Robert Adam
Adamwas the most famous of the four sons of the Scottish architect William Adam (1698–1748). He was brought up in Edinburgh and went to university there (1743–1745). His family circle was that of the Edinburgh Enlightenment, and he was related to the Scottish historian William Robertson and a close friend of David Hume. Though a [...]
Brunelleschi
Brunelleschi, Filippo, or Filippo di Ser Brunellesco (1377–1446), Italian architect and engineer, born in Florence, the son of a notary. He trained as a goldsmith and sculptor, and in 1401 he entered the competition for the bronze baptistery doors, which Ghiberti won. Brunelleschi came to architecture as a builder and construction engineer with an acute [...]
Architecture of the italian enlightenment, 1750–1800- part 3
Fernando Fuga and the Albergo dei Poveri While Vanvitelli developed the worldly Caserta, to Ferdinando Fuga fell a more mundane but no less instrumental element of Bourbon rule: the Albergo dei Poveri in Naples. Born a Florentine, Fuga came to Rome to study at the Accademia di San Luca. He had proposed a project for [...]
Architecture of the italian enlightenment, 1750–1800- part 2
Nicola Salvi and the Trevi Fountain Alongside serious official architectural works on major ecclesiastical sites, eighteenth-century Rome also sustained a flourishing activity in more lighthearted but no less meaningful works.The Trevi Fountain ranks perhaps as the most joyous site in Rome. Built from 1732 to 1762 under the patronage of popes Clement XII, Benedict XIV, [...]
Architecture of the Italian enlightenment, 1750–1800- part 1
The pantheon revisited The Pantheon is one of the most celebrated and most carefully studied buildings of Western architecture. In the modern age, as it had been in the Renaissance, the Pantheon is a crucible of critical thinking. Preservation of the Pantheon had been undertaken in the seventeenth century and continued in the eighteenth during [...]
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