Nicolau Nasoni
Nicolau Nasoni | |
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Born | Niccoló Nasoni 2 June 1691 |
Died | 30 August 1773 | (aged 82)
Occupation(s) | Artist and architect |
Signature | |
Nicolau Nasoni (or originally Niccoló Nasoni, 2 June 1691 – 30 August 1773) was an
.He became one of the most influential figures in Portuguese Baroque architecture with his original and vigorous and theatrical style of Baroque and Rococo architecture.
Biography
Born in San Giovanni Valdarno,
He was then employed, first as a
At the invitation of Jerónimo de Távora e Noronha, the Dean of Porto, Portugal, whose brother Roque de Távora, he had met in Malta, Nasoni moved to Porto in 1723 (or 1725), where he would remain till his death in 1773.
His first recorded works in Porto were
In 1729 he married Isabella Castriotto Ricciardi, a Neapolitan woman of noble descent. She died the next year through complications of childbirth. The godfather of José, his son, was a Portuguese nobleman who asked him in 1731 to design the church and the spectacular granite tower of São Pedro dos Clérigos in Porto. This would become, according to scholars, his greatest work (1732–63). It would become the most significant and innovative architectural event in the renovation of Porto during the first half of the 18th century. Together with his other realizations, it would transform Porto into the most Baroque of Portuguese cities. The ground plan has an oval form, something most unusual in churches. It withstood the great earthquake of 1755.
In 1731 he was married again, this time to a Portuguese woman, Antónia Mascarenhas Malafaia.
Other major works in Porto and northern Portugal:
- loggia of the Porto Cathedral
- Palace of São João Novo(1723–1733) (Porto) (it now houses the Ethnographic and Historical Museum)
- Cathedral of Lamego (1738–1743): rebuilding of the cathedral and painting of the false quadraturatechniques.
- Frescoes depicting the Apocalypse (1739; destroyed) on the ceiling of the nave of the church Sta. Eulália, Cumeeira, in the province of Trás-os-Montes
- Igreja do Bom Jesus (1743), a magnificent Baroque church in Matosinhos, just north of Porto. Here he added an element of horizontality (rather rare in Portuguese architecture).
- Quinta do Chantre (1743): garden walls with fountains along a central axis, leading to the house with a central tower
- Igreja de Santa Marinha (1745), Vila Nova de Gaia (on the other side of the river Douro, facing Porto)
- Retable in the Igreja de Santo Ildefonso (1745)
- Designs for the orphanage of Nossa Senhora da Esperança (1746)
- Quinta de Ramalde (1746): adding Neo-Gothic elements such as decorative battlements to the central tower.
- façade of the Misericórdia Church (1749) (Porto)
- the Palace of Freixo (1750) (Porto)
- the central part of the palace of Mateus (Solar de Mateus) (attributed to Nasoni on stylistic grounds; finished in 1750) (Vila Real)
- Quinta da Prelada (finished before 1758): one of his most theatrical designs, full of fantasy, such as the granite fountain of the Tortoise (but not completed)
- Capela Nova (Vila Real)
His specialty was the talha dourada, a technique to decorate woodwork with gold leaves. This sculptured gilt wood became typical for the Portuguese baroque art. This technique was applied to
In his designs for ecclesiastical silver, he used these same motifs again: winged angels, acanthus leaves and garlands (silver altarpiece in the cathedral of Porto). And again in the iron railings and gates of the chancel arch in the same cathedral.
In 1743 he entered the Clérigos Brotherhood. He was buried, at his request, in an unmarked tomb in the crypt of the Clérigos Church.
He had, as an architect and painter, an enormous influence in the northern part of Portugal even if he didn't found a school or train new followers. One of his successors was the painter and architect José de Figueiredo Seixas, who had worked under Nasoni's direction.
Issue
By Isabella Castriotto Ricciardi:
- José Nasoni Barberino de Mascarenhas Malafaia, or Friar José Nasoni (8 June 1730), monk and Bachelor of Canon law from University of Coimbra[2]
By Antónia de Mascarenhas Malafaia:
- Margarida Nasoni de Mascarenhas (27 July 1731– 23 April 1821), married Manuel de Matos Pereira, Professed Knight in the Order of Christ, without issue[2]
- António Nasoni Barberino de Mascarenhas Malafaia (20 December 1732), exiled in India[2]
- Jerónimo (7 September 1734)[2]
- Francisco (14 January 1736)[2]
- Ana de Mascarenhas Nasoni (26 May 1737 – 26 January 1800), married António Félix de Campos e Mesquita Pirralho, had issue[2]
References
- ^ "Valletta's Spinola Palace to get additional floor". Times of Malta. 7 July 2005. Archived from the original on 6 November 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f SOUSA, Daniel A. Oliveira de, Colaços, Monteiros e Mascarenhas Malafaias - dos Açougues do Porto ao Sólio Patriarcal Lisbonense. O Percurso de Três Famílias Portuenses, Zéfiro, 2021, pp. 249-258.
Bibliography
- Curl, James Stevens (2006) [2006]. A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (Paperback) (Second ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 880 pages. ISBN 0-19-860678-8.
- Turner, J. (1990) ISBN 1-884446-00-0.
- Robert C. Smith (1971). "Baroque and Rococo Braga: Documenting Eighteenth-Century Architecture and Sculpture in Northern Portugal". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 115 (3): 214–220.
- Smith, Robert C. (1973) Nicolau Nasoni (1691–1773); Livros Horizonte, Lisbon.
External links
- Nicolau Nasoni (1691-1773). Biography, University of Porto