Simone Retacco

Simone Retacco (* around 1600 in Montronio ; † 1645 in Vienna ) was a baroque court architect . He also belonged to the group of "Comasken" who were active in Austria.

Life

In 1624, all the masters of the masonry and stonemason craft of the wälscher Nation from the four quarters of Lower Austria turned to the emperor with a request for their own craft regulations. You just wrote the salutation: Kayßer

A compromise was only reached 3 years later: the German craftsmen retained their freedoms, the Italians submitted to the prescribed order. From the Italian side signed u. a. Simone Retacco, court mason and architect in Vienna, Cypriano Biasino , master builder from Krems .

Dispute between Italian and German stonemasons and masons

Released April 15, 1652 (in part)

“First of all, the previously separated two parties or guilds will be and remain a colliery , a brotherhood forever . At the same time, be a Zechlaadt and on the main hut at St. Stephan alhier, the new and previous old craft regulations are held in originali….
With regard to the sixth, the ritual that Simone Retacco desired has occurred and it is found that he is still outstanding 250 fl, so a whole, now unified craft has offered to train him Retacco from the entire Laadt little by little and to be reimbursed. "

Relationship with the Carlone family

On November 7, 1627, he married Francesca Carlone, the daughter of the architect Giovanni Battista Carlone . Simone had 5 children with Francesca, Lucia Angela, Sebastian Jakob, Johann Baptist, Anna Katherina and Maria Magdalena (see family table IV of Carlone in Alexander Hajdecki p. 46)

Retacco's work colleagues, his circle of friends

In addition to his work colleagues Carlo Martino Carlone , Giovanni Domenico Canevalle , Giovanni Battista Canevalle, Antonio Valnegro, Antonio Carlone, Giacomo Petruzzi, Pietro Maino Maderno and Jakob Spazzo, also Silvestro Carlone belonged to Retacco's circle of friends . His construction company was one of the largest construction companies in the imperial residence. At that time he employed 22 journeymen.

Works

Count Adam Batthyány was one of Simone's clients . After the death of Giovanni Battista Orsolino (1638), Simone was in charge of construction work in Güssing , Schlaining and Rechnitz . For these projects he also partially carried out the designs by Filiberto Luchese . Another of Simone's clients was Count Paul Pálffy . Simone worked in the Stupava Castle from 1635.

Forchtenstein Castle

Forchtenstein Castle with castle keep

Forchtenstein Castle is a great example of Comaskan fortress architecture . This was transferred in 1622 to the Hungarian magnate Nikolaus Esterházy as a pledge, four years later transferred to his property. Esterházy started the renovation in 1629 according to a large-scale concept.

The builder in charge of the company, which lasted more than fifteen years, was the Viennese builder Simone Retacco, a Comaske who had a large workshop. There are mainly four contracts (found by Adelheid Schmeller-Kitt in the Esterházy Family Archives, Budapest) that Nikolaus Esterházy concluded in 1630, 1632, 1634 with Simone Retacco and in 1643 with the foreman Domenico Carlone on the rebuilding of the castle.

The inner part of the medieval castle was torn down to the ground, only the mighty keep remained. This was followed under the guidance of the architect Domenico Carlone as polishing , Bartolomeo Spacio, Giovanni Baptista Nollo and Jacobo Canavale the new building. After Simone's death in 1645, Domenico Carlone took over the construction management. Dehio reports that in 1643 a contract for the construction of the castle was signed with the foreman Domenico Carlone . A four-wing complex was built around a trapezoidal courtyard, the armory and the castle chapel.

It has often been claimed that the building was built by Turkish prisoners in hard slave labor, and that the extremely deep well dug into the rock was created by prisoners in arduous plague. The archival sources say otherwise. Welsh builders and their journeymen completed the work, with the subjects of the county of Forchtenstein actively supporting them ...

The (present-day) Northern Burgenland, with its rich deposits of sand-lime stone, offered particularly suitable jobs for sculpting and stone carving. Since 1550, numerous quarries have been built in the extensive forest area of ​​the Lower Austrian Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz east of the Leitha , which were initially only evaluated by Comaskan artists.

Dance hall of the Vienna Hofburg

He received u. a. commissioned to build the dance hall of the Vienna Hofburg . In 1633 he received a payment for this. The plans for this project came from his father-in-law , the imperial architect Giovanni Battista Carlone.

Teacher

• Wiener Steinmetzakten, Aufdingbuch May 30, 1638: "If master mason Rädäckh, Unter-Zechmeister, a young apprentice, took Pangraz Sasslaber from Feldkirchen out of Carinthia."
• On March 16, 1642, Master Simon Retacco hired an apprentice Dominicus Canoval from Lanzo Val d'Intelvi near Como. His guarantors are: Mr. Peter Spatz and Master Andre Allio, both master builders here in Vienna. After three years, ie in the prescribed apprenticeship period, he was "released" on March 12, 1645 by master Simon Retacco, that is, acquitted as a journeyman .

