VIGNOLA, GIACOMO BAROZZI (BAROZZI), da. – Architect, born in Vignola (Modena) on 1 October 1507, died in Rome on 7 July 1573.
He completed his early studies in painting and perspective in Bologna; but by around 1534 he continued his intense and fruitful preparation in Rome, studying and measuring the monuments of classical antiquity, also at the initiative of the Accademia Vitruviana, of which he was appointed secretary around 1540. He was also entrusted with the task of reproducing ancient statues in plaster for the adornment of the park at Fontainebleau, and from 1541 to 1543 he worked in France on the casting in bronze of those copies. Returning to Italy, he settled in Bologna, undertaking hydraulic engineering projects, executing a design in a rather Gothic taste for the completion of the façade of S. Petronio, and drawing the portico of the Banchi and the tabernacle of the high altar in S. Petronio. In 1546 Vignola was in Rome, under the patronage of the Farnese and Del Monte families. In the great Palazzo Farnese, designed by Antonio da Sangallo, he left a noble classical imprint on the rear façade and in various internal decorations, while in other works of this period (the crowning with a frieze of grotesque masks and the loggia on the first floor of the Palazzo Mattei-Paganica, the Palazzo Firenze, some houses in Via Capodiferro, and the façade of a small palace near Piazza Navona, with a lower Doric loggia and a noble floor with Ionic pilasters and splendid stucco reliefs) a Mannerist orientation is evident, based on chiaroscuro rhythms for expressive effect.
Vignola’s architectural skill, however, gained greater substance after 1550 with the decorative and scenographic elements of the Villa of Pope Julius III (Del Monte). Not so much in the façade of the main building as in the grand exedra with its porticoes facing the internal garden and in the nymphaeum, adorned with slender caryatids and curved balustrades, the artist reveals his ability to master spaces and volumes, framing within the architectural structures the free expansion of plant forms and ambient light. At the same time, Vignola took part (though the extent cannot be specified) in the construction of the nearby Casina of Pope Julius III on the Via Flaminia (now the seat of the Italian Embassy to the Vatican) and designed, in that area, the graceful and sober tempietto of S. Andrea, inspired by the Pantheon, where the junction of a cubic volume and an overlying elliptical cylinder represents the first example of a pseudocentral scheme, widely adopted in the 17th century. Also part of Vignola’s activity during the pontificate of Julius III are the two three-arched porticoes erected at the top of the side staircases of Piazza del Campidoglio. In the subsequent period, marked by works executed for the Farnese, Vignola’s contributions include the façade of the church of S. Maria dell’Orto and the magnificent Villa of Caprarola, whose pentagonal planimetric scheme had already been fixed for military purposes by Antonio da Sangallo and Baldassare Peruzzi.
Between 1559 and 1564 he raised the building, constructed the splendid circular courtyard with its two orders, gave solemn impetus to the spiral staircase with its columns
of Bile, in Rieti, and chapels and fountains at Capranica, Bomarzo, Ronciglione, Bagnaia, not to mention uncertain or collaborative works such as the church of S. Maria degli Angeli near Assisi.
Particular consideration must also be given to Vignola’s theoretical work, embodied in the *Regola delli cinque ordini d’architettura*, published in 1562, and in *Le due regole della prospettiva pratica*, published posthumously by Ignazio Danti in 1583. With the latter, the author defines the function and scope of the so-called “points of distance,” integrating the concepts of the great Renaissance perspectivists; with the *Regola delli cinque ordini* he summarizes the abundant studies on Vitruvius conducted before him, simplifying to the utmost the measurements and stylistic modules and providing even the freest fantasies with a secure grammatical or metric foundation, a solid premise of taste and experience. The immediate success of this work continued for centuries with countless editions and translations in every language, and the text, which became a classic in schools of architecture and engineering, even served to diminish Vignola’s reputation as a builder, casting him as the prototype of academic pedantry. But, as Adolfo Venturi rightly observed, the Modenese architect was not always a slavish follower of Vitruvius: “he consulted him, followed him, but distanced himself when the studies of monuments, the taste of his time, the effects of light, air, and environment demanded it.” And in the greater part of his creative output, not at all homogeneous, Vignola stands among the freest yet most reflective builders of his transitional age. – See t.V. CXLVII.