavallari-Murat 10

stated, was a “juvenile moment of his evolution.” From now on his development became more 11

skillful, practical, and clear. Vallinotto is therefore “a starting point, not a finish line.” _______________________________

8 Benedetto, Carola. LA LUCE HA MANI E PIEDI. L’architettura di Bernardo Vittone. (Cuneo: Editrice Artistica Piemonte

se s.r.l, 2003) p.13 9 Wittkower, Rudolf. Art and Architecture in Italy 1600 to 1750. (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd, 1958) p.284 10 Cavallari-Murat, Augusto. “L’Architettura sacra del Vittone.” Atti e rassegna technica della societa degli ingegneri e

degli architetti in Torino, 10 N.2 (1956): p.44 11 Cavallari-Murat, Augusto. “L’Architettura sacra del Vittone.” Atti e rassegna technica della societa degli ingegneri e

degli architetti in Torino, 10 N.2 (1956): p.45

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Quotes Visionary “Il progressismo del Vittone non è però rivoluzione; la rivolta c'era stata, contro un rigorismo classicista, all'epoca del Borromini e del Guarini” pg 51 L’Achitettura sacra del Vittone Augusto Cavallari-Murat

“Vittone was an almost anachronistic architectural author and practitioner.” pg 130 Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism Rudolf Wittkower

“…never received a major royal commission even though he had no equal in Italy.” pg 25 Baroque & Rococo Architecture Henry A. Millon

“…he was an architect of rare ability, full of original ideas and of a creative capacity equalled only by few of the greatest masters.” pg 282 Art and Architecture in Italy Rudolf Wittkower

“In the late 1730’s, he found his own style. It emerged solely in the lighter kind of open structure.

Juvarra had achieved the extreme clarity inherent in its revelation of structure and flooding by light; Guarini had exploited the fantasy or religious meaning implied by its denial of apparent enclosure and solidity. Vittone was the only architect to do both.” pg 110 Eighteenth-Century Architecture in Piedmont Richard Pommer

“What little we know about him suggests that his was an obsessed genius. This is also the impression one carries away from reading his two treatises, the Istruzioni elementary of 1760 and the Istruzioni diverse of 1766.” pg 287 Art and Architecture in Italy Rudolf Wittkower

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“Neither as a man nor as an architect was Vittone quite the eccentric he has been considered.

His fusion of the architecture of Guarini and Juvarra was not a miracle beyond explanation, nor was he truly the obsessed and solitary genius.” pg 107 Eighteenth-Century Architecture in Piedmont Richard Pommer

“…in the extant portrait of him, a pen-and-ink miniature whose unpretentiousness argues for its reliability… his gaze is mild and open, his half-smile is quietly genial. This was a man who, at the end of a long career which did not bring him the fame and money augured by his beginnings in Rome, could nevertheless write his treatises without any hint of bitterness.” pg 110 Eighteenth-Century Architecture in Piedmont Richard Pommer

_____________________ “This ideal of clarity was hardly revolutionary. It was the aim of a professional. Vittone was the businessman-architect, devoted to his work more than to his talents. Those talents lay in polishing the ideas of his predecessors. They, Guarini and Juvarra, were the pioneers; Vittone was therefore the first Italian architect with a whole system of open structures ready to hand. He did not have to invent or rebel, but rather to perfect.” pg 120 Eighteenth-Century Architecture in Piedmont Richard Pommer

“Le varie component arricchiscono le qualitá stilistiche dell’opera vittoniana, senza sminuirne gli accenti assolutamente originali.” pg 21 Bernardo Vittone Architetto Nino Carboneri

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Religion “Amatissimo dal fratello teologo e poi canonico della Metropolitana torinese, che fu il suo vero e unico genitore, oltre che tutore e insegnante, ebbe da questi anzitutto una educazione religiosa preponderante, poi l’instradamento verso una professione utile a garantirgli la sopravvivenza.” pg 9 Il voluttuoso genio dell’occhio Walter Canavesio

“His buildings constitute a new direction–a new attainment with an intensified emotional appeal.” pg 25 Baroque & Rococo Architecture Henry A. Millon

“The extraordinary thing about his treatises is that basically he has not moved far from Alberti’s position. To be sure, the language has not changed: where Alberti wanted to elevate and inform the mind, Vittone wants to delight.” pg 287 Art and Architecture in Italy Rudolf Wittkower

“Vittone’s concerns were primarily visual rather than intellectual – that he was more interested in clarity for the eye and the emotions, than for the mind.” pg 134 Eighteenth-Century Architecture in Piedmont Richard Pommer

“Vittone compone nel 1760 le “Istruzioni Elementari per Indirizzo dei Giovani allo Studio dell’Architettura Civile’ e le dedica a Dio...

