Carlo Amati (22 August 1776 – 23 March 1852) was an Italian architect and scholar.

Biography

Born in

Monza Monza (, ; ; , locally ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the Lambro, River Lambro, a tributary of the Po (river), River Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the province of Mo ...

, Amati studied architecture at the

Brera Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan's main public mu ...

, Milan, under

Giuseppe Parini Giuseppe Parini (23 May 1729 – 15 August 1799) was an Italian satirist and Neoclassicism, Neoclassical poet. Biography Parini (originally spelled Parino) was born in Bosisio Parini, Bosisio (later renamed Bosisio Parini in his honour) in Brianz ...

and

Leopoldo Pollack Leopoldo Pollack (1751 – 13 March 1806) was a Holy Roman Empire-born Italian architect who was active in Milan where he became one of the leading proponents of Neoclassical architecture. Career In Vienna, Pollack was trained by Paul Ulrich T ...

. Amati became an assistant to the brothers Albertolli, Giocondo and Giacomo Albertolli, then under abbot Zanoia. Amati was a contemporary of Giacomo Moraglia. At the beginning of his career he was involved in the hurried completion (1806–13) of the façade of

Milan Cathedral Milan Cathedral ( ; ), or Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of the Nativity of Saint Mary (), is the cathedral church of Milan, Lombardy, Italy. Dedicated to the Nativity of Mary, Nativity of St. Mary (), it is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdi ...

, which was carried out under the direction and with the collaboration of Zanoia. The church of

San Carlo al Corso San Carlo al Corso may refer to: * San Carlo al Corso, Milan, church in Milan, Italy * San Carlo al Corso, Noto, church in Noto, Italy * Sant'Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso Sant'Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso (usually known simply as ''San Carlo al Cors ...

(1838–47) in Milan was Amati’s most significant building. Here he grafted 16th-century motifs on to a centralized Roman plan in such a way as to recall both the Pantheon in Rome and the circular Milanese church of San Sebastiano, as well as Bramantesque models and the buildings frequently seen in the backgrounds of

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

paintings. The design for the church was part of a proposal (largely unexecuted) to reorder the entire centre of the city. Amati proposed that a vast arcaded square be opened up around the cathedral and that the Corsia dei Servi (now Corso Vittorio Emanuele) should be straightened to lead up to San Carlo, where another

piazza A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Rela ...

, relating architecturally to the church, was proposed. At the time when

eclecticism Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories i ...

was spreading in Italy and overturning accepted criteria of artistic quality, Amati advocated a return to Vitruvian principles. To this end he produced a series of publications devoted to Vignola, Vitruvius, Roman antiquities in Milan, and on

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

. The completion of the church of San Carlo and Amati’s death, however, marked the end of the Neoclassical movement in Italy.''The Architecture of Modern Italy, Volume I: The Challenge of Tradition 1750–1900'' by Terry Kirk, 2005, , page 153.

Writings

* ''Gli ordini di architettura del Barozzi da Vignola'' (Milan, 1805) * ''Apologia di Vitruvio Pollione'' (Milan, 1821) * ''Dell’architettura di Marco Vitruvio Pollione libri dieci'' (Milan, 1829–30)

References

External links

* * 1776 births 1852 deaths Architects from Milan 18th-century Italian architects 19th-century Italian architects {{Italy-architect-stub