Francesco della Torre

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House of the Torre family, Old Town of Prague , To the Black Ball

Francesco della Torre (* 1627 in Ramponio on Lake Lugano , Diocese of Como ; † 28. September 1687 in Prague ) royal Prague was Hofsteinmetzmeister under King Leopold I of Bohemia, and sculptor of the Baroque .

Life

The Della Torres were an Italian patrician family and lords of Milan in the 13th century . It is of course doubtful whether there is a family connection to these.

Francesco della Torre was the son of the builder Bartolomeo della Torre, who built the earliest baroque church in Hungary , the St. Ignatius Church in Raab (Győr), from 1636 . Their layout and interior design followed the Viennese standard. An older brother of Francesco, Giacomo, became a master stonemason and worked there with his father.

Apprenticeship in Kaisersteinbruch

The brothers learned the stonemason craft from master Hieronymus Bregno . Her teacher was both the brother of the Wiener Steinmetzhütte and a member of the brotherhood in the imperial quarry on Leithaberg , an Italian, Swiss artist colony . Francesco became an apprentice on September 24, 1641 , the masters Giacomo Bonade and Giacomo Orsolino were the guarantors. Both came from Ramponio / Verna, Bonade came from a family of builders, masons and masons. They worked a lot in Prague, Orsolino as a stonemason at the Waldstein Palace near Prague Castle , so they became the guide for Francesco's professional path. On June 10, 1646 he was acquitted as a journeyman.

In 1646 the Jesuits from the college in Raab (Győr) mentioned in their records the house in which the builder of their church, the builder Bartolomeo della Torre, lived. The work continued with the religious house. In the earliest received contract from 1652, the rector of the Jesuit college commissioned the builder and son Giacomo to build the first floor of the building.

Francesco was married to Francisca Carlonin, daughter of the Viennese city ​​architect Silvestro Carlone , although the exact date is unknown, it must have happened around 1653, as Torre is first referred to as a master. The father-in-law, who died in 1671, worked at the Schotten- and Michaelerkirche .

The composition of the Prague building trade from 1650 to 1680 was a colorful mix. Italians, Germans from all over the world, Dutch, Czechs and Poles shared the increasingly demanding market among themselves. The strongest contingent was of course the Welschen . Some Italians resident as architects, builders and stonemasons were: Dionysios Miseroni, Santino Bussi , Carlo Lurago , Dominico Rossi, Francesco Caratti .

  • Győr, St. Ignatius Church

  • Prague, Old Town Square with Tyn Church

Prague master stone mason

Francesco della Torre and his fellow master craftsman Giovanni Battista Passerini left the Kaisersteinbruch in 1653, at the latest after Pietro Maino Maderno's death. There, the Heiligenkreuz Abbey, as the authorities, responded to the stonemason's efforts for freedom with a "noble commission" that sanctioned all of Abbot Michael Schnabel's demands. In the same year both masters were working as important employees in the Prague building company of Carlo Lurago on the large order of the Jesuits in Prague, the Clementinum.

Together they received the Prague Citizenship Certificate on October 30, 1663 . Witnesses were Dominico Rossi , architect at the Czernin Palace and Orsi de Orsini , architect at the Clementinum, etc.

In the following years, Master Francesco bought the house Zur Schwarzen Kugel in Prague's old town and the children were baptized in the Tyn Church. With Lurago they worked on various construction sites, but they really don't know how to name the Orth anymore, be it at Komotau , Jesuit Church, with Count Czernin in Prague, with the Jesuits , in the Clementinum ... Torre became royal Prague in 1667 Hofsteinmetzmeister.

Passau Cathedral

In the following year, Prince Archbishop Wenzeslaus Graf Thun, under Carlo Lurago's overall direction , entrusted him with all the stone carving work for the baroque reconstruction of Passau Cathedral . The final settlement at Passau Cathedral was difficult and only took place on February 11, 1688, after his death with his sons. Many of his colleagues had already died before, for example Passerini († 1678) and Lurago († 1684).

The fountain in the 2nd courtyard of Prague Castle was his last major work. The figures were designed by the sculptor Hieronymus Kohl . The stone was transported by the royal court team. Torre received 1,800 guilders + delivery. The first water filling and commissioning took place on July 4, 1686.

