La Saracena Di Luigi Moretti Fra Suggestioni Mediterranee, Barocche E Informali

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La Saracena Di Luigi Moretti Fra Suggestioni Mediterranee, Barocche E Informali Università della Svizzera italiana Accademia di architettura Archivio del Moderno La Saracena di Luigi Moretti fra suggestioni mediterranee, barocche e informali Annalisa Viati Navone Mendrisio Academy Press 001 Orchestra_Saracena_pp1-18.qxp:Prime_Atti_F.qxp 2/6/12 4:51 PM Page 1 Archivio del Moderno / Saggi 20 Collana diretta da Letizia Tedeschi 001 Orchestra_Saracena_pp1-18.qxp:Prime_Atti_F.qxp 2/6/12 4:51 PM Page 2 001 Orchestra_Saracena_pp1-18.qxp:Prime_Atti_F.qxp 2/6/12 4:51 PM Page 3 La Saracena di Luigi Moretti fra suggestioni mediterranee, barocche e informali Annalisa Viati Navone Mendrisio Academy Press / 001 Orchestra_Saracena_pp1-18.qxp:Prime_Atti_F.qxp 2/6/12 4:51 PM Page 4 Coordinamento editoriale Tiziano Casartelli Redazione Marta Valdata Impaginazione e gestione immagini Sabine Cortat Le immagini provenienti dall’Archivio Centrale dello Stato di Roma (ACSRo) sono pubblicate con autorizzazione n. 946/2011. Le immagini provenienti dall’Archivio privato Moretti-Magnifico di Roma (AMMRo) sono pubbicate per gentile concessione dell’Architetto Tommaso Magnifico. La pubblicazione ha avuto il sostegno del Fondo Nazionale Svizzero per la Ricerca Scientifica In copertina: Villa La Saracena, scorcio del prospetto nord dal giardino d’ingresso (ACSRo) © 2012 Fondazione Archivio del Moderno, Mendrisio 001 Orchestra_Saracena_pp1-18.qxp:Prime_Atti_F.qxp 2/6/12 4:51 PM Page 5 Sommario 7 Prefazione Bruno Reichlin 13 Premessa 21 Storia e fortuna critica 47 L’analisi genetica dell’opera 71 “Mediterraneità”: un suggestivo intertesto 177 Barocco proteiforme e informale 239 Il rapporto dialogico fra Barocco e Spazio Apparati 308 Elaborati grafici 313 Bibliografia 315 Indice dei nomi 001 Orchestra_Saracena_pp1-18.qxp:Prime_Atti_F.qxp 2/6/12 4:51 PM Page 6 001 Orchestra_Saracena_pp1-18.qxp:Prime_Atti_F.qxp 2/6/12 4:51 PM Page 7 Prefazione Bruno Reichlin «[…] cominciare dal centro, dal punto cioè in cui siamo colti dal fatto dell’arte.» Boris Èichenbaum1 Scrivendo intorno alla «nuova poesia russa» nel 1921, Roman Jakobson, che si 7 affermerà come uno dei più autorevoli linguisti del XX secolo, spiegava: «[…] la scienza della letteratura ha per oggetto non la letteratura bensì la letterarietà, ovve- ro ciò che fa di un determinato lavoro un’opera letteraria [...] Eppure, fino ad oggi, gli storici della letteratura [...] hanno utilizzato di tutto: biografia, psicologia, poli- tica, filosofia. Anziché una scienza della letteratura, abbiamo dunque creato un artigianato della ricerca, dimenticando che questi oggetti tornano alle rispettive scienze: la storia della filosofia, la storia della cultura, la psicologia, eccetera. E che queste ultime possono utilizzare pienamente i monumenti letterari come docu- menti difettosi, di second’ordine. Se gli studi letterari vogliono diventare una scienza, devono riconoscere il procedimento come loro unico “personaggio”».2 La nozione di “procedimento” faceva evidentemente riferimento a uno dei testi reputati fondatori del movimento formalista: L’arte come procedimento (o, in altre traduzioni L’arte come artificio) di Viktor Šklovskij,3 dove il termine designa «l’at- to creativo e l’opera stessa – che i formalisti si sforzano di spiegare in termini tec- nici come questa venga fabbricata», al di fuori di ogni misticismo artistico. Per Jakobson, come per Šklovskij ed Èichenbaum, gli studi letterari dovevano dunque «[…] cominciare dal centro, dal punto in cui siamo colti dal fatto dell’ar- te. L’arte esigeva che la si affrontasse nel vivo, e la scienza che la si rendesse con- creta». Anni più tardi, negli Stati Uniti, esponenti del New Criticism ribadiscono posizioni analoghe. Così ad esempio René Wellek e Austin Warren, nella loro semi- nale Teoria della letteratura del 1942,4 sostenevano con convinzione che «Il natu- rale e sensato punto di partenza per un lavoro di ricerca letteraria è l’interpreta- zione e l’analisi delle stesse opere letterarie le quali soltanto, dopo tutto, giustifica- no ogni nostro interesse alla vita di un autore, alle sue condizioni sociali e all’inte- ro processo storico della letteratura. Ma,» constatavano gli autori, «fatto singolare, la storiografia letteraria si è tanto più preoccupata di ambientare ogni opera di let- teratura che i suoi tentativi di analisi delle opere stesse sono apparsi trascurabili, a 001 Orchestra_Saracena_pp1-18.qxp:Prime_Atti_F.qxp 2/6/12 4:51 PM Page 8 paragone con l’enorme lavoro dedicato allo studio dell’ambiente».5 Wellek e Warren constatano, insomma, un gran prevalere dei «metodi estrinseci nello studio della letteratura» sullo «studio intrinseco della stessa»: «così una corrente conside- ra la letteratura soprattutto come il prodotto di un singolo creatore