Giovanni Battista Borra


Giovanni Battista Borra was an Italian architect, engineer and architectural draughtsman.

Life

Borra was born in Dogliani. Studying under Bernardo Antonio Vittone from 1733 to 1736, in 1748 he published a work of his own. This was a handbook on buildings' stability, practical in tone. He met Robert Wood in Rome, and joined his 1750-51 antiquarian expedition to Asia Minor and Syria as its architectural draughtsman before returning with Wood to England. There he used his sketchbooks to produce the original drawings for Wood's The Ruins of Balbec and The Ruins of Palmyra, and from 1752 to 1760 carried out commissions for English patrons. These works and their images led to motifs from Baalbek and Palmyra becoming fashionable for ceiling and interior decorations in England and Italy. He is thought to have died in Turin.

Works