Carlo Murena (July 16, 1713–May 7, 1764) was an Italian architect of the late-Baroque period active in Rome,

Foligno Foligno (; Central Italian, Southern Umbrian: ''Fuligno'') is an ancient town of Italy in the province of Perugia in east central Umbria, on the Topino river where it leaves the Apennine Mountains, Apennines and enters the wide plain of the Clit ...

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

, and other towns in central Italy.

Life

Murena was born in

Collalto Sabino Collalto Sabino () is a (municipality) in the Province of Rieti in the Italian region of Latium, located about northeast of Rome and about southeast of Rieti. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). C ...

to Giuseppe and Dorotea Rolli Murena. The poet and librettist

Paolo Rolli Paolo Antonio Rolli (13 June 1687 – 20 March 1765) was an Italian Rococo librettist, poet and translator. Generally ranked second to Pietro Metastasio among early eighteenth-century Italian poets, Rolli was a member of several Italian ac ...

was his uncle. He studied at Rome as a pupil of Niccolo Salvi. Around 1737

Cardinal Barberini The House of Barberini is a family of the Italian nobility that rose to prominence in the 17th century Rome. Their influence peaked with the election of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to the papal throne in 1623, as Pope Urban VIII. Their urban pal ...

sent him to train with

Luigi Vanvitelli Luigi Vanvitelli (; 12 May 1700 – 1 March 1773), known in Dutch as (), was an Italian architect and painter. The most prominent 18th-century architect of Italy, he practised a sober classicising academic Late Baroque style that made an ea ...

, who was then building the

Lazzaretto of Ancona The Lazzaretto of Ancona, also called the Mole Vanvitelliana, is a pentagonal 18th-century building built on an artificial island as a quarantine station for the port town of Ancona, Italy. History The island is separated from the land by a chan ...

.Favetti, Carlo. "Carlo Murena e l’altare monumentale alla cattedrale di Terni", ''Umbria7 Magazine'', November 8, 2022
/ref>

Works

Murena worked on a number of Vanvitelli's projects, including the ''campanile'' at the

Basilica della Santa Casa The Basilica della Santa Casa () is a Marian shrine in Loreto, Marche, Loreto, in Marche, the Marches, Italy. The basilica is known for enshrining the house in which the Blessed Virgin Mary is believed by some Catholics to have lived. Pious legen ...

on Loreto. After Vanvitelli left for Naples in 1751, Murena took over completion of a number of his commissions, including

Sant'Agostino, Rome The Basilica of Saint Augustine in Camp Martius (; ), commonly known as Basilica of Saint Augustine is a Catholic titular minor basilica in the Campus Martius area of Rome, Italy. Dedicated to Saint Augustine of Hippo it serves as the motherhous ...

and the

Biblioteca Angelica The () is a public library located in Rome, Italy. In front of the ''Piazza Sant'Agostino'' square, adjacent to the church of Sant'Agostino, not far from Piazza Navona. Having been open to the public since 1609, it is considered the oldest ''pub ...

. Murena was director of the works at a church of Monte Morcino in

for the

Olivetan The Olivetans, formally known as the Order of Our Lady of Mount Olivet, are a monastic order. They were founded in 1313 and recognised in 1344. They use the Rule of Saint Benedict and are a member of the Benedictine Confederation, where they are ...

monks. This led to a commission to design the chapel decorations for the abbey church of the monastery of S. Maria in Campis at Foligno. In 1743 he designed for the Olivetans, the new abbey church of S. Croce di Sassovivo near Foligno. He also designed the tabernacle for the Cathedral of

Terni Terni ( ; ; ) is a city in the southern portion of the region of Umbria, in Central Italy. It is near the border with Lazio. The city is the capital of the province of Terni, located in the plain of the Nera (Tiber), River Nera. It is northeast ...

. In 1759 he became a member of the

Accademia di San Luca The Accademia di San Luca () is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its first ''principe'' or director; ...

. In 1760 he designed for the Franciscan nuns the church of the Holy Trinity at Foligno. In Rome, Murena constructed the ''Zampai chapel'' and its funereal monuments, all found in

Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi The church of Saint Anthony in Campo Marzio, known as Saint Anthony of the Portuguese (, ), is a Baroque Roman Catholic Titular church, titular church in Rome, dedicated to Saint Anthony of Lisbon. The church functions as a National churches in Ro ...

. Murena's work has been discussed in many books on Baroque architecture in Italy.

References

Sources

* * Pompeii, Sabina Carbonara. ''At the twilight of the Baroque'', Viella, 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Murena, Carlo 1713 births 1764 deaths 18th-century Italian architects 18th-century Italian mathematicians