Filippo Juvarra
Filippo Juvarra, relief in Messina
Born	March 7, 1678 Messina
Died	January 31, 1736 Madrid
Nationality	Italian
Field	Architecture
Movement	Baroque

Cappella Antamori by Juvarra and Le Gros

Filippo Juvarra (March 7, 1678 – January 31, 1736) was an Italian architect and stage set designer.

Biography[link]

Filippo Juvarra was an Italian Baroque architect working in the early part of the eighteenth century. He was born in Messina, Sicily, to a family of goldsmiths and engravers. After spending his formative years with his family in Sicily where he designed Messina's festive settings for the coronation of Philip V of Spain and Sicily (1705), Juvarra moved to Rome in 1704. There he studied architecture with Carlo and Francesco Fontana.

The first phase of his independent career was occupied with designs for ceremonies and celebrations and especially with set designs for theatres. Juvarra's set designs incorporate the scena per angolo, literally 'scenes at an angle.' The exact origin of this style is unclear. Ferdinando Galli Bibiena claims to have invented it in his treatise Architettura Civile (1711), however, it was clearly in use before then, including in the works of Juvarra. This style differed from the one point perspective sets that had been developed in the sixteenth century, and had reached their apogee in the seventeenth century, see for example the work of Giacomo Torelli. A couple of early drawings dated 1706 are associated with the Teatro S. Bartolomeo, Naples (1706), though whether he actually completed set designs for the theatre is unknown. The majority of his work in theatre and set design was in Rome under the patronage of Cardinal Ottoboni. He assisted in the rebuilding of the Cardinal's private theatre in the Palazzo della Cancelleria and also designed sets for operas performed within the theatre. The first opera for which Juvarra designed all the sets was Costantino Pio. The libretto was by Cardinal Ottoboni and the music was by Carlo Francesco Pollarolli (c.1653–1723). It was premiered in 1709 and was one of the first operas to appear after the lifting of papal bans on secular theatre, it also inaugurated Ottoboni’s newly renovated private theatre. He also worked on set designs for performances sponsored by Ottoboni at the Teatro Capranica. His other main patron in Rome was Queen Maria Casimira, the widowed Queen of Poland, for whom Juvarra produced set designs for the operas held in her small domestic theatre in the Palazzo Zuccari. In 1713 a theatre project took him to Genoa.

In 1706 Juvarra won a contest for the new sacristy at the St. Peter's, organized by Pope Clement XI, and became a member of the prestigious Accademia di San Luca. In 1708 he created his first important non-theatrical architectural work, and the only one realized in Rome: the small but superbly executed Antamoro Chapel in the church of San Girolamo della Carità which he conceived in intimate cooperation with his close friend, the French sculptor Pierre Le Gros, who was responsible for carrying out the sculptural components.^[1]

Juvarra was also an engraver: his book of engravings of sculpted coats-of-arms appeared in 1711, Raccolta di varie targhe fatte da professori primarii di Roma [1].

After some time in Rome, Juvarra had a sojourn in his native Messina and he developed ambitious plans (never completed) for building along the harborside with a massive curved palace facade for housing and businesses. He was engaged in some projects in Lombardy, including a monumental altar for the Sanctuary Church of Caravaggio (never built, and substituted by a smaller work by architect Carlo Giuseppe Merlo), and altar for the Bergamo Cathedral. He also designed the decorative belltower (now leaning) for the cathedral of Belluno.

Churches in Turin[link]

Basilica Church of Superga

Church of San Gregorio, Messina

Juvarra's period of most intensive activity as an architect began in 1714, when he was then recruited to Piedmont where Victor Amadeus II of Savoy first employed him in a scenographic project, then elevated Juvarra to the position of the first architect of the court. The fame obtained here led to demand for his talent and capacities at some of the richest noble and royal courts of Europe: in 1719 he was in Portugal, planning the palace at Mafra for King John V (1719–20), after which he travelled to London and Paris.

One of Juvarra's master works, the church of the Superga was completed in 1731 atop a mountain top overlooking the city of Turin. It was part-picturesque monument and royal mausoloeum for the family of Savoy. It is said that the site was chosen because of a vow given here by Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, then duke and future king, as he surveyed the field of operations while defending the city from the sieging French armies during the Battle of Turin.^[2] Construction was arduous, and took over fourteen years, including two years to flatten the mountaintop, and at incredible cost and effort to bring the stones and supplies to the peak.^[3] Behind the church was a monastery. The classical portico is appended to a centralized church with a highly vertical, seventy five meter, baroque dome; the latter creates a mountain atop a mountain effect.

