Tommaso Maria Napoli (16 April 1659 – 12 June 1725) was an Italian architect,

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of Cal ...

monk, engineer and mathematician.

Biography

Born at

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

, Tommaso Napoli received his training under Andrea Cirrincione as a novitiate in the Convento di San Domenico. His first architectural experience was in the construction of the church of San Domenico designed by Cirrincione. Napoli, the son of silversmith, was fervent member of the

Dominican order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of Cal ...

and published at least two treatise on civil and military architecture. He travelled extensively including stays in Naples, Rome, Vienna, and

Ragusa Ragusa is the historical name of Dubrovnik. It may also refer to: Places Croatia * the Republic of Ragusa (or Republic of Dubrovnik), the maritime city-state of Ragusa * Cavtat (historically ' in Italian), a town in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, Cro ...

(modern Dubrovnik). He visited

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

on numerous occasions often in service to the Imperial Court. From 1689 to 1700 he was the official architect of the

Republic of Ragusa hr, Sloboda se ne prodaje za sve zlato svijeta it, La libertà non si vende nemmeno per tutto l'oro del mondo"Liberty is not sold for all the gold in the world" , population_estimate = 90 000 in the XVI Century , currency = ...

. He assisted in the ongoing reconstruction of that city after the earthquake of 1667. He made significant contributions to the construction of the new Cathedral, altering the plans made by Bufalini, and to the

Rector's palace George Rector 878-1947was a restaurateur, raconteur and food authority who wrote several cookbooks in the 1920s and '30s. He appeared on radio on the Columbia Broadcasting System in ''Dine with George Rector''Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, best known for his design of Schönbrunn Palace. However Napoli's works also have affinities with the architecture of Carlo Fontana and his contemporaries and followers in Rome especially the Accademia di San Luca.

Works

Tommaso Maria Napoli is best known for two

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

s in

Bagheria Bagheria (; scn, Baarìa ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in Sicily, Italy, located approximately 10km to the east of the city centre. Etymology According to some sources, the name ''Bagheria'' (by way of old Sicil ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, which set him apart from his Sicilian contemporaries. These villas are the Villa Valguarnera begun in 1712 for Marianna del Bosco (Princess of Cattolica), and the

Villa Palagonia The Villa Palagonia is a patrician villa in Bagheria, 15 km from Palermo, in Sicily, southern Italy. The villa itself, built from 1715 by the architect Tommaso Napoli with the help of Agatino Daidone, is one of the earliest examples of S ...

begun in 1715 for Ferdinando Francesco Gravina,

Prince of Palagonia A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

.E. H. Neil, "Architects and Architecture in 17th & 18th century Palermo" in ''Annali di Architettura''n.7 pp.159 - 176. Valguarnera, built around a

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...

with long curving arms that reference both the earlier villas of

Palladio Andrea Palladio ( ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be one of th ...

and Bernini's Piazza for St. Peter's in Rome. The three storeyed main facade of the villa has a

concave Concave or concavity may refer to: Science and technology * Concave lens * Concave mirror Mathematics * Concave function, the negative of a convex function * Concave polygon, a polygon which is not convex * Concave set * The concavity In ca ...

bay at its centre, in which is set an external staircase leading to the

piano nobile The ''piano nobile'' (Italian for "noble floor" or "noble level", also sometimes referred to by the corresponding French term, ''bel étage'') is the principal floor of a palazzo. This floor contains the main reception and bedrooms of the hou ...

. The balustraded roof line is adorned by statuary. The ''piece de resistance'' of the villa however, is a large

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk a ...

and

parterre A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the part of ...

, also designed by Napoli, overlooking the bay and

Solunto Soluntum or Solus was an ancient city on the Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily near present-day in the comune of Santa Flavia, Italy. In antiquity, it was originally one of the three chief Phoenician settlements in the island and later flourished in ...

, this is considered to be the finest view in Sicily. The

, the larger and more complex of the two, has curved facades of two storeys. The

is denoted by large arched windows. The rear facade is a great curve, flanked by two straight wings. The plan is a modified pentagon and so recalls renaissance models like Vignola's Caprarola and other fortified villas. A prominent feature of the villa is the external staircase. Of even more complex design than the stairs in the concave at Valguarnera, a

double staircase An imperial staircase (sometimes erroneously known as a "double staircase") is the name given to a staircase with divided flights. Usually the first flight rises to a half-landing and then divides into two symmetrical flights both rising with ...

consisting of straight flights, which repeatedly change direction against the straight and curves of the villa's external walls. It is not clear if either of these staircase designs should be attributed to Napoli as they were constructed in later decades. Similarly, the interior of the villa with polychrome

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

walls and mirrored ceilings was completed long after Napoli's presence. The Villa Palagonia was a favorite stop for travellers on the

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

Patrick Brydone Patrick Brydone, FRSE, FRS, FSAScot, FSA (5 January 1736 – 19 June 1818) was a Scottish traveller and author who served as Comptroller of the Stamp Office. Life Brydone was born in Coldingham, Berwickshire, on 5 January 1736, the son of ...

, the Comte de Borch,

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

, and John Soane among many others. Napoli also designed the piazza in front of the church of San Domenico in Palermo with its column dedicated to the Immacolata. He received imperial support from the court in Vienna for this project. The design for the column was altered after Napoli's death by Giovanni Biagio Amico. At the now destroyed Convent of the Sette Angeli in Palermo he designed and completed a protected terrace that allowed the cloistered nuns to view the dramatic procession of Santa Rosalia. He published two short treatises: ''Utriusque Architecturae Compendium...'' (1688) and ''Breve ristretto dell'architettura militare...'' (1723).

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Napoli, Tommaso 1659 births 1725 deaths 18th-century Italian architects Architects of the Sicilian Baroque 17th-century Italian Christian monks Architects from Palermo Italian engineers 17th-century Italian architects Catholic painters Architects of Roman Catholic churches