L’architettura, come sottolinea Marcello Fagiolo, è “scienza divina” e “presenza di Dio sulla terra”, mentre la luce è il suo marchio di eternitá” pg 11-12 La Luce Ha Mani e Piedi Carola Benedetto

“He is the Architect of the universe” Istruzioni elementari per indirizzo dei giovani allo studio dell’Architettura Civile Bernardo Antonio Vittone

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“Vittone, uomo del suo tempo in continuo equilibrio tra un passato da rielaborare ed i fermenti di un mondo nuovo, fatto di scienza e non solo di trascendenza da conquistare rappresenta con la sua opera un tentativo altissimo di fondere due realtá...” pg 13 La Luce Ha Mani e Piedi Carola Benedetto

_____________________ “Crescuito in un ambiente fortemente segnato dalla religione, anzitutto nell’indole del padre, strettamente legato ai Padri della Missione anche per questioni patrimoniali ed ereditarie, nelle scelte religiose (volute od indotte) delle sorelle, tre delle quail entrarono nell’ordine delle Clarisse, e del fratello teologo, Bernardo ebbe una spiccata sensibilitá religiosa, che avrá modo di esprimere nei suoi progetti per edifice sacri e nel tono particolare, tra il tecnico ed il mistico, dei suoi deu trattati editi.” pg 9 Il voluttuoso genio dell’occhio Walter Canavesio

Dome “Vaults are the principal part in architecture.” pg. 183 Architettura Civile del Padre D. Guarino Guarini Cherico Regolare Opera Postuma Guarino Guarini

“…the result of a deep-rooted urge to replace the consistent sphere of the ancient dome, the symbol of a finite dome of heaven, by the diaphanous dome with its mysterious suggestion of infinity.” pg 274 Art and Architecture in Italy Rudolf Wittkower

“The idea of a solid spherical dome with a large opening, allowing a view into a second dome, is also Guarini’s, but the latter never combined this type with the diaphanous dome, and neither Guarini nor any other architect ever produced a dome with three different vaults.” pg 283 Art and Architecture in Italy Rudolf Wittkower

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‘The visitor’s glance travels through the spaces created by the vaults and enjoys, supported by the concealed light, the variety of the hierarchy which gradually increases.”

Istruzioni diverse concernenti l'officio dell'architetto civile Bernardo Antonio Vittone

Geometry “He acquired his exceptional knowledge of Guarini’s work and ideas; nor did he fail to learn his lesson from the long chapters on geometry.” pg 283 Art and Architecture in Italy Rudolf Wittkower

“His interest in Guarini was paralleled by the popularity of Borromini’s style in Rome from circa 1710 through the 1740’s.” pg 125 Eighteenth-Century Architecture in Piedmont Richard Pommer

“Il tracciato geometric di partenza discende direttamente dal Sant’Ivo borrominiano, del quale ripete la simmetria esagonale, l’alternanza di absidi convesse e mistilinee, persino la regola geometrica con cui è determinata univocamente la curvatura convessa dei fondali nelle cappelle minori.” pg 98 Un Architetto tra Illuminismo e Rococo Paolo Portoghesi

“Since, therefore, non-corresponding chapels face each other across the room, the geometrical simplicity and regularity of the plan is not easily grasped.” pg 283 Art and Architecture in Italy Rudolf Wittkower

“…external elevation follows the basic shape of the plan” pg 284 Art and Architecture in Italy Rudolf Wittkower

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_____________________ “He attacked centralized planning, that old and most urgent problem of Italian architects, with boldness and imagination; and perhaps no architect before him, not even Leonardo, had studied it with equal devotion and ingenuity.” pg 287 Art and Architecture in Italy Rudolf Wittkower

“The advantages of the central church for Vittone, … and the opportunity that it provided of focusing on its vaults, were probably that it afforded the most even illumination of all arrangements and the greatest visual clarity.” pg 134 Eighteenth-Century Architecture in Piedmont Richard Pommer

“la matematica e la geometria ad essa applicate sono il codice...” pg 12 La Luce ha Mani e Piedi Carola Benedetto

