Main architectural works

Donato Bramante (1444 11 March 1514) was an Italian architect,

who introduced the Early Renaissance style to Milan and the High
Santa Maria presso San Satiro, Milan, ca. 14821486
Renaissance style to Rome, where his most famous design was St.
Santa Maria delle Grazie (cloister and apse); Milan, 14921498
Peter's Basilica.
Palazzo Caprini (also known as Raphael's House), Rome, started
[edit]Urbino and Milan
around 1510 (demolished in the 17t century)

Bramante's architecture has eclipsed his painting skills: he knew the San Pietro in Montorio (also called the Tempietto); Rome, 1502

painters Melozzo da Forl and Piero della Francesca well, who were Santa Maria della Pace (cloister); Rome, 1504

interested in the rules of perspective and illusionistic features St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, design 1503, ground breaking, 1506

in Mantegna's painting. Around 1474, Bramante moved to Milan, a city Cortile del Belvedere, Vatican City, Rome, 1506.
with a deep Gothic architectural tradition, and built several churches in

the new Antique style. The Duke, Ludovico Sforza, made him virtually
Plans for St Peter's Basilica
his court architect, beginning in 1476, with commissions that

culminated in the famous trompe-l'oeil choir of the church of Santa

A draft for St Peter's superimposed over a plan of the ancient basilica
Maria presso San Satiro (14821486). Space was limited, and

Bramante made a theatrical apse in bas-relief, combining the painterly

arts of perspective with Roman details. There is an octagonal sacristy,

surmounted by a dome.

In Milan, Bramante also built the tribune of Santa Maria delle

Grazie (149299); other early works include the cloisters of

Sant'Ambrogio, Milan (14971498), and some other constructions

in Pavia and possibly Legnano. However, in 1499, with his Sforza

patron driven from Milan by an invading French army, Bramante made

his way to Rome, where he was already known to the

Bramante's final plan
powerful Cardinal Riario.

[edit]Career in Rome

In Rome, he was soon recognized in Cardinal Della Rovere, shortly to

become Pope Julius II. For Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile

or possibly Julius II, Bramante designed one of the most harmonious

buildings of the Renaissance: the Tempietto (1510) of San Pietro in

Montorio on the Janiculum. Despite its small scale, the construction

has all the rigorous proportions and symmetry of Classical structures,

surrounded by slender Doric columns, surmounted by a dome.

According to a later engraving by Sebastiano Serlio, Bramante planned

to set it within a colonnaded courtyard. In November 1503, Julius

engaged Bramante for the construction of the grandest European The dome, as planned by Bramante
architectural commission of the 16th century, the complete rebuilding

ofSt Peter's Basilica. The cornerstone of the first of the great piers of Antonio da Sangallo the Elder

the crossing was laid with ceremony on 17 April 1506. Madonna di San Biagio, Montepulciano, 1518 consecrated 1529[1]
Antonio da Sangallo the Elder (c. 1453 December 27, 1534) was In a demonstration of Michelangelo's unique standing, he was the first

an Italian Renaissance architect who specialized in the design of Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive.[2]

fortifications. Architectural work

[edit]Biography
Michelangelo worked on many projects that had been started by other

Antonio da Sangallo was born at Florence. men, most notably in his work at St Peter's Basilica, Rome.

The Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo during the same period,

His father Francesco Giamberti was a woodworker, and his
rationalized the structures and spaces of Rome's Capitoline Hill. Its
brother Giuliano da Sangallo and nephew Antonio da Sangallo the
shape, more a rhomboid than a square, was intended to counteract the
Younger were architects. To a great extent he worked in partnership
effects of perspective. The major Florentine architectural projects by
with his brother, but he also executed a number of independent works.
Michelangelo are the unexecuted faade for theBasilica of San
As a military engineer he was as skilful as Giuliano, and carried out
Lorenzo, Florence and the Medici Chapel (Capella Medicea)
important works of walling and building fortresses
and Laurentian Library there, and the fortifications of Florence. The
at Arezzo, Montefiascone, Florence and Rome. His finest existing work
major Roman projects are St. Peter's, Palazzo Farnese, San Giovanni
as an architect is the church of San Biagio at Montepulciano, in plan
dei Fiorentini, the Sforza Chapel (Capella Sforza) in the Basilica di
a Greek cross with central dome, "the first of the great cinquecento
Santa Maria Maggiore, Porta Piaand Santa Maria degli Angeli.
domes to be completed".[2] and two towers, much resembling, on a

small scale, Bramante's design for St. Peter's Basilica.

Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola
his other works includes he church of San Biagio at Montepulciano, the

Forte Sangallo of Civita Castellana and the Old Fortress of Livorno.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni[1] (6 March 1475 18

February 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was

an Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer.

Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the

disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often

considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance

man, along with fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci.

Two of his best-known works, the Piet and David, were sculpted

before he turned thirty. Despite his low opinion of painting,

Michelangelo also created two of the most influential works in fresco in

the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on

the ceiling and The Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine

Chapel in Rome. As an architect, Michelangelo pioneered

theMannerist style at the Laurentian Library. At 74 he

succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St.

Peter's Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan, the western end The five orders, engraving from Vignola'sRegola delle cinque ordini

being finished to Michelangelo's design, the dome being completed d'architettura.

after his death with some modification.

Giacomo (or Jacopo) Barozzi (or Barocchio) da Vignola (often
simply called Vignola) (1 October 1507 7 July 1573) 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 Ges in Rome. The three architects who spread
the Italian Renaissance style throughout Western Europe are
Vignola, Serlio and Palladio.
Biography
Giacomo Barozzi was born at Vignola, near Modena (Emilia-
Romagna).
He began his career as architect in Bologna, supporting himself by
painting and making perspective templates for inlay craftsmen. He
made a first trip to Rome in 1536 to make measured drawings
of Roman temples, with a thought to publish an illustrated Vitruvius.
Then Franois I called him toFontainebleau, where he spent the years
1541 1543. Here he probably met his fellow Bolognese, the
architect Sebastiano Serlio and the painterPrimaticcio.
From 1564 Vignola carried on Michelangelo's work at St Peter's
Basilica, and constructed the two subordinate domes according to
Michelangelo's plans.
Giacomo Barozzi died in Rome in 1573. In 1973 his remains were
reburied in the Pantheon, Rome.
Works
Vignola's main works include:
Villa Giulia for Pope Julius III, in Rome (1550-1553). Here Vignola
was working with Ammanati, who designed the nymphaeum and
other garden features under the general direction of Vasari, with
guidance from the knowledgeable pope and Michelangelo. A
medal of 1553 shows Vignola's main villa substantially as it was
completed, save for a pair of cupolas.
Villa Farnese at Caprarola (15591573);
Villa Lante at Bagnaia (1566 onwards), including the gardens and
their water features and casini;
Chiesa del Ges, Rome, the mother church of the Jesuit order,
which would become a source for Baroque church facades in the
17th century;
Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Assisi (with Galeazzo
Alessi);
Church of Sant'Andrea in Via Flaminia, Rome, the first church to
have an oval dome, which became a signature of the Baroque.
Giacomo della Porta
Giacomo della Porta (c. 1533 1602) was an Italian[1] architect and
sculptor, who worked on many important buildings in Rome,
including St. Peter's Basilica.[2] He was born
at Porlezza, Lombardy and died in Rome.
[edit]Biography
Della Porta was influenced by and collaborated with Michelangelo,
and Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, his teacher of architecture. After
1563 he carried out Michelangelo's plans for the rebuilding of
the Campidoglio or Capitoline Hill's open spaces where he completed
the faade and steps of Palazzo Senatorio, and
the Cordonata capitolina or the ramped steps up to the Piazza del
Campidoglio.
After the death of Vignola in 1573, he continued the construction of Il
Ges, the mother church of the Jesuit order, and in 1584 modified its
faade after his own designs.
From 1573 he was in charge of the ongoing construction of St. Peter's
Basilica, and later, in collaboration with Domenico Fontana, completed
Michelangelo's dome between 1588-1590.
Giacomo della Porta completed a number of Rome's fountains from the
16th century; these included the fountains in the Piazza del Popolo,
the Fountain of Neptune, Rome and La Fontana del Moro in the Piazza
Navona.
Carlo Maderno
Carlo Maderno (1556 January 30, 1629) was a Swiss-
Italian[1] architect, born in Ticino, who is remembered as one of the
fathers of Baroque architecture. His faades of Santa Susanna, St.
Peter's Basilica and Sant'Andrea della Valle were of key importance in
the evolution of the ItalianBaroque. He is often referred to as the
brother of sculptor Stefano Maderno, but this is not universally agreed
upon.
[edit]Biography
Born in Capolago, Ticino (an Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland), outshining other sculptors of his generation, including his

