BACCIO d'AGNOLO. - Born in Florence on 19 May 1462, died there on 6 May 1547. In his youth he was a wood carver and executed the choir stalls in S. Maria Novella; in mature age he also devoted himself to architecture, seeking, following in the footsteps of Cronaca, a severe massiveness that often ill accords with the Brunelleschian elements to which his style simultaneously refers.
He designed various civil buildings in Florence, among which the palace of Agostino della Seta (Serristori) with its characteristic lateral projections, well balanced in its massing; the Bartolini-Salimbeni palace (1520), the Antinori palace, etc. In addition to the adaptation works in Palazzo Vecchio, between 1506 and 1515 he built a section of the balcony at the springing of the dome of S. Maria del Fiore, a work harshly criticized by Michelangelo. In 1506 he erected the bell tower of S. Spirito, with broad openings inspired by Brunelleschi and a bizarre crowning, and that of S. Miniato al Monte (1527). The later church of S. Giuseppe in via dei Malcontenti, however, is a severe and solid structure, lacking the extravagances of the wood carver of which B. elsewhere gives proof: the scheme of a single nave with lateral chapels is not original, having already been used by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder. His sons Giuliano (1491-1555) and Filippo (d. 1569), also architects, are known respectively for the canonry of S. Martino a Montughi and for the Palazzo Boutourlin in Florence.