“It is a language that is so powerfully vital that does not evoke the decadence of a chivalrous world, but rather the expression of a daring merchant bourgeoisie, optimistically projected also in the renewal of the monumental structure of the city with public undertakings. […] Through the efforts of Antonio Di Vincenzo, the Government of the People and the Arts opted for a highly representative, expensive and rich, perforated and colourful building concept, but one in which ornamentation never prevails over the clarity and power of the structural aspects. In fact, the master builder of San Petronio initiated a language that would continue to be represented in Bologna until the arrival of the new Tuscan culture, when, to meet the demands arising from the incipient noble climate, an elegant and minute decorative style would gain gradual prominence, sometimes compromising the immediate perception of the architectural structure.”
(in A.M. Matteucci, op. cit., page 39 and 41)
Sources
D. Sicari, Palazzo della Mercanzia, in Guide di Architettura. Bologna, a cura di L. Capellini e G. Gresleri, Torino, Umberto Allemandi, 2004, p. 69.
A. M. Matteucci, Originalità dell’architettura bolognese ed emiliana, Bologna, BUP, 2008, pp. 39 e ss.
https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/ArchitecturalOrLandscapeHeritage/0800241920
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