Light “Vittone come un intellettuale resistente ad ogni relativismo, un tradizionalista affascinato da alcuni aspetti, in parte ancora seicenteschi, della meraviglia che noi definiamo barocca, prima fra tutti l’universo della luce, sempre proiettato su ino sfondo intimamente mistico.” pg 10 Il voluttuoso genio dell’occhio Walter Canavesio

“A gay and festive bright light fills the whole space and the differently lit realms of the dome are only gradations of this diffuse luminosity.” pg 284 Art and Architecture in Italy Rudolf Wittkower

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_____________________ “The church is more consistently open than any before; the chapels seem deeper because of their angled plans and bent-down entablatures, and the vault rises in three shells. But this is not for its own sake; it serves only to conjure up an ethereal, heavenly pavilion. In that setting a hierarchy can rise from the spectator to the unattainable chapel balconies that await imaginary figures, on to the stucco prophets, and thence to the images of the angels and the Virgin. The visual union of the body and vault receives its precise religious analogue and a new aura is evoked, a mood more human than Juvarra’s or Guarini’s. it is neither mere pleasure in light and airiness, nor the awe of the miraculous, but, in a child’s way, as if looking into a magical Easter egg, the joy of the marvelous.” pg 111 Eighteenth-Century Architecture in Piedmont Richard Pommer

Vallinotto: “To unite near and far, the spectator’s area with the heavenly regions, was the greatest theme of Vittone’s art. In Vallinotto it is summed up by the stucco rays that carry down the light and by the meeting of the body of the church with the vault: there the superposed arches of the false galleries, which double as lanterns, condensing the features of the Carmine, set off the vaults in a halo of lighted openings and yet join with the latticework arches that spring from this zone.” pg 111 Eighteenth-Century Architecture in Piedmont Richard Pommer

“Entrando si è immediatamente colpiti da un rapport tra spazio e luce… l’intreccio esagonale degli archi, la doppia calotta che permette all’affresco di apparire dotato di una illusiva luce propria,… la luce materializzata in raggi Dorati al bordo dei fori che mettono in comunicazione i catini della cappella con le soprastanti camere di luce; tutti questi partiti compositivi hanno giá una loro storia e il risultato non è, come in Guarini, la struttura o, come in Juvarra, l’aggettivazione plastica e luministica dell’organismo, ma l’effetto illusivo di una spazialitá innaturale qualificata dalla luce e dalla forma di un involucro inafferrabile nelle sue dimensioni reali.” pg 97 Un Architetto tra Illuminismo e Rococo Paolo Portoghesi

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After Vallinotto “… being the first and most Guarinesque of Vittone’s major churches, and one of the few of this kind to be erected, has misled some critics to overemphasize the illusory and shocking in his architecture. Here he was ambitiously striving after effects foreign to his simpler and primarily Juvarresque bend and training. Never again he pile up so many motifs in such elaborate vaults; rarely again did he lose his architecture in so much paint and stucco, or let his churches deceive with false galleries and balconies and unstructural ribs; suggestion later became inseparable from use.” pg 111 Eighteenth-Century Architecture in Piedmont Richard Pommer

“…ed è per questo che ritengo che la Cappella del Vallinotto, giustamente ammirata dai critici, non sia però rappresentativa dell'arte del Nostro, che la eseguì in un particolare giovanile istante della sua evoluzione. È un punto di partenza, non un traguardo." pg 44-45 L’Architettura sacra del Vittone A. Cavallari-Murat

“After Vallinotto, Vittone’s churches fit more clearly into the three categories there so over-richly mingled. From now on his development was always towards the more succinct, skillful, and functional.

But his development was less important than his subtle variation on a few themes.” pg 111 Eighteenth-Century Architecture in Piedmont Richard Pommer

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LIB.II. SEZIONE.II.

CLASSE QUINTA Delle Chiese, e loro appartenenze XXIV.

Tav. 78.

