Alessandro Borgomainerio

Istituto IUAV di Venezia

Domenichino and the "maniera antica" in architecture

2007-2008

Alessandro Borgomainerio graduated at Venice's University of Architecture (Università IUAV di Venezia) and he obtained his Ph.D. degree there in 2004. He is currently Teaching Assistant at the Department of History of Architecture at University IUAV in Venice. Alessandro Borgomainerio's main research focuses on the value of antiquity in Seicento Art and Theory.
In his Ph.D. thesis (Il cardinal Francesco Barberini il Laterano e l'antichità restituita) he has investigated Cardinal Barberini's programme of restoration of Christian antiquities and the role of architects, scholars and patrons involved in it. This topic is developed in a recent published article that analyzes the value of antiquarian images in Francesco Borromini's late works (Su alcuni motivi in San Carlino alle Quattro Fontane), and in his teaching activities at the University of Venice (mostly seminars). At the Italian Academy he will work on Domenichino's architectural activity and the antiquarian value of his work, due mostly to his relationship with his patron, the scholar Giovan Battista Agucchi and the Roman cultural context.
Although Seicento architecture is the subject of other articles he is writing (ones dedicated to civil architecture in Venice and the Seicento restoration of the Lateran Baptistery in Rome), Borgomainerio is also interested in modern architecture and in particular in architectural theory of Fin de siècle Vienna. He has completed studies of Adolf Loos' writings for a recent exhibition catalogue, and he is now working on an Italian edition of Loos' Selected Writings.