Giuseppe Sacconi (Montalto delle Marche, 5 July 1854 - 23 September 1905) was an Italian

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. He is best known as the designer of the monument of Vittorio Emanuele II, in the centre of

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 ...

. Following the prestigious commission, he became one of the protagonists of the artistic culture of post-unification Italy, which was then engaged in heated debates aimed at creating a "national style". He was also a restorer of some famous monuments.

Life and works

In 1884, he won the competition to design the Victor Emanuel II Monument in Rome, and began building in the following year, though it was not finished until several years after his death. The monument celebrates the

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

and the battles for national unity, has neoclassical and eclectic style, with many works of art that are affected by the art nouveau; it is today seen by the most up-to-date art critics as an important step in the search for a national style, which was to characterize the Kingdom of Italy recently established. Although the monument to Vittorio Emanuele was generally immediately appreciated for its artistic value, some art scholars expressed criticisms of the monument style. During the fascist-era the monument would become the main scene of Mussolini's regime. In the seventies of the 20th century, this greatly contributed to the general downgrading of the monument. Starting from the 2000s, the Vittoriano has been rediscovered in its artistic, historical and symbolic values. It is one of national symbols of Italy. Giuseppe Sacconi worked on the restoration of the Basilica di Loreto, a work in which he aimed to ''remove all baroque and other changes and additions, and restore the original form to the entire building''.American journal of archaeology, (1890) Volume 6, page 588 He also made the design for the

Expiatory Chapel of Monza The Expiatory Chapel in Monza is a monument-chapel built to atone and commemorate the site at which the king Humbert I was murdered on July 29, 1900, by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci. It stands near the entrance to the Royal Villa of Monza on Vial ...

and restored the

Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi The Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Basilica di San Francesco d'Assisi; la, Basilica Sancti Francisci Assisiensis) is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Order of Friars Minor Conventual in Assisi, a town in the Umbria region in ...

and the

Ancona Cathedral Ancona Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Ancona, ''Basilica Cattedrale Metropolitana di San Ciriaco'') is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Ancona, central Italy, dedicated to Saint Cyriacus. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Ancona. The building is an exam ...

. He died in Collegigliato, Pistoia.

Sources

*The American monthly review of reviews, Volume 33, (1906) edited by Albert Shaw, Page 101. 19th-century Italian architects 1854 births 1905 deaths {{Italy-architect-stub