Contributions to the History of Representation in Sicily in the First Half of the 19th Century: Sebastiano Ittar’s Architectural Drawings for Catania

Abstract

In the context of studies on the history of representation and the enhancement of knowledge of architectural drawings conserved in Sicilian archives, this contribution aims to examine Sebastiano Ittar’s designs for the city of Catania, produced from the first decades of the 19th century and conserved in the Castello Ursino civic museum in Catania. A renewed urgency to modernize the city’s spaces, in line with European architectural trends, leads Ittar to design new building types necessary to respond to the new utilitarian needs, decorum and worldliness. At the centre of this new vision is no longer the private client, lay or religious, as was the case until the previous century, but the citizen and the public administration.