Juvarra also designed the facade of the church of Santa Cristina (1715–1718), the church of San Filippo (after Filippo Neri),^[4] the church of Santa Croce,^[5] the Basilica della Natività, and the chapel of St Joseph (1725) in the church of Santa Teresa ^[6] in Turin. He also built in Turin the church of the ‘’ Blessed Virgin of the Carmine’’ (1732-1736), where the space is concentrated around the central hall with the scenographic effect of light falling from above. He also helped decorate the interior of many churches in Turin.^[7]

He also built other churches, including the bizarre, Borrominesque church of San Gregorio in Messina, Sicily.^[8] In Mantua, he added a tall buttressed dome to the Alberti church of Sant'Andrea.

Palaces in Northern Italy[link]

Palazzina di Caccia of Stupinigi
Plan	Central Pavilion	Interior of Pavilion

The Palace of Stupinigi (1729–1731) was built to be the royal hunting lodge some 6 miles outside of Turin, the huge layout and highly decorated interiors made this palace a grand setting for summer retreats. The massive oval central pavilion, topped by a bronze stag, fronted with large arched windows, and extending into angled wings, is the mixture of classicism and whimsy that describes the ornamented delights of Italian Rococo. Juvarra fulfills the needs of his patron for classical grandeur, but with the baroque urge to decorate, to construct buildings as if they were made with curling ribbons. The pavilion interior, highly decorated with stucco and gilded details, fulfils the expectations further. Juvarra also received a commission to restore and refurbish the massive palace complex of the Savoy monarchy at Venaria Reale, called the Reggia di Venaria Reale, and its church of Sant’Uberto. The latter, in its unfinished state, sports eclectic influences, with a an octagonal dome and embracing wings arching outward.

One of his masterworks in palace construction is the façade (1718–21) of the Palazzo Madama in central Turin. It recalls the formality of Andrea Palladio|Palladio’s Palazzo Chiericati but with the enhancement of detail and windows. While the facade appears to house an airy piano nobile, it in fact is merely a scenic, almost theatrical gesture, sheltering a grandiose entry stairway entrance to a medieval castle. But this work was also part of an ambitious program to recast the crowded, medieval layout of central Turin into a more open and planned set of connected plazas.

Palazzo Madama in Turin
Frontal view of facade	Side view of facade	Interior Staircase

Juvarra also built the third enlargement of Turin to the west according to the orthogonal system introduced by Ascanio Vitozzi and Carlo di Castellamonte: the project included construction of Palazzo Martini di Cigala (1716) and of the Quartieri Militari (1716–1728). He helped design the ‘’Court of Appeals’’ in Turin, a work completed by his successor with the House of Savoy, Benedetto Alfieri. He also helped design a palace in Milan. He created designs (never completed) for updating the castle of Rivoli. The Neapolitan Corrado Giaquinto was among the artists that Juvarra invited to help decorate palaces, such as the Villa della Regina in Turin.

Palaces in Madrid[link]

On Christmas eve in 1734, the ancient Royal Residence of the Alcazar in Madrid was destroyed by fire. This prompted the Bourbon king of Spain, Philip V to request Juvarra to supervise the construction of a new Palace. By April of 1735 the architect had moved to Madrid, and began planning for the construction. The plans we have would have created an even larger structure than the present one with ample gardens. The linear facade has a formal rigidity lacking in some of his other works. He additionally executed designs for the façade of the summer palace of Granja de San Ildefonso and for some portions of Palacio Real de Aranjuez. Juvarra however died suddenly by January of 1935, less than nine months after arriving to Spain. While a wooden mockup was built of his plans for the Royal Palace, all his designs there were executed after his death by his pupils, including Giovanni Battista Sacchetti.

Spanish Royal Palaces by Juvarra
Royal Palace Madrid	La Granja Palace

Influence[link]

Some writers noting that Juvarra’s early training was in Rome, attribute his style to the instruction of Carlo Fontana,^[9] but Juvarra is eclectic in production and seems to have imbibed many other influences, including the more adventurous architecture of Pietro da Cortona and Francesco Borromini. He also was likely influenced by the works of Guarino Guarini. Baroque architects strongly influenced by Juvarra include Bernardo Vittone and Benedetto Alfieri. Juvarra and Johann Fischer von Erlach influenced one another through the medium of engravings. Juvarra's work, along with much of Baroque art and architecture, fell out of favour with the rise of Neoclassicism. In 1994, a major exhibition of his designs was held in Genoa and Madrid.

