The eighteenth-century Sicily offers numerous cases of church façades which have been destroyed, are incomplete or projects that have never been realized. Earthquakes, limited financial resources, changes in language and taste - by developers or designers - are among the probable causes of the disappearance, a lack of implementation and completion of architecture canceled, partially built or never even started. The buildings analyzed in this volume – The Santuario della Madonna della Consolazione in Termini Imerese, The Duomo of Salaparuta, The church of Sant’Antonio di Padova in Buscemi – not well known or studied, deserve for the quality of outcomes, structures of significant level in the context of Sicilian eighteenth century production. In the Santuario della Madonna della Consolazione in Termini Imerese, in the province of Palermo, a watercolor drawing was recently discovered relating to a sophisticated solution of the façade straight between two towers, different from the present, apart from the mixed-line stairway entrance to the religious building. It is an unrealized project that shows close ties with the façade of the church of Sant’Ignazio all'Olivella in Palermo, among the most advanced sites of the capital and also in western Sicily, but that in some respects betrays affinity with some religious buildings of eighteenth-century Naples. The bell tower façade of the duomo of Salaparuta, in the province of Trapani, collapsed due to the earthquake of 1968 in the Belice Valley. Aside from a few photographs taken before the disaster, this façade, which stands as the only alternative to the type of tower built in western Sicily compared to the many, impressive and also the most popular solutions built after the earthquake of 1693 in Val di Noto, is virtually reconstructed through the numerous stone fragment survivors. Of the project for the façade of the church of Sant’Antonio di Padova in Buscemi, in the province of Siracusa, only the first order characterized by a bold sinusoidal shape was built without regard to the previous Sicilian construction sites and in the context of the intense Sicilian eighteenth-century phase of reconstruction in eastern Sicily. This would mean to ideally complete the artifact from what was built and from only an archived document. Deepening knowledge, understanding genesis, value, role and meaning, that is, reconstruct the original identity of these buildings through historical research and the help of redesign (carried out in this occasion by the architect Mirco Cannella – who currently holds a research grant as part of the Cosmed, Europian Research Council (ERC) Advanced Investigator Grant 2011 -) is a challenge that could even lead to a different view, to a virtual rebirth.

La Sicilia del Settecento offre numerosi casi di prospetti chiesastici distrutti, incompleti e ancora più ampia è la casistica di progetti non realizzati. Terremoti, risorse finanziarie limitate, cambiamenti di linguaggio e di gusto - da parte dei promotori o dei progettisti - sono tra le probabili cause della scomparsa, della mancata realizzazione e completamento di architetture cancellate, parzialmente costruite o mai iniziate. I prospetti analizzati in questo volume - santuario della Madonna della Consolazione a Termini Imerese, duomo di Salaparuta, chiesa di Sant’Antonio a Buscemi -, poco noti e studiati, meritano, per qualità degli esiti, delle strutture di significativo livello nel contesto della produzione siciliana del Settecento. Approfondire la conoscenza, comprendere genesi, valore, ruolo e significato, ricostruire cioè l’identità originaria di queste architetture attraverso la ricerca storica e l’ausilio del ridisegno costituisce una sfida che potrebbe perfino determinare una differente considerazione, una virtuale rinascita. Quanto riscoperto potrebbe anche modificare la percezione complessiva che si ha dei manufatti ancora esistenti e degli eventi interconnessi e rendere più ampio, ricco, probabilmente anche più aderente alla realtà il quadro generale a cui si fa riferimento ogni qual volta si fa ricerca, si confronta, si valuta e si inserisce un’opera di architettura nella storia.

Sutera, D. (2013). Ricostruire: storia e rappresentazione. Prospetti chiesastici nella Sicilia del Settecento. Palermo : Edizioni Caracol.

Ricostruire: storia e rappresentazione. Prospetti chiesastici nella Sicilia del Settecento

SUTERA, Domenica
2013-01-01

Abstract

The eighteenth-century Sicily offers numerous cases of church façades which have been destroyed, are incomplete or projects that have never been realized. Earthquakes, limited financial resources, changes in language and taste - by developers or designers - are among the probable causes of the disappearance, a lack of implementation and completion of architecture canceled, partially built or never even started. The buildings analyzed in this volume – The Santuario della Madonna della Consolazione in Termini Imerese, The Duomo of Salaparuta, The church of Sant’Antonio di Padova in Buscemi – not well known or studied, deserve for the quality of outcomes, structures of significant level in the context of Sicilian eighteenth century production. In the Santuario della Madonna della Consolazione in Termini Imerese, in the province of Palermo, a watercolor drawing was recently discovered relating to a sophisticated solution of the façade straight between two towers, different from the present, apart from the mixed-line stairway entrance to the religious building. It is an unrealized project that shows close ties with the façade of the church of Sant’Ignazio all'Olivella in Palermo, among the most advanced sites of the capital and also in western Sicily, but that in some respects betrays affinity with some religious buildings of eighteenth-century Naples. The bell tower façade of the duomo of Salaparuta, in the province of Trapani, collapsed due to the earthquake of 1968 in the Belice Valley. Aside from a few photographs taken before the disaster, this façade, which stands as the only alternative to the type of tower built in western Sicily compared to the many, impressive and also the most popular solutions built after the earthquake of 1693 in Val di Noto, is virtually reconstructed through the numerous stone fragment survivors. Of the project for the façade of the church of Sant’Antonio di Padova in Buscemi, in the province of Siracusa, only the first order characterized by a bold sinusoidal shape was built without regard to the previous Sicilian construction sites and in the context of the intense Sicilian eighteenth-century phase of reconstruction in eastern Sicily. This would mean to ideally complete the artifact from what was built and from only an archived document. Deepening knowledge, understanding genesis, value, role and meaning, that is, reconstruct the original identity of these buildings through historical research and the help of redesign (carried out in this occasion by the architect Mirco Cannella – who currently holds a research grant as part of the Cosmed, Europian Research Council (ERC) Advanced Investigator Grant 2011 -) is a challenge that could even lead to a different view, to a virtual rebirth.
2013
Settore ICAR/18 - Storia Dell'Architettura
9788898546053
Sutera, D. (2013). Ricostruire: storia e rappresentazione. Prospetti chiesastici nella Sicilia del Settecento. Palermo : Edizioni Caracol.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10447/84625
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