Giovanni Pietro della Torre

Torre's father's house in the old town of Prague

Giovanni Pietro della Torre (* 1660 in Bohemia ; † 28. February 1711 in Prague ) was a royal Hofsteinmetzmeister in Prague and sculptor of the Baroque .

Prague, Old Town Square with Tyn Church

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. On October 30, 1663, he and his father's entire family became citizens of Prague .

Life

Pietro was the son of the master stonemason Francesco della Torre and Francisca Carlonin. The father worked as an employee in the construction company of Carlo Lurago in Prague and Bohemia, had once immigrated from Ramponio in the Milan area to the Wiener Bauhütte and the imperial quarry on Leithaberg . A century earlier, a center for Italian, Swiss stonemasons and sculptors had sprung up there near Vienna.

Apprenticeship in Kaisersteinbruch

Francesco, meanwhile an established Prague stone mason, apprenticed Pietro to Master Ambrosius Ferrethi in 1674 . For years he had been in charge of the major order for the new building of the Vienna Hofburg , the Leopoldine wing. In 1679 Pietro was acquitted as a journeyman.

Passau Cathedral

His next destination was the Passau Cathedral , which has been rebuilt since 1668. Another fire destroyed the interior here in 1680. Francesco della Torre was in charge of the stone carving work, several Prague masters worked here in camaraderie and charged in equal parts .

In 1683 Vienna , the capital of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation , was able to withstand the attack of the Turks . The diverse destruction, but also a unique spirit of optimism, was followed by construction activity on a large scale. Kapo Carlo Lurago died in 1684 .

Codex Austriacus of February 12, 1684

Call by Emperor Leopold I for construction professionals.

"Leopoldus - Entbieten any and all ... but insonderheit disposal of any craft ists as to which buildings belonging and necessary Our grace . There is known to everyone that through the hostile Turkish invasion the country under the Enns been so devastated and depopulated that to the team, especially the artisans of carpenters , bricklayers , masons , Stukkatoren , glaziers , carpenters , Hafner and locksmiths a great Shortage in the city of Vienna and in the country will appear ... that all foreign carpenters, bricklayers, stonemasons ... they are masters or journeymen , they come from wherever they want ... can work unhindered. "

- Leopold I. , : Codex Austriacus of February 12, 1684

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  Vienna, Leopoldine wing of the Hofburg

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  Prague, Palais Clam-Gallas, portal with atlases

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  Grand staircase

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  Prague, Lobkowitz Palace

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  Stone vases from Torre

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  Kukus in Bohemia, hospital with Holy Trinity Church

In 1685 Giovanni Pietro della Torre and his wife Maria Margaretha acquired the entire property in Kaisersteinbruch after the death of the master Domenico Petruzzy, who had perished in the Turkish War in 1683, the entire property, the quarry including the house. In the same year Felix Freywiller became his apprentice. His father, Heinrich immigrated from Zurich , had learned the trade from master Pietro Maino Maderno .

Prague master stone mason

After the father's death on September 28, 1687, the Prague court was requested to appear as soon as possible and to succeed him as court stone mason.

The craft determined Ambrosius Ferrethi as the new teacher for the apprentice Felix.

The measurement and thus the final accounting of the stone carving work at Passau Cathedral dragged on, after Francesco Torres death a solution had to be found. Together with his brother Bartolomeo della Torre , pastor in Linz, Pietro arranged this inheritance matter on February 11, 1688. It concerned the amount of around 47,000 guilders, on which several payments on account had already been made, which was ultimately disputed. In the act you can read, ... an agreement was reached to the satisfaction of the brothers, ... so that all demands on Passau Cathedral are satisfied for all time . In Prague he lived in his father's house, on November 3, 1688, he took the jurament for the royal stonemason and the first payment amounts are recorded in the account books of the castle.

During his absence, his Kaisersteinbrucher property was administered by his fellow master, Giovanni Battista Passerini , who had been a judge since 1699. In 1704, daughter Maria Rosa is entered in the baptismal register of the Tyn Church in Prague's old town , and the godfather is the noble Mr. Marco Antonio Canevalle .

In the specialist literature of Prague and Bohemia, the high quality of his work is expressly emphasized, for example the Palais Sramota, which was demolished, but the particularly beautiful stone carvings by Torre and Giovanni Battista d ' Allio , the portal , pilasters and capitals of the Prague Lapidarium were handed over.

Franz Anton Graf Sporck founded a spa in Kukus on the Elbe in 1692 , and had his castle built by the architect Giovanni Battista Alliprandi on the other side of the river, a hospital with the Holy Trinity Church. Alliprandi designed this church with its monumental facade. Torre worked in the church from 1707. That was his last assignment, he died on February 28, 1711.

In Kaisersteinbruch , the heirs sold the property, an entire quarry etc. on August 20, 1713 to the master stonemason Franz Trumler and his wife Eva.

The question of a family relationship with the painter Daniel Gran , born in Vienna in 1694, has not yet been answered. This was called from 1732 " della Torre " without an ennoblement can be demonstrated.

Works

• 1680: Passau Cathedral , architect Carlo Lurago .
• 1688: Prague Castle , pleasure house in the Bubenec zoo.
• 1694–1697: Sramota Palace in Prague, architect Paul Ignaz Bayer, destroyed in 1925.
• 1699–1700: Palais Clam-Gallas in Prague, architect Marc Antonio Canevalle , facade Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach
• 1702–1705: Lobkowitz Palace in Prague , architect Giovanni Battista Alliprandi . Behind the tympanum protrudes a parapet , on the pillars of which are four mighty stone vases by Giovanni Pietro della Torre.
• 1707–1710: Hospital Church of the Holy Trinity in Kukus , Bohemia.

Sources and literature

• Prague City Archives: Prague Citizens Register .
• Prague Castle Archives: Hofsteinmetz, accounts .
• Register archive of the Tyn Church in Prague.
• Archive of the Diocese of Passau
• Franco Cavarocchi: The Passau cathedral artists from the Intelvi valley . Passau 1980.
• Pavel Preiss: Italsti umelci v Praze . (Italian artist in Prague) 1986.
• Ludger Drost: The Passau Cathedral by Carlo Lurago . Master's thesis 1992.
• Václav Ledvinka, Bohumir Mraz, Vit Vlnas: Prazske Paláce-Prague palaces . Introduction to Czech, German and Italian. Prague 1995.
• Pavla Vlcka and team of authors: Umelecké památky Prahy, Staré mesto, Josefov . Academia Prague 1996.
• Helmuth Furch : In communications from the Kaisersteinbruch Museum and Culture Association . ISBN 978-3-9504555-3-3 .

The masters Passerini and Sasslaber . No. 6, 1991, pp. 11-14.

Hometown Ramponio d´Intelvi, families Passerini and Torre . No. 47, 1997, pp. 13-64.

• Max Pfister , Bernard Anderes: Repertory of Ticino artists. Switzerland's most forgotten cultural contribution to Europe . 2 volumes. 1994.
• Harald Salfellner, Werner Wnendt : The Lobkowicz Palace . Vitalis, Prague 1999, ISBN 80-85938-65-0 .
• Helmuth Furch: Historical Lexicon Kaisersteinbruch . 2 volumes. Museum and cultural association Kaisersteinbruch 2002–2004. ISBN 978-3-9504555-8-8 .

Web links

• Palais Clam-Gallas (Prague) ( Memento of November 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive )