.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The Torre dell'Orologio is located in Piazza del Popolo in the Italian city of Faenza, which sits at the foot of the Subapennine hills in Ravenna, and was originally constructed by Fra Domenico Paganelli (1545-1624) between 1604 and 1608. Paganelli was a priest of the Order of Dominicans and an architect who had previously designed the Monumental Fountain in the Piazza della Liberà, another of Faenza's famous landmarks.
The tower was left relatively unscathed throughout the centuries, although it was restored in 1836. From the late nineteenth century until 1944 the base of the tower housed a bar and a brewery. On 17 November 1944, the German army, retreating through Italy, demolished the tower. However, after the war had ended, the people and council of the city were determined to rebuild the tower and by 1953 the Torre dell'Orologio was back up 'as it was and where it was'.
The author of the present model, Giovannini Ferdinando, has faithfully recorded the rusticated base of the tower with the five overlapping orders crowned by a dome. The only noticeable differences between the tower and the model is the lack of both the clock face on the second order, and a row of circular windows below the cornice of the dome. Francesco Scala's carved marble group of the Virgin and Child, which is located in the niche over the balcony on the first order of the Tower, was also not recreated in the model, probably because the group was not original to the Tower and would have been difficult to accurately represent in wood.
Despite this the model is extremely accurate in its portrayal of the proportions and the constructive and decorative elements of the tower, such as the capitals, cornices and balustrades. An unpublished engraving depicting the Piazza Maggiore, probably from the early nineteenth century, shows the tower rising above the Piazza. The Tower is shown without the row of circular windows immediately below the dome. These windows are also lacking from the present model, but can be seen in late nineteenth-century photographs of the Tower, taken after the restorations earlier in the century, thereby providing a possible terminus ante quem for the construction of the present model.
The tower was left relatively unscathed throughout the centuries, although it was restored in 1836. From the late nineteenth century until 1944 the base of the tower housed a bar and a brewery. On 17 November 1944, the German army, retreating through Italy, demolished the tower. However, after the war had ended, the people and council of the city were determined to rebuild the tower and by 1953 the Torre dell'Orologio was back up 'as it was and where it was'.
The author of the present model, Giovannini Ferdinando, has faithfully recorded the rusticated base of the tower with the five overlapping orders crowned by a dome. The only noticeable differences between the tower and the model is the lack of both the clock face on the second order, and a row of circular windows below the cornice of the dome. Francesco Scala's carved marble group of the Virgin and Child, which is located in the niche over the balcony on the first order of the Tower, was also not recreated in the model, probably because the group was not original to the Tower and would have been difficult to accurately represent in wood.
Despite this the model is extremely accurate in its portrayal of the proportions and the constructive and decorative elements of the tower, such as the capitals, cornices and balustrades. An unpublished engraving depicting the Piazza Maggiore, probably from the early nineteenth century, shows the tower rising above the Piazza. The Tower is shown without the row of circular windows immediately below the dome. These windows are also lacking from the present model, but can be seen in late nineteenth-century photographs of the Tower, taken after the restorations earlier in the century, thereby providing a possible terminus ante quem for the construction of the present model.