BONSIGNORE, Ferdinando - b. 1760 Torino, d. 1843 Torino

Italian architect. He was a student of the Accademia di Pittura e Scultura di Torino in 1782, and from 1783-1798 he was given a scholarship to Rome by the King of Sardinia. In Rome he worked with Nicola Giansimoni (died 1800), a Neoclassicist architect. In 1798, he returned to Turin and was nominated architect and designer to the court. He became professor of architecture at the University in 1805. In 1813 he received a gold medal for his design of a Monument to Napoleon on the hill of Moncenisio. He kept his university position after the restoration, as well as numerous other awards and appointments. He helped design the church of Gran Madre di Dio in Turin.

Among his designs that were never realized were for an Armory in Turin, a Palazzo dei Conservatori, an octagonal temple dedicated to the marchese Niccolò Puccini, and an Egyptian-style tomb for Michelangelo.

Exterior view

The early 19th century had a predilection for the Roman Pantheon as a model for church building. The combination of a rotunda and a temple fa�ade managed to satisfy the desire for both stereometric clarity and classical grandeur. Moreover, with its monumental look it was excellent for including in showpiece public urban planning settings. An impressive example for the townscape effectiveness of such “pantheons” is the Chiesa di Gran Madre di Dio in Turin.

The church was built in 1818 on a podium n the occasion of the return of Victor Emanuel I of Savoy. It was based on plans by Rome-trained architect Ferdinando Bonsignore, who used the church as an effective focal point for the Via Po from the direction of the palace square. Notable features borrowed from the Pantheon include a shallow calotte, stepped at the bottom, and a tall attic floor behind the pediment.Tghese are supplemented by further classical motifs such as the frieze of garlands on the rotunda, borrowed from the tomb of Caecilia Metella on the Via Appia in Rome.