Guarini, Guarino (1624–83). Born in Modena, where he was baptized Camillo, he became a mathematician, Theatine priest, and one of the most original architects of the late C17. Indeed, he was a sophisticated geometrician, and a pioneer of projective and descriptive geometry, as is clear from his
Placita Philosophica (1665),
Euclides Adauctus (1671) and
Architettura Civile (1686— not published until 1737), anticipating the work of Gaspard Monge (1746–1818), who is usually credited with the invention of descriptive geometry. His work on
stereotomy doubtless helps to explain the great complexity of his buildings. His main architectural influences derived from
Bernini,
Borromini, and
Cortona: the deeply modelled façades of the Collegio di Nobili, Turin (1679–83), clearly owe a debt to Borromini; while the Palazzo Carignano (also 1679–83) was influenced by Bernini's proposals for the Louvre, Paris (1665), with elements drawn from Borromini's San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome. All his most interesting surviving work is in Turin, where he developed openwork systems of intersecting ribs instead of solid domes, derived, perhaps, from Borromini's Oratory and Propaganda Fide chapels in Rome. At Turin Cathedral Guarini built the Cappella della SS Sindone to house the Holy Shroud, with a cone-shaped dome (1667–90) composed of diminishing tiers of segmental rib-arches piled up upon one another and framing windows (severely damaged 1997). His Church of San Lorenzo, Turin (1668–80), has an approximately octagonal central space each side of which curves inwards and is composed of a
serliana motif, while the dome above is formed of interlocking semicircular ribs disposed to form an eight-pointed star with an open octagon in the centre. The parallel to these arrangements can be found in the
Moorish architecture of Spain, such as the Mosque at Córdoba (
c.965), and in French
Gothic cathedrals. Indeed, his
Architettura Civile (1737) contains an intelligent appraisal of Gothic architecture, and his work seems to have exercised a considerable influence in Central Europe, notably on von
Hildebrandt, the
Dientzenhofers,
Fischer von Erlach,
Neumann, J. M.
Fischer, and, above all,
Santini-Aichel, for he made designs for St Maria, Altötting, Prague (1679), while his project for Santa Maria della Divina Providenza, Lisbon (1679 or 1681), has a plan remarkably similar to that of Neumann's Pilgrimage Church of
Vierzehnheiligen (Fourteen Saints), Franconia, Germany (1740s).
Bibliography
Brinckmann (1931, 1932);
Guarini (1660, 1665, 1671, 1674, 1675, 1676, 1678, 1683, 1966, 1968);
Meek (1988);
Norberg-Schulz (1986, 1986a);
Oechslin (1970);
Pommer (1967);
Portoghesi (1956);
Wittkower (1982)
