biscuits 1

BISCARI PALACE
HOTSPOT
Text
TO THE APARTMENTS
APARTMENTS
COURTS
Tooltip
Red Hall
Green Hall
Feudal Hall
Orchestra Hall
Staircase
MEDIA
Title
APARTMENTS HD
Lantern frescoes
Apartments
Balcony
Balcony 2
Corridor-staircase 1
Courtyard
Courtyard 1
Courtyard center
Exterior 2
Gallery of Putti
FLOOR PLAN PALAZZO BISCARI MOD
Hall 3.1
Hall 3.2
Hall 4
Hall 5
Hall 6
Hall 6.1
Red Hall
Green Hall
Feudal Hall
Orchestra Hall
Staircase
From the biscari palace to the reduced city
Non-royal biscari facade
Reduced wave staircase

POPUP
Body
? It was the Catania architect and academic Francesco Fichera who in the 1930s first discovered the prolific work of the Messina sculptor and carver Antonino Amato.
Antonino, a son of art, was in Catania even before the devastating 1693 earthquake following his father Giovan Maria to ?carve? the portal of the Badia di S. Agata. He returned to work in Catania in 1695, and in August 1697 he intervened in the collegiate church to make a black and white stone ?overlook and a black stone staircase.
It was in 1703 that Antonino Amato began to design the sculptural interventions and stone carvings that so distinguish the east and south facades of the Benedictine Monastery. Antonino Amato was one of the major architects of the rebuilding of Catania. His extensive workshop was staffed by artists and craftsmen who were his relatives, but when it came to carving figures, masks and other works of more delicate workmanship, contracts made it obligatory that they be done personally by him, the workshop leader.
The Amato family went to live, free of charge, near the Greek Theater, where the Benedictines had houses of their own, and there they also had the space necessary
to carry out the works. Throughout the immense construction site of the convent, the Amato family carried out a great deal of work, in San Nicolò and in the cloisters.

And while working at San Nicolò, in 1707 he signed the contract to make at Palazzo Biscari alla marina ?seven fenestrations of white stone carvings? And still the Amatos, with all the relatives, in 1709 also took up work on the Cathedral with a multiplicity of interventions: sculptures and carving work. But still many more are the works and commissions that the award-winning Amato firm carried out not only in Catania.

The reconstruction of the city and the entire Val di Noto was a choral work of a great
plethora of artists and workers. To conduct such an undertaking there was a great sharing of technical skills and knowledge. This probably enabled the stylistic unity, in eastern Sicily, of the Baroque that today is considered a world heritage site.
Antonino Amato with his industrious workshop earned the title of ?indiavolato? and carved out a respected place in the history of Sicilian Baroque.