VALERIANI, GIUSEPPE. - Jesuit, painter, and architect, born in L'Aquila in 1542, died in Naples on 15 July 1596.
A pupil of Pompeo Cesura, known as l'Aquilano, he entered the Order as a lay brother in 1572 in Spain, where he had gone in search of fortune and had already executed architectural and painting works, including at the Escorial. Called to Rome around 1581, he was entrusted with overseeing the construction of buildings being erected by the Jesuits in Rome and elsewhere. As an architect, he is credited with: the most elegant chapel of the Madonna della Strada in the Gesù in Rome (erroneously attributed to Giacomo della Porta); the Gesù in Genoa (SS. Andrea e Ambrogio); the Gesù Nuovo in Naples; the building of the Collegio Romano (previously attributed to B. Ammannati; V. reproduction in vol. I, pl. 91 with the old attribution); the completion of the Jesuit church in Munich, S. Michele. As a painter, his works include the paintings in the chapel of the Transfiguration at S. Spirito in Sassia and the paintings in the chapel of the Madonna della Strada in Rome. He also worked on composing a large manual concerning construction for the churches, houses, and colleges of the Order; however, the work remained unfinished and is now lost. It would have been very useful for deriving the principles and influences on the evolution of contemporary art promoted at that time also by the Society of Jesus.
In reward for his virtues, in the final years of his life (between 1584 and 1587) he was promoted to the priesthood.