Pietro Nobile (1776–1854): Neoclassicism between Technique and Beauty

Pietro Nobile (1776–1854), originally from Ticino in Switzerland, Director of the School of Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, architect working for the imperial court and protégé of the Austrian Chancellor of State Clemens Lothar Metternich, attempted to combine science, mechanics, and aesthetics in architecture. An architect trained both as an engineer and academically, he reformed teaching at the School of Architecture at the Academy in Vienna by reacting to the design methods introduced at the Polytechnic in Paris, and by making academic drawing compulsory for engineers. The publication presents the results of Italian-Austrian-Czech cooperation on research into the architect’s death estate in Trieste and Bellinzona, Switzerland, and other materials scattered throughout Europe.