Giovanni Battista Borra | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1713-12-27)27 December 1713 |
| Died | November 1770 (aged 56) |
| Occupations | architect, engineer |
| Notable work | see list |
Giovanni Battista Borra (27 December 1713 – November 1770) was an Italian architect, engineer and architectural draughtsman born inDogliani and believed to have died inTurin.
Borra studied underBernardo Antonio Vittone from 1733 to 1736 (producing 10 plates for his teacher'sIstruzione elementari per indirizzo de' giovani allo studio dell'architettura civile, published in Lugano in 1760) In 1748 he published a work of his own, a handbook on the stability of buildings, practical in tone. He metRobert Wood in Rome, and joined his 1750–51 antiquarian expedition to Asia Minor and Syria as its architectural draughtsman. He returned with Wood to England, where he used his sketchbooks (now in the library of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, London) to produce the original drawings (now in theRoyal Institute of British Architects) for Wood'sThe Ruins of Balbec andThe Ruins of Palmyra. From 1752 to 1760 he carried out commissions for English patrons. These works and their images led to motifs fromBaalbek andPalmyra becoming fashionable for ceiling and interior decorations in England and Italy (Borra used them, for example, in his own work on the south facade of the Palazzo Isnardi and the interior decoration of its Sala d'Ercole and Sala di Diana, on the piano nobile).
