Canina, Luigi

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Canina, Luigi (1795–1856). Italian Neo-Classical architect. With Valadier, he was important as a protagonist of archaeologically correct Neo-Classicism in Rome during the first decades of C19. He succeeded Asprucci at the Villa Borghese Gardens, where his scholarly Egyptian Gate (completed 1828) with pylon-towers (the first in Italy, it seems), and obelisks is a good example of the Egyptian Revival, and he also designed the archaeologically correct Ionic in antis lodges at the Piazza Flaminia entrance, influenced, no doubt, by Cagnola's Porta Ticinese in Milan (1801–14). His works at the Borghese Gardens included the Fountain of Esculapius and the astylar triumphal arch (both 1818–28), the latter recalling Chalgrin's work in Paris. He produced Gli edifizi di Roma antica… (Buildings of Ancient Rome—1848–56) and Le nuove fabbriche della Villa Borghese… (The New Buildings of the Villa Borghese—1828), was an architectural historian of considerable significance, and was responsible for major archaeological excavations in the Forum, Appian Way, and Campagna (1823–46).

Bibliography

Canina (1828, 1846, 1852);
J. Curl (2005);
Meeks (1966);
Raggi (1857)