Vignola, Giacomo or Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola (1507–73). Born in Vignola, near Modena, he became the most important architect working in Rome immediately after the death of
Michelangelo. With
Ammannati, Michelangelo (as consultant), and
Vasari he designed (for Pope Julius III (1550–5)) the Villa Giulia, Rome (1551–5), one of the great works of
Mannerism in which
villa,
terraces, hemicycles, and gardens were composed as a whole. It was intended as an elegant retreat for the Pope, the hemicycle clearly intended to be a reflection of
Bramante's Belvedere Court in the Vatican (begun 1505). Around the same time he built the Church of Sant'Andrea, Via Flaminia, Rome (1550–4), the earliest example of the use of an elliptical
drum and dome set on a rectangular base: the building's external appearance was derived from Roman tombs and the
Pantheon, while the body of the church had an applied
temple-front of
pilasters carrying a
pediment. His later Church of Sant'Anna dei Palafrenieri, Vatican, Rome (begun 1572), has an elliptical plan with a dome over it. Both buildings were influential on architects of the
Baroque period, for the ellipse was to become a favoured device, especially in Rome and Central Europe.
In 1559 Vignola was appointed by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520–89) as Architect of the Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola, near Rome, already begun on a pentagonal plan to designs (1520s) by
Peruzzi and
Sangallo the Younger for Pope Paul III (1534–49). It has a circular
cortile in which
rustication and overlapping
triumphal arches feature, and an ingenious, very beautiful spiral staircase with
Tuscan columns and a winding Roman
Doric string. With its ramps, huge flights of external stairs, and formal gardens, it is one of the most majestic ensembles of C16, brilliantly connected to the adjoining village. The building's great
cornice, with its plain vertical
consoles, was widely copied, notably in C19. Vignola designed the Mother Church of the Jesuits in Rome,
II Gesù, begun in 1568 (also for Cardinal Farnese). The plan has similarities to that of
Alberti's Sant'Andrea, Mantua, with a tall, tunnel-vaulted
nave, a series of
chapels instead of
aisles, and a
façade (begun 1571 by della
Porta) consisting of two storeys of
Orders of pilasters and columns, with the
buttresses hidden behind
scrolls, a device used earlier at Alberti's Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. The Baroque decorations of the interior were added in 1668–73. Churches derived from the exemplar of
Il Gesù were built all over Roman Catholic Europe and Latin America, so the Roman church was Vignola's most influential building. His Facciata dei Banchi, Piazza Maggiore, Bologna (
c.1561–5), was his most important contribution to
urban design.
Vignola was Architect to the Basilica of San Pietro, Rome (1567–73), where he carried on Michelangelo's designs. He wrote
La Regola delli Cinque Ordini d'Architettura (The Rule for the Five Orders of Architecture—1562) in which (clearly influenced by
Serlio) he established paradigms of the
Orders based on
Antique examples, with clear guidance for setting them out based on a simple modular system. It was an enormously useful and influential book, especially in France, and appeared in many editions and in several countries. He also wrote
Le Due Regole della Prospettiva Pratica (The Two Rules for Practical Perspective), published 1583.
Bibliography
Coolidge et al. (1974);
E. Harris (1990);
Heydenreich (1996);
Lazzaro (1990);
Lotz (1977);
P. Murray (1969, 1986);
Orazi (1982);
Placzek (ed.) (1982);
Patetta (ed.) (1990);
J. Jodidio (1996);
Heydenreich (1996);
Tuttle et al. (2002);
Vignola (1596);
Walcher Casotti (1960);
D. Watkin (1986)
