CRONACA, SIMONE del POLLAIOLO, called il. - Architect, b. in Florence in 1457, d. there in 1508. His art belongs to the transitional moment from the fifteenth-century to the sixteenth-century phase of Florentine architecture.
Expressing himself through strongly accentuated architectural values, yet not resolved into values of mass, C. strengthens Brunelleschian schemes. During his stay in Rome (1475-85), he studied antiquity; on returning to Florence, he again took an interest in Brunelleschi and in Florentine architecture of the Romanesque, proto-Renaissance period. This is demonstrated by a group of his drawings recently published. From 1495 he was master builder of the Florentine Duomo; the last notice concerning him dates from 1595. His principal works in Florence are: the cornice and courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi (1491); the Hall of the Five Hundred in Palazzo Vecchio (1495-1497), later altered by Vasari; the church of S. Salvatore al Monte, simple and grand, called by Michelangelo la bella Villanella; several works are disputed, including Palazzo Guadagni.