DEL DUCA, Jacopo. – Sicilian architect and sculptor; born perhaps in Cefalù around 1520, assistant in Michelangelo’s workshop in the final years of the great master’s life, died in Messina around 1601.
As an architect, he collaborated on and executed Michelangelesque designs for Porta Pia, the Palazzo dei Conservatori, and the transformation of part of the Baths of Diocletian into the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli; on his own account he built the fine Porta di San Giovanni, possibly drawing on a design by Michelangelo, as well as the lantern, bell tower, and side doors of the church of Santa Maria di Loreto, the church of Santa Maria in Trivio, and its attached convent. He is also credited with the Palazzo del Bufalo and the Villa Mattei, much altered.
As a sculptor, his principal works include the bronze ciborium decorated with eight panels depicting scenes from the Passion, made for the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli (likewise inspired by Michelangelo) and now in the Pinacoteca of the National Museum in Naples, as well as the tomb of Elena Savelli in San Giovanni in Laterano.
A master bronze founder, he was also an architect of notable merit, if only as a faithful interpreter of Michelangelo’s ideas.