Maderno began his career in the marble quarries of the far north, rival, Alessandro Algardi. His talent extended beyond the confines of

before moving to Rome in 1588 with four of his brothers to assist his his sculpture to consideration of the setting in which it would be

uncle Domenico Fontana. He worked initially as a marble cutter, and situated; his ability to be able to synthesise sculpture, painting and

his background in sculptural workmanship would help mold his architecture into a coherent conceptual and visual whole has been

architecture. His first solo project, in 1596, was an utterly confident and termed by the art historian, Irving Lavin, the unity of the visual

mature faade for the ancient church of Santa Susanna (15971603); arts.[1] A deeply religious man, working in Counter Reformation Rome,

it was among the first Baroque faades to break with Bernini used light as an important metaphorical device in the

the Mannerist conventions that are exemplified in the Ges. The perception of his religious settings; often it was hidden light sources

structure is a dynamic rhythm of columns and pilasters, with a that could intensify the focus of religious worship,[2] or enhance the

protruding central bay and condensed central decoration add dramatic moment of a sculptural narrative.

complexity to the structure. There is an incipient playfulness with the

Bernini was also a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque
rules of classic design, still maintaining rigor.
architecture along with his contemporaries, the architect, Francesco

The Santa Susanna faade won the attention of Pope Paul V, who in Borromini and the painter and architect, Pietro da Cortona. Early in

1603 appointed him chief architect of St Peter's. Maderno was forced their careers they had all worked at the same time at the Palazzo

to modify Michelangelo's plans for the Basilica and provide designs for Barberini, initially under Carlo Maderno and on his death, under

an extended nave with a palatial faade. The faade (completed 1612) Bernini. Later on, however, they were in competition for commissions

is constructed to allow for Papal blessings from the emphatically and fierce rivalries developed, particularly between Bernini and

enriched balcony above the central door. This forward extension of the Borromini.[3] Despite the arguably greater architectural inventiveness of

basilica (which grew from Michelangelo's Greek cross to the present Borromini and Cortona, Berninis artistic pre-eminence, particularly

Latin cross) has been criticized because it blocks the view of the dome during the reigns of popes Urban VIII (162344) and Alexander

when seen from the Piazza, often ignores the fact that the approaching VII (16551665), meant he was able to secure the most important

avenue is modern. Maderno would not have had liberties to design this commission in Rome of the day, St. Peter's Basilica. His design of

building as much as in other structures. the Piazza San Pietro in front of the Basilica is one of his most

innovative and successful architectural designs.

Maderno was called upon to design chapels within existing churches,

the Chapel of St Lawrence in San Paolo fuori le Mura and the Cappella Bernini and other artists fell from favour in later neoclassical criticism of

Caetani in Santa Pudenziana. the Baroque. It is only from the late nineteenth century that art

historical scholarship, in seeking an understanding of artistic output in

the cultural context in which it was produced, has come to recognise

Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Berninis achievements and restore his artistic reputation.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (also spelled Gianlorenzo or Giovanni
Architecture
Lorenzo) (Naples, 7 December 1598 Rome, 28 November 1680)

was an Italian artist who worked principally in Rome. He was the Bernini's architectural works include sacred and secular buildings and

leading sculptor of his age and also a prominent architect. In addition sometimes their urban settings and interiors.[9] He made adjustments to

he painted, wrote plays, and designed metalwork and stage sets. existing buildings and designed new constructions. Amongst his most

well known works is the Piazza San Pietro (165667), the piazza and
A student of Classical sculpture, Bernini possessed the unique ability
colonnades in front of St Peter's and the interior decoration of the
to capture, in marble, the essence of a narrative moment with a
Basilica. Amongst his secular works are a number of Roman palaces:
dramatic naturalistic realism which was almost shocking. This ensured
following the death of Carlo Maderno, he took over the supervision of
that he effectively became the successor of Michelangelo, far
the building works at the Palazzo Barberini from 1630 on which he traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant 12

worked with Borromini; the Palazzo Ludovisi (now Palazzo years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates.[5]

