Orazio Torriani (or Torrigiani) (1578-1657) was an architect and sculptor who worked in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Career

In 1602 Torriani rebuilt the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda within the ''cella'' of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina. In 1624 he built the façade for the ancient basilica of

San Bartolomeo all'Isola The Basilica of St. Bartholomew on the Island ( it, Basilica di San Bartolomeo all'Isola , la, Basilica S. Bartholomaei in Insula) is a titular minor basilica, located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 998 by Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor and co ...

on the Tiber Island, a work commissioned by Cardinal Trescio. At the church of

Santi Domenico e Sisto The Church of Santi Domenico e Sisto is one of the titular churches in Rome, Italy in the care of the Roman Catholic Order of Preachers, better known as the Dominicans. It is located at No. 1 Largo Angelicum on the Quirinal Hill on the camp ...

, now the church of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, ''Angelicum'', the double staircase and balustrade built in 1654 are accepted as his work. American painter

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...

during a visit to Rome in 1906 made an oil painting and several pencil sketches of this staircase and balustrade writing in 1907: "I did in Rome a study of a magnificent curved staircase and balustrade, leading to a grand facade that would reduce a millionaire to a worm...." The painting now hangs at the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and the pencil sketches are in the collection of the

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

art collection of the Fogg Museum. Sargent later used the architectural features of this stair and balustrade in a portrait of Charles William Eliot, President of

from 1869-1909. At the church of

Santi Cosma e Damiano The basilica of Santi Cosma e Damiano is a titular church in Rome, Italy. The lower portion of the building is accessible through the Roman Forum and incorporates original Roman buildings, but the entrance to the upper level is outside the Forum ...

his project commissioned by Urban VIII Barberini and directed by

Luigi Arrigucci is a fictional character featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the younger fraternal twin brother and sidekick of Mario, Nintendo's masc ...

, he raised the floor to the current level of the Forum of Vespasian. He built the church of San Francesco di Paola (1624–1630). In

Trastevere Trastevere () is the 13th ''rione'' of Rome: it is identified by the initials R. XIII and it is located within Municipio I. Its name comes from Latin ''trans Tiberim'', literally 'beyond the Tiber'. Its coat of arms depicts a golden head of a lio ...

, he built the church of

San Callisto San Callisto ( en, Saint Callixtus, la, S. Calixti) is a Roman Catholic titular church in Rome, Italy, built over the site of Pope Callixtus I's martyrdom (c. AD 222). The original building dates from the time of Pope Gregory III (r. 731–741), w ...

. An information brochure at the adjacent

Palazzo San Callisto The Palazzo San Callisto (also known as the Palace of Saint Callixtus) is a Baroque palace in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome and one of the extraterritorial Properties of the Holy See. The original Palazzo is located in the ''Piazza di Sant ...

states, "In 1618 the Maestri di Strade, or Masters of Roads, issued a license for the construction of the facades of the square (of Santa Maria in Trastevere) and the adjacent street of San Callisto, both to be built by Orazio Torriani." The aedicular altar in Sant'Agostino (1627), often attributed to

Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his ...

, is his design. In the construction of the façade for the Jesuit church of Sant'Ignazio Torriani was called in, with Martino Longhi the Younger, to critique the revised design by the Jesuit, Fra

Antonio Sasso Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

; they found fault with it and recommended, in vain, that the original design by Father

Antonio Grassi Antonio Grassi (13 November 1592 – 13 December 1671), born Vincenzo Grassi, was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Oratorians. Grassi was known for his humble and pious nature with a strong devotion to the Mari ...

be adhered to. Their proposals included no contributions of their own. More than thirty drawings by Torriani are conserved in the

Kunstbibliothek Berlin The Berlin Art Library (german: Kunstbibliothek Berlin) is an agency of the Berlin State Museums under the auspices of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. It has approximately 400,000 volumes and ranks among Germany's leading institutions s ...

. Like all designers of the Renaissance and Baroque, Torriani was called upon to design quite temporary constructions for feasts and occasions, and here his work could express the most recent developments. We only know about his ''thalamus'' for the procession at Santa Maria sopra Minerva at the

Feast of the Rosary ''Feast of the Rosary'' (German: ''Rosenkranzfest'') is a 1506 oil painting by Albrecht Dürer, now in the National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic. According to Czechoslovakian art historian Jaroslav Pešina, it is "probably the most superb pai ...

, 5 October 1625, because it was memorialised in an engraving.Irving Lavin and Charles D. Cuttler, letter to the editor, ''The Art Bulletin'' 55.3 (September 1973:475-476), illustrated. It was an openwork domed baldachin supported in Solomonic columns such as those

was providing for St. Peter's Basilica. There are further designs for ephemeral occasions in the Kunstbibliothek Berlin.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torriani, Orazio 17th-century Italian architects Year of birth missing 1657 deaths Architects from Rome