Baroque Turin, Between Geometry and Architecture

Abstract

In the baroque Turin it is possible to identify routes aimed to discover atria of palaces and houses, freely accessible, whose unitary vaulted systems made of brickworks show an admirable combination of geometry and architecture, making them a case of interest in architectural history (Callet & Lesueurs 1855, Norberg Schultz 1980) for quality, quantity and variety of solutions. Actually, the 'esprit de geometrie' - which permeated the philosophical interests of that period, fueled by the theories of Galileo, Descartes, Pascal and Desargues, - was expressed through the work of extraordinary architects in the city. The theoretical and practical activities of Guarino Guarini, a Theatines abbot who spent the last part of his life in Turin from 1666 to 1683 as an architect, engineer and mathematician to service Carlo Emanuele of Savoy, turned out to be a driving force of this phenomenon. In particular, in Architettura Civile (Guarini 1737), he developed a real vocabulary of shapes, starting from geometric primitives: by combining them a great variety of complex vaulted systems arose. In the transition between the purely geometric concept of vaulted system and its application in palaces, dimensional constraints and construction practices involved adjustments foreseen in the Treaty and experienced by Guarini in the vaults of the atria of Palazzo Carignano and Palazzo Provana di Collegno. These adjustments generated a deviation from the ideal geometric models. In the Eighteenth-Century Giovanni Giacomo Plantery, indirectly linked with Guarini because of the kinship with Bernardo Vittone - the editor of the posthumous publication of Architettura Civile - and his probable apprenticeship with him turned out to be decisive for the experimentation of new compositional solutions that had wide spread along the expansion axes and the reshaping areas of the city.