SALVI, NICOLA. - Architect, born in Roma on 6 Aug. 1697, died there on 8 Feb. 1751. He was a pupil of the painter Niccolò Ricciolini and of the architect Antonio Canevari.
A characteristic representative of the Roman architectural current of the first half of the 18th century, distinguished by its ability to rework forms belonging to the ancient classical tradition, from which Bernini too had drawn extensively, with a vividly Baroque scenographic and painterly taste. This is clearly demonstrated by the façade of the Fontana di Trevi, his masterpiece and that of eighteenth-century Roman architecture, begun in 1732 and whose scheme recalls a Roman triumphal arch. Other works by S. include, besides various designs for festive decorations and fireworks, as well as for buildings never executed, the arrangement of the Ruffo chapel in S. Lorenzo in Damaso in Roma; the reconstruction of S. Maria in Gradi at Viterbo; collaboration with Vanvitelli on the enlargement of Palazzo Odescalchi, also in Roma, where he should likewise be credited with certain parts of the Palazzo del Monte di Pietà facing the Trinità dei Pellegrini; and other undertakings of lesser importance.