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Between Myth and Reality: The 'Tuscan Influence' on the Architecture of Mount Lebanon in the
Emirate Period
Author(s): Elie Haddad
Source: Journal of Design History, Vol. 20, No. 2, Design and Polity Under and After the
Ottoman Empire (Summer, 2007), pp. 161-171
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of Design History Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4540351
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doi:10.1093/jdh/epm010
re:focus
design
Between
Influence'
Mount
and
Myth
on
Lebanon
Reality:
the
'Tuscan
Architecture of
the
in
the
Emirate
Period
Elie Haddad
The Author[2007]. Publishedby Oxford UniversityPresson behalfof The Design HistorySociety. Allrightsreserved.
AdvanceAccesspublicationdate 10 July 2007
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Elie Haddad
history
The emirate denotes the period from the beginning
of the seventeenth until the middle of the nineteenth
century, characterized by most historians as being the
period of gestation of the Lebanese identity, which
came to fruition in the twentieth century with the
founding of the nation-state of Lebanon.13 Already
during that period, the territory under the emirate,
which covered mainly the Mount Lebanon chain,
expanding and retracting according to political and
military events, was given a nominal independence
within the Ottoman Empire.
Where can we trace Tuscan influence on this province, in terms of architecture? The presumed line of
influence goes back to the direct relations between
Fakhreddine II, Emir of Mount Lebanon and the
court of the Medicis in Florence. Fakhreddine II
went to Florence in AD 1613 fleeing the Ottomans,
who grew suspicious of his increased independence
and territorial claims. During this time, he stayed
principally in Livorno and Florence as a guest of the
Medicis [1613-15], and then as a guest of the Spaniards in Sicily and Napoli [1615-18]. Upon his return
to Lebanon, Fakhreddine II wrote to the Medicis asking for their assistance in the art of modern fortifications. He delegated to Ibrahim al-Haqlani14 the
mission of carrying his request to Florence and finding the technical and military experts he needed. The
original request by the Emir also included a medical
doctor, an architect experienced in the building of
palaces, bridges and fortifications, as well as a master
builder experienced in waterworks and another one
in designing and building water fountains, a gardener
and a baker, in addition to six to eight families of
farmers to train the locals in the Italian methods of
agriculture.15There were no specific requests for any
major architect, or anyone with a training under any
of the masters of the time whose work could have
impressed the Emir during his stay in Italy. Additionally, Fakhreddine II requested from the Maronite
Patriarchate the translation of one work on fortifications.16 This raises a question regarding the aesthetic
considerations of this Emir, who had been described
by the Chevalier d'Arvieux as being a man of intense
curiosity and great interest in the arts, poetry and
music.17 How could a man of his intellectual breadth
have only utilitarian concerns and neglect, for
162
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Elie Haddad
dirty.It is situatedon the backhillof a mountain,at the foot
of which flows one of the derivativesof the riverTamyras,
today the riverof Damour. [...] The Serail,or the palaceof
the prince, is nothing but a large and badly built mansion
about to fall in ruin.24
In addition to the two palaces in Beirut and Deir
el Kamar, Fakhreddine II also built the Serail and
the Khan of Sidon, the other major centre in the
emirate that the Emir is credited for turning into
one of the most flourishing cities of the Levant.25
The Serail, which today lies in ruins, was built as a
solid construction of dressed stone. It was well
described by D'Arvieux, who noted its sumptuously
decorated and elegant apartments, its pleasant terraces and rich landscaping.26 Yet the detailed
descriptions of D'Arvieux never mention any surprising details in this context, details that could
betray any Italian influence.
To place these architectural achievements of the
emirate in context, the Emir would have certainly
seen the major masterpieces of the Renaissance during
his exile in Florence, namely the Duomo of Santa
Maria in Florence by Brunelleschi with its campanile
and baptistry, and Santa Maria Novella, the fagade of
which was completed by Alberti in 1450, to name a
few of the religious edifices in the city. On an urban
scale, he would have visited the Galleria degli Uffizi,
commissioned by Cosimo I under the direction of
Vasari to house the administrative offices of the city.
Most importantly in this case, he would have been
impressed by the Palazzo Pitti, the residence of the
Medicis, which he visited upon his arrivaland at many
other occasions during his stay.27Besides the Palazzo
Vecchio and the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, where he
stayed,28 there were a number of other landmarks in
Florence that would have caught his attention. Also,
his initial stay in Livorno, one of the 'ideal' cities of
the Renaissance, could not have failed to impress him.
Yet of all these diverse models one finds basically no
influence on the architecture of the emirate, unless the
palace of Beirut could have offeres the only specimen
of this architecture, something that is doubtful if we
take into account the travellers' accounts as well as the
surviving constructions of the emirate period.
The emirate's other landmark was the palace of
Beiteddine, built by Bechir II [1788-1840] at the
beginning of the nineteenth century on the other
side of the mountain, overlooking Deir el Kamar.
