Gli architetti ticinesi tra Roma e l’Europa. Alcune note in forma di quesito: il “caso” Borromini e le strategie della famiglia Fontana

The history of European architecture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries owes much to a plethora of Lombard-Ticino builders involved in the modernization and expansion of numerous cities. The analysis of the phenomenon across the Italian peninsula reveals a notable presence of Ticino workers at least from the last quarter of the 16th century, coinciding with the arrival of the Fontana family in Rome and the papacy of Sixtus V Peretti (1585-1590), the promotor of an extensive urban renewal. From that period on, the copious archival documentation testifies how the prominent Roman (and not only Roman) construction sites were progressively colonized by an army of master builders, stucco-masters, stonecutters, carvers and masons, all originating from an area around the three prealpine lakes ʻLarioʼ (of Como), ʻCeresioʼ (of Lugano) and ʻVerbanoʼ (Maggiore). This fact has recently inspired scholars to define these artists and artisans as “Masters of the Lakes - artisti lacuali” or coming from the “Prealpine Lake District”, thus overcoming a political identity that is not suitable for describing a region that is geographically and culturally more permeable than the current administrative subdivision between Italy and Switzerland seems to suggest.