PONTELLI, BARTOLOMEO, called BACCIO. — Architect and woodworker, born in Florence before 1450, died in Urbino after 1494. A pupil of Francione, he is mentioned in Pisan documents from 1471 to 1478, engaged in woodcarving work in the Cathedral.
Around 1483, after being sent by Sisto IV della Rovere to Civitavecchia, together with Francesco di Giorgio, to inspect that fortress, he built the fortress of Ostia and the church of S. Aurea. Later, during the pontificate of Innocenzo VIII, he was sent to the Marches, again to work there as a military architect, and after 1488 he built the fortresses of Jesi, Osimo, and Offida. However, P.’s principal claim to fame derives from a series of Roman constructions attributed to him by Vasari, which modern criticism has repeatedly attempted to take away from him precisely because, in the years when they were being built, P. is recorded by the documents, as noted, in Pisa, engaged in woodwork. These Roman constructions are: the old Vatican Library, the hospital of S. Spirito in Sassia, the Ponte Sisto, the church of S. Maria del Popolo, that of the SS. Apostoli, and the other of S. Pietro in Vincoli. These buildings, in their stylistic characteristics—especially the first three—do not seem at all inconsistent with the master’s securely documented works. Moreover, a simultaneous activity as architect and woodworker is not at odds with fifteenth-century practice, when great architects proceeded from the practical construction of wooden models to the actual execution of their own or others’ designs. This is attested, among other things, by the activity of a Giuliano da Maiano, and by that of P. himself, a woodworker and builder of fortresses.