AMMANNATI, BARTOLOMEO. - Architect and sculptor, b. at Settignano on 18 June 1511, d. at Florence on 22 April 1592; a pupil of Baccio Bandinelli, he profited from the influence of Jacopo Sansovino, and was a devoted follower of Michelangelo. His activity as a sculptor was carried on chiefly in Florence, Pisa, the Veneto, Rome and Naples: famous is the Neptune (popularly called the Biancone) for the Florentine fountain in piazza della Signoria, and notable, for their mannerist and decorative character, are the statues executed for the garden of Boboli. He was presented by Vasari to Julius III, who, having received a favorable opinion from Michelangelo, assigned him the Dal Monte tomb in S. Pietro in Montorio in Rome.
As an architect he left his most important works in Florence (the Giugni, Grifoni, Ramirez palaces, etc., as well as the destroyed Ponte di S. Trinita, which some would attribute to Michelangelo), in Lucca (the palazzo and palazzetto della Provincia) and in Rome, where he worked together with Vasari and Vignola on the villa of Pope Julius, for which he also executed the fountain, later enlarged and incorporated into the palazzetto of Pius IV, on the via Flaminia. Other Roman works: the porticoed facade of the courtyard of palazzo Firenze, the Caetani and Ruspoli palaces, and, in all likelihood, the inner front of villa Medici. Tradition and the testimony of his principal biographer, Baldinucci, attribute to him at least the design of the facade of the palazzo del Collegio Romano, which authoritative studies (Pirri) would instead assign to Valeriani (v.). This building is important not only for its architectural typology (it establishes the type of the large school building) but also for the art history of the period of the Counter-Reformation (v. CONTROHFORMA, Arte della). The Society of Jesus, which held him in high esteem, entrusted him with the Casa and the S. Giovannino of Florence, and often requested from him advice and works which he gave generously with a disinterested and devout spirit.
A typical artistic personality of the second half of the sixteenth century, he directed his original researches toward the composition of architectural elements already established in use and by then included in the common repertoire; and he also addressed the theoretical themes then in vogue, compiling, for example, the drawings, unfortunately lost, of the ideal city. He matured his style of an outspoken mannerist, often characteristically discontinuous, through contact and familiarity with the artists and learned men of his time, favored also by the shrewd culture of his wife Laura Battiferri, as is proved by the extensive correspondence of the latter with Annibal Caro. He was so esteemed by Michelangelo as to receive from him the task of completing the staircase of the Laurenziana library.
The lively Catholic spirit of his time marked the second half of his life, which he spent in the strictest religious observance, even when, in old age, the strength of his genius and intellect failed him. Equally devoted to the religious spirit, always within the historical climate and the taste of his age, were his convictions as an artist; so much so that, on 22 Aug. 1582, he addressed to the Accademici del Disegno a long letter that sounds like a clear taking of a position with regard to the relations between art and morality: in it, in a tone of public confession, he repudiates his own earlier production as a sculptor, because of the figures he had represented nude, following the custom of the full Renaissance, and sets down the norms for the Catholic artist of his time. - See Tavy. XCI-XCII.
Bibliography8 works
Adriano Prandi