BATTISTA (DETTO G. B. CORDINI, ED ANCHE IL GOBBO)

BATTISTA (also known as G. B. CORDINI, and also IL GOBBO). — Brother of the preceding, born in Florence in 1496, died in Rome in 1552. Very scant information is available about his life and artistic activity, which unfolded in the shadow of his elder brother as superintendent and measurer of the buildings that he designed and directed. He collaborated with his cousin Aristotle (v. below) on the construction of the dome of Sant'Eligio degli Orefici (1536). A manuscript translation of Vitruvius' treatise also remains from him, previously erroneously attributed to his brother.

ARISTOTLE (also known as BASTIANO). — Son of another sister of Giuliano and Antonio the Elder, and of a certain Lorenzo d'Antonio, born and died in Florence (1481–1551). He was initially a painter and, according to Vasari, a pupil of Perugino; he soon abandoned this art to dedicate himself to scenography, decorations, and perspectives, genres in which he was highly esteemed by his contemporaries. His architectural activity is still little known, being known only that—like the other lesser members of the family—it unfolded within the orbit of his cousin Antonio the Younger. He is attributed with the execution of the Palazzo Pandolfini in Florence, where he would have realized a design by Raphael; his participation in the completion of the church of Sant'Eligio degli Orefici in Rome is also certain. But more than his artistic activity, Aristotle's fame is due to the countless drawings of ancient or contemporary buildings that he left, preserved in the Uffizi and in the Musée Vicar in Lille, which constitute an exceptionally important source for the history of architecture.