Join author Christine Casey for a presentation on her recently published book, which tells the remarkable story of the craftsmen of Ticino, in Italian-speaking Switzerland. These craftsmen took their prodigious skills as specialist decorative plasterworkers throughout Northern Europe in the 18th century, adorning classical architecture with their rich and fluent décor. Their names are not widely known – Giuseppi Artari (c.1690–1771), Giovanni Battista Bagutti (1681–1755), and Francesco Vassalli (1701–1771) are a few – but their work transformed the interiors of magnificent buildings in Italy, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, and Ireland. Among the interiors highlighted in this deeply researched, beautifully illustrated volume are Palazzo Reale in Turin, Upper Belvedere in Vienna, St. Martin in the Fields in London, the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, Houghton Hall in Norfolk, and Carton House in Ireland.
Dr. Christine Casey is an architectural historian with a particular interest in the relationship of architecture and decoration and the role of craftsmanship in architectural production. Her research has developed from an initial focus on Irish eighteenth-century architecture to a broader interest in European early modern architecture. She is currently leading an Irish Research Council New Horizons interdisciplinary research project entitled ‘Making Victorian Dublin.’ Focused on the Museum building at Trinity College Dublin, this joint project with the Department of Geology explores the role of materials and craftsmanship in Dublin’s Victorian architecture.
2 AIA LU credits will be available for this lecture. Please bring your AIA membership number in order to fill out the necessary paperwork.