Scuola Grande del Carmine, Venice

Facade and campanile: the Duomo at Trani

Topography of Roman roofs

Viewed from the Castel Sant' Angelo: from the left, the dome of the Pantheon; the Monumento Vittorio Emanuele with the dome of the Gesu; the spiral dome of Sant' Ivo alla Sapienza, the spire of Santa Maria dell' Anima and the low dome of Santa Maria della Pace with the Campidoglio in the distance; the domes of San Salvatore in Lauro and Sant' Agnese in Agone

Piazza della Vittoria, Lodi

Vicentine Void: the''House of Palladio" facade

Piazza and pulpit, Orvieto: Sant' Andrea in Piazza della Repubblica

Santa Maria and San Donato, Murano

Three views of Torcello

Still a dramatic presence in the Venetian lagoon, the island of Torcello presents to the contemporary visitor the surviving fragments of a once significant centre. Depopulation has left three major monuments, a cathedral, a church and a campanile, and a cluster of lesser structures which highlight the values of a civilisation which saw itself as vulnerable to barbarian attack. The cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta takes a basilican form compatible with its foundation date of 639 and its reconstruction in 1008. Adjacent to its simple linear form the complex centralised church of Santa Fosca is connected by a continuous arcade dated to the twelfth century, the appearance of which has suggested the intention to evoke similarities to sites in the Holy Land. Overlooking this pair of structures, the campanile served the additional purposes of lighthouse and refuge. In a characteristic Byzantine manner, the undecorated exterior surfaces contrast with the rich mosaic images of the interiors, especially the great image of Mary, Mother of God in the cathedral apse, and the Last Judgement opposite it on the entrance wall which backed on to the now ruined baptistery. This emphasises in architectural and decorative form the separate status of the unbaptised prior to entry into the church as a community and as an urban monument. So the baptistery represents Christian rebirth, followed by passage through the wall with the Last Judgement, and the testing of the faithful, through to consummation at the high altar beneath the image of Virgin and Child in the golden field of heaven. As a collection of architectural types, (basilica, martyrium, campanile, baptistery) the piazza foreshadows the elements of more populous cities which developed on the Italian mainland into the medieval period.

Although the present basilica is a later rebuilding, the difference between Christian worship and the pagan ceremonies which preceded them are apparent. The basilica - type had developed out of Roman civil structures for trade and the dispensation of justice but the christian basilica internalised the language of Roman public space with the perimeter colonnades and triumphal arch. In some instances the columns would themselves have previously lined fora and other public spaces so we can assume that early christians would have been aware of the connection, and the isolation of Torcello underlines the importance of this difficult appropriation of urban material to make a christian city. Similarly the form of the apse, particularly with its image of Christ or the Virgin would have taken on the inheritance of triumphal imagery with traditional figures of victory replaced at Torcello by images of the Annunciation. Such use of physical and conceptual spolia represented the triumph of Christianity over the pagan past, and in the Venetian context specifically her succession to the Byzantine and Roman empires. This tradition of cultural appropriation is also evident in Santa Fosca, a later addition to the complex, in the form of a martyrium, or centralised church based on Byzantine precedents. Its separation would allow for the creation and display of processions. Deborah Howard has suggested that its form, especially with its encircling porch is intended to evoke structures in Jerusalem such as the Dome of the Rock, or the church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is the period of the Crusades in which the Venetians were heavily involved, especially the Fourth Crusade in 1204 when Constantinople was sacked.

Neptune and Mars in a square: Piazza del Popolo, Rome

Giuseppe Valadier’s intervention in Piazza del Popolo was initiated in 1794 when as a young architect he presented a project for the piazza’s redefinition to Pope Pius VI, and its effective militarisation by the erection of paired colonnaded barracks. With the French occupation of Rome in 1798 the architect redesigned his project as an urban garden space, associated with an adjacent public garden on the Pincian Hill, and introduced a cross axis centred on the obelisk placed there by Sixtus V. The elliptical garden space which was thus defined had its Roman origins in Bernini’s work at Piazza San Pietro but transformed for the neoclassical taste, and perhaps also the more recent example of Prato della Valle in Padua. A series of transformations would follow as the urban character of the space was emphasised and the civil engineering difficulties associated with the hill were resolved. In the centre of the piazza the obelisk was given a new base and surrounded by fountains featuring ‘egyptian’ lions. Low screen walls, ornamented with sphinxes formed the hemicycles with a fountain of Neptune towards the Tiber, and a fountain of Mars backed by a series of terraces, rostral columns and cascades against the Pincian Hill. The culminating feature was a three arched loggia supporting the final terrace where an elevated view towards the dome of Saint Peter’s was provided, an entirely appropriate change of directional emphasis once Pius VII returned to the city following the abdication of Napoleon in 1814. The papal administration was content to continue with Valadier’s project, with four substantial building elements created in an animated neoclassical language, a new flank wall to the church of Santa Maria del Popolo and a small barracks building framing the view of the Porta del Popolo, and a pair of commercial buildings framing Rainaldi’s twin baroque churches. The archaeological taste is evidenced by the piling up of motifs, including the statuary, the placing of another obelisk on the summit of the Pincian Hill and the decorative panels of militaria (similar to those on the Aventine) set within a romantic landscape which is designed to contrast dramatically with its urban context. The eclectic architectural language favoured by Piranesi had found an expression on a civic scale.

Piazza del Duomo, Pistoia

Mannerist Milan: Casa degli Omenoni by Leone Leoni (1509-1590)

Mitoraj Sculptures in Florence and Milan

Three Baroque Spaces

The Nature of Gothic, in Bergamo and Vicenza

Forum Romanum

From the left he portico of the Temple of Saturn, framing the portico of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, with fragment of the Temple of Vesta, the Arch of Titus and the three columns of the Temple of Castor.

Facade and fountain: Piazza Farnese, Rome

Colleoni Chapel, Bergamo

Classical Invention in Vicenza and Florence

Details from the Basilica Palladiana, Vicenza (above) and the Palazzo Grifone, Florence (below).

Neptune and Mars on a staircase: Palazzo Ducale, Venice

Angel

From 'The Vision of Saint Cecilia' by Orazio Gentileschi (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan)

Tomb: Piazza San Domenico, Bologna