Portal:The arts/Featured article/April, 2006



Sicilian Baroque is the distinctive form of Baroque architecture that took hold on the large island of Sicily off the southern Italian coast in the 17th and 18th centuries. The style is recognisable not just by its typical Baroque curves and flourishes, but by its grinning masks and putti and a particular flamboyance that has given Sicily a unique architectural identity. The Sicilian Baroque style came to fruition during a major surge of rebuilding following a massive earthquake in 1693. Previously, the Baroque style had been used on the island in a naive and parochial manner, having evolved from hybrid native architecture rather than being derived from the great Baroque architects of Rome. After the earthquake, local architects, many of them trained in Rome, were given plentiful opportunities to recreate the more sophisticated Baroque architecture that had become popular in mainland Italy. Around 1730, Sicilian architects had developed a confidence in their use of the Baroque style. Their particular interpretation of this style led to its evolving further into a personalised and highly localised art form on the island. From the 1780s onwards, the style was gradually replaced by the newly-fashionable neoclassicism.