Le cupole di Ascanio Vitozzi: esperienze romane e progetti sabaudi

Very few information are known about the roman training of the military engineer – architect and urban planner – Ascanio Vitozzi (1539-1615). He arrived at the Savoia ducal court in 1584, after a roman training period, and radically changed the architectural shape of Turin through urban intuitions and formal research completely unexplored in subalpine area. This contribution focuses on the religious buildings designed or built by Vitozzi, and in particular on their domes. Although reference literature already identified in the religious buildings the roman influences on the formal and decorative research, the relation between roman experiences of Vitozzi and the architectural languages of his domes is still insufficiently studied. Vitozzi “architect of domes” expresses a prudent and, at the same time innovative, professionality: the dimensions of his domes (the world’s largest oval dome in the Sanctuary of Vicoforte, or the dome of the church of Ss. Trinità in Turin, that is still the largest masonry dome in the centre of the city) are very courageous. Moreover, his introduction of oval shape in piedmont area - both for plans and sections of domes - can be considered pioneering. In the absence of documentary sources about the Vitozzi education on design and construction of domes, this research assumes as the starting point the material source of the built religious buildings designed by Vitozzi in savoy area. In particular the research will focus the case of the church of SS. Trinità, recently investigated by multidisciplinary research projects with the main aim of delineating the roman architectural experiences in the field of domes that may have influenced the architect. This investigation aims to provide new points of view on the professionality skills of architect Ascanio Vitozzi as dome builder – although the investigated dome was built posthumous – and to move a preliminary critical reflection on the roman influence on his formal and conceptual ideas of domes. Moreover, this research can contribute to investigate the transfer of architectural knowledge from different regional contexts, each characterized on their peculiarities, such as used materials, structural conceptions and units of measurements. In this perspective, the study highlights the adaptive skills of Vitozzi, who, enhancing his background, was able to introduce new architectural language in the savoy area resulting in very relevant buildings.