Heritage and History of Milan #5: The Façade of Milan’s Duomo
This video has accurate SUBTITLES, I recommend to visualize them.
It is a journey through history of the Duomo, including that of the Duomo that could have been and never was, because of the many projects created for its façade.
The English text and narrating voice are those of Carlo Rolle, whose KZread channel with history, art and ancient literature.
By looking carefully at the façade of Milan’s Duomo, you can see that the classical form of the portals and the windows does not correspond to the Gothic style of the cathedral.
The area of the Duomo was once occupied by different buildings: the cathedral of Santa Tecla with the baptistery of San Giovanni and that of Santa Maria Maggiore with the baptistery of Santo Stefano.
In 1386, when Gian Galeazzo Visconti became Duke of Milan, it was decided to construct a larger cathedral that would replace the two churches. The two baptisteries and Santa Tecla were demolished. The church of Santa Maria Maggiore, gradually incorporated into the new building, was demolished later on. Its façade served for decades as temporary façade for the new cathedral, and was eventually demolished in 1638. The oldest images of the new cathedral show that it was flanked by two large bell towers of a style that matched that of the side buttresses.
In the XVI century, there was a debate on whether the new façade should be in Gothic style or in the "Roman style". Martino Bassi drew several sketches, marked by the absence of bell towers. Tolomeo Rinaldi proposed a project, which foresaw a façade on two orders with a central pronaos and grandiose bell towers on the sides.
A contest among the best architects was held. Tibaldi designed a façade reminding of the Escorial. Gigantic Corinthian columns, about 24m high, supported an impressive cornice protruding almost 5m from the profile of the façade. For the sides, Tibaldi proposed two tall bell towers on 3 orders. The stone suitable for the columns was found near Baveno. The columns were to be transported by a large boat that, after crossing the lake and sailing along the Ticino and the Naviglio Grande, would reach Milan. It was necessary to carry out hydraulic works, such as the enlargement of the locks, the demolition of a few bridges and of certain buildings on the portion of the canal running through the city.
The project of Tibaldi was further elaborated with many variations, incorporated into the final project of Fabio Mangone. In 1628, finally the operations for the transport of the first column began. However its weight broke the ropes that held it, and the fractured column ended up at the bottom of the lake. Mangone, mortified by this failure, died in the following year.
In 1638, Carlo Buzzi succeeded Francesco Richini in the Factory of the Duomo. In 1645, due to the difficulties posed by the huge marble columns to the construction, Buzzi presented his own project, which preserved the classical elements already completed, but took up the gothic motifs of the cathedral, and included two high bell towers on the sides of the façade.
In contrast with it, the project of Francesco Castelli, proposed a completely new design, a reinterpretation of Tibaldi's old project in a pseudo Gothic style, with shorter and spiral columns, a portico with pointed arches and an upper tympanum.
Over the following decades, countless projects were presented, in which the Baroque style coexisted with the Gothic one, while classical elements were mostly hidden by a portico. However, the works remained suspended for a long time. Only in 1683, the old façade was demolished and the new front was closed with masonry works to support the first span of the church.
In 1805, upon insistance of Napoleon Bonaparte, a project of Felice Soave was chosen, which maintained the original profile of a gabled cathedral without destroying what had been already built. Napoleon promised that the cost for the completion of the Duomo would be carried by France. At that point, the works were finally completed within seven years.
In 1884, Aristide De Togni bequeathed a large sum for changing the Duomo's façade, completed in a hurry and with poor materials. An international competition was launched, to which more than one 120 competitors took part. Giuseppe Brentano was the winner, but he died at the end of 1889, without being able to complete the executive drawings of his project. In the meantime, it became clear that it was not possible to finance the reconstruction of the entire façade: the works, which had just begun, were suspended in 1902. A commission was appointed for the reform of the crowning element, in danger of a partial collapse. A different project for the decorations was completed in 1925. In the following decades the doors will be completed
In 1938 Mussolini announced the construction of a 164m-high bell tower that should have become the tallest in the world. It all came to nothing, because shortly thereafter Italy went to war.
Пікірлер: 26
Marvellous explanation - Thank you!
@CarloRolle
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you for your interest in the video and your kind words!
awesome!
@CarloRolle
Жыл бұрын
Thank you for your comment!
That was an awesome explanation. I am amazed to learn about the proposal of 5 m protruding cornice on the facade.
