Abaton. Revista de figuración, representación e imágenes de la arquitectura
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Construir historia e historias: fuentes, representaciones y narrativas de la arquitectura
Abaton. Revista de Figuración, representación e imágenes de la arquitectura
The mosques of Šarīš Šiḏūna. Urban and religious continuities in the first temples of Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz)
To date, no urban approach has been made to the Islamic oratories of Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz). According to El Libro del Repartimiento (1266), the Islamic city of Šarīš Šiḏūna (Jerez de la Frontera) had a total of approximately twenty-seven mosques. In this paper, we present new graphic documentation and references for the well-preserved Alcázar mosque, the archaeological remains recently found in the Encarnación’s Square, and the hypothetical mosques that lie beneath the parishes founded by Alfonso X. The conclusions not only provide new insights into the urban and religious continuities of the temples, but also into the medieval city of Jerez itself.
Copyright (c) 2025 Abaton. Revista de figuración, representación e imágenes de la arquitectura
The Sword and the Pencil. Narciso Aurispi: De extruendis propugnaculis
This article examines the manuscript De extruendis propugnaculis, written by Narciso Aurispi as a technical and symbolic gift to Francesco Maria II della Rovere. Drawing from unfinished materials of Pompeo Floriani—veteran of Lepanto and expert in fortification—Aurispi systematizes reflections on how defensive architecture must adapt to geographical constraints. The treatise defines a typology of sites (plain, hill, mountain, and mixed) and emphasizes the role of water supply, soil depth, and accessibility in determining defensive strategies. Central to the text is the idea that engineering must allow few to resist many, merging geometry, natural conditions, and tactical foresight. The work belongs to the final phase of Italian humanistic military literature, in a context shaped by renewed conflict with the Ottoman Empire. Aurispi’s treatise thus exemplifies the synthesis of military practice, humanistic culture, and dynastic identity in early modern Italy.
PERCIER I - A Project by Charles Percier for the Marquis of Marialva in Lisbon (1818)
Recent literature devoted to the architects Percier and Fontaine make no reference to a detailed architectural project commissioned by the Marquis of Marialva, Portugal's ambassador to Paris. This highly sophisticated project illustrates the renovation of the Marquis of Marialva's palace in Belém, on the outskirts of Lisbon, on the banks of the Tagus River, through a luxurious series of architectural drawings. This series of 38 large-format drawings includes elevations, sections, plans, and perspectives that masterfully depict the architecture, gardens, and interiors in minute detail. The most interesting feature of this collection is that the project is signed solely by Charles Percier. This work is an exceptional case in his career, which he spent working closely with Pierre Fontaine, blurring their personal visions of architecture. In this essay, the author will analyze Percier's choices and proposals for the Quinta da Praia, considering the previous history of the estate and its owners, from the late 16th century to the early 19th century. He will also speculate on the historical circumstances that led a highly cultured Portuguese ambassador to recognize Charles Percier's undeniable artistic abilities in design, excluding Pierre Fontaine's participation.
Questo saggio annuncia la scoperta di un gruppo di 37 disegni di Charles Percier (1764-1838) per un progetto di villa commissionatogli dal 6to Marchese Marialva (c. 1775-1823) durante la sua ambasciata a Parigi (1807-1823), databile al 1818. Dopo una breve introduzione al progetto (per il quale Percier elaboró almeno tre soluzioni formali e delle varianti), il saggio analizza 12 vedute che riteniamo documentino il progetto “definitivo” ossia quello che Marialva avrebbe approvato e voluto realizzare, dopo varie modifiche, con il suo architetto. Il saggio si focalizza sulla provenance dei disegni, sulle scelte di rappresentazione architettonica argomentando a favore dell’esistenza di un progetto C, non documentato nel corpus dell’Archivio Storico del Museu de Lisboa - Palácio Pimenta de Lisboa (d’ora in avanti ASML, DES.5552-5589), che si spera possa emergere nel prossimo futuro
This essay announces the discovery of a group of 37 drawings by Charles Percier (1764-1838) for a villa project commissioned by the 6th Marquis Marialva (c. 1775-1823) during his embassy in Paris (1807-1823), datable to 1818. After a brief introduction to the project (for which Percier developed at least three formal solutions and variants), the essay analyzes 12 views that we believe document the “final” project, i.e., the one that Marialva would have approved and wanted to implement, after various modifications, with his architect. The essay focuses on the provenance of the drawings and the architectural representation choices, arguing in favor of the existence of a project C, not documented in the corpus of the Historical Archive of the Museu de Lisboa - Palácio Pimenta de Lisboa (hereinafter ASML, DES.5552-5589), which we hope will emerge soon.
