Artistic Migration and Cultural Transfer: Ticino / Tessin as a Center of Excellence for European Architecture

Goal: Beginning in the 15th century, architects from the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, Ticino (Tessin), played a crucial role in the history of European architecture. These figures operated in family networks across Europe, from Portugal to Russia, and they were frequently the first architects to bring the new Renaissance style to regions outside of Italy. Their migration was an important factor in the professionalization of architecture in the early modern period, that is, the slow development of architecture from a guild craft to a liberal art divorced from manual labor. However, the phenomena of Ticinese migrations and expertise in architecture, and their impact on European architectural culture, are poorly understood. Early studies generally portrayed the Ticinese as bearers of Renaissance architecture to regions that were slow to develop without examining the role of local architects. More recent analyses have focused on individual case studies, for example the Cantone family, who worked in Liguria or the Porri family in Silesia and Mecklenburg, but have generally interpreted these figures as mere executors of the ideas of their patrons rather than experienced experts in architectural design. Scholars have not yet addressed the larger questions of why Ticino became such a ‘center of excellence’, how this migration impacted the regions where these architects worked, and the role of Genoa, which served effectively as a ‘jobs center’ for Ticinese architects, from which they could find employment across Europe. This project takes a larger view of Ticinese artistic migration in order to examine these architects’ role in European architectural history and explore issues of cultural transfer and architectural professionalism in the 16th century, the period that oversaw the rise of mass Ticinese migration and coincided with profound changes in style (from Gothic to Renaissance), as well as fundamental changes in traditional architectural guilds.