Montecitorio)(started 1650); and the Palazzo Chigi (now Palazzo Chigi- Architecture
Odescalchi) (started 1664).
After Bramante's death in 1514, he was named architect of the new St
In 1639, Bernini bought property on the corner of the via Mercede and
Peter's. Most of his work there was altered or demolished after his
the via del Collegio di Propaganda Fide in Rome. On this site he built
death and the acceptance of Michelangelo's design, but a few
himself a palace, the Palazzo Bernini, at what are now Nos 11 and 12
drawings have survived. It appears his designs would have made the
via della Mercede. He lived at No. 11 but this was extensively changed
church a good deal gloomier than the final design, with massive piers
in the nineteenth century. It has been noted how very galling it must
all the way down the nave, "like an alley" according to a critical
have been for Bernini to witness through the windows of his dwelling,
posthumous analysis by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. It would
the construction of the tower and dome of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte by
perhaps have resembled the temple in the background of The
his rival, Borromini, and also the demolition of the chapel that he,
Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple.[50]
Bernini, had designed at the Collegio di Propaganda Fide to see it
He designed several other buildings, and for a short time was the most
replaced by Borromini's chapel.[13]
important architect in Rome, working for a small circle around the
Raphael
Papacy. Julius had made changes to the street plan of Rome, creating
[2]
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (April 6 or March 28, 1483 April 6,
several new thoroughfares, and he wanted them filled with splendid
1520[3]), better known simply as Raphael, was
palaces.[51]
an Italian painter and architect of theHigh Renaissance, celebrated for
The Villa Madama, a lavish hillside retreat for Cardinal Giulio de'
the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings. Together
Medici, later Pope Clement VII, was never finished, and his full plans
with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional
have to be reconstructed speculatively. He produced a design from
trinity of great masters of that period.[4]
which the final construction plans were completed by Antonio da
Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large
Sangallo the Younger. Even incomplete, it was the most sophisticated
workshop, and despite his death at 37, a large body of his work
villa design yet seen in Italy, and greatly influenced the later
remains. Many of his works are found in the Apostolic Palace of The
development of the genre; it appears to be the only modern building in
Vatican, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the
Rome of which Palladio made a measured drawing.[54]
largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of
In 1515 he was given powers as "Prefect" over all antiquities
Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in
unearthed entrusted within the city, or a mile outside. Raphael wrote a
Rome much of his work was self-designed, but for the most part
letter to Pope Leo suggesting ways of halting the destruction of ancient
executed by the workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of
monuments, and proposed a visual survey of the city to record all
quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside
antiquities in an organised fashion. The Pope's concerns were not
Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking.
exactly the same; he intended to continue to re-use ancient masonry in
After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more
the building of St Peter's, but wanted to ensure that all ancient
widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more
inscriptions were recorded, and sculpture preserved, before allowing
serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest
the stones to be reused.[56]
models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles,
Giovanni Giocondo
first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a

period of about four years (from 15041508) absorbing the artistic Fra Giovanni Giocondo (c. 1433 1515) was

an Italian architect, antiquary, archaeologist, and classical scholar.

Biography Baldassare Peruzzi

Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi (7 March 1481 6 January 1536) was

Giovanni Giocondo was born at Verona in about 1433. He joined
an Italian architect and painter, born in a small town near Siena and
the Dominican Order at the age of eighteen and was one of the many
died in Rome. He worked for many years, beginning in 1520,
of that order who promulgated the Renaissance. Afterwards, however,
under Bramante, Raphael, and later Sangallo during the erection of the
he entered the Franciscan Order. Giocondo began his career as a
new St. Peter's. He returned to his native Siena after the Sack of Rome
teacher of Latin and Greek in Veronawhere Julius Caesar Scaliger was
(1527) where he was employed as architect to the Republic. For the
one of his pupils.
Sienese he built new fortifications for the city and designed (though did
As a young priest, Fra Giocondo was a learned archaeologist and a not build) a remarkable dam on the Bruna River near Giuncarico. He
superb draughtsman. He visited Rome, sketched its ancient buildings, seems to have moved back to Rome by 1535.
wrote the story of its great monuments, and recorded, deciphered and
He was a painter of frescoes in the Cappella San Giovanni in the
explained many defaced inscriptions. He stimulated the revival of
Duomo of Siena.
classical learning by making transcriptions of ancient manuscripts, one

of which, completed in 1492, he presented toLorenzo de' Medici. His son Giovanni Sallustio was also an architect.

