CREAte Open Lecture – Tonight at 5.30pm in MLT1

Giuseppe Rago

Giuseppe Rago (PhD History of Architecture) is Professor of History of Art at the Federico II University of Naples and has been Professor of History of Architecture at the Federico II University of Naples.

Between Late Gothic and Renaissance: civil architecture in Naples during the early modern age – an european experience

When compared to the periodisation dictated by traditional Florentine and Tuscan-Roman classicism, Renaissance in Naples was characterised by the survival of late Gothic elements. Under signs of a strong continuity, these elements transmitted building codes, design and language to the mature phase of Renaissance, while resisting somehow to the new language.

By combining studies on the relationship between Neapolitan architecture and episodes of Iberian late Gothic, comparisons with episodes of Islamic architecture (especially portals) during the same period in various Mediterranean Countries have been considered, trying to establish relationships among movements of workers and their patrons through economic, political and dynastic events.

The reports also support the livelihood of the late Gothic language (in its infinite variations) until the sixteenth century, breaking down the definition of Renaissance as a classical season recovering the antiquity from the fifteenth century.