The renovation of Castelnuovo, begun in 1443 by Alfonso d’Aragona just after his entry in Naples, and carried out through the interaction of Majorcan masters and local technicians, produced a fruitful contamination among architecture and building traditions, experimenting upon forms, techniques and materials. The experience of building the Sala dei Baroni vault triggered the spreading of a stone masonry culture in the areas of South Italy inside the Crown of Aragon giving rise within different geographic areas to specific local characters in Renaissance architecture (Nobile, 2013). At the same time the Sala dei Baroni vault itself constitutes a ibridation of an architectural and constructional typology due to the contamination with the local material, technical, and cultural context (Como, 2018). The imposing octagonal ribbed vault covering the Sala dei Baroni Great Hall, with 8 secondary keystones and 4 keystones in the corner squinches, designed by Guillelm Sagrera, is the largest gothic vault of this type. The formal and constructional Sagrera solution of the vault was traditionally used within the Iberian area of the Crown of Aragon (Serra Desfils, 2000; Ibáñez-Saragozá, 2015), but assumes here some peculiarities. On the basis of data on its history of construction and features, of the last architectural surveys, and in junction with direct analysis of the structure, the study interweaves the analysis of the shape and materials used with the historical reconstruction of the building process, also drawing up a complete architectural drawing of the vault. This detailed analysis highlights the technical construction peculiarities which distinguish it from the Iberian models and shift it from the model of bóveda estrellada to that of a masonry rotation dome, stressing the influence of local materials, traditional techniques, and local ancient models in the final hybrid solution gradually adopted during the constructional process.
Da bóveda estrellada a cupola di rotazione. Le peculiarità della grande volta della Sala dei Baroni in Castel Nuovo
Maria Teresa Como
2020-01-01
Abstract
The renovation of Castelnuovo, begun in 1443 by Alfonso d’Aragona just after his entry in Naples, and carried out through the interaction of Majorcan masters and local technicians, produced a fruitful contamination among architecture and building traditions, experimenting upon forms, techniques and materials. The experience of building the Sala dei Baroni vault triggered the spreading of a stone masonry culture in the areas of South Italy inside the Crown of Aragon giving rise within different geographic areas to specific local characters in Renaissance architecture (Nobile, 2013). At the same time the Sala dei Baroni vault itself constitutes a ibridation of an architectural and constructional typology due to the contamination with the local material, technical, and cultural context (Como, 2018). The imposing octagonal ribbed vault covering the Sala dei Baroni Great Hall, with 8 secondary keystones and 4 keystones in the corner squinches, designed by Guillelm Sagrera, is the largest gothic vault of this type. The formal and constructional Sagrera solution of the vault was traditionally used within the Iberian area of the Crown of Aragon (Serra Desfils, 2000; Ibáñez-Saragozá, 2015), but assumes here some peculiarities. On the basis of data on its history of construction and features, of the last architectural surveys, and in junction with direct analysis of the structure, the study interweaves the analysis of the shape and materials used with the historical reconstruction of the building process, also drawing up a complete architectural drawing of the vault. This detailed analysis highlights the technical construction peculiarities which distinguish it from the Iberian models and shift it from the model of bóveda estrellada to that of a masonry rotation dome, stressing the influence of local materials, traditional techniques, and local ancient models in the final hybrid solution gradually adopted during the constructional process.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
