BATTAGIO (BATTACCHIO), GIOVANNI. - Architect; in 1465-66 he was working to restore the hospital of Lodi, his native city; in 1481 he was in the service of the Duke of Milan; in 1484 he undertook, together with Agostino de' Fonduti, the commission for the facade of the Palazzo Landi in Piacenza; in 1488 he drew up the contract for the construction of the Incoronata of Lodi; in 1490 he took part in the competition for the tiburio of the cathedral of Milan, which was awarded to Amadeo; in 1490 he designed S. Maria della Croce in Crema, on which he worked until 1493.

The Incoronata of Lodi, with its octagonal plan, derives from Bramante's sacristy of S. Satiro in Milan: in it B., in place of the semicircular niches, employs trapezoidal niches with the cornice in perspective in order to increase the space illusionistically. Although B. ceased to [continues on the following page]

(phot. Alinari)

BATTAGIO, GIOVANNI

Exterior and bell tower of the church of the Incoronata - Lodi.

to supervise the works as early as 1489 and the construction was completed only at the beginning of the sixteenth century, his design was not modified, as is shown by the organic unity of the whole, maintained both inside and outside, of a characteristically Lombard form in the eight-segmented dome covered by the tiburio.

S. Maria della Croce at Crema presents a central plan variously articulated by four niches that open in its perimeter with projecting chapels covered by a dome, arranged so as to form a Greek cross within which the central rotunda is inscribed. Internally, the use, instead of piers, of columns projecting from the walls, gives movement to the building.

The exterior (in which the terminal loggia is by Giovanni Antonio Montanaro, who completed the church in 1500), appears as a cylindrical tower, surrounded by a facing entirely of tracery, enlivened by the lively chromaticism of the terracotta decoration.

With B. the forms of Bramante, in accordance with the tendencies of Lombardy, bend toward a predominantly chromatic vision.

B. was also a modeller of terracottas; the busts within roundels in the interior of the Incoronata and two others on the doors of S. Maria della Croce can be attributed to him.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: F. Malaguzzi-Valeri, s. v. in Thieme-Becker, III, pp. 38-40; id., L'arte alla corte di Ludovico il Moro, II, Milano 1915, p. 235 ff.; A. Venturi, Storia dell'arte italiana, VIII, II, Milano 1927, pp. 638-49 (with bibl.). For the particular works cf. E. Gussalli, L'opera di B. nella chiesa di S. Maria di Crema, in Rassegna d'arte, 5 (1905), pp. 17-21; A. Foratti, L'Incoronata di Lodi ed il suo problema costruttivo, in L'arte, 20 (1917), pp. 219-39.

Vincenzo Golzio

@incollection{ec2_battagio_battacchio_giovanni, author = {Golzio, Vincenzo}, title = {Battagio (Battacchio), giovanni}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {1001--1002}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/battagio-battacchio-giovanni} }

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Battagio (Battacchio), Giovanni

BATTAGIO, GIOVANNI

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