This palace was meant to impress friend and foe, as it
mO,
2R,nc
164
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a few morebookson the illnessesof animalsandthe treatmentsto be given,alsoon the cultivationof fields.If you
couldalsodiscovera Vignolaor anyothergoodtreatiseon
buildingandthe artsandcraftsin general,thiswouldbe of
much use here. The ArabEmirsalwaysrequestfromus
on the subjectsof arts,which areunknown
explanations
here.AfterMedicine,thissubjectwouldenableus to get
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Elie Haddad
chapels in the mountain villages as well as in the cities
testify to this infiltration of Italianate taste in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, visible in the
modest classical details that frame church entrances,
belfries, pediments, windows and other motifs which
are added as ornamental supplements to the traditional Mount Lebanon church type. Yet even in this
realm, the foreign intervention remains limited and
the church as a whole conserves its traditional form
with a modest interior space devoid of any of the
accoutrements of Renaissance churches.35 In few
cases, the church facade is given an Italianate facelift,
while the interior continues to exhibit its stone vault
construction without any decorative treatments [6-8].
Even in the monastery of Bkerke, the seat of the
Maronite Patriarch, we find only a limited intervention in the form of applied motifs to the traditional
vernacular language. The cloister of Bkerke developed in successive phases into a main pavilion which
now frames an internal court, leading to another
pavilion that features a modest Renaissance portal.
The author of this addition appears to be a certain
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41:
between the former,which appearedaroundthe thirteenth century, and the latter, which only appeared
aroundthe mid-nineteenthcentury.45May Davie, in
a morphological study which went deeper into the
sources, did not reach a definite conclusion on the
origin of this type, but attributedit to a multiplicityof
sources and influences, mainly local masons, engineersand artistswho have contributedtheir skillsand
knowledge to its development, leading to the most
refined example that would constitute the 'model'.
Davie seemed,to favourimplicitlythe theory of local
evolution, with influences from abroad limited to
techniques and materials,which naturallyaccompanied the gradualmodernizationof that period.46
Davie'shypothesisis the most plausible,takinginto
considerationthat most of these mansionsdate back
to the nineteenth century, and not to the earlier
period of the emirate.The CentralHall constitutesa
majorarchetype,a type that has been in constantuse
since antiquity,not exclusivelyTuscan, or Venetian,
or Lebanesefor that matter.On the other hand, the
two majorRenaissancemodels, the villaand the palazzo--the villa as epitomizedby Palladioin the Venetian countryside, and the palazzo in its multiple
variations-did not find any translationsin the cities
or mountainsof Lebanon. One may attributethis to
the limitations of materials and construction
169
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Elie Haddad
luxurious palaces. He was assistedin this by architectsfrom
Italy and Lebanese builders. The notables in the country
imitated the Emir in their own palatial architecture, and
buildingactivityspreadin all regionsin the country.'
Al Tarikh,5th YearElementary,
Ministryof Education,Beirut,
2000 [p. 35, my translation].
2 Paolo Carali,Fakhrad-Din II Principodel Libanoe la Cortedi
Toscana,2 vols., Reale Accademia d'Italia, Roma, 1936,
translatedinto Arabic in Reale Accademia d'Italia, Roma,
1938, reprintedin DarLahdKhater,Beirut, 1992. All references
to this document are in the Arabicversion.
techniques, as well as to the rather conservative climate in which the local vernacular evolved, a vernacular which was adapted successfully to the
functional and cultural specificities of the local culture, and to the topography of the Lebanese mountains. Still, the absence of any interpretations of these
Italian models in local forms poses some serious
questions about any presumed Tuscan influence on
Lebanese architecture as a whole.
Conclusion
As I suggested at the beginning of this paper, it
appearsfrom the extant examplesof the architecture
of the period thatthe 'Tuscaninfluence'on architecturein Mount Lebanonfrom the seventeenthcentury
has been largelya matterof speculation,despite the
politicalandeconomic relationsthatevolved between
the emirateand the court of the Medicisin Florence.
These relationsdid markthe political and economic
historyof the period and over the following centuries
contributedto the evolution of a distinct,cosmopolitan Lebaneseculture. This exchange did not, however, translate significantly into architecture as
happened,for instance,in England,Portugal,Scandinaviaor LatinAmericaduringthe sameperiod. Such
disseminationas took place in Lebanoncan be traced
best-though to a limited extent-in religious architecture, as 'ornamental infusions'. These may have
carried within them, consciously or unconsciously, a
desire to give form to the ideological project of developing a Lebanese identity separate and distinct from
its immediate geographic context.
Elie Haddad
LebaneseAmericanUniversity
E-mail: ehaddad@lau.edu.lb
8 Ibid.
9 Raja Choueiri, Deir-al-Qamar
et Fakhreddine,
Beyrouth, Felix
Beryte, 1999, pp. 9-11 [my translation].
10 Ibid.
Notes
170
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