«The prestige of families and the honour of the architect»: heraldry in Vittone’s Istruzioni elementari

Abstract

In the Istruzioni elementari (Lugano 1760), Bernardo Antonio Vittone published a long article – unusual for architectural manuals – entitled Del blasone o arte araldica. Taking up the idea from Serlio, Vittone shows apprentices how a harmonious heraldic composition, when applied to architecture, celebrates the honour of both the commissioner and the architect. The fact that Vittone himself was the holder of a coat of arms – a sign of distinction – is not extraneous to his sensitivity for heraldry. In Vittone’s text, the development of the technical discourse is not very original: however, it is indicative of his cultural orientation, fully depending on seventeenth-century French and Jesuit teaching traditions in this field, mainly represented by Claude François Ménestrier. The most original perspective of Vittone on heraldry results from his Roman experience and from the teaching that Juvarra had offered with his Raccolta di varie targhe di Roma. Both led Vittone to recognize the role of the “bizzarria dell’invenzione”. This “invention” is exemplified by Vittone’s designs for the coats of arms of Piedmontese clerics and court dignitaries, showing a complex network of relationships that go beyond patronage. No less complex are Bernardo’s own reflections on nobility, merit and virtue. Heraldry appears to be one of many prisms through which Vittone, a man straddling different eras and cultures, has observed the society in which he lived, and its traditions.