Giacomo Rocca (or Rocchetti) was an Italian painter of the late-Renaissance or Mannerist period. He was a pupil of Daniele da Volterra, and aided him in completion of frescoes for the first chapel on the right of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome. Rocca’s biography is sketched in Giovanni Baglione’s Le vite de’ pittori, scultori et architetti dal pontificato di Gregorio XIII del 1572 in fino a tempi di Papa Urbano VIII nel 1642.
Following the death of Pope Julius II in 1513, the executors drew up a new contact with Michelangelo for the construction of the pope’s tomb. It was to be built within seven years in accordance with a small wooden model presented by the artist. The original plan of 1505 for a free-standing monument was abandoned; instead the back of the tomb was to be connected to a wall. A drawing by Michelangelo related to this new wall tomb project is badly damaged, Rocca’s drawing, which matches the original in every detail, is a copy of it.
