Giuseppe Sardi
Giuseppe Sardi (1680 – documented until 1768) was an
Career
In contemporary sources, Sardi is described more often as acting in the capacity of a capomastro or master builder rather than as an architect. He designed and executed only one church from scratch, that of Santa Maria del Rosario in 1712 in the Colonna family fiefdom of Marino, in the Alban Hills outside Rome. The interior is centrally planned and has an unusual and elaborately decorated dome. This is also his first known work.
His work as capomastro is documented on the building sites of
Although Sardi's name has been connected with several churches in and around Rome, one of the mostly securely attested of his commissions is the addition of a new façade to the church of
More contentious are Sardi's contributions to two other churches that had new (or renovated) façades finished in the period between 1720 and 1740. The first of these projects was the construction of a new façade for San Paolo alla Regola, a church which had been erected around 1687 to a design of Father Giovanni Battista Bergonzoni (called Borgognone), a teacher of theology at the college attached to the church.[8] Vasi claims that the façade was the design of Giovanni Battista Conti,[9] while Titi attributes it to 'Ciacomo Ciolli’ (Giacomo Cioli) and Sardi jointly.[10] In sum, there is no scholarly consensus on how exactly the work should be divided.
A similar problem concerns the attribution to Sardi of the facade of
References
- ^ Contardi and Curcio, 1991, pp. 441 - 42; Portoghesi, 1982, p. 373 - 90; Mallory, 1967; Mallory, 1977, pp. 53 - 75
- ^ Alessandra Marino, "La decorazione settecentesca della facciata di S. Maria Maddalena: un'occasione per alcune precisazioni sul rococò romano", Quaderni dell'istituto di storia dell'architettura, 15 – 20, 1990 – 2, pp. 789 – 98.
- ^ Contardi and Curcio, 1991
- ^ Mallory, 1977, pp. 56 - 58
- ^ Mallory, 1977, pp. 54 - 56
- ^ Sardi's contribution to this façade is noted in a contemporary account of the history of the church by Giuseppe Maria Crescimbeni, who as an archpriest of the church was thus in a position to know the architect of the façade:Mallory, 1977, p. 54
- ^ Mallory, 1977, pp. 61 - 66
- ^ Contardi and Curcio, 1999, p. 321
- ^ Vasi, 1756, p. 46
- ^ Titi, 1978, p. 100. Chapter records from 25 August 1721 also mention both men, with Cioli in the role of designer and Sardi in the role of capomastro: Buchowiecki, 1974, p. 536
- ^ Armellini, 1887, pp. 323; Buchowiecki, 1974, pp. 307 – 25; Bussagli, 2004, pp. 576 – 7 and 584; Contardi and Curcio, 1991, pp. 441; Gizzi, 1999, pp. 40 – 1; Mallory, 93 – 101; Mallory, 1977, pp. xi – xii, 67 – 74; Mortari, 1987; Pietrangeli, 1977, pp. 38 – 40; Portoghesi, 1982, pp. 376 – 7; Titi, 1978, pp. 363 – 4; Marino, 1992; Varriano, 1986, p. 149; Vasi, 1756, pp. 67 – 8 (including Plate 138).
- Giovanni Antonio de Rossi, the architect of the Palazzo d'Aste on the Piazza Venezia in Rome. The façade is attributed in contemporary sources to de Rossi or his successor Carlo Quadri: Contardi and Curcio, 1991, p. 426. Chapter records mention his development of designs for the façade of the church: Mortari, 1987, p. 27 Work on this design proceeded between 1696 and 1699. This façade appears to have been undecorated, a fact attested by the hanging of tapestries on this façade for the patronal festival in 1725 (this would only have occurred with a plain façade and would be impossible with the decorative scheme currently in place): Mortari, 1987, p. 39. Similarly, a chapter record written by the general of the Ministri degli Infermi, Costantini, in 1734, indicates that the façade was still unfinished (grezza): Marino, 1992, p. 790. The commencement of the decoration of the façade is noted in Valesio's diary (21 July 1735), but he does not note the designer: Mortari, 1987, p. 126
- ^ Mallory, 1977, p. 68
- ^ Mallory, 1977, p. 68, n. 27
- ^ Scholars have noted similarities between the style of the decoration of this façade and some cabinet work of roughly the same period, particularly the organ case of S. Maria Maddalena (designer unknown) and the armoires of the sacristy of S. Maria Maddalena, attributable to Domenico Barbiani. Alessandra Marino has recently suggested that the decoration of the façade should be attributed to Barbiani and that Emanuele Rodriguez dos Santos (architect of SS Trinità dei Spagnoli) should be credited as the architect of the façade Marino, 1992. In Marino's view, Sardi acted in his usual capacity of capomastro (master builder )
Further reading
- Mariano Armellini, Le chiese di Roma dalle loro origini sino al secolo XVI, Rome: Tipografia Editrice Romana, 1887.
- Walter Buchowiecki, Handbuch der Kirchen Roms: Die Kirchen innerhalb der Mauern Roms – S. Maria delle Neve bis S. Susanna, Vienna: Verlag Brüder Hollinek, 1974.
- Marco Bussagli, Rome: Art and Architecture, Königswinter: Könemann, 2004.
- Bruno Contardi and Giovanna Curcio (eds), In urbe architectus: Modelli, disegni, misure. La professione dell’architetto Roma 1680–1750, Rome: Argos Edizioni, 1991.
- Nina A. Mallory, ‘The Architecture of Giuseppe Sardi and the Attribution of the Façade of the Church of the Maddalena’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 26, no. 2, 1967, pp. 83 – 101.
- Nina A. Mallory, Roman Rococo Architecture from Clement XI to Benedict XIV (1700–1758), New York: Garland Publishing, 1977.
- Alessandra Marino, ‘La decorazione settecentesca della facciata di S. Maria Maddalena: un’occasione per alcune precisazioni sul rococò romano’, Quaderni dell’istituto di storia dell’architettura, 15 – 20, 1990 – 2, pp. 789 – 98.
- Carlo Pietrangeli (ed), Guide rionali di Roma: Rione III – Colonna (Parte Prima), Rome: Fratelli Palombi Editori, 1977.
- Paolo Portoghesi, Roma barocca, Rome: Editori Laterza, 1982.
- Filippo Titi, Descrizione delle pitture, sculture e architteture esposte al pubblico in Roma, Rome: Multigrafica Editrice, 1978.
- Giuseppe Vasi, I conventi e case dei chierici regolari (Delle magnificenze di Roma antica e moderna, Libro settimo), Rome: Niccolò e Marco Pagliarini, 1756.
- John Varriano, Italian Baroque and Rococo Architecture, New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.