Giovanni Battista Meduna

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Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) Meduna (11 Jun 1800 – 27 April 1886), knight and Commander of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, was an Italian architect from Venice.[1][2]

Giovanni Battista Meduna

Biography[edit]

He was the son of Venetian carpenter and window maker Andrea Meduna and a descendant of the Meduna family.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

Meduna studied architecture under Gian Antonio Selva and after his death under Antonio Diedo and Francesco Lazzari.[11][12]

He was lieutenant of the Guardia Civica during the 1848–1849 revolutions, a member of the Comitato Segreto di Venezia at the time of the Italian Risorgimento against the Austrian Empire, working in connection with the municipal council not recognized by Austria. When it assumed power, he was called to be part of it.[13]

He often collaborated with his brother Tommaso Meduna (1798–1880), engineer and designer of the first railway bridge between Venice and the mainland in 1836.[14][15]

His first son Leopoldo was born in 1837. He was a student at Venice high school and knight of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus. He died on 8 September 1855 at the age of eighteen.[16][17]

Leopoldo's younger brother Cesare was born on 27 October 1841, and resided in Campo San Vidal, Venice. As a student in Padua, where he obtained a degree in engineering, Cesare Meduna, like his father, was also part of the Comitato Segreto. After serving in municipal positions in Zelarino he briefly became the mayor after the death of Ugo Paccagnella in 1905, until his own passing a few months later in 1906, when he was replaced by Paccagnella' son Alberto.[18][19]

Meduna family tombstone, San Michele Cemetery, Venice

Meduna is buried at the San Michele Cemetery along with his wife Maria Viola (1805–1866) and their two sons Leopoldo (1837–1855) and Cesare Meduna (1841–1906), ending this particular lineage.

Architectual works[edit]

Meduna's work focused particularly on reconstruction and restoration works during the period between the Congress of Vienna (1815) and Venice's incorporation into the Kingdom of Italy (1866), when the city developed its modern urban structure – a period marked by a crisis of identity and an architectural enthusiasm for the past, albeit with little sense of the modern discipline of conservation.

He is most notable for rebuilding the Gran Teatro La Fenice, destroyed by the fire of 1836, and the restoration of other buildings such as the Ca' d'Oro, St Mark's Basilica and the church of San Silvestro. In the hinterland he was responsible for the reconstruction of numerous places of worship.[11][12][20][21][22][23]

Interior of the Gran Teatro La Fenice (1837)

His works include:

While Meduna won the praise of notable architects such as Eugène Viollet-le-Duc,[23] he was also criticized for a heavy-handed approach to reconstructive neo-Gothic modernization rather than restorative conservation. His invasive restoration St Mark's Basilica fuelled controversy and debate, and in the case of the early 15th-century Ca' d'Oro, his damaging transformation even led to imprisonment on charges of vandalism.[24][25]

Meduna himself commented on the restoration (demolition) of his own house at San Fantin (1846) as follows:[23]

