MATTEO CARNELLIVARI. - Architect, born in 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 last Gothic period of Sicilian architecture, marked by a revival of local 14th-century forms, combined with the direct importation of Catalan ones.
His certain works are the palaces of Francesco Abbatesi and Ranieri Ajutamiristo; in these, the exterior is simple and massive, adorned only with a few small elements, while the most notable parts are the courtyards with two tiers of loggias, featuring arcades on columns and depressed arches, light and airy. He is also attributed with S. Maria della Catena, the finest construction of this period, which in its organic type is inspired by traditional Sicilian schemes, but in the most original and typical forms of the external portico and the fully realized naves, it embodies tendencies toward an accentuated linearism that almost eliminates the thickness of the walls, concentrates the weights on slender columns, and emphasizes the arcades with wide, detailed, and incised cornices.
Carnellivari can be considered the founder of a Palermitan school of master builders and woodcarvers, which continued to apply his forms for several decades.