e ne deduce che essa dovrebbe principalmente venire esaminata attraverso la biografia e la psicolo- gia dell’autore; una seconda corrente cerca i principali e determinanti fattori della creazione letteraria nella vita istituzionale dell’uomo, cioè nelle condizioni econo- miche, sociali e politiche; un’altra corrente affine cerca di trovare la spiegazione causale della letteratura per lo più in altre creazioni collettive della mente umana LA SARACENA DI LUIGI MORETTI come la storia delle idee, della teologia e delle altre arti; c’è infine un gruppo di stu- diosi che cerca di interpretare la letteratura in termini di Zeitgeist e cioè dello spi- rito quintessenziato del tempo, dell’atmosfera intellettuale o del clima di opinione, d’una qualche forza unitaria ampiamente mutuata dalle caratteristiche delle altre arti».6 Mi sono concesso questa lunga e forse indigesta rievocazione di un ricorrente dibattito sui presunti compiti della scienza letteraria e i diversi approcci all’ogget- to letterario per rilevare quella che mi è sempre parsa una stranezza e cioè il fatto 8 che i critici, storici e teorici dell’architettura non abbiano pressoché mai avvertito il bisogno di confrontarsi con questioni analoghe, vale a dire: _ distinguere i diversi approcci estrinseci all’architettura da quello intrinseco; _ definire le attese riposte nelle storie estrinseche dell’architettura rispetto, ad esempio, alla storia intrinseca, che si tratti dell’approccio biografico, della storia delle dottrine e delle poetiche, della storia delle idee, della storia sociale o politica dell’architettura; _ circoscrivere l’oggetto di una critica e di una storia intrinseca dell’architettura e definirne i metodi e gli strumenti di indagine. Seguendo l’esempio dei formalisti par lecito preconizzare uno studio dell’“architettonicità” dell’architettura; _ correlativamente chiedersi perché mai si danno così pochi studi intrinseci di opere architettoniche e perché le monografie incentrate su un solo edificio sono sovente scartate dalle opzioni offerte ai giovani dottorandi. Al cospetto di una produzione pletorica e variata, per non dire inconoscibile, come lo sono le pubblicazioni nell’ambito della storia, della critica e della teoria dell’ar- chitettura del XX secolo, le considerazioni che precedono peccano evidentemente per la genericità; nelle storie generali, nelle monografie di architetti e, all’evidenza, in quelle dedicate a una sola opera di protagonisti incontestati come Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, non mancano le letture incisive e illuminanti. Col permesso dello stato e della disponibilità degli archivi, diversi autori ci hanno rega- lato minuziose ricostruzioni dell’iter progettuale, confrontando le varianti, posizio- nandole cronologicamente sulla base un’argomentata dovizia di notizie fattuali, più raramente, però, nell’affermata intenzione di pervenire a un apprezzamento dell’o- pera secondo i modi di quella che definiremmo la “critica genetica”, e cioè la ricer- ca del significato dell’opera iscritto in quel percorso evolutivo. Eppure non sono mancate indicazioni di metodo o proposizioni di strumenti. Basti pensare al valore formativo di Saper vedere l’architettura di Bruno Zevi,7 alla sua Storia dell’architettura moderna,8 o ancora alla formulazione delle sue, più proble- matiche, sette invarianti del linguaggio moderno.9 001 Orchestra_Saracena_pp1-18.qxp:Prime_Atti_F.qxp 2/6/12 4:51 PM Page 9 Le proposte critiche, gli schemi e i modelli di Luigi Moretti mi sono sempre parsi un PREFAZIONE approfondimento – critico, anche se non dichiarato – delle proposte zeviane. Colin Rowe e Robert Slutzky con il loro concetto di “trasparenza” (transparency)10 hanno certamente contribuito a una migliore comprensione della spazialità moderna dei vari Le Corbusier, Duiker, o Terragni.11 In tempi recenti, diversi autori, e Kenneth Frampton in particolare, hanno utilmente riesumato la nozione di “tettonica”. Rimane il fatto che i “moderni” – architetti, storici e critici compagni di strada – hanno poco o punto approfittato delle riflessioni metodologiche e degli strumenti che la Kunstwissenschaft aveva elaborato tra l’ultimo quarto del XIX secolo e il primo del XX, quasi che il suo oggetto di studio, e cioè la grande tradizione dell’architettu- ra occidentale, avesse invalidato anche l’investigazione teorica e metodologica. Eppure Schmarsow,12 come poi i “moderni”, aveva posto lo spazio interno come fondamento antropologico dell’architettura e introdotto l’esperienza cinetica del soggetto percipiente nell’analisi dello stesso. Postulato che inciterà il Pinder a veri- ficare la pertinenza di una lettura “ritmica” dell’esperienza spaziale.13 Neppure susciterà interesse l’individuazione dei quattro diversi modi di esistenza dell’oggetto architettonico proposta da Paul Frankl, e delle loro interazioni, e cioè la Raumform
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