Giovanni Battista Borra
Encyclopedia
Giovanni Battista Borra was an Italian architect, engineer and architectural draughtsman.
in Rome, and joined his 1750-51 antiquarian expedition to Asia Minor and Syria as its architectural draughtsman before returning with Wood to England. There he used his sketchbooks (now in the library of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, London) to produce the original drawings (now in the Royal Institute of British Architects
) for Wood's The Ruins of Balbec and The Ruins of Palmyra, and from 1752 to 1760 carried out commissions for English patrons. These works and their images led to motifs from Baalbek and Palmyra becoming fashionable for ceiling and interior decorations in England and Italy (Borra used them, for example, in his own work on the south facade of the Palazzo Isnardi and the interior decoration of its Sala d'Ercole and Sala di Diana, on the piano nobile).
Life
Studying under Bernardo Antonio Vittone from 1733 to 1736 (producing 10 plates for his teacher's Istruzione elementari per indirizzo de'giovani allo studio dell'architettura civile, published in Lugano in 1760), in 1748 he published a work of his own. This was a handbook on buildings' stability, practical in tone. He met Robert WoodRobert Wood (engraver)
Robert Wood was a British traveller, classical scholar, civil servant and politician.In 1750-1751 Wood travelled around the Levant with two wealthy young Oxford scholars James Dawkins and John Bouverie and an Italian draftsman Giovanni Battista Borra...
in Rome, and joined his 1750-51 antiquarian expedition to Asia Minor and Syria as its architectural draughtsman before returning with Wood to England. There he used his sketchbooks (now in the library of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, London) to produce the original drawings (now in the Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
) for Wood's The Ruins of Balbec and The Ruins of Palmyra, and from 1752 to 1760 carried out commissions for English patrons. These works and their images led to motifs from Baalbek and Palmyra becoming fashionable for ceiling and interior decorations in England and Italy (Borra used them, for example, in his own work on the south facade of the Palazzo Isnardi and the interior decoration of its Sala d'Ercole and Sala di Diana, on the piano nobile).
Works
- Norfolk HouseNorfolk HouseNorfolk House, at 31 St James's Square, London, was built in 1722 for the Duke of Norfolk. It was a royal residence for a short time only, when Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of King George III, lived there 1737-1741, after his marriage in 1736 to Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, daughter of...
, St James's Square, London (destroyed in 1938; Music Room reconstructed at the V&AVictoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
) - Rococo interiors, 1755 - Stowe HouseStowe HouseStowe House is a Grade I listed country house located in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is the home of Stowe School, an independent school. The gardens , a significant example of the English Landscape Garden style, along with part of the Park, passed into the ownership of The National Trust...
- interior decoration, commissioned by Richard Grenville, 2nd Earl Temple.
- alterations to and execution of Robert AdamRobert AdamRobert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...
's design for the south front - alterations to the garden buildings by John VanbrughJohn VanbrughSir John Vanbrugh – 26 March 1726) was an English architect and dramatist, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restoration comedies, The Relapse and The Provoked Wife , which have become enduring stage favourites...
and James GibbsJames GibbsJames Gibbs was one of Britain's most influential architects. Born in Scotland, he trained as an architect in Rome, and practised mainly in England...
, so that they conformed to Grenville's taste for the Neo-classical
- Guarino Guarini's Castello dei Racconigi, near Turin (1676-83) - remodelling and extension, commissioned by Prince Ludovico di Carignano.
- PiedmontPiedmontPiedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
ese palazzi, notably- the Palazzo Isnardi di Caraglio in Turin (from c. 1766-7), in collaboration with Benedetto Innocente Alfieri
- Piedmontese churches
- chapel of Santo Sudario with a Palladian facade for the senate of Nice, 1763
- 1760-1770 - designed fortifications at AlessandriaAlessandria-Monuments:* The Citadel * The church of Santa Maria di Castello * The church of Santa Maria del Carmine * Palazzo Ghilini * Università del Piemonte Orientale-Museums:* The Marengo Battle Museum...
and several Piedmontese hydraulic projects
External links
- "Giovanni Battista Borra." The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Oxford University Press, Inc., 2002. Answers.com 03 Jul. 2008.