Even though some might now feel the stirrings of warm affection for genuine things, and attempt to conserve the original parts of ancient buildings in renovating them, nonetheless a great many were destroyed, including some of considerable merit, so that hardly any trace remains of that Architecture which might almost be called national, and which was certainly quite widespread. Even in the old house at San Fantin which I demolished there were old windows in the Gothic style, and I have found many more like them. Which is what made me decide to adopt that Architecture in the construction of a façade.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro (1870). Elenco alfabetico dei decorati dell'Ordine dei SS. Maurizio e Lazzaro dal 17 marzo 1861 (proclamazione del Regno d'Italia) al 31 dicembre 1869 (in Italian). Stamperia Reale. p. 113.
  2. ^ Adressbuch aller Länder der Erde der Kaufleute, Fabrikanten, Gewerbtreibenden, Gutsbesitzer etc: Zugleich Handelsgeographie, Produkten- u. Fabrikanten-Bezugs-Angabe (in German and Italian). Leuchs. 1890. pp. 878, 886.
  3. ^ Fontana, Vincenzo. San Marco Biedermeier (1820-1853) (in Italian). p. 5.
  4. ^ Ottin, L. (1896). Le vitrail: son histoire, ses manifestations à travers les âges et les peuples (in French). Librairie Renouard. p. 343.
  5. ^ Guida per la città di Venezia all'amico delle belle arti opera di Giannantonio Moschini (in Italian). Vol. 1. 1815. p. 142.
  6. ^ Cantù, Cesare (1856). Scorsa di un Lombardo negli archivj di Venezia (in Italian). Civelli. p. 160.
  7. ^ Guida Commerciale (in Italian). Presso Giuseppe Orlandelli. 1847. pp. 112, 273, 347, 350.
  8. ^ Nuova Guida commerciale della città di Venezia (in Italian). Longo. 1857. pp. 111, 193, 316.
  9. ^ Handels- und Gewerbs-Schematismus von Wien und dessen nächster Umgebung (in German). Kaulfuß Wtw. 1854. p. 623.
  10. ^ Guida per la citt A a di Venezia all'amico delle belle arti opera di Giannantonio Moschini. Volume 1. Parte 1. [-volume 2. Parte 2.]: 1 (in Italian). 1815. p. 602.
  11. ^ a b Rößler, Jan-Christoph. "Giovanni Battista Meduna". Architektur in Venedig (in German). Archived from the original on 2023-03-04.
  12. ^ a b Frank, Svenja. Ausmalungen gotischer Kirchen in Venedig (1370 – 1500). Band 1 (in German). Technische Universität Berlin, Fakultät I – Geisteswissenschaften, Institut für Kunstgeschichte. pp. 24–25. Archived from the original on 2022-11-06.
  13. ^ Gli archivi dei regi commissari nelle province del Veneto e di Mantova 1866. II: Documenti (PDF) (in Italian). Rome: Ministero Dell'interno Pubblicazioni Degli Archivi Di Stato. LXIII. 1968. p. 203. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-10-14.
  14. ^ Barbieri, A.; Chiaradia, V.; Di Tommaso, A. (2004). Roca, P.; Oñate, E. (eds.). Railway Masonry Arch Bridge of Venice Lagoon: History, Technology and Structural Behaviour (PDF). Barcelona: Arch Bridges, ARCH´04. CIMNE. pp. 3–4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-12-10.
  15. ^ Cattaneo, Carlo (2014). Primi studi dell'ingegnere Tomaso [sic!] Meduna (in Italian). Edizioni La Biblioteca Digitale. Archived from the original on 2023-03-18.
  16. ^ Pizzo, Lodovico. La geometria spiegata al popolo del prof. L. Pizzo (in Italian). C. Coen. p. 58.
  17. ^ Programma dell'i. r. ginnasio liceale di Venezia pubblicato alla fine dell' anno scolastico ... (in Italian). Merlo. 1853. p. 42.
  18. ^ Donà, Maria Stella (1988). Aspetti della Politica Comunale a Zelarino dall'Unità all'Annessione al Comune di Venezia (1866-1926). Parte I: L'Istruzione Pubblica (PDF) (in Italian). Università degli Studi di Venezia Ca’ Foscari. pp. 12, 16–17, 19, 37–39. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-12-08.
  19. ^ Donà, Maria Stella (1988). Aspetti della Politica Comunale a Zelarino dall'Unità all'Annessione al Comune di Venezia (1866-1926). Parte III: La Sanità (PDF) (in Italian). Università degli Studi di Venezia Ca’ Foscari. pp. 4, 6, 18–20, 24, 28. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-12-08.
  20. ^ Meduna, Tommaso; Meduna, Giovanni Battista (1849). Il Teatro la Fenice in Venezia edificato dallÁrchitetto Antonio Selva nel 1792 e ricostruito in parte in 1836 (in Italian). Stabilimento Antonelli.
  21. ^ Mezzanotte, Paolo. "MEDUNA, Giovanni Battista". Treccani: Enciclopedia Italiana (1934) (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2023-01-15. Retrieved 2023-12-02.
  22. ^ Monicelli, Francesco; Montagner, Sonia (2000). Guida alle Ville Venete (in Italian). Colognola ai Colli: Demetra.
  23. ^ a b c Pertot, Gianfranco; Quill, Sarah (2004). Venice: Extraordinary Maintenance. Paul Holberton. pp. 40–49, 228. ISBN 978-1-903470-12-1.
  24. ^ Tourmann, Inga. About Venice: Talking City Guide. Jourist Verlags GmbH. ISBN 978-3-89894-503-5.
  25. ^ Palamidese, Daniela (2015). "La Ca' D'oro dopo Marino Contarini". Veneto Storia. Archived from the original on 2023-12-09.