L’immagine del turco nella Sicilia del Cinquecento

Il contributo individua nella produzione artistica siciliana tra il 1560 e il 1585 alcune opere che contemplano in forme scultoree l’immagine dei “turchi” sconfitti. La “cona” realizzata da Antonino Gagini da Palermo per il duomo di San Giorgio a Ragusa ne offre uno dei primi esempi significativi; sul versante opposto dell’isola, l’esempio più eloquente è rinvenibile nel lato esterno di porta Nuova o porta Austria di Palermo. Le raffigurazioni sono articolate in varianti drammatiche, epiche e, indirettamente, consolatorie, secondo le indicazioni offerte da Vitruvio: l’antico si presta a offrire una spiegazione per eventi tragici e per le condizioni drammatiche del presente. In alcune iconog…

La stereotomia in Sicilia e nel Mediterraneo

Rosario Gagliardi (1690 ca.-1762)

Rebuilding Palermo in the Middle Ages: A Virtual Approach

A long sequence of demolitions, transformations, interpretative restorations eliminated or compromised a series of civil and religious buildings built between the XII and early XVI centuries in Palermo. For many of these architectures, graphic, photographic and documentary evidence exists and can be found. Within an extensive project of the Department of Architecture of the University of Palermo, based on the collaboration between different disciplines, we intend to offer an essay of the possible results that the synergy between historical research and representation can offer. Chosen case is a fifteenth-century civil building located in the San Francesco district, of which some fragments r…

Ville e residenze extraurbane del Quattrocento a Palermo e in Sicilia

With the exception of a few splendid residences inherited from the past and related to the Norman or Swabian courts -which areboth in use and fully operative- the documented cases of new constructions in the 15th century are rare. In a city such as Palermo,the great private gardens were internal to the walled circuit, which allowed for an elitist way of life and matching social behaviours.A compact group of towered buildings constructed during that century in several places throughout the island constitutes, however,a significant phenomenon. In these buildings, which were commissioned by distinguished clients (the Cabrera in Pozzallo, theVentimiglia in Monteleone, the Speciale in Ficarazzi)…