GUARINI, GUARINO. - Theatine religious, architect, b. at Modena on 17 January 1624, d. at Milan on 6 March 1683. At a young age he became a regular cleric of the Theatine order and, from 1639 to 1645, was in Rome at the Convent of S. Silvestro. Having returned to Modena, he received from his confreres, in 1648, the task of supervising the renovation works of the church of S. Vincenzo, and in this first work of his he collaborated with Fr. Bernardo Castagnini, who initiated him into the practice of construction. Elected provost of S. Vincenzo, following the firm opposition of the ducal court (which would have set Castagnini against him) he was forced to leave Modena. After staying at Guastalla and at Parma, he moved to Messina where, in 1660, he received the commission for the construction of the churches of the Annunziata, of S. Filippo, and of the Somaschi, destroyed following the earthquake of 1908.
From Messina G. went on to Paris, where he devoted himself to the writing of his book Placita philosophica and where he was appointed professor of theology. In the French capital, in 1662, he began, on the commission of the Theatines, the reconstruction of the church of Ste-Anne-la-Royale, with a Greek-cross plan and a drum dome. He was then at Turin, where he devoted himself to the publication of his works: Del modo di misurar le fabbriche (1674); Trattato di fortificazione (1676); Disegni di architettura civile ed ecclesiastica (1686). L'architettura civile, another work of G., was published after his death. Elected in 1668 engineer to the Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel II, he received from him the commission for the construction of the chapel of the Holy Shroud (annexed to the cathedral of Turin), which he crowned with his characteristic dome. He also devoted himself to the construction of the Collegio dei nobili and, for the Theatines, completed the church of S. Lorenzo. In 1679, by the will of Emmanuel Philibert, he began the facade of Palazzo Carignano, which has a curvilinear central body, and assumed the direction of the works of the great church of S. Filippo already begun by Bettini and then for the most part reworked by Iuvara. Finally he designed a rearrangement of Palazzo Madama, the Palazzo Graneri, the Palazzo Provana di Collegno, the high altar of the church of S. Niccolò at Verona, the S. Gaetano at Nice, and the S. Filippo at Casale.
His art set itself against the French influences then dominant; he introduced Gothic and Hispano-Moorish elements, fusing them into a monumental plastic whole, rich in harmonious rhythms.
Bibliography2 works
1931, passim; M. Labò, s. v. in Enc. Ital., XVIII, pp. 26-27; C. Ceschi, Progetto del G. e del Vittone per la chiesa di S. Gaetano a Nizza, in Palladio, 5 (1941), pp. 171-77.