His son Giovanni Pietro della Torre took over the office of royal stonecutter at the Prague court and took the jury on November 3, 1688.

His name is carved on the scroll of the Kaisersteinbruch sundial pillar by the sculptor Alexandru Ciutureanu .

Works

  • around 1647: Jesuit order house in Raab / Győr
  • 1653: Prague Clementinum , Jesuit College
  • 1662–1663: Hradschin , eagle fountain in the 3rd courtyard of Prague Castle (location changed several times) Plan Francesco Caratti
  • 1668–1688: Passau Cathedral , architect Carlo Lurago , all stone carvings
  • 1669: last work at the St. Ignatius Church and religious house in Raab / Győr, after the death of his brother Giacomo on September 29, 1669, with the architect Christian Fahrnleitner
  • 1675–1679: Hradschin, Archbishop's residence in Prague , architect Jean Baptiste Mathey
  • 1675: Jesuit school with theater in Raab / Győr
  • 1676: Fountain in the vineyard of the Clementinum, with Passerini sen.
  • July 1680: Fire in Passau, stone carving work on the cathedral again
  • 1685/1686: Fountain in the 2nd courtyard of Prague Castle

Archival material

literature

  • Johann Joseph Morper : The Prague architect Jean Baptiste Mathey (Matthaeus Burgundus). Studies on the History of the Prague Baroque. In: Munich Yearbook of Fine Arts. NF Volume 4, 1927, pp. 99-228. (also separately, (digitized) )
  • Pavel Preiss: Italsti umelci v Praze . (Italian artist in Prague). 1986, DNB 997780339 .
  • Petr Voit: Prazské Klementinum . Prague 1990, ISBN 80-901092-4-1 .
  • Pavla Vlcka and team of authors: Umelecké památky Prahy, Staré mesto, Josefov . Academia Prague, 1996, isbn ISBN 80-200-0563-3 .
  • Franco Cavarocchi: The Passau cathedral artists from the Intelvi valley. In: August Leidl (ed.): The Passau Cathedral: Festschrift for the completion of the first complete interior renovation since the baroque reconstruction. Passau 1980, OCLC 604267084 , pp. 135-165.
  • Ludger Drost: The Passau Cathedral by Carlo Lurago . Master thesis. 1992.
  • Andrásne Kászony: Bartolomeo della Torre master builder of the Jesuit college in Raab . German translation Maria Sándor. 1963.
  • Pál Voit: The Baroque in Hungary . Budapest 1971.
  • Otto E. Plettenbacher: History of the stonecutters of Vienna in the 17th century. An economic and cultural historical as well as sociological investigation. Price list from 1688, set order of the stone carvings . Dissertation. University of Vienna 1960.
  • Alexander Hajdecki : The dynasty families of the Italian master builders and masons of the Baroque in Vienna. In: Reports and communications from the Vienna Antiquities Association. Volume 39, 1906, p. 52. (digitized version)
  • Hometown Ramponio d´Intelvi, families Passerini and della Torre. In: Helmuth Furch : Messages from the Museum and Culture Association Kaisersteinbruch . No. 47, 1997, pp. 13-64.
  • The eagle fountain in the 3rd courtyard of Prague Castle, architect Francesco Caratti, stonemason Francesco della Torre. In: Helmuth Furch: Messages from the Museum and Culture Association Kaisersteinbruch . No. 52, 1998, pp. 55-66.
  • Max Pfister, B. Other: Repertory of Ticino artists. Switzerland's largest, forgotten cultural contribution to Europe . 2 volumes. 1994, OCLC 636448161 .
  • Torre della Francesco. In: Helmuth Furch: Historical Lexicon Kaisersteinbruch. Volume 2, 2004, ISBN 3-9504555-8-2 . (Digitized version)
  • Helmuth Furch: The brotherhood of the Kaisersteinbrucher stonemasons . Kaisersteinbruch 2007.
personal data
SURNAME Torre, Francesco della
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian-Austrian, royal Bohemian court stone mason of the baroque era
DATE OF BIRTH 1627
PLACE OF BIRTH Ramponio Verna
DATE OF DEATH September 28, 1687
Place of death Prague