“L’idea, secondo la quale, per secondare il divoto singolar genio del gia sovra menzionato Signor Banchiere Antonio Facio, ho formato il Disegno d’una Cappella campestre sotto il titolo della Visitazione di Maria Santissima, fatta da esso grandiosamente erigere sul sito d’una sua Villa posta sovra il Territorio della Citta di Carignano in attinenza della strada, che quindi tende a Vigone; la quale poi il medesimo fece per mano di affai valenti Soggetti in tutte le di lei parti nobilmente ornare di stucchi, e pitture, e dotó in fine d’un convenevole Beneficio per un Cappellano, che cotidianamente vi officj, ed ivi s’impieghi alla spirituale coltura della gente di campagna, che in varie Ville vi ha lá attorno esistenti l’abitazione. Forma questa Chiesa nell’esterno, siccome scorger si puo dall’alzata, due Ordini, o Piani, de’ quali espressa resta ivi insieme la metá della Pianta. Nell’interno peró ella é ad un Piano solo, che sormontato va da tre Volte l’una sovra l’altra esistenti, tutte traforate, ed aperte; cosi che luogo ha la vista di coloro, che si trovano in Chiesa, a spaziare per li vani, che esistono fra esse, e godere in tal modo coll’ajuto della luce, che vi s’intromette per mezzo di Finestre internamente non apparenti, la varietá delle Gerarchie, che gradatamente crescendo vi si rapprefentano in esse Volte, e fino alla sommitá del Cupolino, ove espressa vedesi la Santissima Triade. Era mio pensiere,che l’aspetto di tali pitture fosse in degradazione prospettica, ma la fretta dell’esecuzione bramata dal suddetto Signore non permise, che intieramente riuscisse il defiderato effetto dell’Opera.” pg 186 Istruzioni diverse concernenti l'officio dell'architetto civile Bernardo Antonio Vittone

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Text Translation

_____________________ The idea, according to which, for seconding the devout singular genius of the already above mentioned Lord Banker Antonio Facio, I formed the design of a country Chapel under the name of the Visitation of the Holy Mary, erected by him grandly on the site of one of his Villas located in the territory of the city of Carignano near to the road, which from there a tends to Vigone; which then did the same richly decorate at the hands of the very talented Subjects in all her parts of stuccos, and paintings, and endowed it in the end of a Fund for a Chaplain, that says mass daily, and there cares for the spiritual culture of the people of the country, that have their dwelling in the various villas around there. This Church forms in the exterior, as you can notice from the elevation, two orders, or floors, of which is here expressed half of the plan. In the interior however she is in one floor only, which is surmounted by three vaults, existing one on top of another, all perforated, and open; so that the view of those who are in the Church, is able to wander through the spaces, that exist between them, and enjoy in that way with the help of the light, that intrudes through windows internally not apparent, the variety of hierarchies, that grows gradually represented in these vaults, and until the crown of the Dome, where the Holy Trinity is expressed. It was in my thoughts, that the appearance of these paintings would be degrading in perspective, but the hurry of execution longed for by the Lord did not permit, that could entirely could the desired effect of the work.

Istruzioni diverse concernenti l'officio dell'architetto civile Bernardo Antonio Vittone

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Tav. 78. Chapel of the Visitation in Vallinotto

Istruzioni diverse concernenti l'officio dell'architetto civile Bernardo Antonio Vittone

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2D Plan Steps

“The plan consists of a regular hexagon with six segmented chapels.” pg 283

1

2

Construction of a regular hexagon using a circle and six equal length edges within. The six edges have a length equal to the radius of the circle. It is in fact that many of Bernardo Vittone’s churches are centralized buildings or derive from centralized planning

- Wittkower

3

Equal size chapels placed on all six edges of the hexagon. Unlike Portoghesi’s analysis of using two different size chapels throughout as you can see in page 22

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B

A

A

B

B

A 4

Chapels are pushed outward (A) and inward (B), as analysed in the both plans in Istruzioni Diverse and Architettura Civile

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5

Unobstrusive pillars continues to the vaults unlike Guarino Guarini who separated the dome from the body of the church

6

Thickness of the outer walls

7

8

Moulding of the outer and inner walls according to Portoghesi’s analysis. The moulding of the inner walls identifies the convex and concave chapels. The circles are measure to have a diameter equal to the radius of the side chapels

9

Excavation of the convex chapels using oval shapes taken from the circles of the previous step

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B

A

A

B

B

A 10

First application of a system of orders of the inner walls of the convex chapels, mimicking the same lines of the inner and outer shapes

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11

12

Second application of a system of orders of the inner walls of the concave chapels using only linear lines which then continues to the outer walls. The same rhythm is then used on all six chapels. Window openings are cut with an ABA rhythm making the convex chapels (A) slightly bigger since the chapels are less open

“Since, therefore, non-corresponding chapels face each other across the room, the geometrical simplicity and regularity of the plan is not easily grasped.� pg 283

- Wittkower

13

14

15

Circles half the size of the concave chapels creates the oval aperture vault to let light come in from the windows of the First drum

Plan of the groundfloor with projecting lines

Plan of the groundfloor without projecting lines

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16

A symmetrical First drum was created which derived from the shape of the basic shapes shown in step 3