Architectural works

Other work
Between 1496 and 1499 Giocondo was invited to France by Louis XII,

and made royal adviser. There he built one bridge of remarkable The close proximity of Raphael's work has overshadowed Peruzzi's

beauty, the Pont Notre-Dame (1500-1512) in Paris, and designed the work in the ceiling decoration of the Stanza d'Eliodoro in the Vatican.

palace of the Chambre des Comptes, the Golden Room of the While Raphael may have designed the general plan for the decoration

Parliament, and the Chateau of Gaillon (Normandy), one portal of of the hall, it is certain that the tapestry-like frescoes on the ceiling are

which has been removed to Paris, and stood for years in the courtyard to be ascribed to Peruzzi. Four scenes represent God's saving

of the cole des Beaux-Arts to serve as a model for students of omnipotence as shown in the case of Noah, Abraham,Jacob,

architecture, and was returned in 1977. and Moses. The manifestation of the Lord in the burning bush and the

figure of Jehovah commanding Noah to enter the ark were formerly

Between 1506 and 1508 Giocondo returned to Italy and constructed
considered works of Raphael.
the Fondaco dei Tedeschi (1508), which was decorated

by Titian and Giorgione. In 1513 the Rialto Bridge and its environs Peruzzi had produced for the church of S. Croce in Jerusalem a

were burned. Giocondo was one of those who presented plans for a mosaic ceiling, the beautiful keystone of which represented the

new bridge and surrounding structures. The designs of a rival were Saviour. Other paintings ascribed to him are to be found

chosen. Giocondo left Venice for Rome where he was employed by in Sant'Onofrioand San Pietro in Montorio. That Peruzzi improved as

theVatican from 1514. time went on is evident in his later works, e.g., the "Madonna with

Saints" in S. Maria della Pace at Rome, and the fresco of Augustus

In a letter to Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici, in 1513, Giocondo referred
and the Tiburtine Sibyl in Fontegiusta at Siena. As our master
to himself "an old man". On Donato Bramante's death he was made
interested himself in the decorative art also, he exercised a strong
part of a team with Raphael and Giuliano da Sangallo to superintend
influence in this direction, not only by his own decorative paintings but
the erection of St. Peter's Basilica. The work included strengthening
also by furnishing designs for craftsmen of various kinds.
the foundations. He died in 1515, while involved with this project.

His final architectural masterpiece, the Palazzo Massimo alle

Colonne (1535) located on the modern day Corso Vittorio Emanuele, is

well known for its curving facade, ingenious planning, and this Giuliano was recalled to Rome by Julius II, who had much need for

architecturally rich interior. his military talents both in Rome itself and also during his attack

Giuliano da Sangallo upon Bologna. For about eighteen months in 1514-1515 Giuliano acted

as joint-architect to St. Peter's together with Raphael, but owing to age

Giuliano da Sangallo (c. 14431516) was an Italian sculptor, architect
and ill-health he resigned this office about two years before his death.
and military engineer active during the Italian Renaissance.
Giuliano's work includes:
He was born in Florence. His father Francesco Giamberti was a

woodworker and architect, much employed by Cosimo de Medici, and

Villa Medici at Poggio a Caiano, near Florence (1485), noteworthy
his brother Antonio da Sangallo the Elder and nephew Antonio da
for its pedimented portico is strongly influenced
Sangallo the Younger were architects. His son Francesco da
by Vitruvius and Alberti
Sangallo was a sculptor. Giuliano was the preferred architect
Santa Maria delle Carceri in Prato (1485)
of Lorenzo de' Medici, so a significant number of his commissions
Tomb of Francesco Sassetti (148590) in Santa Trinita, Florence
came from the Medici.
Palazzo della Rovere at Savona (1496)
During the early part of his life Giuliano worked chiefly for Lorenzo de' Domenico Fontana

