Per una riconsiderazione critica dell'opera di Domenico Tibaldi architetto. La sede della Gabella Grossa ed il palazzo Bentivoglio in Borgo della Paglia a Bologna

Domenico Tibaldi, engraver, painter, and architect, was born in Bologna in 1541 where he died in 1583, at the age of forty-two. His father Tibaldo, native of Lombardia and emigrated to Bologna, was also an architect, although of less importance. His brother Pellegrino (1527-1597), on the contrary, is considered one of the most remarkable painters and architects of the second half of Cinquecento. According to many sources, also Domenico, almost ignored by non-Bolognese scholars, was one of the most esteemated architects of his time. He was trained probably by his brother and is thought to have assisted him on various fresco commissions in Bologna. Although very few paintings likely to be his have been identificated, his left engravings (only eight signed prints have survived) put him among the greatest talents of this art. As an architect, on the contrary, Domenico was charged by his important patron, cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, bishop and then archbishop of Bologna, of many important commissions, such as the rebuilding of St. Peter's choir (since 1570) and the bishop's residence (1575). He worked also for the Benedictine monastery of St. Procolo, for the Olivetan monks, in their monastery of St. Bernardo, and probably for the Carmelitan nuns of SS. Giacomo e Filippo. A civil building, the so-called Dogana near the Palazzo Comunale in Bologna, now deeply transformed, was unanimously appreciated during the past centuries. Francesco Milizia, for instance, one of the most influential eighteenth century critics, wrote in his Memorie degli architetti antichi e moderni that the Dogana “nel suo genere non ha pari”. And private palaces, such as those for Lorenzo Magnani opposite S. Giacomo (1577) and for Bentivoglio family (where he designed the court), are the most important in Bologna both for style and size. Domenico is recorded as an architectural theorist too. He collaborated with Paleotti when he was writing his Discorso intorno alle immagini sacre e profane, published in 1582, and left a treatise, Discorso del modo che si doverà tenere nel disegnare et edificare le chiese, only a frament of which survives. Domenico's Discorso, that is influenced by Paleotti's “realismo naturalistico-storico”, as Paolo Prodi called it, contains some typological prescriptions for church design (longitudinal plan, portico on the façade), partially derived from medieval architecture, that he seldom observed in his works. Because of his close familiar relationship with Pellegrino, Domenico has often been considered simply as his alter ego. And as his most importan patron was Paleotti, Domenico has been interpreted as the “architect of the Counter-Reformation”. Some scholars have even considered him as the equivalent, in the history of architecture, of Carraccis' “classical” taste. But is it really true? If we look at Pellegrino's and Domenico's works, differences are more than resemblances. And if we consider Domenico's oeuvre, we must admit that the label “architect of the Counter-Reformation” doesn't fit to him very well. Finally, Domenico's and Carraccis' position as regards their predecessors are quite different. This paper will show how strong were, on the contrary, Domenico's relationships with Vignola, whom he may have met in Bologna in 1564 and whose works he studied during his training as an architect. So Domenico's Gabella Grossa and Palazzo Bentivoglio in Bologna, treated as case-study, can be helpful in tracing a more valid picture of Bologna's architecture in the second half of Cinquecento, avoiding the ideological implications of the historical label “architecture of the Counter-Reformation” and superficial comparisons with the history of painting.