Bologna: San Pietro, project for the reconstruction of the church, longitudinal section, c. 1610–11
Artist/Maker
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Dimensionsh x w: 39,4 x 77,4 cm tre sammansatta blad
Inventory numberNMH CC 1303
AcqusitionDonated 1941 by Eric Langenskiöld. Formerly in the Cronstedt collection, Fullerö
Other titlesTitel (sv): Italiensk kyrka av basilikatyp med krypta. Längdsektion Titel (en): Bologna: San Pietro, project for the reconstruction of the church, longitudinal section, c. 1610–11 Tidigare: Italian Basilical Church with Crypt. Longitudinal section
DescriptionRes. Katalogtext: Bortolozzi, Italian Architectural Drawings from the Cronstedt Collection, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2020 (cat.no. 131) Carlo Maderno (1556–1629), his workshop, attr. Pen and brown ink over grey chalk, traces of black ink, brown wash, straightedge, compass and freehand, 39.4/34 × 77/77.4 cm NM H CC 1303 PAPER: white laid paper, two sheets joined vertically and a narrow strip of paper glued to the right edge. Two vertical folds. In correspondence to the column of the front portico the verso has been reinforced with a piece of paper partially inscribed (but not readable). Significant loss in the middle of the upper edge, mended with a piece of paper pigmented on the back WATERMARK: Crown 24 (left half); Hand 27 (right half) INSCRIPTIONS: misura di cinque pertiche cioè piedi 50 (at lower left edge, referring to the scale key) A to R (key letters) MEASUREMENTS: Bolognese pertiche; scale at the lower left edge with five units (pertiche) = 15.25 cm PROVENANCE: Carl Johan Cronstedt and descendants; Eric Langenskiöld; gift to the Nationalmuseum of Stockholm 1941 BIBLIOGRAPHY: unpublished From 1566 onwards, Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti developed a rebuilding programme for the medieval San Pietro, aiming to re-establish the church as the city’s religious centre and episcopal seat. Commissioned by Paleotti, Domenico Tibaldi planned a new magnificent choir, with four giant free-standing Corinthian columns, based on antique models. Works began in 1570 at the eastern end, without touching the main body of the church. The new, elevated choir was raised above a crypt and two side chapels, one for the family of the Bolognese pope, Gregory XIII Boncompagni, and one for that of the bishop, were erected at the entrance of the presbytery. At Paleotti’s death in 1597, the rest of the church was still in its original state, even if Pietro Fiorini and other Bolognese architects had presented several plans for its reconstruction. The Canons expressed their wish for a design that preserved the medieval layout of the church characterised by three aisles, flanked by five chapels on each side. At the beginning of 1599, Archbishop Alfonso Paleotti, nephew of Gabriele, resumed the renovation of the cathedral, but on 2 June the medieval vaults on the northern aisle unexpectedly collapsed. Works remained interrupted until 1605, when Giovanni Ambrogio Mazenta and Floriano Ambrosini presented new projects, followed by new ebates over the choice of a suitable plan for the church. The architects’ concern was to guarantee the stability of the old foundations, but also to accomplish Alfonso Paleotti’s wish to preserve the family chapels and create a one-bay interior, in accordance with Counter-Reformation principles. The Paleotti and Boncompagnichapels were subject to criticism since their presence obstructed the view of Tibaldi’s choir and broke the continuity of the interior space. Following the death of Paleotti in October 1610, Scipione Borghese, cardinal nephew of Paul V, became archbishop of Bologna. With the explicit aim to quickly take the cathedral's renovation to completion, he entrusted the local architects Ambrosini and Mazenta with new projects, including the demolition of the Paleotti and Boncompagni chapels. In October 1611, the Borghese architects, Carlo Maderno and Flaminio Ponzio, were also sent from Rome to inspect the church. During the following months they presented to the cardinal new projects for the reconstruction (Antinori 1995, figs. 86–91) and a memorandum in which they expressed advice on a number of matters (Caflisch 1934, 