Invisible Connections: reconstructing Venetian architect Giorgio Massari’s international network (1687-1766)

Growing international exchange and travelling portray the late-XVII and the early-XVIII century. Far Eastern influences -from the Arab world, China or India- come into fashion in Europe, while reaching Rome becomes a must for any aspiring architect, such asFisher Von Erlach, who attends Carlo Fontana’s studio. Going to Rome implies drawing antiquities, but also confronting with the works by masters such as Bernini, who in turns visits France in 1665. It’s not unlikely to find drawing of this time – like one by Antonio Gaspari for a villa – where measurements are expressed in two different units, so that they can be read at the same time both in the Venetian area and in Rome. Gille-Marie Oppenord, a pensionnaire of the French Academy in Rome visits Venice in 1697 in order to draw and study the city’s architecture. And so does the Swedish Nicodemus Tessin, who visits Villa Contarini by Longhena, whose reference was a project by Fontana himself. Francesco Muttoni, from Vicenza, visits the Cardinal Ottoboni, among whose guests was also Filippo Juvarra. What happens in Rome has now consequences on the architecture of Venice as well. Venetian noblemen are expected to become ambassadors abroad, as a necessary step in their cursus honorum towards the title of Procuratore di San Marco. On the opposite, ambassadors are officially welcomed to the city with triumphal temporary installation, often floating in the Grand Canal. Notable, in this sense, is the scenography designed by Muttoni in 1709 to welcome king Frederick IV of Denmark in Vicenza. Diplomatic travels imply a return, thus ambassadors would come back from Germany, Wien or Constantinopole, bringing back books and knowledge to share. A journey that is lim- ited in time might lead to a long-term exchange of cultures, especially in a city like Venice, thanks to its being at an intersection of international markets. Architect Giorgio Massari (1687-1766) acts within this thriving Venetian cultural context. He designs and builds an outstanding number of projects, dealing with mul- ti-scale issues and different architectural typologies. He shows ability to direct con- struction sites even from a distance, by sending his collaborator Lorenzo Martinuzzi to attend the works on the cathedral of Koper, or Antonio Spatti to Brescia for the church of Santa Maria della Pace. In Venice, he designs the Dominican church of Santa Maria del Rosario in Venice, having to undergo approval from the head of religious Order in Rome. His architectural language somehow always adapts to the local building cul- ture within which it is formulated: for instance, in Venice he quotes Palladio, while in Brescia his choices get more typically Lombard. Unlike in Rome or in Bologna – where project drawings are usually submitted to the Accademia di San Luca or the Clementine one – there is no academy in Venice: for such reasons clients usually turn to experts in order to have an opinion on a pro- ject: Frigimelica and Poleni are upon those who are called to evaluate Massari’s works. Likewise in Brescia, the Order of the Philippines submits Massari’s project to Filippo Juvarra for an approval. It is also known that Massari himself reviewed Muttoni’s design for Palazzo Capra, where the detail of a staircase explicitly refers to Juvarra’s Spadafora palace. Although being one of the main architects of his time, Giorgio Massari represents a problematic figure, mainly due to a lack of records documenting his life. No biograph- ical information was ever passed on, nor do we hold any written piece, except for a few letters he exchanged with some clients. Since he quotes Bernini’s Lateran intervention, we may infer he has traveled to Rome: however, no record can support this theory with facts. Furthermore, Massari suffered a ‘damnatio memoriae’, being excluded by the “Vite dei piu celebri Architetti” of his time, the treatise written by a resentful Tommaso Temanza, who disapproved his works and, especially, disliked his professional fortune. Massari’s bad reputation among the critics of his time obstructs our understanding of his net of contacts, his outer influences, his exchanges, his travels: this paper aims at reconstructing specifically such network, in order to reframe our understanding of his attitude, basing on data collected from the archival sources documenting his works.