CRONICLE, SIMONE del POLLAIOLO, known as il Cronaca. Architect, b. in Florence in 1457, d. there in 1508. His art belongs to the transitional moment from the 15th-century phase to the 16th-century phase of Florentine architecture.
Expressing himself through strongly established architectural values, but not resolved into mass values, Cronaca reinforced Brunelleschian schemes. During his stay (1475-85) in Rome, he studied antiquity; upon returning to Florence, he took renewed interest in Brunelleschi and in Florentine architecture of the Romanesque, proto-Renaissance period. This is evidenced by a group of his drawings recently published. From 1495 he was capomaestro of the Florentine Duomo; the last record concerning him dates to 1505. His principal works in Florence include: the cornice and courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi (1491); the Sala dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio (1495-1497), later transformed by Vasari; the church of S. Salvatore al Monte, simple and grand, called by Michelangelo "la bella Villanella"; some works are disputed, including Palazzo Guadagni.