JUVARA (JUVARRA), FILIPPO. – Architect and engraver, b. in Messina on 16 June 1678, d. in Madrid on 31 January 1736. From his father, a goldsmith and engraver, he learned the art of drawing, pursuing at the same time the studies that prepared him for an ecclesiastical career. One of his first architectural conceptions concerned the decorations for the festivities that Messina organized for the coronation of Filippo II. He then obtained permission to study architecture in Rome under the direction of Carlo Fontana. Having won the competition announced by Clemente XI, he was appointed a member of the Accademia di S. Luca. Received at the papal court, he devoted himself to theatrical architecture and stage design.
He travelled throughout Italy, always occupied with numerous projects, but carried out his activity chiefly in the service of Amedeo II of Savoy, to whom he was presented when the latter was in Messina to take possession of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1714). Still in Messina, commissioned by Amedeo II, he designed the enlargement of the Royal Palace, which was subsequently destroyed; and in December of the same year he earned the title of “first civil architect of the king.” From this period began the most brilliant phase of his activity. In Turin in 1715, F. J. completed the façade of S. Cristina; the following year, the quarters of Porta Susa. In the first months of 1716 he prepared the wooden models for the church and convent of Superga and for the chapel of Venaria Reale. Two years later he began construction of the grand staircase of Palazzo Madama and completed the designs for Castello di Rivoli and the church of S. Croce. These were immediately followed by those for Palazzo del Senato, Palazzo Birago di Borgaro, Palazzo Martini di Cigala, and the crowning of the cathedral bell tower. Summoned to Lisbon by King Giovanni V of Portugal in November 1719, he designed the lighthouse of that capital’s port and other highly important buildings, including a royal palace, a patriarchal church, a palace for the patriarch, and a parish house for a locality that has not been identified. This activity earned him the title of “Knight of the Order of Christ.” He remained in Lisbon for approximately a year, from there going to London, still as the guest of the Portuguese king, and then to Paris. In the first months of 1721 he was in Rome. On returning to Turin he resumed the interrupted works (Superga-Venaria-Rivoli), executed Palazzo Richa di Coassolo, the hunting lodge at Stupinigi, and the façade of Palazzo Guarene, and drew up a considerable number of designs for villas and palaces in various parts of the Savoyard state. Among these, particularly important were the design for the Oratorio di S. Filippo (1723) and the urban plan for Porta Vittoria (1731), the charterhouse of Collegno (1726), and the entrance to the church of the Madonna d’Oropa. In 1728 he was appointed commendatory abbot of the abbey of Selve. Summoned to Rome, he designed a “permanent conclave” and, after the death of his teacher C. Fontana, was elected architect of S. Pietro. His activity was then divided between Rome and Turin, where he stayed particularly during the winter, when masonry work in Piedmont was impossible because of the cold. In 1732, in the capital, he executed for Clemente XII a design for the sacristy of S. Pietro, and in 1735 Filippo V, who had come to know him at the court of Amedeo, summoned him to Spain, when his fame had by then reached its apogee. He was entrusted with the construction of the Royal Palace of Madrid and J., while awaiting the choice of the site for its construction, designed the Granja di S. Ildefonso and the Castello di Aranjuez. However, when he had almost completed the wooden model of the Royal Palace, he was struck by death, and the Palace was executed by Sacchetti. F. J. was buried in Madrid after solemn funeral honors.
He loved regularity and simplicity and conformed his works to them, although it is not difficult to discern in him baroque influences from Borromini and Bernini. F. J. loved and studied the classics, making many reliefs from ancient monuments. Although receptive to French influences, he remained independent of them, always deliberately keeping his distance from complications and rhetoric. From the baroque he adopted the plastic language, in order to derive chiaroscuro vigor from II. Columns and pilasters are a vivid expression of his sensibility; strongly projecting cornices supported by brackets, and luminous round-headed arches create those masterly contrasts of light and shadow which, in J.’s work, appear as its principal characteristic. – Vedi tavv. XLI-XLII.