A New Album of Drawings by Possidónio da Silva for the Royal Palace of Ajuda (1835–1865)
This article presents new graphic evidence (20 drawings) relating to the Royal Palace of Ajuda, dated between 1835 and 1865, which correspond to the completion of the building during a phase that is generally understudied and poorly documented. Particular emphasis is placed on the figure of Possidónio da Silva who, at the age of thirty, emerges as a meticulous scholar of the “Percier style,” while also demonstrating his ability as an architect capable of understanding the symbolic significance of the new monarchy. His contribution proved essential in preparing the palace for the arrival of Maria Pia of Savoy and the beginning of a new era marked by the constitutional monarchy.
Vernon Howe Bailey: Sketches of a Journey through an Unknown Spain
Vernon Howe Bailey (1874-1953) was an American artist who specialized in architectural views. He traveled to Spain on several occasions in the 1920s and published Little Known Towns of Spain. Watercolors and Drawings (1926) and New Trails in Old Spain (1928), where he spread, with words, drawings and watercolors, his routes through the country. An itinerary that was not only limited to the typical cities (Granada, Madrid, Sevilla or Toledo), but also focused on places that were not frequently visited, such as Teruel, Alcañiz, Balaguer, Cardona, Jérica or Monzón, among others. Thanks to the research on his work, we know the adversities Bailey faced, despite the development of the tourist infrastructure in those years, and the misgivings he aroused in the population while he was drawing. We also see how he admired the imposing location, the monuments, the squares or the inns of this Spain unknown to many tourists.
Imaginary Constructs: Early European Accounts of Chinese Architecture
The expeditions of missionaries and explorers represent a critical juncture in Europe’s early engagement with China, particularly through their detailed observations of Chinese architecture. Their narratives, once translated and disseminated across Europe, not only molded European stereotypes of China but also contributed motifs that influenced Chinoiserie architecture in the 18th century. This article focuses on architectural details found in four seminal and widely circulated European accounts of China from the 16th to 17th centuries: The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China and the Situation Thereof by Fray Juan González de Mendoza; The History of that Great and Renowned Monarchy of China Wherein All the Particular Provinces are Accurately Described by Álvarez de Semedo; An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces to the Grand Tartar Cham, Emperor of China by Johan Nieuhof; and China Illustrata by Athanasius Kircher. By analyzing the formal descriptions, evaluative commentary, and accompanying illustrations, this study seeks to elucidate how Chinese architecture was first perceived, interpreted, and understood in the context of early modern Europe.
Instagram and the city: linked urban symphony
The interference of digital tools in the perception of everyday reality marks another milestone in the representation of cities. This research characterizes the image of the city subjected to the logics of digitalization and the mediating interfaces of perception through the visual narratives articulated on Instagram as urban symphonies, providing three specific case studies, to conclude with some considerations on the phenomenon analyzed.
The first of the sixteenth-century drawings which are the subject of these notes is part of the collection of drawings by Palladio preserved at the R.I.B.A. in London and has so far been thought to be by an unknown author; the second belongs to the corpus of sheets by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger preserved at the Uffizi in Florence and, in addition to the hand of Sangallo, a part executed by another draftsman can be recognized, also so far unidentified. However, both on the basis of a comparison of the calligraphy of the caption of the first drawing and of some of the annotations of the second with autographs by Sanmicheli, and also from the buildings represented, it is possible to attribute these sheets to the Veronese architect and establish a date of before 1506 for the first and 1526 for the second.
