GIOCONDO, FRA'. — Giovanni da Verona, a Dominican known as Fra' G., architect, born in Verona around 1433, died in Rome on 1 July 1515. An eminent figure of the Renaissance in northern Italy, he distinguished himself in architectural studies, establishing himself as a theorist and designer of great merit.
Ancient written testimonies tend to limit his activity as a designer, attributing the Loggia del Consiglio of Verona to Daniele Banda, the Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice to Girolamo Tedesco, and the Notre-Dame bridge over the Seine to two obscure French master builders. This does not diminish G.’s renown, which rests on other works, such as the Palazzo di Poggio Reale in Naples, built during his stay in that city (1489–95), and the Castle of Gallon (built in the early years of the sixteenth century, when Fra' G. was in France). His other works include the military constructions, with radial bastions, designed to defend Padua and Treviso against the attacks of Maximilian; the hydraulic works carried out during the same period (1506–1509) around the Brentella; the design, later modified and executed by Scarpagnino, for the construction of the Rialto district; and the 126 illustrations added—during his stay in Naples—to Francesco di Giorgio’s treatise on architecture.
In 1514, Leo X summoned the architect to Rome to continue, after Bramante’s death and alongside Raphael, the construction of St Peter’s (which, in Fra' G.’s design, assumed the form of a Latin cross).
But his figure as a Renaissance man is represented, in addition to the great works mentioned above, which proclaim him the initiator and “father of Venetian architecture” (G. Fiocco), by the humanistic and epigraphic studies in which
