Bernardo Vittone

Bernardo Antonio Vittone (August 19, 1704 – October 19, 1770) was an Italian architect and writer. He was one of the three most important Baroque architects active in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy; the other two were Filippo Juvarra and Guarino Guarini. The youngest of the three, Vittone was the only one who was born in the Piedmont. He achieved a synthesis of the spatial inventiveness of Juvarra and the engineering ingenuity of Guarini, particularly in the design of his churches, the buildings for which he is best known.

Vittone was born in Turin into a mercantile family. He may have been introduced to architecture by his uncle, the architect Gian Giacomo Plantery and might have worked under Juvarra before departing for Rome. In Rome, Vittone won a first prize in the Accademia di San Luca in 1732. His architectural studies in Rome included works by Carlo Fontana and he was elected to the Academy in 1733 just prior to his return to Turin.

From 1735, he was engaged in preparing Guarini’s Architettura Civile for publication in 1737. Following the death of Juvarra in 1736, several architectural commissions came his way. However, when the royal House of Savoy resumed its patronage of architecture in the early 1740s, they appointed Benedetto Innocente Alfieri as their architect, not Vittone. Instead, Vittone built up a clientele of patrons for who he designed buildings in the area around Turin.

Vittone's most inventive and memorable works are the parish churches, remote from the main cities. They include the sanctuary or Cappella della Visitazione at Vallinotto (1738–1739), near Carignano, erected for agricultural workers of the town. The exterior has a tiered dome, but the hexagonal interior has the geometric elaborations with alternating convex and concave chapels that recall the architecture of Juvarra and Borromini. In the dome, the elaborately decorated ribs, reminiscent of Guarini’s work, intersect to form a complex design illuminated by natural light playfully concealed by hidden windows. Another masterpiece is the church of Santa Chiara at Bra (1741-2); with a central double shell dome with ornamented openings in the lower shell which offer views through to the painted second shell.

...
Wikipedia