Giuseppe Valadier

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Giuseppe Valadier
Clock and statue of Simon the Zealot by Giuseppe Valadier on St. Peter's Basilica in Rome
Piazza del Popolo from the Pincio (view in west direction)

Giuseppe Valadier (born April 14, 1762 in Rome ; † February 1, 1839 there ) was an Italian architect , town planner, archaeologist and goldsmith .

Life

Valadier began his career in 1781 as the architect of the papal palace under Pope Pius VI. He also retained this position during the occupation of Rome by the French during the Napoleonic era from 1809 to 1814 and under Pope Pius VII .

In 1790 Pius VI. acquired the Palazzo Santobono in Piazza Navona for his nephew Luigi Onesti-Braschi and commissioned Valadier, among others, with plans for the reconstruction of the palace. The Pope rejected these plans, however, and had the palace rebuilt by Cosimo Morelli in a style that was based on the Renaissance . This fit perfectly with the cultural and political intentions of Pius VI, but at the same time provides an explanation for the fact that neoclassicism was able to develop later in Rome than in the rest of Europe. Only when Valadier had reached the peak of his work did Rome follow the developments in the other European centers.

As an architect, Valadier built the Teatro Valle (1819) and the facades of San Pantaleo (1806) and San Rocco all'Augusteo (1834) in Rome. As an archaeologist, he worked from 1819 to 1822 with the repair of the Colosseum and the Arch of Titus and from 1829 to 1835 with the restoration of the Temple of Portunus (Temple of Fortuna Virilis).

As an archaeologist, he and Antonio Nibby led the excavation work on the Colosseum and part of the Roman Forum from 1827 to 1832 , which brought the original paving between the Coliseum and the Arch of Constantine to light. He also dug on the Arch of Titus , the Temple of Venus and Roma and on the slopes of the Campidoglio up to the Arch of Septimius Severus .

However, he left most of his traces as a town planner. In 1805 he laid down the course of the new Via Flaminia . The general plan for the Via dei Fori Imperiali followed in 1811, but was only implemented by the fascists. He also led the renovation of the Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano and the design of the Villa Torlonia in Rome. However, Valadier's masterpiece was without a doubt the redesign of the Piazza del Popolo . He had already submitted a first draft in 1793, but nothing of this was included in the final version of the square, which was converted between 1811 and 1822.

Other works

literature

  • Susanne Kunz-Saponaro: Rome and its artists. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-534-17678-6 , pp. 191ff.
  • Marco Bussagli (Ed.): Rome - Art & Architecture . Könemann, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-8290-2258-1 .

Web links

Commons : Giuseppe Valadier  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Enciclopedie on line
  2. ^ Adriano Ruggeri:  Nibby, Antonio. In: Raffaele Romanelli (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 79:  Nursio – Ottolini Visconti. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Valadier, Giuseppe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian architect, town planner, archaeologist and goldsmith
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1762
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH February 1, 1839
Place of death Rome