Arquitectura escrita del poder: el manuscrito de 1626 de Juan Gómez de Mora y la geografía cortesana de los Austrias
The 1626 manuscript attributed to Juan Gómez de Mora provides the clearest surviving textual expression of the spatial and administrative logic that structured Habsburg royal architecture. Rather than a descriptive inventory, it outlines the operative criteria—axial clarity, hierarchical distribution, controlled access and functional coherence—used to evaluate palaces across the Iberian territories. A comparative reading of the manuscript with Gómez de Mora’s built works, especially the Alcázar of Madrid and the Sitios Reales, shows that the text functions as a “verbal plan”, revealing the same conceptual grammar present in his architectural practice. Positioned within the visual culture of Mancelli and Cassiano dal Pozzo and the historiography of Escobar, Marías, Checa and Rodríguez, the manuscript redefines Gómez de Mora as an administrative architect whose work articulates the political mechanisms of the Spanish monarchy.
Copyright (c) 2026 Abaton. Revista de figuración, representación e imágenes de la arquitectura
Archives and Museums of Architecture for Historical Research and Heritage Protection
This paper analyses the role of architectural archives and museums as essential tools for historical research, the preservation of design memory, and the protection of the built heritage. Starting from the definition of the architectural archive, it reconstructs several key moments in the Italian and European debate, from the 1993 conference Gli archivi per la storia dell’architettura to the foundation of AAA-Italia in 1999. The archive is examined in its documentary and material complexity — drawings, models, photographs, technical reports, correspondence, books, and material samples — and in relation to the specific practices required for its conservation and valorisation. Alongside archives, the architectural museum emerges as an institution capable of linking historical memory, critical interpretation of the present, and public education. Archives and museums are therefore understood as centres of relation, research, and debate, crucial for promoting a still fragile culture of modern and contemporary architecture.
From Passion to Method. Experiences of 3D modelingapplied to unrealized architectures
In the academic context, the application of three-dimensional modelling is now widespread; however, it is still used mainly as a tool for visualization of the results and only partially recognized as a critical device and analytical instrument. Starting from an experience that originates outside the academic sphere, this paper examines the evolution of a practice initially guided by personal passions (in particular the visual reconstruction of unbuilt architecture and painted architecture from the Renaissance and Baroque periods) toward the definition of a structured methodology capable of integrating past and future research coherently, to be developed within a PhD program. This dissertation proposes a formalization of the process leading to the construction of a 3D digital model conceived as a critical tool, that makes communicable the interpretative steps underlying its progression. From this perspective, three-dimensional modelling is conceived not merely as representation, but as a cognitive device for historiographical research, capable of bringing different sources into relation, testing and comparing hypotheses, thereby contributing in an original and active way to the field of history of architecture.
The Multiplicity of Interpretations: Archive Mario Messina (1899-1987) from the Wolfsonian-FIU Collection for the History of Architecture
In architectural history, an architect’s archive is a primary source, especially for reassessing figures overlooked by scholarship. The previously unknown archive of Mario Messina (1899–1987), preserved at The Wolfsonian–FIU in Miami and recently catalogued by the author, exemplifies collections that pose significant interpretative challenges due to the predominance of visual material and the near absence of technical drawings. Known for the Cinema Impero in Asmara and linked to Armando Brasini, Messina has been studied only fragmentarily; yet the archive—about four hundred documents spanning nearly four decades—reveals a prolific and wide‑ranging career, largely represented by perspectival drawings and numerous unbuilt projects, with little surviving documentation of his constructed works. This contribution highlights the research potential of the archive, outlining key lines of inquiry: the philological reconstruction of Messina’s designs, his stylistic development, thematic shifts, and design methodology, as well as the broader urban contexts—Italian and international—in which he operated.
