Art Varieties In The Italian Architecture of Alexandria.
Art Varieties In
The Italian Architecture of
Speaking about heritage is speaking about the human accomplishment, no matter what its ethnic, beliefs or roots are; & as one is trying to point to some of the most important surviving modern heritage in the Egyptian city "Alexandria", it is really an unfair compete with time & neglect.
Despite the fact that cosmopolitanism has begun & flourished in Egypt generally & in Alexandria particularly early in the 19th century due to the vision & the efforts of Mohamed Ali (1805-1848) as well as his successors1, & despite that the very rich cosmopolitan architecture of Alexandria has always been like an opened book to our daily sight, many of us didn't notice that inside of this opened book there is also an opened gallery.. which is full of different kinds of arts: (Painting, sculpture, mosaics, stained glass, relief… etc).
Many of these arts are really precious & going back to quite known European Artists & workshops of their time, from different countries like France, Italy, Greece, England, Germany, Switzerland & others; also some of these arts were nothing but good amateurs works, but in the end they are all representing an important heritage that is telling stories about its time. .
After the revolution of 1952, gradually & with the European families' continuous exodus, all the cosmopolitan traces including architecture have become national properties.
Thus, most of palaces, houses & villas have been transferred to national banks, museums, civilian service buildings & of course residences for the revolution's leaders. It is not questionable to notice how bad this heritage that is going back to about one century and a half was treated.
In fact, hard stones of architecture can probably resist time & lack of maintenance, but what about arts that were inside of these buildings; did they have a chance to survive ? The answer is (sometimes); but, did they have a chance to be preserved or well restored or at least to be seen? The answer is most of the time (no).
These arts are very delicate, they were & still not documented, in fact they were always been hiding & hidden in the same time, thus I was not welcomed in most of places to document, shoot or watch & that is because of many reasons, mostly due to the very bad & tragic condition that most of works has become to.
Worth mentioning that most of the artists or workshops names in my researches were not documented in any of known references, but were all observed directly from each art work or rarely from some neglected dusty documents in a building's basement or roof, just in case it was allowed to go here or there.
* Concerning the Italian architecture in
So far, it is so common to hear in public & among street transients that different occidental edifices were built by an Italian architect, which is not of course true all of the time, but this public impression was due to the active & important played role by the Italian architects generally in modern
Count Patrice De Zogheb wrote in his memories2: "Building was Italian specialty. Architects & contractors of that nationality were very much in demand – not only because of the great Roman, Renaissance & Settecento traditions – but, also, because they were assisted by both skilled and unskilled Italian workmen whose qualities made them ideal builders. These Italians were sober & hardworking, honest and easy to handle".
* Beginning with the private domestic architecture in Alexandria as in palaces or villas, we will find out that arts were very luxury, decorative & appropriate to the high class clients or royal families at this time, elegant designs of stained glass as in (fig1) by (F. Quentin),
Also in such private Elite's properties it is so common to find many scenes, representing ancient Greek myth as mural or ceiling paintings, which had to be executed in the city itself, not imported from
In fact, after several (X ray) diffraction analyses4, research results proved that most of these works were technically made by the methods called (fresco secco) or (marouflage); but any way & unfortunately, once claimed to be restored we will not be able to distinct the original artist's touches from the restoring ones .
Some decorating works were also presenting light oriental scenes in Art-Deco style especially when it was exposed to public as in the lobby of (Cinema Amir-1958) (fig2) & where the signature (Brandanu) (at the left low corner of the image), seems to belong to an Italian, maybe Sardinian artist.
Other works were very direct in its eastern ornamental patterns like the mosaics of the Italian Architect Alexander Loria's 3 well seen buildings, in1928, on the sea & which were just appropriate for their decorative function; it is also very obvious in such public works here or there that the Italian designer in Alexandria has very much respected the Eastern society's taste.
