Giovanni Battista Borra (27 December 1713 - November 1770) was an Italian architect, engineer and architectural draughtsman.

Life

Borra was born in

Dogliani Dogliani () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southeast of Turin and about northeast of Cuneo. Dogliani borders the following municipalities: Belvedere Langhe, Bonvicino, Boss ...

. Studying under

Bernardo Antonio Vittone Parish Church of Grignasco Bernardo Antonio Vittone (19 August 1704 – 19 October 1770) was an Italian architect and writer. He was one of the three most important Baroque architects active in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy; the other tw ...

from 1733 to 1736 (producing 10 plates for his teacher's ''Istruzione elementari per indirizzo de'giovani allo studio dell'architettura civile'', published in Lugano in 1760), in 1748 he published a work of his own. This was a handbook on buildings' stability, practical in tone. He met Robert Wood in Rome, and joined his 1750-51 antiquarian expedition to Asia Minor and Syria as its architectural draughtsman before returning with Wood to England. There he used his sketchbooks (now in the library of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, London) to produce the original drawings (now in the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

) for Wood's ''The Ruins of Balbec'' and ''The Ruins of Palmyra'', and from 1752 to 1760 carried out commissions for English patrons. These works and their images led to motifs from

Baalbek Baalbek (; ar, بَعْلَبَكّ, Baʿlabakk, Syriac-Aramaic: ܒܥܠܒܟ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In Greek and Roman ...

and

Palmyra Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early secon ...

becoming fashionable for ceiling and interior decorations in England and Italy (Borra used them, for example, in his own work on the south facade of the Palazzo Isnardi and the interior decoration of its Sala d'Ercole and Sala di Diana, on the piano nobile). He is thought to have died in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

Works

Norfolk House Norfolk House, 31 St James's Square, Westminster, was built between 1748 and 1752 as his London townhouse by Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk (1686–1777) to the design of Matthew Brettingham (1699–1769), "the Elder", and was demolishe ...

, St James's Square, London (destroyed in 1938; Music Room reconstructed at the V&A) - Rococo interiors, 1755, commissioned by Mary Howard, Duchess of Norfolk *

Stowe House Stowe House is a grade I listed country house in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is the home of Stowe School, an independent school and is owned by the Stowe House Preservation Trust who have to date (March 2013) spent more than £25m on t ...

**interior decoration, commissioned by Richard Grenville, 2nd Earl Temple. **alterations to and execution of

Robert Adam Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his ...

's design for the south front **alterations to the garden buildings by

John Vanbrugh Sir John Vanbrugh (; 24 January 1664 (baptised) – 26 March 1726) was an English architect, dramatist and herald, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restora ...

and James Gibbs, so that they conformed to Grenville's taste for the Neo-classical *

Guarino Guarini Camillo Guarino Guarini (17 January 1624 – 6 March 1683) was an Italian architect of the Piedmontese Baroque, active in Turin as well as Sicily, France, and Portugal. He was a Theatine priest, mathematician, and writer.. Biography Guarini w ...

's Castello dei Racconigi, near Turin (1676–83) - remodelling and extension, commissioned by Prince Ludovico di Carignano. *

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

ese palazzi, notably **the Palazzo Isnardi di Caraglio in Turin (from c. 1766-7), in collaboration with Benedetto Innocente Alfieri *Piedmontese churches **chapel of Santo Sudario with a Palladian facade for the senate of Nice, 1763 *1760-1770 - designed fortifications at

Alessandria Alessandria (; pms, Lissandria ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, about east of Turin. Alessandri ...

and several Piedmontese hydraulic projects

External links

"Giovanni Battista Borra."
The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Oxford University Press, Inc., 2002. Answers.com 03 Jul. 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Borra, Giovanni 1713 births 1770 deaths People from Dogliani Architects from Turin 18th-century Italian architects Italian draughtsmen Italian engineers