Between Paper Archives and the Stone Archive: Drawing as a Critical Tool
The study focuses on the eighteenth-century building history of the church of San Filippo Neri in Turin, designed by Filippo Juvarra and constructed in several phases between 1732 and the late nineteenth century. The research combines archival investigation, bibliographic analysis, and direct architectural survey to reconstruct the sequence of construction campaigns that followed the collapse of the previous church in 1714. Because documentary sources for the eighteenth-century phases are fragmentary, the survey of the existing structure—particularly the attic and subterranean levels—played a central role in identifying building phases, structural discontinuities, and traces of construction practices.
Commissioned and designed Paolo Posi's fireworks machines for the homage to the Chinea: from Fabrizio IV to Lorenzo Onofrio II Colonna (1751–1775)
This article examines the Chinea, the annual tribute from the King of the Two Sicilies to the Pope, through the ephemeral machine staged in Rome during the eighteenth century. The study focuses on the transition of patronage between Fabrizio IV Colonna and Lorenzo Onofrio II Colonna, highlighting how the patron shaped the choice of iconographic programs. Fabrizio IV’s machines (1751–1755) celebrated the sovereign, his achievements, and royal authority through historical references, allegorical imagery, and the commemoration of major projects such as the Reggia di Caserta, the Acquedotto Carolino, and the excavations at Herculaneum. Under Lorenzo Onofrio II (1756–1775), a clear thematic dualism emerges: the first day emphasizes classical symbols and royal power, while the second day foregrounds conviviality, spectacle, and accessibility for the general public<!--<p-->
Architectural Initials and Alphabets: Architectural Theory or Antiquarian Scholarly Culture?
This article examines architectural initials and alphabets as an underdefined category within visual culture, proposing their interpretation not merely as ornamental or typographic elements but as visual constructs capable of conveying theoretical discourse tied to architectural and antiquarian scholarship. While their development spans from the Middle Ages to the early nineteenth century, the study highlights their particular prominence in the eighteenth century and adopts an interdisciplinary approach combining formal, iconographic, historical‑cultural, and material analysis. This framework reveals a coherent tradition rooted largely in the Italian intellectual context. The case study focuses on Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s initials, interpreted as integral components of his intellectual project. Building on an existing tradition, Piranesi transforms the initial into a site where architecture, archaeology, and theory converge, turning the letter into an active medium of architectural thought.
Roma, Palazzetto di Venezia. Photographs in the Pressand Diplomatic correspondences as sources for reconstructingthe transfer of the viridarium of San Marco (1909-1913)
The research focuses on the dismantling and reassembly of the Palazzetto di San Marco in Rome (1909–1913), carried out within the broader context of the profound urban transformations affecting the historic center in connection with the construction of the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II. The works, subsequently promoted by the press and state authorities as a faithful reconstruction of the fifteenth-century building, in fact reveal numerous inconsistencies and significant degrees of reinterpretation. The intervention relied on formal, technical, and material solutions only partially consistent with the original structure, and explicitly expressed, on several occasions, a preference for modern construction technologies.
Pictorial, Literary, and Engraving References in Architectural Photography in Rome (1850–1870). The Dissemination of a Fading Ideal
This article presents the methodology of the doctoral dissertation “Pictorial, Literary, and Engraving References in Architectural Photography in Rome (1850–1870). The Dissemination of a Fading Ideal.” The research examines architectural photography in Rome between 1850 and 1870 as a fundamental medium for capturing and disseminating an ideal of the “Eternal City” that was in the process of disappearing in the face of the imminent Unification of Italy. The study seeks to demonstrate that these early photographic images were not merely technical documents, but were deeply influenced by prior literary, pictorial, and engraved references, consolidating an artistic imaginary already established since the era of the Grand Tour. Through an interdisciplinary methodology, the dissertation highlights the transition of photography from a documentary and commercial intention toward a subjective and artistic expression. In this regard, it aims to identify how photographers—much like the au plein air painters only a few decades earlier—began to prioritize “the felt” over “the seen,” using light and composition to evoke nostalgia and aesthetic enjoyment. Ultimately, the work proposes a new imaginary phototheque that reclaims the value of photography as a complex cultural symbol and as a tool for historical and emotional interpretation.
