CARNELIVARI, MATTEO. - Architect, b. at Noto, he worked in Palermo at the end of the 15th century and in the early years of the 16th. He is the representative artist of the final Gothic period of Sicilian architecture, characterized by a revival of local fourteenth-century forms, combined with the direct importation of Catalan ones.
His certain works are the palaces of Francesco Abbatellis and Ranieri Ajutamicristo; in them the exterior is simple and massive, adorned only with a few small elements, whereas the most notable parts are the courtyards with two orders of loggias, with arcades on columns and low, light and airy arches. S. Maria della Catena is also attributed to him, the finest building of this period, which in its organic type is inspired by traditional Sicilian schemes, but in the highly original and very characteristic forms of the external portico and the naves fully realizes the tendencies of an accentuated linearism, which almost suppresses the thickness of the walls, concentrates the weights upon slender columns, and marks.
C. may be regarded as the founder of a Palermitan school of master builders and carvers, which for several decades continued to apply his forms.