'DESPAIRING OF SUCCESS': GIACOMO LEONI AND ALESSANDRO GALILEI IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LONDON

• Authors: Arciszewska B.
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The issue of interaction between foreign architects and urban cultures in their adoptive homelands, is a key issue in this paper. It focuses on two Italian architects who attempted to live and work in eighteenth-century London and, with a varying degree of success, negotiated their way through the complex socio-economic network of England's capital. Both Giacomo Leoni (1686-1746), a Venetian who worked at the aristocratic courts of Germany before settling in England c. 1713 and Alessandro Galilei (1691-1737), a Florentine architect active in England and Ireland between 1714 and 1719, left interesting, yet largely overlooked documentation registering diverse experiences of their life in London and their changing perceptions of England's urban culture. This essay investigates these sources, examining different strategies used by each architect to function professionally and privately within London society, and assesses challenges posed by life in the city undergoing at the time a major transformation into a new commercial and imperial capital of the West. The available evidence suggests that Galilei, a product of Italian court culture, was unable to function in London and grasp the opportunities offered by its highly competitive art market. Leoni, on the other hand, although trained at the absolutist court in Germany, did much better by joining the commercial revolution in English culture. Due to the re-formulation of the Palladian discourse along the nationalistic lines he was forced, however, into a position of the outsider - as an Italian and a Catholic. Leoni could not compete, therefore, on equal terms with his English colleagues, despite his very astute and innovative career strategy. Thus for both Italians London remained a city where they were doomed to 'despair of success'.

Keywords

EN

GALILEI ALESSANDRO; ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE; LEONI GIACOMO; URBAN CULTURE (18TH C. ENGLAND)

Discipline

• ARTS_&_ARCHITECTURE: ARTS & ARCHITECTURE

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Rocznik Historii Sztuki
• Year: 2005
• Volume: 30
• Pages: 135-146
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Arciszewska B.

• B. Arciszewska, Uniwersytet Warszawski, ul. Krakowskie Przedmiescie 26/28, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

06PLAAAA00982274