Filippo Juvarra

Filippo Juvarra , 1678-1736, Italian architect of the late baroque and early rococo periods. Trained in the studio of Carlo Fontana in Rome, he entered (1714) the service of Victor Amadeus II of Savoy and was soon appointed first architect to the king. Juvarra acquired an unparalleled reputation throughout Europe. In 1719 he was in Portugal, planning the palace at Mafra for King John V, after which he traveled to London and Paris. He died in Madrid, where he had gone (1735) to design a royal palace for Philip V. The main body of his work, however, is in Piedmont, where he planned many royal residences and churches. Among them are the Palazzo Madama, Turin; the castle at Stupinigi; and the churches of the Superga near Turin and of the Carmine, Turin. Drawing mainly from Italian and German Renaissance and baroque works, Juvarra integrated a variety of elements, achieving unity and grandeur of design.

Bibliography: See R. Pommer, Eighteenth Century Architecture in Piedmont (1967).

Juvarra, Filippo (1678–1736) Italian architect, one of the finest exponents of the Baroque style. His greatest achievements are the Superga (1717–31), just outside Turin, and the Church of the Carmine (1732).

Juvarra, Filippo (1676–1736), Italian architect, who designed scenery for several private theatres in Rome, his most important work being done for Cardinal Ottoboni, a great lover of plays and opera for whom he designed and built a small theatre (probably for rod puppets). Two plans for this are extant; it is not known which was finally used, as the theatre was demolished when Ottoboni died and no trace of it remains. There are still in existence, however, a number of scene-designs which Juvarra made for productions there between 1708 and 1714, including those in an album now at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London which probably dates from 1711.