@CarloRolle
4 жыл бұрын
Thank you for your interest and comment. Nice to meet you.
@arunkumar-wd9hv
4 жыл бұрын
@@CarloRolle Thank you for making such an explanatory video through transitions of diagrams and drawings that show the history of Duomo. I study M.Arch in Politecnico Di Milano, and was always curious to know about history related to Duomo Di Milano.
@CarloRolle
4 жыл бұрын
Oh, you are studying in Milano. I was born live in Milano and therefore it certainly possible that we will meet in the near future. I have simply translated and narrated the video in its English edition. The author is my friend Andrea Rui, who is working on a long series of similar videos on historical buildings of Milano. I have so far translated 11 of the videos of Andrea (you can find them in my channel), and hopefully there will be many others in the future. The Italian editions can be already found on the KZread channel of Andrea. Thank you for your kind appreciation! Every like and comment helps the visibility of the channel, which tries to publish accurate and well researched content, be it history, philology or history of art and architecture. Have a nice evening!
@arunkumar-wd9hv
4 жыл бұрын
@@CarloRolle Thanks for all this. I will be glad to meet you in future if possible. Its always good and better to know specially about the city you live in or move to. Ill go thru other videos too.
@CarloRolle
4 жыл бұрын
You are doing the right thing!!! You will see the videos and then you will visit the buildings by yourself: those that still exists. For what concerns the buildings that no longer exist, you will visit them virtually, due to accurate documental and iconographic research of Andrea, and you will visit the places, where they once stood. You will make the most of your stay in Milano and know the city better that many Milanese. It will be a wonderful experience that will enrich all you life. I can onlyu add that I have been several times in India and am an admirer of its culture and architectural treasures.
Wonderfully presented!
@CarloRolle
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you so much for your kind comment. Nice to meet you!
@chayamiller2879
3 жыл бұрын
@@CarloRolle sure! It is a pleasure to meet you, likewise. The documentary was extremely fascinating. The Duomo of Milan has such incredible splendor. It truly leaves me speechless. Thank you for sharing this with us.
@CarloRolle
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you very much for your kind words! I hope you will enjoy other videos of the series. Kind regards!
I know this is an old video, but I wonder if i can ask for some sources, like books or articles (in english if possible), with which i can do farther studying upon the subject. If you could provide me with some i would eally appriciate it.
@CarloRolle
2 жыл бұрын
Sources appear on the screen at the end of the video, at minute 18, but they are Italian ones, as the video was created in Italy and then translated in English.
@orestiskal4827
2 жыл бұрын
@@CarloRolle I want to thank you for this video. I read both the books and that of Wittkowerand i can say with all my honesty that your video is a perfect summory of them and much more.
@CarloRolle
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you for your kind words. I apologize for this late reply. KZread has notified me only today of several pending comments.
The narrator accent was hard to understand! what a pity
@CarloRolle
5 жыл бұрын
The video has accurate subtitles. Have a look at them.
@Elle-xf8mw
5 жыл бұрын
@@CarloRolle Thank you saw it, i don't mean to rude, the accent was distracting, thx for the video :)
@CarloRolle
4 жыл бұрын
@Brilliant Thank you, for your kind comment. The English language is spoken in an almost incredible variety of ways, depending on different regional accents (sometimes even within the same country) and on the social milieu of the speakers. If one listens to an audio file of Lord Bertrand Russell, the British philosopher and mathematician, and then to the characters of a movie of Quentin Tarantino, one gets the impression of hearing two different languages; understanding both of them perfectly might require some concentration even to an English native speaker. On top of that, in this particular case, the lexicon used for the video is partly technical (i.e. the one of architecture); therefore not catching a single word can sometimes hamper the understanding of an entire sentence. Finally the narrator (myself, in this case) was obliged to speak relatively quickly, in order to keep pace with the images and the rich information content. The only way to mitigate this situation is probably to visualize the subtitles, which I have written manually. Unfortunately, nowadays KZread shows the subtitles in small characters (maybe to make room for advertising messages?), so that they might not be easy to follow on mobile devices. Thanks again to you and other viewers for your interest and understanding.
@jeylful
3 жыл бұрын
Well use the subtitles. Do you know how to read?
@jeylful
3 жыл бұрын
@@CarloRolle I was able to understand your accent, Carlo. Lovely accent by the way, it goes hand-in-hand with the Italian story you are narrating