VALADIER, GIUSEPPE. – Architect, born in Rome on 14 April 1762 and died there on 1 February 1839.
His father, an engraver and metalworker, was his first teacher; he then studied at the Accademia di S. Luca. In 1781, having been appointed architect of the SS. Palazzi, he undertook a journey through northern Italy and went as far as Marseille. In 1784 he was in Split for the interior reorganization of the cathedral; the following year he was recalled to Rome, where he was soon appointed (1786) director of the Calcografia camerale and of the Fabbrica di S. Pietro. Meanwhile, in his capacity as papal architect, he made numerous journeys through the Papal States. It was during this period (1786–91) that V. Urbino, giving the latter building a distinct Palladian character. In 1795 he undertook the construction of the new collegiate church of S. Lorenzo at Monte Sanpietrangelo (Fermo).
Moreover, while designing and directing works in the Pontine Marshes and at Terracina, in 1800 he supplied drawings for and directed the construction of a theater for Count Zagnani of Bologna; in 1804 he supervised excavations around the Pantheon; in 1805 he restored Ponte Milvio and drew up plans for a large public garden that was to extend between the Via Flaminia and the Tiber, from the level of Piazza del Popolo to Ponte Milvio itself. He also restored the church of the Suffragio at L’Aquila, while in 1806 he erected, once again echoing Palladian forms, the façade of the church of S. Pantaleo in Rome. In 1809 he undertook the works that were to lead to the reorganization of Piazza del Popolo and the Pincio; these continued beyond 1820, with the decisive intervention, in 1813, of the French architect L. M. Berthault.
While engaged in these activities, V. Braschi, rebuilt the cathedral of Caprarola after it was burned in 1819, provided designs for the church of S. Cristina in Cesena and for the lantern of the Porto di Ripagrande in Rome; in that city he also worked at S. Andrea delle Fratte, rebuilt the Teatro Valle, constructed the new façade of the Calcografia camerale and the Villa Poniatowski on the Via Flaminia, and carried out remarkably important work as a restorer of ancient buildings, undertaking works memorable for their consolidation (the Colosseum and the Arch of Titus). In those years V. also produced other minor works for building and urban improvements, some of which were subsequently carried out on the basis of his ideas, so much so that V.’s importance as a builder and urban planner appears outstanding, and perhaps greater than his importance as an architect.
As such, rather than being associated with the group of Roman neoclassical architects, he appears to stand in a direct cultural relationship with the Neo-Palladians of the Veneto, among whom were Quarenghi and Piranesi. Hence his characteristic approach, whereby certain aspects of V.’s Neo-Palladian architecture (the church of S. Pantaleo and that of S. Rocco on Via Ripetta in Rome, or the interior of the cathedral of Urbino) may even appear as anticipations of the attitudes proper to the Purists (v. PURISMO).
In other works, however, V. experience, above all in the field of building and that of a specifically archaeological culture understood in the modern sense. His scrupulousness as a restorer bears witness to this. – See plate LXXXVIII.