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17

Continuing the same undulating rhythm of the outer walls of the groundfloor

18

Excavation of the oval apertures in all chapels using circles of half the size of the chapels as done in step 13 in order for the chapels to receive light from above

19

20

21

Defining the final shape of the outer walls and window openings by using the second application of system of orders taken from the same point as done in step 12

Openings inside the first drum in order to let light pass through into the main room

Ribbed vaults. Following Guarini, this was Vittone’s first diaphanous shell of intersecting ribs

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102

22

23

24

First drum plan with projecting lines of the ribbed vaults

First drum plan without the projecting lines

The Second drum is created with the continuation of the regular hexagon shape deriving from step 2

b a

25

26

27

Moulding of the outer wall continuing the same rhythm of a system of orders

Circular windows, invisible to the beholder from any point in the church taken from taken from the center point of the church

Second drum plan with the projecting lines of the second (a) and third (b) dome opening into the lantern

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28

Lantern was created with the perfect shape of a circle as derived from step 1

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29

Window openings in the lantern

30

Top view

Figure. 7. Geometry of the Chapel of the Visitation in Vallinotto

Bernardo Vittone: Un Architetto tra Illuminismo e Rococo Paolo Portoghesi

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3D Elevations

Ground floor Plan of side chapels and an Altar

108 8

Vaults of the side chapels which have oval aperture for the above space to function as a sky-light for the chapels

First drum with second ring of high arches above the arches of the chapels creating an entrance for light to enter into the main room

Rib vault which is a continuation of the pillars at each corner of the hexagon plan

Small domes of the side spaces in the First drum above the chapels

First solid spherical pendentive dome with a large opening for allowing a view into a second dome

Second pendentive dome, directly lit by circular invisible windows consisting a small aperture allowing a view into the lantern

Second drum Plan

109 8

Lantern

1108

Lantern’s dome

Final Roof

3D Axonometric

1811

3D Model

112 8

The diminution of tiers of the exterior of the Chapel of Vallinotto

Top view

113 8

8 114

View of the dome that contains three different vaults, four including the lantern

Windows of the First drum lighting the main room through second ring of high arches above the arches of the chapels

1 815

116 8

System of pendentive diaphanous shell

Photographs of Vallinotto

Taken by Ivanna Sanchez Moretti on 16/03/2014

117 8

118 8

Second ring of high arches above the arches of the chapels allows light to travel to the main room

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120 8

Concave and convex chapels with oval apertures funtioning as a strong sky-light for the chapels

God is represented as a divine light which travels through the church as if it had hands and feet

1821

122 8

Bernardo Vittone used a system of windows which lit the different spaces inside the church

The different realms of the dome are only gradations of this diffuse luminosity

1 823

Vallinotto by Franco Zampetti’s Eye 124 8

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Torino: Societa Piemontese di Archeologia e Belle Arti, 2005 Carboneri, Nino. Bernardo Vittone Architetto. October: Vercelli, 1967 Cavallari-Murat, Augusto. “Alcune architetture Piemontesi del settecento in una raccolta di disegni del Planteri, del Vittone e del Quarini.” Torino Rassegna Mensile Della Citta N.5 (1942): pp. 7-11. Print Cavallari-Murat, Augusto. “L’Architettura sacra del Vittone.” Atti e rassegna technica della societa degli ingegneri e degli architetti in Torino, 10 N.2 (1956): pp. 35-52. Print Millon, Henry Armand. Baroque & Rococo Architecture. New York: George Braziller, inc, 1967 Pommer, Richard. Eighteenth-Century Architecture in Piedmont. The Open Structures of Juvarra, Alfieri, and Vittone. New York: New York University Press, 1967 Portoghesi, Paolo. Bernardo Vittone. Un Architetto tra Illuminismo e Rococo. Rome: Edizioni dell’Elefante, 1966 Vittone, Bernardo Antonio. Architettura Civile del Padre D. Guarino Guarini Cherico Regolare Opera Postuma. Torino: Gianfrancesco Mairesse, 1737 Vittone, Bernardo Antonio. Istruzioni diverse concernenti l'officio dell'architetto civile. Rome: Presso gli Agnelli, 1766 Vittone, Bernardo Antonio. Istruzioni elementari per indirizzo dei giovani allo studio dell’Architettura Civile. Lugano: Presso gli Agnelli, 1760 Wittkower, Rudolf. Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1971 Wittkower, Rudolf. Art and Architecture in Italy 1600 to 1750. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd, 1958

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