Drawing as a Form of Thought: The Evolution of Techniques, Methods, and Instruments in Architectural and Artistic Representation
This contribution offers a concise historical and technical overview of drawing and representation, understood not only as tools for visual restitution but as genuine forms of critical and design thinking. Through an analysis spanning from Paleolithic cave paintings to contemporary technologies of photomodelling and global illumination, the study investigates the intrinsic relationship between the perception of light, the geometric encoding of space, and the support of technological instruments. Particular attention is given to the treatises of Alhazen and Leonardo da Vinci, to Cigoli’s perspectival revolution, and to the use of optics among view painters. The aim is to show how each technological innovation has produced a shift in the visual paradigm and in the understanding of reality.
The unfinished façade: two façades comparedto Santa Maria della Consolazione at the Roman Forum
This study examines the façade of the church of Santa Maria della Consolazione at the Roman Forum, focusing on the sixteenth‑century reconstruction led by Giacomo Della Porta and Martino Longhi the Elder. The façade remained unfinished for nearly two centuries, as shown in an eighteenth‑century drawing by Giuseppe Marchetti and in Antonio Tempesta’s 1593 map. Other depictions, however, present it as complete, offering two main hypothetical versions: a “Florentine‑style” façade and a two‑story façade. The article argues that both proposals align with late sixteenth‑century architectural debates in Rome and reflect the respective design approaches of the two architects—Della Porta for the former and Longhi for the latter.
The reception of Italian Renaissance Architecture in Spain between the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries: Archival Evidence from La Calahorra and El Viso
This article examines the reception of Italian Renaissance architectural language in Spain between the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries through the cases of the Castle of La Calahorra and the Palace of the Marquis of Santa Cruz. Drawing on extensive archival documentation, the study demonstrates that the adoption of Italian models was not mere stylistic imitation but a complex process of cultural mediation, project revision, and aristocratic self‑representation. The sources highlight the decisive role of patronage, the mobility of Italian craftsmen, and the importation of materials and techniques, showing how Spanish building sites reinterpreted Renaissance forms according to local needs and dynastic ambitions.
History and Stories in the Garden: The Role and Symbolism of Water as a Stage for Power through Contemporary Testimonies
The presence of water in the gardens of the political and cultural elites, as well as the ways in which it was animated through hydraulic games and scenographic devices, forms the core of this study. Water functioned as a privileged medium for the display of Power, capable of producing wonder and astonishment through technically sophisticated solutions. The scale and refinement of hydraulic effects contributed to defining a family’s prestige within a competitive system of self‑representation. This contribution examines the use of water in the playful and theatrical hydraulic devices of several renowned residences in south‑central Europe, with particular attention to contemporary testimonies that are essential for reconstructing the performative “theatre” enacted within these gardens. The study also reflects on the methodological challenges posed by integrating diverse disciplinary fields –garden history, hydraulics, technology, iconography, politics, and philosophy– domains often marked by a transitory or immaterial nature, which makes interdisciplinary dialogue especially fruitful for constructing a historical narrative capable of capturing the complexity of these forms of power representation.
Survey methodologies through the archive: Studio BBPR Fund as a case study
The contribution proposes a methodological reflection developed within a doctoral research project, based on the arrangement and inventorying of the Studio BBPR fonds at the Centro Archivi del MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo. By considering the archive not merely as a repository of sources but as an active instrument in the construction of historical knowledge, the essay investigates the role of archival reordering practices in shaping the image of architecture and its authors. The complexity of the fonds, related to a Studio operating as a unified entity despite the plurality of individual contributions, required a careful reconstruction of its original classification logics, project codes, and the relationships among heterogeneous materials. The organization into series and the establishment of cross-references among drawings, photographs, correspondence, and printed materials have enabled a transversal reading of the design processes, highlighting how the archive itself contributes to forming a specific representation of the work of BBPR. The case of the Torre Velasca demonstrates how the documentation makes it possible to interpret the building not only as a completed form but as a stratified process: from technical and structural decisions to negotiations with institutions, and finally to critical and media reception. Architecture thus emerges as the outcome of multiple representations—design, constructive, and public—which archival arrangement renders visible and recomposable. From this perspective, inventorying takes shape as an interpretative practice and as an integral part of the critical construction of the image of architecture.