Medici, known as 'the Magnificent', for whom he built a fine palace

Domenico Fontana (1543 28 June 1607) was a Swiss-
at Poggio a Caiano, begun in 1485, between Florence and Pistoia, and
born Italian[1] architect of the late Renaissance.
strengthened the fortifications of Florence, Castellana and other
[edit]Biography
places. Lorenzo also employed him to build a monastery of

Augustinian Friars outside the Florentine gate of San Gallo, which was
He was born at Melide, Ticino, Switzerland on the Lake Lugano and
destroyed during the siege of Florence in 1530.
died at Naples. He went to Rome before the death of Michelangelo. He

It was from this building that Giuliano received the name of Sangallo, won the confidence of Cardinal Montalto, later Pope Sixtus V, who

which was afterwards used by so many Italian architects. While still in entrusted him in 1584 with the erection of the Cappella del

the pay of Lorenzo, Giuliano visited Naples, and worked there for the Presepio (Chapel of the Manger) in Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore,

king, who sent him back to Florence with presents of money, plate and a powerful domical building over a Greek cross. It is a marvellously

antique sculpture, the last of which Giuliano presented to his patron well-balanced structure, notwithstanding the profusion of detail and

Lorenzo. After Lorenzo's death in 1492, Giuliano visited Loreto, and overloading of rich ornamentation, which in no way interferes with the

built the dome of the Basilica of the Madonna, in spite of serious main architectural scheme. It is crowned by a dome in the early style of

difficulties arising from its defective piers, which were already built. In S. Mario atMontepulciano.

order to gain strength by means of a strong cement, Giuliano built his

For the same patron, he constructed the Palazzo Montalto near Santa
dome with pozzolana brought from Rome. Soon after this, at the
Maria Maggiore, with its skilful distribution of masses and tied
invitation of Pope Alexander VI, Giuliano went to Rome, and designed
decorative scheme of reliefs and festoons, impressive because of the
the fine panelled ceiling of Santa Maria Maggiore. He was also largely
dexterity with which the artist adapted the plan to the site at his
employed by Pope Julius II, both for fortification walls round the Castel
disposal. After his accession as Sixtus V, he appointed Fontana
Sant'Angelo, and also to build a palace adjoining the church of San
architect of St. Peter's, bestowing upon him, among other distinctions,
Pietro in Vincoli, of which Julius had been titular cardinal. Giuliano was
the title of Knight of the Golden Spur. He added the lantern to the
much disappointed that Bramante was preferred to himself as architect
dome of St. Peter's and proposed the prolongation of the interior in a
for the new Basilica of St. Peter, and this led to his returning to
well-defined nave.
Florence, where he did much service as a military engineer and builder

of fortresses during the war between Florence and Pisa. Soon after
Of more importance were the alterations he made in Basilica di San

Giovanni in Laterano (c. 1586), where he introduced into the loggia of

the north facade an imposing double arcade of wide span and ample

sweep, and probably added the two-story portico the Scala Santa. This

predilection for arcades as essential features of an architectural

scheme was brought out in the fountains designed by Domenico and

his brother Giovanni, e.g. the Fontana dell'Acqua Paola, or theFontana

di Termini planned along the same lines.

Fontana also designed the transverse arms separating the courts of

the Vatican. In 1586 he erected the 327 ton obelisk in the Square of St.

Peter's. This feat of engineering took the concerted effort of 900 men,

75 horses and countless pulleys and meters of rope.

He gives a detailed account of it in Della transportatione dell'obelisco

Vaticano e delle fabriche di Sisto V (Rome, 1590) [1] [2]. The

astronomer Ignazio Dantiis known to have assisted Fontana in this

work.

After his patron's death, he continued for some time in the service of

his successor, Pope Clement VIII. Soon, however, dissatisfaction with

his style, envy, and the charge that he had misappropriated public

moneys, drove him to Naples where, in addition to designing canals,

he erected the Palazzo Reale.

He died in 1607, and was buried in the church of Sant'Anna dei

Lombardi.