0118 Antonio Porta and Seventeenth-Century Central European Architecture

Abstract

The text places the work of Antonio Porta (1631/32-1702) in the broader context of European architecture. It emphasises the close connections between Porta's architecture and the work of Francesco Caratti and Jean Baptiste Mathey, and the common starting-point for these artists, which was the Viennese architecture of Filiberto Lucchese and Giovanni Pietro Tencalla. The architecture of the Troja chateau of Count Sternberg can also be interpreted in this context; it draws on the analogous suburban summer residences in Vienna (Lusthäuser). There were also significant connections between mid-17th century Central European architecture and the Piedmont metropolis of Turin, which was being developed on a grand scale at that time. On the one hand there were many artists from the Lugano region active in Turin who later went on to work in Central Europe, and on the other numerous Central European aristocrats stayed for a while in Turin as part of their grand tour. It was via Turin that the influences of French architecture were reflected in the Bohemian and Central European milieus.