This article explores the possibility of narrating the contemporary city through the emotional lens of graphic representation, moving beyond the technical parameters of the architectural discipline. Drawing from the H501 project, it analyzes the transition from the “institutional monument” to the “accidental monument,” understood as a spontaneous landmark within the daily urban fabric. Through illustration, the author investigates the empathetic bond between the citizen and the urban scenography, ultimately defining architectural quality no longer by formal permanence, but by a building’s capacity to persist in the collective imaginary as an urban “postcard.”
“Nella gran sala della Cancellaria”. The Ephemeral Theatre for the Amor Pudico
The wedding between Michele Peretti, Prince of Venafro and great-nephew of Pope Sixtus V, and Anna Maria Cesi, daughter of the Duke of Ceri and cousin of Prince Federico Cesi was celebrated in the Palazzo della Cancelleria with a rich program of events. The most important of them was the staging of Iacopo Cicognini’s Amor pudico in an ephemeral theatre intentionally built in the large hall known as the Sala dei Cento Giorni (Hall of the Hundred Days), which is celebrated for the massive architectural quadrature Vasari depicted on the walls in the 1547. The digital reconstruction process of the theatre after a few literary sources and the actual form of the Hall provides the opportunity to discuss the evolution of the theatre architecture in the age in which permanent theatres were gradually being built and the mechanism of the valorisation of intangible heritage. At the same time, some elements suggest the possibility that the theatre was designed as a three-dimensional projection of Vasari’s frescoes, the result of a sort of inverted perspective process from the pictures to the physical space.
Manufacturing Chineseness: The Mediationof Chinese Pavilions at Nineteenth-CenturyWorld Exhibitions
During the second half of the nineteenth century, universal expositions played a formative role in shaping Euro-American understandings of cultures beyond their own, with pavilion architecture operating as an apparatus through which cultural difference was rendered visible, legible, and hierarchically ordered. Whereas scholarship has largely examined the Orientalist framing of Islamic and North African pavilions, the Chinese example constitutes a complementary yet comparatively understudied mode of architectural mediation. Though often accompanied by ethnographic narratives, they were often frequently reduced to ornamental signifiers, subjected to substitution, regional conflation, and theatrical staging. Focusing on the Paris (1867), Vienna (1873), and Chicago (1893) world’s fairs, this study analyzes how pavilion design, exhibition programming, and illustrated media collectively constructed what counted as “Chineseness” within exhibition culture. By foregrounding mediation rather than misrepresentation, it argues that these expositions produced the knowledge frameworks that situated Chinese architecture within a static, ornamental historical imaginary, profoundly shaping its visual memory and subsequent historiographical reception in the modern West.
La biblioteca de un ilustrado: el arquitecto Torcuato Cayón y sus libros
The main objective of this essay is to study the inventory of store of the architect Torcuato Cayón, Maestro Mayor of the city of Cadiz, which was completed after his death by his widow Maria de Santaman in 1783. The analyzed affidavit shows the library of a professional of architecture with an interesting collection of books, where classicism and enlightenment is represented by architectural treatises and books about mathematics, literature, philosophy and religion
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La biblioteca del arquitecto e ingeniero militar José de Hermosilla y Sandoval
José de Hermosilla was to play a decisive role in the renewal of architectural languages and in the very consideration of the figure of the architect in the central years of the 18th century. Among the documents that have made it possible to reconstruct his figure in recent years are the inventories of his library in his houses in Leganés and Llerena.