BEVIGNATE. - Benedictine, architect, b. in Perugia around 1240, d. perhaps in his nineties. In 1277 he is remembered together with the sculptors Nicola and Giovanni Pisano and the hydraulic engineer Boninsegna in the inscription of the fountain of Perugia, of which he is called the builder (structor).

Around 1290 he was at Orvieto for the construction of the Cathedral, and he was still working there in 1295 as opera and in 1300 as master builder. In 1305 he was at Perugia, placed in charge of the public works of the Commune. Among the architects of the 13th century, B.'s figure acquires clear definition through the documentary evidence and the precise judgment that can be made of him on the basis of his works. The balanced mass relationships of the Perugian fountain, the bold structures of the Orvieto Cathedral, in whose construction he certainly took part, even if the design of the building is not due to him, and finally the elegant forms of the church of St. Francis at Gubbio, attributed to him with almost absolute certainty, place B. among the greatest architects of his time. He interpreted the new Gothic forms with a free spirit, harmonizing them and grafting them onto the sturdy stock of the most genuine local Romanesque tradition.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: Anon., s. v. in Thieme-Becker, III, p. 559; A. Briganti, Guida di Perugia, Perugia 1907, pp. 1-3.

Emilio Lavagnino

@incollection{ec2_bevignate_bevignate, author = {Lavagnino, Emilio}, title = {Bevignate (Bevignate)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {1531}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/bevignate-bevignate} }

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