56–57). They included the erection of a longitudinal arm of three bays on arches with three side chapels and the demolition of the sacristy and the family chapels at the entrance of the presbytery. On 2 April 1612, Scipione Borghese left the archdiocese to Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi who, due to the hostility of the cathedral's Chapter towards the ‘Roman’ project of Maderno and Ponzio and the criticism expressed by the Bolognese architects, commissioned Giovanni Ambrogio Mazenta and Niccolò Donati to undertake supplementary projects. Finally, Donati’s project, with a single nave characterised by pairs of colossal Corinthian pilasters, was approved in 1613. In fact, Donati’s project presented a solution that aimed at combining the local tradition with Maderno's and Ponzio's plan (Barton Thurber 1997b, 63, fig. 11). The Stockholm drawing shows a proposal for the reconstruction of San Pietro at Bologna, most probably dating back to between 1610 and 1612, that is during the period Scipione Borghese was in office. The project is a single-nave interior with three large chapels on each side, similar to the Il Gesù model, but articulated by monumental free-standing Corinthian columns on pedestals that follow the order of Tibaldi’s choir. The arcades of the nave reproduce the form and dimension of the apses of the choir and seated figures of evangelists and prophets are placed above the keystone of each arcade. The rear walls of the lateral chapels are semicircular, similar to the one at Santa Maria in Vallicella and other Roman churches of the end of the 16th century. On the façade, the late medieval portico is preserved, but a new portal, surmounted by a pediment on consoles, is inserted. Above the roof of the portico, the medieval oculus still lights the nave, but a new large window is opened at the level of the vault. Key letters from A to R probably refer to a lost plan or description. Above the main entablature small figures are represented behind a balustrade, in a manner similar to a drawing of the centring of St Peter’s in the Vatican, also in the Cronstedt Collection (NM H CC 2254, Cat. no. 63). A coved vault pierced by large thermal windows covers the nave, a solution inspired by the great bath complexes of antiquity and by Palladio's Venetian Church of Il Redentore, built between 1577 and 1592 (Puppi 1975, 419–423, Cat. no. 131 and Howard 2003). A similar idea to seek continuity between the magnificent choir and the body of the church through the Corinthian order appears only in a late project for the cathedral by Ambrosini (Ricci, Zampa 2009, 21, fig. 17) and in the church built by Donati. However, the Stockholm project is unique in its design of the vault, which conveys classical elegance to the interior and provides an ad-hoc technical solution for the precarious stability of the lateral walls. In 16th-century Venice, vaulted structures were in fact built with light materials, such as wood and reeds, to cope with the soft quality of the ground. Thus, Palladio’s model perfectly suited the static weakness of the Bolognese cathedral. A terminus post quem is provided by the vault of the choir, modified and decorated by Prospero Fontana from 1579 onwards as represented in the drawing. A terminus ante quem is given by the absence of the painting with the Annunciation executed by Annibale Carracci and inserted in 1618 in place of the thermal window on the north wall of the choir. Yet a principal element for dating the Cronstedt project is the absence of the Paleotti and Buoncompagni chapels, conceivable only after the death of Cardinal Paleotti (1610). A possible provenance from Carlo Maderno's workshop is supported by the resemblance of the drawing to the section of Sant’Andrea della Valle drawn by the architect around 1608–11 (NM H CC 2078, Cat. no. 130) and by the correspondence of the design with the ideas expressed in Maderno’s and Ponzio’s memorandum of 1611–12. LITERATURE: Hibbard 1971, 191; Antinori 1990; Antinori 1995, 279–323; Barton Thurber 1997a; Barton Thurber 1997b; Barton Thurber 1999; Terra 2007; Ricci, Zampa 2009, 20–22; Pigozzi 2002; Terra, Barton Thurber 2011; Stabenow 2012 [end]
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