VESPIGNANI, VIRGILIO (VIRGINIO). - Architect, b. in Rome on 12 Feb. 1828, d. there on 4 Dec. 1882.
He gained his first experience alongside Poletti, whose cold academicism he nevertheless soon managed to break free of, evolving slowly and belatedly with respect to the times. His early works are in the provinces: at Ceprano, where he built a small palazzo for Msgr. Francesco Ferrari and redid the facade of the collegiate church; at Viterbo, where he erected the theater; at Orvieto, where he likewise erected the theater; at Gualdo Tadino, where he provided the design for the remodeling of the interior of the Cathedral. All buildings executed with academic precision, such as the construction he carried out in Rome of the Porta S. Pancrazio, which had been badly damaged in the bombardments of 1849.
Better, freer does V. appear in the tiny sanctuary of the Madonna dell'Archetto (1851) on the street of the same name, again in Rome, where some time later he erected what can perhaps be considered his masterpiece: the external facade of the Porta Pia. A solid architecture built with a fine length of forms and a just balance of proportions that would gain much in appearance if the street level toward the square were brought back, as it was originally, at least a meter lower. Other Roman works of his are the buildings that form the entrance to the Verano cemetery, the high altar of S. Pietro in Vincoli, the confessio of S. Maria Maggiore, the restoration of the basilicas of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura and S. Lorenzo in Damaso, the rebuilding in Romanesque-Gothic forms of the little church of S. Tommaso da Canterbury, formerly at the Trinità degli Scozzesi in the Piazzetta della Rota, the continuation of the works of S. Paolo after the death of Poletti, as well as the beginning of the extensive restorations in the basilica of S. Giovanni in Laterano desired by Pius IX, of whom V. was the favorite architect, but for the most part carried out during the pontificate of Leo XIII.
V. FRANCESCO, architect, son of the preceding, b. in Rome in 1842, d. there in 1899. A pupil and assistant of his father, he built in 1827 in vaguely Tramazzesque forms the church and convent of the S. Cuore on Via Marsala.
A few years later, around 1899, alongside his father Hildebrand de Hemptinne, he undertook the construction in Lombardesque forms of the church and college of S. Anselmo on the Aventine.
Bibliography
Emilio Lavagnino