entry Oct 2012
Ferdinando Chiaromonte, architect (b. Naples,1902 - d. Naples, 1985)
Guide books
put a lot of emphasis on Neapolitan architecture of
the 17th and 18th centuries; that is, the Baroque and
Classicism of, say, Fanzago and
Vanvitelli, respectively. The
city, however, is much more than that. There have been at
least three periods of massive construction in the last
120 years. The first was the risanamento,
the remaking of various quarters of Naples (indeed, the
creation from nothing of entire city blocks (!) on land
fill at Santa Lucia, for example); that period (1885-1915)
left behind hundreds of structures in the so-called "Liberty style" (generally termed
Art Nouveau in English). Personally, I like that
style and still find it aesthetic and a pleasure to look
at.The second period was
the 20-year period of Fascism. That wave of construction
left behind in some cases the overpowering government
buildings typical of those same decades in many places in
the world. (See Fascist
architecture.) In Italy, the new style was
called Rationalism. Indeed, there were entire new
Rationalist towns built on the reclaimed marshes south of
Rome, towns such as Latina and Sabáudia. The style was
marked by being very functional and clean, yet not
unpleasant to look at. Solid and pleasing, at least to my
eye. The third period was in the decades following WWII, a
time of cracker-box overbuild in Naples, some of it dangerous and none of it easy on
the eye.
Ferdinando Chiaromonte
was an architect who lived through periods two and three.
He contributed greatly to the construction of the Fascist
period. He was one of the architects (with Marcello
Canino) of the gigantic Provincial Administration Building
(photo, above) across from the main post office at piazza
Matteotti. That building was finished in 1936, more or
less at the same time as the other buildings of similar
style in the area and all of which help define the style
of Rationalism. Chiaromonte also designed similarly
Rationalist residential units in the Chiaia section of
town (photo #1 below), another area of Naples that was
object of intense urban renewal in the 1930s. The area is
outside of the immediate center of Naples and is one of
the "suburbanized" parts of the city. Most of those
building are from the years 1950-80, although
Chiaromente's contributions are from the earlier Fascist
period.
Chiaromonte and others of his generation were in their fifties when they were called upon to resist the wave of cheap and ugly construction that was part of the post-war Italian economic miracle. He did his best to resist the shoddy ugliness of the immediate post-war period. His Renaissance Hotel Mediterraneo (photo #2, below) is from 1958 and is a good example of holdover Rationalist architecture. He didn't just design buildings; he also taught at and, indeed, helped develop the architecture department of the University of Naples.
#1 |
#2 |
© 2002 - 2023