John Beldon Scott

The Corinthian capital variant Guarini especially designed for the major order of the Chapel of the Holy Shroud in Turin serves as an example of the architect's concern with projecting meaning through architectural form. Employing construction documents from the Archivio di Stato in Turin, this study reconstructs the production history of the famous gilt-bronze "Passion capitals" of the chapel rotunda. The analysis contextualizes this unusual design, showing how Guarini responded inventively to the religious and political needs of the commission to provide an appropriately ornamented ambience for promoting the veneration of one of the central Passion relics of Christendom. Private devotional practices, Savoyard dynastic aspirations, and a moralized floral exotic all played significant roles in the creation of the new capital type as part of the larger program of the chapel. The view of Guarini that emerges from this investigation proves more tied to the prevalent expectations of seicento religiosity, patronage, and architectural culture than has often been allowed.

The symbolic content of Borromini's S. Ivo alla Sapienza is examined in the light of documents of the period, particularly the construction documents in the Archivio di Stato in Rome. This material makes a significant contribution toward resolving questions related to iconographic elements in the groundplan, spiral tower, and interior stucco decoration of the chapel. The determining factors for the symbolic meaning of the imagery of S. Ivo are shown to be the iconography of the saint, the ceremonial functions of the chapel, and the changing patronage of three popes. S. Ivo serves as a case study for Borromini's introduction of symbolic elements into the fabric and decoration of his works, demonstrating that the nature of that imagery-seen in its 17th-century context-is not esoteric and that our view of Borromini as a speculative thinker in architecture is exaggerated and anachronistic.

This study examines the ritual exhibition of the Holy Shroud and its impact on the design of Guarini's chapel in Turin. The analysis reconstructs the architect's original idea, which visually united Turin Cathedral and the Shroud Chapel with the purpose of creating a sacred theater for the ceremonial display of the relic. Special attention is given to the Roman sources of Guarini's scenographic solutions and to the political dimension of the ritual function of the chapel. Observations about the spiritual significance that "seeing" the Shroud had for seventeenth-century viewers conclude the investigation.