Vienna Guild Book

November 4, 1644:

"List of what every bourgeois master stonemason and bricklayer as well as the journeymen give for the raising of the New Khayserian freedoms, namely a master 45 Kr, a journeyman but 15 Kr. In dimensions follows:
Simone Retacco imposes August 7th for him and his 20 journeymen .. 5 fl 45 kr. "

In 1644 he is shown in the Vienna Guild Book with twenty journeymen.

testament

Will of Simon Retacco dated May 1, 1645, with an appendix written by him personally in Italian, including a list of his debts and assets. Here it is said that he owes the " Andrea Ghebart, Ferbolter die Fortenstein " (administrator in Forchtenstein) an amount of 910 guilders, which was offset by a counterclaim of up to 99 guilders. Apart from his work on the construction of the Hofburg in Vienna and the castles in western Hungary, nothing is known of his work, although he must have been a very busy master builder.

One of the will witnesses was Pietro Maino Maderno with his seal.

progeny

• Marriage contract on January 17, 1657 at St. Stephan

"The honorary and honorary Mr. Giacomo della Torre (Jacob Thore † September 29, 1669), a bricklayer and master craftsman in Raab takes the virtuous virgin Lucia Retaccin, formerly of the honorary and honorary Lord Simone Retacco, former citizen and master bricklayer here, and Franzisca, his legitimate housewife, née Carlone, legitimate daughter.
Groomsmen : Antonius Rava, master mason, Carolus Martinus Carloni, master mason, Philipertus Lucchesius, kaysl. Architectus. "

• Marriage contract on January 9, 1661

“Between the honorable and well-respected master Hanß Laurentius , stonemason and housewife subject in the Heiligenkreuz quarry on Leythaberg , then
the honorable and virtuous maid Anna Catharina, the honorable and well-experienced Mr. Simone Retacco, former builder and master mason in the Romans. Kaysl. Capital and residence city of Vienna to St. Stephan and Franziska Carlone, his housewife, their two daughters who were happily married.
In the presence and presence of the lords and masters Silvestro Carlone , Maurer, Francesco della Torre , Steinmetz, Carlo Martino Carlone , Maurer also the artful and well-experienced Mr. Carpoforo Tencalla , Mahler, all four of whom live in the capital of Vienna.
Whereupon, in the presence of the above-led gentleman on both sides, as well as other invited guests, both in Vienna and outside the quarry, on January 16, both Conleuths were publicly copulated and married by priests to the khürchen and alleyways and in the Thumb khürchen in front of the altar.
After his death, the widow Anna Catharina married the master stonemason Antonius Pery . "

→ Main article : “Homeowners in Vienna” in the article Antonius Pery

literature

• Retacco (Ratakha, Redägg), Simon . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 28 : Ramsden-Rosa . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1934, p. 187 .
• Dehio-Handbuch , Die Kunstdenkmäler Österreichs , Burgenland, Vienna 1976, p. 96.
• Petr Fidler: Architecture of the seicento. Builders, architects and buildings of the Viennese court circle. Habilitation paper, Innsbruck 1990, pp. 31, 35, 41–44, 47–48, 49 f, 61, 77, 79f, 83, 100, 116, 143f, 146, 148, 151, 156, 159, 348.
• Harald Prickler : Castles and palaces in Burgenland. Vienna 1972, Volume 2, p. 46.

Web links

• Artisti Italiani in Austria: Retacco, Simone
• Simone Retacco in "Ticino Artists in Europe"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alexander Hajdecki, Alexander: 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. 7.
2. ^ Archives Wiener Neustadt H 127, stone mason files. In: Helmuth Furch: Historisches Lexikon Kaisersteinbruch, Wiener Neustadt: main hut. Kaisersteinbruch 2004 ( ribera-philosophie.at PDF, pp. 584–585).
3. ↑ Petr Fidler: Architecture of the seicento. Builders, architects and buildings of the Viennese court circle. Habilitation paper, Innsbruck 1990, pp. 47–48.
4. ↑ Alexander Hajdecki: The Dynasty Families ... In: Reports and communications of the Altertumsverein Wien. Volume 39, 1906, p. 46.
5. ↑ Petr Fidler: Architecture of the seicento. Pp. 143, 146, 148, 151, 159, 348.
6. ↑ Harald Prickler: The comasques. Italian artists in Burgenland. In: Helmuth Furch, communications from the Kaisersteinbruch Museum and Culture Association. No. 36, February 1995, pp. 5-9.
7. ↑ Burgenland State Exhibition 1993, Bollwerk Forchtenstein.
8. ^ Dehio-Handbuch, Die Kunstdenkmäler Österreichs, Burgenland, Vienna 1976, p. 96.
9. ↑ Steinmetzakten, Aufdingbuch 1638. In: Helmuth Furch: Historisches Lexikon Kaisersteinbruch, Wiener Neustadt: main hut. Kaisersteinbruch 2004 ( ribera-philosophie.at PDF, p. 416).
10. ^ Vienna City and State Archives A 61/22
11. ^ Archives of the regional court in Vienna, civil wills, no.4305.
12. ^ Archive of Heiligenkreuz Abbey: Protocolle Herrschaft Königshof
13. ^ Helmuth Furch , Historisches Lexikon Kaisersteinbruch, Lorentisch Johann † 1666 , 2nd volume, 2004.