FILIPPO RAGUZZINI. — Architect, born in Benevento c. 1680, died in Rome in February 1771.
He is an artistic figure whose importance has been increasingly recognized in recent times, and whose merits have been highlighted by critics, rescuing him from the obscurity of the past—a neglect largely due to the controversies surrounding his constructions in Rome during the papacy of Benedict XIII, who protected him along with many other artisans and master builders from Benevento. He appears ever more as the leading architect of the 18th century who conceived urban planning and minor architecture in a manner distinct from the lavish Baroque style, and whose works gave fresh and distinctive expression to these fields. His key works in Rome include the arrangement of Piazza di S. Ignazio with its characteristic buildings of exquisitely eighteenth-century taste, yet rationally designed to maximize the limited space in front of the grand seventeenth-century façade of the church; and the Ospedale di S. Gallicano, laid out horizontally, with the elegant façade of its chapel at the center.
Other works, more or less certain, are: the Madonna della Quercia, and the arrangement of S. Sisto Vecchio, both in Rome. His activity in Benevento has also been recently traced. — See pl. XXI.