Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola

Biography

Jacopo Barozzi was born at Vignola, near Modena (Emilia-Romagna).

He began his career as an architect in Bologna, supporting himself by painting and making perspective templates for inlay craftsmen. He made his first trip to Rome in 1536 to make measured drawings of Roman temples, with a thought to publish an illustrated Vitruvius. Then François I called him to Fontainebleau, where he spent the years 1541–1543. Here he probably met his fellow Bolognese, the architect Sebastiano Serlio and the painter Primaticcio.

After his return to Italy, he designed the Palazzo Bocchi in Bologna. Later he moved to Rome. Here he worked for Pope Julius III and, after the latter's death, he was taken up by the papal family of the Farnese and worked with Michelangelo, who deeply influenced his style (see Works section for details of his works in this period).

In 1558, he was in Piacenza to revise the designs of Palazzo Farnese, commissioned by Margaret of Austria, wife of the Duke Ottavio Farnese and daughter of Emperor Charles V.

From 1564 Vignola carried on Michelangelo's work at St Peter's Basilica, and constructed the two subordinate domes according to Michelangelo's plans.

Jacopo Barozzi died in Rome in 1573. In 1973 his remains were reburied in the Pantheon, Rome.