FOGGINI, GIAN BATTISTA. — Sculptor and architect, born in Florence on 25 April 1652 and died there on 12 April 1725. He studied the works of Ferrata, subsequently following the Berninian and Algardian currents, and became in Florence the foremost representative of the new Baroque taste, tempered, however, by an entirely Tuscan sense of measure and sobriety.
In Florence he initially made copies of ancient statues for the Grand Duke; then, in 1683, he executed the bas-reliefs of the Corsini chapel in the Carmine. Another important work, which brought together with F. the finest Tuscan sculptors of that period, is the Feroni chapel in the church of the Annunziata (completed in 1692). Among his other Florentine works are the bust of Galilei in the monument dedicated to him in S. Croce, a statue of Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici in the Uffizi (1681), the reliefs depicting the Mysteries of the Passion in the Villa dell’Ambrogiana, and a statue of S. Paolo in the presbytery of the Most Holy Annunziata. In Pisa, among other works, there are his bronze ara of S. Ranieri in the cathedral and the bust of Bartolomeo Chesi (1680) in the camposanto.
As an architect, also in Florence, besides the aforementioned Feroni Chapel, he worked on the remodeling of the Palazzo Viviani della Robbia (1693), on the granolo of Cosimo III, and on the restoration of several churches, including S. Ambrogio and S. Maria di Candeli. In Livorno he supplied the designs for the church of S. Ferdinando (1707–17) and for the “oil warehouses” (1705; later enlarged according to his designs in 1731).
He had two sons, GIULIO, who became an architect, and VINCENZO, who became a sculptor; they continued their father’s manner, as in the monument to Galileo, designed by Giulio, for which Vincenzo executed (1737) the statue of Astronomy, where the bust of Galileo executed by Gian Battista was also placed.