* This flexible vision one can point to it easily by looking at the religious architecture in the city, just like the magnificent & well done decorative & artistic works in the big mosques of Alexandria which (Aboul Abbas) Mosque (completely finished in1942), is the most famous one of them (fig 3), thus & although Mario Rossi was not an eastern ..he had to follow the Islamic rules in decorating, planning & designing art works which made his mission harder, but it can be noticed in such brilliant Neo-Andalusian example that the Italian architect has spoken very eloquently about Islamic arts & crafts .
* As a tolerant cosmopolitan city with its cultural and ethnic diversity, different religious buildings were just standing beside each others, not to mention that
When wandering among the different
Also, these religious arts were more respected & maintained as good as possible by their European religious managers, who fortunately were able to stay in the country until the nineties of the 20th century when their own original monasteries in Europe began to have problems in funding their staying, so many of them were gradually replaced by Egyptian monks.
With all the respect for those, they were & still more ascetic in their lives as well as in their churches, which means that a lot of art works in the Latin or Anglican churches would be removed or restored.
* Being the oldest & almost the largest, Sainte Catherine Cathedral in (Manchia) was inaugurated in 1850, for the Franciscan monastery. It is considered the mother of Latin Catholic Churches in Alexandria, was designed by the Italian monk & architect (Fra Serafino Da Baceno) (fig4), but the current frontal with its numerous statues has been redesigned in 1927, where appears the big impact of Italian architecture on the Alexandria cosmopolitan buildings, especially when comparing between this frontal & the Sainte Susanna Cathedral's Baroque frontal in (Rome 1603) & others; it is also worth mentioning that the Italian King Vitorio Emmanuelle III was buried in this monumental Sainte Catherine cathedral .
In fact the Latin Catholic Churches especially the Italian community churches, were the richest of arts & magnificent pieces of works, it is so natural when noticing that the Italians were among the richest communities in Egypt & also were representing the second largest foreign one in Alexandria after the Greek, thus different Italian foundations & Families did not hesitate to donate generously to built & decorate their own spiritual architecture, which was very much alike their origin home.
It is so hard to believe what just happened to this marvelous cathedral when it was decided in the middle of the nineties to restore the building, as in the right low corner thumbnail of (fig 4) where appears the original color of the interior walls comparing to the new & bold white & turquoise paints, which led the church to loose its historical fragrance & spirit for ever.
In this big Cathedral, we can find different European works, they were gradually added & dedicated by kings, princes & important persons around the Catholic world, but basically, Italian religious architecture was decorated by Italian artist works.
Mural painting is common in Latin churches of Alexandria, some of them were well done & expressing spiritual senses but to be fair, the level of most of such works were not as fine as their European contemporary works at this time.
It worth also mentioning here that Alexandria Latin Churches has inherited a number of very big & advanced orgues, but with no maintenance they all became enormous antiques.
On the other hand we'll find that the imported pieces from Europe were much more respectable & precious, like the oil painting tableau that appears in (fig5) signed by Giovanni Ender, 1847; it was offered by the Austrian Emperor Francesco Giuseppe I .
Imported art works have also taken different sizes, kinds & shapes; sculpture was above all these works regarding the Catholic rules (fig6), & with the repeated dedications & the numerous side altars in the Latin churches, sculpture became more & more essential & widespread.
But once more, if the sculpture pieces are a little bit small , they can be so simply removed & stored according to the new administration of the church, with an unknown future, just like many groups of pieces that I could registered & they do not exist any more in their places.
* Now, if one can think of a social description to the lovely
Sacred Heart is a Latin Church, & also managed by the Franciscans, but the issue here is that many Italian persons apparently have decided to make it the richest, warmest & the most spiritual one in the city, especially Padre Lodovico Foschi, Countess Caroline Tomich, & also Oswald & Josa Finney who were both buried in a small rich chapel with precious antiques at the back of the main church, which is considered very exceptional in the city churches, it is obvious that the Finney's were representing the category of families who were not thinking of going back, just like Prince Omar Tousson has told 6.
