Architectural capriccio

In this spectacular composition, Juvarra draws on his experience of stage design during his stay in Rome, but the vision of space, the vertical thrust, and the atmospheric permeability recall the architectural concepts he expressed in Turin in the monumental staircase at Palazzo Madama and in the central hall of the palace of Stupinigi. The immediacy of style and the terse transparency of relationships between light and shade illustrate his brilliant versatility in graphic art. This item comes from the collection of the architect’s drawings, which had already been divided into four albums in the eighteenth century: in 1921 the Museum purchased the first two, which had been in the archives of Charles Emmanuel III before becoming the property of Count Seyssel d’Aix and then going to the Piccola Casa della Divina Provvidenza. That year Angelo Reycend and Giovanni Chevalley donated the other two volumes.