References[link]

• Williams, Charles (1854). The Alps, Switzerland and the north of Italy: with numerous engravings. Alexander Montogomery, Publisher, 17 Spruce St. New York, NY. p. 354. http://books.google.com/books?id=CHgSAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA609&dq=filippo+juvarra+turin&hl=en&sa=X&ei=E6BRT7KjIIHPgAf0vNHYDQ&ved=0CEUQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=filippo%20juvarra%20turin&f=false. 
• Borbonese, Emilio (1898). Guida di Torino. Roux Frassati, Turin. p. 354. http://books.google.com/books?id=4XwQAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Torino+Borbonese&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XKBRT9v3EcK-gAfk5dDAAg&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Torino%20Borbonese&f=false. 
• Sturgis, Russell (1905). A dictionary of architecture and building: biographical ..., Volume 2. Macmillan Company, New York. pp. 400. http://books.google.com/books?id=dAgFAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA661&dq=juvarra+Turin&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oqZRT5bUHpDEgAfTmMT2DQ&ved=0CF4Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=juvarra%20Turin&f=false. 
• Pommer, R. (1967). Eighteenth Century Architecture in Piedmont. 
• Gritella, Gianfranco (1992). Juvarra: L'architettura. 
• Viale Ferraro, Mercedes (1970). Filippo Juvarra: Scenografo e architetto teatrale. Turin: Fratelli Pozzo. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Filippo Juvarra

• "Scenografie di Juvarra" (Italian)
• Riccardo Cigola, "F. Juvarra"

Gallery[link]

• 

  Cupola of the church of Sant'Andrea in Mantua

• 

  Santa Teresa in Turin

• 

  Painting of plans for harborside Messina

• 

  Sketch of harborside plans of Messina

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007)

Domenico Scarlatti
1738 portrait by Domingo Antonio Velasco

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (26 October 1685 – 23 July 1757) was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style. Like his renowned father Alessandro Scarlatti he composed in a variety of musical forms, although today he is known mainly for his 555 keyboard sonatas.

Life and career[link]

Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples, Kingdom of Naples, in 1685, the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. He was the sixth of ten children and a younger brother to Pietro Filippo Scarlatti, also a musician. He probably first studied under his father, the composer and teacher Alessandro Scarlatti; other composers who may have been his early teachers include Gaetano Greco, Francesco Gasparini, and Bernardo Pasquini, all of whom may have influenced his musical style.

He became a composer and organist at the royal chapel in Naples in 1701. In 1704, he revised Carlo Francesco Pollarolo's opera Irene for performance at Naples. Soon afterwards, his father sent him to Venice. After this, nothing is known of Scarlatti's life until 1709, when he went to Rome in the service of the exiled Polish queen Marie Casimire. He met Thomas Roseingrave there. Scarlatti was already an eminent harpsichordist: there is a story of a trial of skill with George Frideric Handel at the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome where he was judged possibly superior to Handel on that instrument, although inferior on the organ. Later in life, he was known to cross himself in veneration when speaking of Handel's skill. In Rome, Scarlatti composed several operas for Queen Casimira's private theatre. He was Maestro Di Cappella at St. Peter's from 1715 to 1719. In 1719 he travelled to London to direct his opera Narciso at the King's Theatre.

According to Vicente Bicchi (Papal Nuncio at the time), Domenico Scarlatti arrived in Lisbon on 29 November 1719. There he taught music to the Portuguese princess Maria Magdalena Barbara. He left Lisbon on 28 January 1727 for Rome, where he married Maria Caterina Gentili on 6 May 1728. In 1729 he moved to Sevilla, staying for four years and gaining a knowledge of flamenco. In 1733 he went to Madrid as music master to Princess Maria Barbara, who had married into the Spanish royal house. The Princess later became Queen of Spain. Scarlatti remained in the country for the remaining twenty-five years of his life, and had five children there. After the death of his first wife in 1742, he married a Spaniard, Anastasia Maxarti Ximenes. Among his compositions during his time in Madrid were a number of the 555 keyboard sonatas for which he is best known.

Scarlatti befriended the castrato singer Farinelli, a fellow Neapolitan also enjoying royal patronage in Madrid. The musicologist Ralph Kirkpatrick commented that Farinelli's correspondence provides "most of the direct information about Scarlatti that has transmitted itself to our day." Domenico Scarlatti died in Madrid, at the age of 71. His residence on Calle Leganitos is designated with a historical plaque, and his descendants still live in Madrid.

