Original scientific paper
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ARCHITECTURE OF NEO-CLASSICISM IN TROGIR
Ana Šverko
; Konzervatorski odjel u Splitu
Abstract
At the beginning of the 19th century, Giannantonio Selva and Basilio Mazzoli, important names in Neo-Classicist architecture, were making designs for the Trogir Garagnin family. The scope of Selva’s architectural work for the Garagninis has been partially discussed to date, but that of Mazzoli is completely unknown. Their drawings, which we include, are unsigned; they constitute a part of the creative process, mapping out the way between the desires of the client and
the architects’ final plans. Thanks to the ample archival material and the identifiability of the architectural styles, this work has been able to put their drawings in a chronological sequence and according to authors. The designs at issue relate to the remodelling of the complex of the Garagnin Palace by the northern city gate, and to the renovation of the Cega Palace at the southern city gate on the Trogir waterfront. A third topic is the design for the reconstruction of the city loggia in the main piazza of Trogir. Important additional persons show up within the course of the architectural cogitations of Selva and Mazzoli. Earlier on it was completely unknown that subsequent ideas for the Garagnin Palace complex to Selva’s designs had been given by the architect Andrea Rigato, previously not known for his work in Dalmatia. The investigation has brought out the role of the client, Ivan Luka Garagnin,
who guided the designers in the direction of the solutions he wanted with his own drawings. We have also established that basic plans were drawn up to ideas by Ivan Luka Garagnin by the surveyor Ivan Danilo. Smaller designs for part of the family palace were done by Giovanni Printz, and one design for the Cega Palace was drawn by the many-faceted surveyor Ivan Miotto, who also worked as botanist and architect. It is a happy circumstance that the drawings are accompanied by letters that have been of assistance in a more complete insight, arrived at via a comparison with the drawings and analysis of them. Finding a large amount of unsigned letters from the Garagnin-Fanfogna Fonds in the Trogir City Museum, we first of all divided them according to sites, and then arranged them into sequences according to the way given ideas were worked out in architectural terms. When these sequences were once established, it became clear that there were several different hands inside the same design process, even within individual drawings. Having established this division of labour, it was then necessary to identify the artists. Then we started a comparative analysis of drawings and the research
into the written documents and additional sketches from the Garagnin-Fanfogna Family Archive in the State Archives in Split, in addition to books from the Garagnin- Fanfogna Library in Trogir. This helped in determining the time when the drawing was created. Analysis of the manner of drawing and writing, kind of pa436 per and dimensions of drawings, was accompanied by computer enlargement of the details and overlaying of the drawings with renderings of the existing state of
the site, and with each other. The result of this work is an attempt at the attribution and dating of a hundred or so unpublished sheets of drawings and sketches from the great family archive. As well as this, additional drawings and documents related to the topic of the work are given. In the first analysis, the course of the design of the renovation of the Garagnin Palace complex is explained – from the instructions of client Ivan Luka Garagnin to the designs of Selva and Mazzoli, what was actually built from their designs has also been determined. Many of the features that were planned are reconstructed from the drawings and written documents. A second analysis is based on a new fact about the commissioning of designs for the reconstruction of the Cega Palace, by the Garagnin family, via two designs, one of which we can
unhesitatingly attribute to Mazzoli. In a third analysis, a known design for the reconstruction of the loggia in the main Trogir piazza is also identified as Mazzoli’s work, and after this understanding has been arrived at, it is possible to compare his work in Trogir with his activities in Zadar and Split.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
109692
URI
Publication date:
15.8.2008.
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