“Si può vedere col paragone”. Carlo Rainaldi, Carlo Fontana, Gian Lorenzo Bernini e la facciata di S. Andrea della Valle
Chapter
Publication Date:
2012
abstract:
The facade of the Theatine Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, is one of the most important subjects in the study of architectural history in seventeenth-century Rome.
Recent research regarding the first planning stages of the building that took place during the second decade of the seventeenth-century, has evidenced the significant contribution that the young Francesco Borromini made to the project formerly attributed to his tutor, Carlo Maderno - a project for which only the podium was built.
This essay re-considers the second planning phase of the facade and the continued progress of the building works during the decade of the 1660’s from a new standpoint, and also re-considers the roles played in the planning and building of the facade by Carlo Rainaldi and Carlo Fontana, roles which up until now were subject to contrasting scholarly views.
The discovery of the presentation drawing for the new facade, here attributed to Carlo Rainaldi, underlines the importance of his position as official designer of the project, in his role as architect to the Theatines. A complete re-evaluation and re-interpretation of all the known drawings connected to the project, contextualised together with all the documentary evidence surviving from the building process, further allows for a clarification of Carlo Fontana’s role in the building project. Fontana was essentially called in as an outside assessor by the Theatines toward the end of 1662, when the rapport between the Fathers and Rainaldi became difficult. Already by this date, the artistic oversight of the building project had been assigned to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Fontana’s mentor, on the intervention of Pope Alexander VII (Fabio Chigi).
If the architectural transformation of the facade of the Church -– toward a more vertically accentuated design than that proposed in the original Maderno project, is to be attributed to Rainaldi, then the richly ornamental sculptural decoration applied to the facade, surely reflects Bernini’s taste and the artistic influence he exercised - also over other Rainaldi projects – in his generalised role as “Director of Art” in Rome during the pontificate of Alexander VII. Seen in this light, the facade sculptures of Sant’Andrea della Valle by Ercole Ferrata, Domenico Guidi and Giacomo Antonio Fancelli can be interpreted as a brilliant projection on an urban outdoor scale of the sculptural scenography conceived by Bernini for the Chigi chapels in Santa Maria del Popolo and in the Cathedral in Siena.
Recent research regarding the first planning stages of the building that took place during the second decade of the seventeenth-century, has evidenced the significant contribution that the young Francesco Borromini made to the project formerly attributed to his tutor, Carlo Maderno - a project for which only the podium was built.
This essay re-considers the second planning phase of the facade and the continued progress of the building works during the decade of the 1660’s from a new standpoint, and also re-considers the roles played in the planning and building of the facade by Carlo Rainaldi and Carlo Fontana, roles which up until now were subject to contrasting scholarly views.
The discovery of the presentation drawing for the new facade, here attributed to Carlo Rainaldi, underlines the importance of his position as official designer of the project, in his role as architect to the Theatines. A complete re-evaluation and re-interpretation of all the known drawings connected to the project, contextualised together with all the documentary evidence surviving from the building process, further allows for a clarification of Carlo Fontana’s role in the building project. Fontana was essentially called in as an outside assessor by the Theatines toward the end of 1662, when the rapport between the Fathers and Rainaldi became difficult. Already by this date, the artistic oversight of the building project had been assigned to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Fontana’s mentor, on the intervention of Pope Alexander VII (Fabio Chigi).
If the architectural transformation of the facade of the Church -– toward a more vertically accentuated design than that proposed in the original Maderno project, is to be attributed to Rainaldi, then the richly ornamental sculptural decoration applied to the facade, surely reflects Bernini’s taste and the artistic influence he exercised - also over other Rainaldi projects – in his generalised role as “Director of Art” in Rome during the pontificate of Alexander VII. Seen in this light, the facade sculptures of Sant’Andrea della Valle by Ercole Ferrata, Domenico Guidi and Giacomo Antonio Fancelli can be interpreted as a brilliant projection on an urban outdoor scale of the sculptural scenography conceived by Bernini for the Chigi chapels in Santa Maria del Popolo and in the Cathedral in Siena.
Iris type:
2.1 Contributo in volume (Capitolo o Saggio)
List of contributors:
Manfredi, Tommaso
Book title:
Architetture di Carlo Rainaldi nel quarto centenario della nascita