I am hoping that one of you Italian travellers can help me identify what I believe is an Italian church. I attach a copy of a drawing of the church. I believe this drawing was made by Lewis Vulliamy (later a well-known London (England) architect) who made the “Grand Tour” in 1819-20. At that time he was an architectural student and draftsman.

Bill Thayer (who has a very interesting website of Italian churches at http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/.../churches/home.html) thinks that the drawing may be the duomo of Arezzo and suggests that this message board may be the best place to get further help.

Do any of you have any thoughts on this?

Thanks,

Martin

The Duomo in Arezzo...that was my guess too!

The picture of the Duomo in Arezzzo in this link looks similar to the drawing, although where is the tower in the drawing? The lines of the windows match.

I admit that I'm not an architecture expert, but frankly, to me the drawing looks more like a fanciful invention than a realistic depiction - a very narrow tower attached to what looks like a convex apse on a straight base with inaccessible portals, a transept on one side only that looks longer than what I presume to be the nave, a small flat superstructure on the transept surmounted by an odd little tower...

Have you thought of looking through the database of the Royal Institute of British Architects or of contacting the RIBA Curator of Drawings (although it looks as if the collection has been transferred to the Victoria & Albert)?

http://www.architecture.com/go/Architecture/Reference/Library_898.html

Where did you get this drawing? Did you buy it or find it somewhere? I'd love to buy a copy and frame it. Great art, whether it is really in Arezzo, or just someone's fanciful invention as Eloise suggests...it is beautiful.

Looking at the first black and white photo on this page, I would agree that this is the Duomo in Arezzo.
http://www.arezzonotizie.it/Rubriche/ArteZoom/campanile_duomo_uk.asp

Diane

I don't think either photograph looks like the drawing. I suppose it's possible that the buildings been altered but none of the features match either photo.

Ginger

I take back my "fanciful invention" and refer to the page that DHS has linked to, which confirms that it is the Duomo of Arezzo.

The present bell tower was only built in 1857, long after Vulliamy was in Italy.

What was there before is described as, "A new bell tower was built always veil shaped, but this time in correspondence to the left apsidal chapel causing severe damage to the supporting walls and the magnificent mullioned windows." This would be the tower on the apse that is in the drawing but no longer there in reality.

The modern photograph on the same page also shows what I had called a transept (it isn't a transept; I don't know what it is...) with the flat superstructure and the little tower.