Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola

Giacomo[a] Barozzi[b] da Vignola (UK: /vɪnˈjlə/ vin-YOH-lə,[1] US: /vnˈ-/ veen-,[2] Italian: [ˈdʒaːkomo baˈrɔttsi da (v)viɲˈɲɔːla]; 1 October 1507 – 7 July 1573), often simply called Vignola, was one of the great Italian architects of 16th century Mannerism. His two great masterpieces are the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the Jesuits' Church of the Gesù in Rome. The three architects who spread the Italian Renaissance style throughout Western Europe are Vignola, Serlio and Palladio. He is often considered the most important architect in Rome in the Mannerist era.[3]

Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola
Born
Jacopo[a] Barozzi[b] da Vignola

(1507-10-01)1 October 1507
Vignola, Duchy of Ferrara (present-day Italy)
Died7 July 1573(1573-07-07) (aged 65)
Rome, Papal States (present-day Italy)
Known for
Notable work
MovementMannerism
The five orders, engraving from Vignola's Regola delli cinque ordini d'architettura

Biography edit

Jacopo Barozzi was born at Vignola, near Modena (Emilia-Romagna).[4]

He began his career as an architect in Bologna, supporting himself by painting and making perspective templates for inlay craftsmen. He made his first trip to Rome in 1536 to make measured drawings of Roman temples, with a thought to publish an illustrated Vitruvius. Then François I called him to Fontainebleau, where he spent the years 1541–1543. Here he probably met his fellow Bolognese, the architect Sebastiano Serlio and the painter Primaticcio.

After his return to Italy, he designed the Palazzo Bocchi in Bologna. Later he moved to Rome. Here he worked for Pope Julius III and, after the latter's death, he was taken up by the papal family of the Farnese and worked with Michelangelo, who deeply influenced his style (see Works section for details of his works in this period).

In 1558, he was in Piacenza to revise the designs of Palazzo Farnese, commissioned by Margaret of Austria, wife of the Duke Ottavio Farnese and daughter of Emperor Charles V.

From 1564 Vignola carried on Michelangelo's work at St Peter's Basilica,[4] and constructed the two subordinate domes according to Michelangelo's plans.

Jacopo Barozzi died in Rome in 1573.[4] In 1973 his remains were reburied in the Pantheon, Rome.

Works edit

Major architectural works edit

Vignola's main works include:

 
Church of the Gesù, Rome, also named Church of the Most Holy Name of Jesus at the "Argentina"

Other architectural works edit

 
Cloister of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum is traditionally attributed to Vignola but completed after his death. Ten arches on the long sides and seven on the short are sustained by pilasters with Tuscan-style ornamentation that rise from high plinths. A simple frieze with smooth triglyphs and metopes separates the lower from the upper levels.[5]

Unbuilt works edit

Like many other architects, Vignola submitted his plans for completing the facade of San Petronio, Bologna. Designs by Vignola, in company with Baldassare Peruzzi, Giulio Romano, Andrea Palladio and others furnished material for an exhibition in 2001[6]

Written works edit

 
Le due regole della prospettiva prattica, 1682

His two published books helped formulate the canon of classical architectural style. The earliest, Regola delli cinque ordini d'architettura ["Canon of the five orders of architecture"] (first published in 1562, probably in Rome), presented Vignola's practical system for constructing columns in the five classical orders (Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite) utilising proportions which Vignola derived from his own measurements of classical Roman monuments.[7] The clarity and ease of use of Vignola's treatise caused it to become in succeeding centuries the most published book in architectural history.[8] Vignola's second treatise, Due regole della prospettiva pratica ["Two rules of practical perspective"], published posthumously with extensive commentary by the mathematician Ignazio Danti (Bologna 1583), favours one-point perspective rather than two-point methods such as the bifocal construction. Vignola presented— without theoretical obscurities— practical applications which could be understood by a prospective patron.[9][full citation needed]

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b or Jacopo
  2. ^ a b or Barocchio

References edit

  1. ^ "Vignola, Jacopo Barozzi da". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press.[dead link]
  2. ^ "Vignola". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  3. ^ De Agostini 2011, p. 200.
  4. ^ a b c Chisholm 1911.
  5. ^ "Fontana del Chiostro". www.romaspqr.it. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  6. ^ Marzia Faietti and Massimo Medica, 2001. La Basilica incompiuta: Progetti antichi per la facciata di San Petronio (Ferrara: Edisai)
  7. ^ Center for Palladian Studies in America, Inc., Palladio's Literary Predecessors Archived 17 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Vignola, Canon of the Five Orders of Architecture, translated with an introduction by Branko Mitrovic (New York: Acanthus Press, 1999), p. 17. ISBN 0-926494-16-3.
  9. ^ Gietmann 1913.
 
Palazzo Farnese, Piacenza, inner yard
Attribution

Bibliography edit

External links edit