Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro
Francesco Repishti, Richard Schofield,
Architettura
e controriforma. I dibattiti per la facciata del duomo di Milano 1582-1682 [Architecture and Counterreformation. The debates of the facade of the Cathedral in Milan]
Electa , 2004
[1]
A work of great depth, which has its core assets in the publication of the
entire corpus of the debates concerning the building up of the facade of the Cathedral
in the years 1582-1682. In reality, the volume is divided into three parts. In
the first Francesco Repishti, in his essay La facciata del Duomo di Milano
(1537-1657) [(The facade of the Cathedral of Milan) (1537-1657)] recounts the
events related to projects for the construction of the same, based on the analysis
of project drawings preserved up to now. The second part is signed by Richard
Schofield and is titled Architettura, dottrina e magnificenza nell’architettura
ecclesiastica dell’età di Carlo e Federico Borromeo (Architecture, architecture
ecclesiastical doctrine and magnificence in the age of Carlo and Federico
Borromeo). The author reconstructs in a masterly manner the controversy related
to the contrast between the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in the field of
church buildings. Of a particular importance are obviously the views expressed by Carlo Borromeo in his Instructionum
Fabricae et Supellectilis Ecclesiasticae of 1577 and Federico Borromeo in De
Presbyterio ( 1622 unpublished in the modern age) and in De Pictura Sacra of
1624. The third section is the one in which a critical edition of all debates
is presented.
[2]
The highly laboured story of the Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano is known to all.
The events relating to the construction of the facade were certainly not more
linear. The unravelled debate between 1582 and 1682 – first anticipating and
then accompanying the construction of the facade (concluded only centuries
later) – is not only the expression of jealousies, resentments or certificates
of appreciation between architects from different backgrounds , but mimics in a
clear manner the deep ideological rift caused by Lutheran schism in
Christianity and the Counter-Reformation. The cathedral was built in Gothic
style, the style that is an expression of that culture belonging to those countries
that have embraced or risk embracing the Reformation. From 1567 the architect Pellegrino Pellegrini (better known as
Pellegrino Tibaldi) was appointed as head of the Fabbrica. Pellegrino (for a
reconstruction of his theoretical writings, see the edition of L’Architettura,
published by The Polifilo edited by Adele Buratti Mazzotta in 1990) is a man
bound by deep cultural affinities with the Archbishop of Milan, Carlo Borromeo, whom he had known and learned to respect over the years of his stay in Rome.
Tibaldi becomes, in fact, the official architect of the Borromeo and performs for
him a series of works in Milan. The appointment at the Fabbrica del Duomo is
certainly not the least important among them. The attention of Tibaldi is all addressed
to translate the practical precepts that Carlo Borromeo presents in its
Instructiones of 1577. Yet the intervention of Pellegrino Pellegrini concerns
mainly the interior of the building. Up to 1582 there is no news of plans for building
up the facade. It was in that year that the circles related to the Fabbrica begin to address the problem. Issues involved were anything but easy to solve,
if only another Borromeo in 1609, this time Federico, choose among the many
projects submitted just Tibaldi’s submission (a project presented in all likelihood in the years between 1593 and 1596,
when the architect had already moved to Spain), albeit with modifications, included
by Richino, to bring it closer to the other projects. One point, however, is
indisputable. All designs and projects presented over twenty years propose to
construct the facade according to a "modern" style, either classic or
Roman (whatever expression you want to use) and abandon the principle of
conformity of construction of the styles, which would imply erecting the facade
in Gothic style. The construction lags behind, partially for financial and
logistical problems, partially for the inevitable technical difficulties. One
of the most important (and indeed, the one on which the project will fail) is the
construction of ten majestic granite columns provided for the use of the facade
(imagine the columns of St. Peter in Milan’s Piazza Duomo). The issue is to
identify the location where to find the raw material, to follow on-site
construction work in the same location and to take care of the transport of the
columns to Milan. A plan for the preparations is set up by the architect responsible
for the new factory, Fabio Mangone, who also designed the final draft of the facade. In 1617, a contract is concluded for
the supply of the columns with the community of Baveno, at the Lake Maggiore. In
the mountains around Baveno is found "a single piece of pink granite ...
sufficient to achieve not only the ten columns of the lower order , but also
the six of the upper ... [ Editor's note: It is suggested ] to work the piece
on the lake’s shore and to entrust the cut to the the masters of Baveno. Once
loaded on a big boat ... the modern columns would reach Milan, crossing the
lake and along the Ticino and the Naviglio Grande " (p. 73). Borromeo
himself has a great interest in the story of the columns, and will cover some
aspects of the problem in two writings, which can be consulted today in Le
colonne per la facciata del Duomo (The columns for the façade of the Duomo),
published da Libri Scheiwiller nel 1986. And, mind you, this will be a story
that does not end well: in July of 1628 operations begin for the transport of
the first column in Milan, the ropes break, the column is broken into three
different parts, and sinks into the lake. It is a fatal blow to Tibaldi’s
project. The following years saw the birth of new projects, using less imposing
columns to overcome the technical problem, but the
impression is that the debate drags wearily until 1638, when the architect
Carlo Buzzi presents a new, revolutionary project (then fine-tuned in
subsequent drawings) .The "Roman" facade is abandoned and the Gothic returns,
or rather the gottoromano ("Gothic -Roman") in the name of the
principle of conformity of construction that had been overlooked fifty years earlier:
"In submitting its proposal, Buzzi states immediately the two guiding
principles of his project: the correspondence with the rest of the Fabbrica and
the preservation of what has been already achieved following the draft by Tibaldi.
The break with the previous tradition is important and it is motivated by the
belief that the facade should be, according to Buzzi , a work of “mixed architecture
of Roman and Gothic” combining existing "German" elements with the
"Roman" ones already made: "Since in the interior of the church
you can see many works of Roman architecture , such as the altar , the walls of
the choir , the crypt , the tabernacle , the ornament models of the organs, the
baptistery and other ornaments , so it is not repugnant that the front of it
participates of both architectures '"( p. 93) . It is the
new paradigm; the debate flourishes and becomes particularly rich in projects
around the projects by Buzzi and those (also "gottoromani") of the
architect Francesco Castelli. Opinions are requested (and you can read them in
the section devoted to the publication of the debates) to architects outside Lombardy,
like Bernini and Longhena, until a design by Buzzi is officially chosen in 1653.
Nearly 250 years will pass to the completion of the façade; a historical phase,
not only in the construction of the Cathedral of Milan, but also in the
evolution of the history of architectural thought, can be considered closed.
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