This section includes inline links to audio files. If you have trouble playing the files, see Wikipedia Media help.

Music[link]

	Sonata in D minor K. 9, Allegretto performed on a harpsichord by Martha Goldstein
	Sonata in E major K. 20, Presto performed on a harpsichord by Martha Goldstein
	Sonata in B minor K. 27, Allegro performed on a piano by Raymond Smullyan
	Sonata in F Minor K. 69 performed on a spinet by Ulrich Metzner
	Sonata in C major K. 159, Allegro performed on a piano by Veronica van der Knaap
	Sonata in B minor K. 377 MIDI rendition
	Sonata in E major K. 380, Andante comodo performed on a piano by Raymond Smullyan
	Sonata in E major K. 531, Allegro performed on a piano by Raymond Smullyan

Only a small fraction of Scarlatti's compositions were published during his lifetime; Scarlatti himself seems to have overseen the publication in 1738 of the most famous collection, his 30 Essercizi ("Exercises"). These were rapturously received throughout Europe, and were championed by the foremost English writer on music of the eighteenth century, Charles Burney.

The many sonatas which were unpublished during Scarlatti's lifetime have appeared in print irregularly in the two and a half centuries since. Scarlatti has attracted notable admirers, including Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms, Béla Bartók, Dmitri Shostakovich, Heinrich Schenker, Vladimir Horowitz, Emil Gilels, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, and Marc-André Hamelin.

Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas are single movements, mostly in binary form, and mostly written for the harpsichord or the earliest pianofortes. (There are four for organ, and a few for small instrumental group). Some of them display harmonic audacity in their use of discords, and also unconventional modulations to remote keys.

Other distinctive attributes of Scarlatti's style are the following:

• The influence of Iberian (Portuguese and Spanish) folk music. An example is Scarlatti's use of the Phrygian mode and other tonal inflections more or less alien to European art music. Many of Scarlatti's figurations and dissonances are suggestive of the guitar.
• A formal device in which each half of a sonata leads to a pivotal point, which the Scarlatti scholar Ralph Kirkpatrick termed "the crux", and which is sometimes underlined by a pause or fermata. Before the crux, Scarlatti sonatas often contain their main thematic variety, and after the crux the music makes more use of repetitive figurations as it modulates away from the home key (in the first half) or back to the home key (in the second half).

Ralph Kirkpatrick produced an edition of the sonatas in 1953, and the numbering from this edition is now nearly always used – the Kk. or K. number. Previously, the numbering commonly used was from the 1906 edition compiled by the Neapolitan pianist Alessandro Longo (L. numbers). Kirkpatrick's numbering is chronological, while Longo's ordering is a result of his grouping the sonatas into "suites". In 1967 the Italian musicologist Giorgio Pestelli published a revised catalogue (using P. numbers), which corrected what he considered to be some anachronisms.^[1]

Aside from his many sonatas, he composed a quantity of operas and cantatas, symphonias, and liturgical pieces. Well known works include the Stabat Mater of 1715 and the Salve Regina of 1757, which is thought to be his last composition.

References[link]

• Kirkpatrick, Ralph (1953). Domenico Scarlatti. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02708-0. 

Notes[link]

Free scores[link]

• Free scores by Domenico Scarlatti in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Domenico Scarlatti at the International Music Score Library Project
• Sheet music for K.1 to K.176 John Sankey edition
• www.kreusch-sheet-music.net harpsichord sonatas by Scarlatti
• Free scores by Domenico Scarlatti in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Sheet music engraved by Sebastiano Vigna

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Domenico Scarlatti

• The Mutopia Project has compositions by Domenico Scarlatti
• Converter for Scarlatti's Works Number
• Associazione Domenico Scarlatti
• John Sankey: Keyboard Tuning of Domenico Scarlatti
• John Sankey: Complete edition, harpsichord, downloadable recordings in MIDI
• The Life of Domenico Scarlatti
• Scarlatti Domenico – A new look at the keyboard sonatas; complete catalogue including newly discovered works
• "The mercurial maestro of Madrid" by Robert White, 20 July 2007, The Guardian
• 538 Piano Sonatas (mp3 files)
• Piano Society – A short biography and some free recordings in MP3 format, performed by Roberto Carnevale, Chase Coleman, Graziella Concas, Knut Erik Jensen