Being medial in its extent & well designed from the inside, we may not feel in the Sacred Heart that something shouldn't be here or there, in fact due to some people like Padre Luigi Luciano who lived & served there for 20 years, the church is surviving in each part of it; but still, many works in the church need to be well restored, & thanks to this faithful & kind man as well as to Mr. Denis Ely I was allowed to discover so many treasure pieces in the depth of the church, & this, was before Padre Luigi left in the year 2000, after that, the church was delivered to the Egyptian Franciscan Fathers.
In fact the intimate feeling inside of this church is due to the theatrical light coming through the stained glass & which was all designed by a very clever & talented artist; the main equation to solve here was how to deal with the strong sun rays in an eastern country by using the same familiar technique in a cold European city.
Thus, (Brev Dari) as it was signed on every single window of the Church (figs 8 & 9), has come to use the Neo-Baroque style in painting with light rather than enamel colors on the glass, he also set the lower windows horizontally to reduce the light entrance & even the upper vertical windows were small in their dimensions; but this architectural solutions might have been also presented by the architect Limongelli.
It was also very sensitive to feel that the light penetration was not totally allowed except through some center points in each window, not by coincidence but through a spiritual & symbolic elements in the designs, like halos, fire, sky light or Divine light; the matter that gives the impression of the singularity as well as the uniqueness of each window, despite that all windows are telling a continuous story, starting from the east, ending in the west.
Although the blue is a very common color in the churches stained glass all over the world , it can be noticed that it was a little bit minimized in the Sacred Heart windows, instead of it, a bunch of browns, red ochre & umbers was used, which led to more intimate, dramatic & warm passion around the prayers.
So, comparing with the fascinating churches of Europe, this artistic & technical vision was & still not familiar in
* Concerning the art of mosaic, it did not really take its share as much as other arts in Alexandria's cosmopolitan architecture, but the fact is that the Italian architecture & especially the religious one can be considered the most important kind that gave the mosaics more surfaces among its walls since the first quarter of the 20th century (fig10), & not only in number of works but also in manner, designs & techniques.
Although the mosaic works in
* Any way & despite all what we have loosen, if we just can gather from here & there & document what still remains in the churches stores & basements, perhaps in a private museum of the Latin heritage in the city or in Egypt in general, & the word "Latin" has to be repeated here because some other ethnics heritage in the city does not have the same problem like the Greeks for example, who still running their own cathedrals & churches, if we can only show some respect especially when we claim that we are restoring these arts , we then, would accomplish a great job in the name of the human heritage.
For more pictures:
http://www.slide.com/r/07VXq4RY6z_Y3GfU_w4pE9xjV8OAs2F5
By: Dr. Zeinab Nour
Artist & Lecturer
Painting Department, Faculty of Fine Arts,
http://zeinabnour.artistportfolio.net/
Figures:
1 - Stained Glass by (F. Quentin), Firenze, 1923,
2 - Mural painting, Cinema Amir, by Brandanu, 1958.
3 – Ornamental engravings & painting in Aboul Abbas Mosque, 1942, (mehrab marble mosaics in the upper left corner).
4 – Inside of Sainte Catherine Cathedral, 1834, inaugurated in 1850, after restoration of the nineties, (original stone color in the right below thumbnail) .
5 - Sainte Catherine with scientists by Giovanni Ender, oil painting on canvas, 1847.
6 - Sculptures from St.Catherine Cathedral.
7 – Sacred Heart ceiling, renovated in 1952, (detail in the upper right thumbnail).
8 - Bread & fish miracle, stained glass, thumbnail below (west wing upper windows), by Brev Dari,
9 - Sainte Anne delivered Mary the Virgin, side altar, stained glass by Brev Dari,
10– After the descent, Latin Catholic graves Church,
mosaics sponsored by the Gleazzo Vigano Italian family.
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