DELLA GRECA. – Two architects of this name worked in Rome in the 17th century.
VINCENZO, b. in Palermo, d. after 1652. Having come to Rome in 1616, he was first a pupil of G. B. Montano and then of Maderno, whom he succeeded in the construction of Palazzo Chigi; he is credited with completing the courtyard and the staircase. In 1631 he built the church of S. Gajo, which stood on the site of the present-day Via XX Settembre (demolished in 1885), and in 1652 the façade of SS. Domenico e Sisto, his principal work, still following Renaissance schemes but preceded by a tiered arrangement and a canvas awning whose sinuous lines seem to anticipate the Baroque.
FELICE, son of the preceding, b. in Rome c. 1626, d. there after 1677. After assisting his father in the courtyard of Palazzo Chigi, in 1655 he entered the service of the Apostolic Camera, where he is recorded only as the maker of models and measurer of buildings. His only known work is the façade of the church of the Angelo Custode.