Filippo Juvarra

Filippo Juvarra or Juvara (7 March 1678 – 31 January 1736) was an Italian architect, scenographer, engraver and goldsmith. He was active in a late-Baroque architecture style, working primarily in Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

Juvarra was born in Messina, Sicily, to a family of goldsmiths and engravers. He spent his formative years with his family in Sicily, working in the family shop, but also studied for the priesthood, to which he was ordained in 1703. At the same time, he made his mark as a draughtsman - designing Messina's festive settings for the coronation of Philip V of Spain and Sicily (1701) - and studied architecture independently, working from books alone, such as those by Vitruvius and Vignola. Juvarra moved to Rome in 1704. There he studied architecture with Carlo and Francesco Fontana.

The first phase of his independent career was occupied with designs for ceremonies and celebrations, and especially with set designs for theatres. Juvarra's set designs incorporate the scena per angolo, literally 'scenes at an angle.' The exact origin of this style is unclear. Ferdinando Galli Bibiena claims to have invented it in his treatise Architettura Civile (1711). However, the style was clearly in use before then, including in the works of Juvarra. This style differed from the one-point perspective sets that had been developed in the sixteenth century and had reached their apogee in the seventeenth century; see, for example, the work of Giacomo Torelli. A couple of early drawings by Juvarra, dated 1706, are associated with the San Bartolomeo Theater in Naples, though whether he actually completed the set designs for the theatre is unknown. The majority of his work in theatre and set design was in Rome under the patronage of Cardinal Ottoboni. He assisted in the rebuilding of the Cardinal's private theatre in the Palazzo della Cancelleria and also designed sets for operas performed within the theatre. The first opera for which Juvarra designed all the sets was Costantino Pio, with libretto by Cardinal Ottoboni and music by CF Pollarolli. The opera premiered in 1709, inaugurated Ottoboni's newly renovated private theatre, and was one of the first operas to appear after the lifting of papal bans on secular theatre. He also worked on set designs for performances sponsored by Ottoboni at the Teatro Capranica. His other main patron in Rome was Marie Casimire d'Arquien, the widowed former Queen of Poland, for whom Juvarra produced set designs for the operas performed in her small domestic theatre in the Palazzo Zuccari. In 1713 a theatre project took him to Genoa.

In 1706 Juvarra won a contest for the new sacristy at the St. Peter's, organized by Pope Clement XI, and became a member of the prestigious Accademia di San Luca. In 1708 he created his first important non-theatrical architectural work, and the only one realized in Rome: the small but superbly executed Antamoro Chapel in the church of San Girolamo della Carità which he conceived in intimate cooperation with his close friend, the French sculptor Pierre Le Gros, who created the chapel sculptures.

Juvarra was also an engraver: his book of engravings of sculpted coats-of-arms appeared in 1711, Raccolta di varie targhe fatte da professori primarii di Roma.

After some time in Rome, Juvarra spent some time in his native Messina where he developed ambitious plans (never completed) for building along the harborside with a massive curved palace facade for residences and businesses. He was engaged in some projects in Lombardy, including a monumental altar for the Sanctuary Church of Caravaggio (never built, and substituted by a smaller work by architect Carlo Giuseppe Merlo), and the altar for the Bergamo Cathedral. He also designed the decorative belltower (now leaning) for the cathedral of Belluno.

In 1714, Juvarra began to design the architectural works for which he is best known, when he was recruited to the Duchy of Savoy, where Victor Amadeus II first employed him in a scenographic project, then elevated Juvarra to the position of chief court architect in Turin.

In Turin, Juvarra designed the facade of the church of Santa Cristina (1715–1718), the church of San Filippo, the church of Santa Croce, the Basilica della Natività, and the chapel of San Giuseppe (1725) in the church of Santa Teresa. He also designed and built the church of the Blessed Virgin of the Carmine (1732-1736), where the space is concentrated around the central hall with the scenographic effect of light falling from above. He also helped decorate the interior of many churches in Turin.