VIGNOLA, Giacomo da

The Villa Lante is formed by two casini (houses), nearly identical but built by different owners in a period separated by 30 years. It appears that work commenced in 1566 on the right-hand (as one enters) casino. It is thought that Gambara commissioned Vignola to design the project (the villa is only attributed to Vignola), and begin the work and the design of the gardens for which the villa was to become famous.

The gardens of the Villa Lante feature cascades, fountains and dripping grottoes. The visual and harmonious choreography of water and the mechanical perfection of its flow was only achieved after Tommaso Ghinucci, a hydraulics engineer and architect from Siena, was called in; it is thought that his role was to oversee the hydraulics and building work.

The Quadrato is a perfectly square parterre. The twin casini stand on one side, on the remaining three sides the garden is enclosed by high box hedges. The main feature of this parterre is the complex fountain at its centre, formed of four basins, separated by parapeted walks, the parapets decorated with stone pineapples and urns that intersect the water. At the heart of the complex, a centre basin contains the “Fontana dei Mori” by Giambologna.

The art-historical importance of the Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola, near Viterbo, is the famous pentagonal ground plan and round interior courtyard, and the interior frescoes. The Palazzo was built for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520-1589) who was made cardinal by his grandfather Pope Paul III (1468-1549), and named vice chancellor of the Holy Roman Church a year later, according him the highest position after that of the pope in the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

The architect of the construction, Giacomo da Vignola, found that the form of the ground plan and the site of the building were dictated by an incomplete fortress begun in the 1530s by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger - a project that had not gone further than the exterior walls on the ground floor. Vignola approached the unfinished structure as a challenge and opportunity to create a unique solution. What was built from 1559 onward had the form of a fortress and the function of a villa, but was in its extravagance an urban palace.

View the ground plan of Villa Farnese, Caprarola.

Following three decades of diversified and mainly collaborative artistic activity, Vignola emerged in the 1550s as the leading architect in Rome after Michelangelo and was in papal service for over three decades. His masterpieces (notably the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the church of Il Gesù in Rome) were produced as house architect to the wealthy and powerful Farnese family.

The Villa Farnese at Caprarola is Vignola’s greatest achievement, testifying to the full range of his talent as an urban planner, engineer, architect and painter. From the start he conceived the villa in scenic and symbolic terms. For visibility and traffic a long straight street on axis with the main entrance was cut through the medieval town. From the street the approach continues by way of semicircular ramps to a trapezoidal piazza and then by flights of stairs, ending with a drawbridge before a rusticated Doric portal.

On the exterior, however, motifs of fortification were made to serve the image of neo-feudal princely power: the arrowhead bastions remained in place, their tops converted into open-air piano nobile terraces, on which stand the three upper floors of the pentagonal palazzo, its corner bays projecting slightly to embrace an austere grid of pilasters, Ionic for the piano nobile where they enclose the arches of a formerly open gallery, and Composite for two short upper floors reserved for servants and retainers.

The most extraordinary feature of the Villa Farnese is the perfectly round interior courtyard. This form had been considered for Caprarola by Sangallo and it had been used by Vignola himself in his Villa Cervini project, but such examples fail to anticipate the consummate power of this solution. The absolute geometry of the circle is in stark contrast to the shifting, ambiguous prospects of the pentagonal exterior. Keyed to the five wings and corners by ten bays of superimposed arches, the cylindrical elevation has rusticated piers on the ground floor and paired Ionic half columns on the piano nobile. The scheme characteristically draws on and deftly conjoins two authoritative designs in Rome by Bramante - the Palazzo Caprini (House of Raphael; destroyed) and the upper Belvedere court fa�ades in the Vatican.

View the ground plan of Villa Farnese, Caprarola.

The most extraordinary feature of the Villa Farnese is the perfectly round interior courtyard. This form had been considered for Caprarola by Sangallo and it had been used by Vignola himself in his Villa Cervini project, but such examples fail to anticipate the consummate power of this solution. The absolute geometry of the circle is in stark contrast to the shifting, ambiguous prospects of the pentagonal exterior.

View the ground plan of Villa Farnese, Caprarola.

The little church of Sant’Andrea on the Via Flaminia was commissioned by Pope Julius III. Free from collaborative constraints, in Sant’Andrea Vignola realized a work with powerful theoretical implications. In terms of scale and function it is little more than a wayside chapel for pilgrims, but like the Old Sacristy at San Lorenzo, Florence (1419-28), or the Tempietto, Rome (after 1502), Sant’Andrea addressed the practical and intellectual concerns of an epoch.

The church is rectangular in plan with a projecting altar room opposite the entrance. The interior walls are subdivided by Corinthian pilasters, above which rise warped pendentives carrying an oval cornice and dome. By effectively uniting an oblong space focused on the altar with a dome that extends over the entire nave, Vignola succeeded in reconciling the traditional liturgical demand for axiality with the humanistic ideal of centrality. Sant’Andrea was the first church to employ an oval dome, a feature that won great favour in the 17th century.

The fa�ade, which ingeniously recalls the Pantheon in Rome, has Corinthian pilasters, disposed outwardly in diminishing intervals in order to accentuate the centre, carrying a pediment set into a flat wall of brick before an oval drum capped by a stepped dome.

View the ground plan and section of the church.

The little church of Sant’Andrea on the Via Flaminia was commissioned by Pope Julius III. Free from collaborative constraints, in Sant’Andrea Vignola realized a work with powerful theoretical implications. In terms of scale and function it is little more than a wayside chapel for pilgrims, but like the Old Sacristy at San Lorenzo, Florence (1419-28), or the Tempietto, Rome (after 1502), Sant’Andrea addressed the practical and intellectual concerns of an epoch.

The church is rectangular in plan with a projecting altar room opposite the entrance. The interior walls are subdivided by Corinthian pilasters, above which rise warped pendentives carrying an oval cornice and dome. By effectively uniting an oblong space focused on the altar with a dome that extends over the entire nave, Vignola succeeded in reconciling the traditional liturgical demand for axiality with the humanistic ideal of centrality. Sant’Andrea was the first church to employ an oval dome, a feature that won great favour in the 17th century.

The fa�ade, which ingeniously recalls the Pantheon in Rome, has Corinthian pilasters, disposed outwardly in diminishing intervals in order to accentuate the centre, carrying a pediment set into a flat wall of brick before an oval drum capped by a stepped dome.

View the ground plan and section of the church.

The fa�ade, which ingeniously recalls the Pantheon in Rome, has Corinthian pilasters, disposed outwardly in diminishing intervals in order to accentuate the centre, carrying a pediment set into a flat wall of brick before an oval drum capped by a stepped dome.

The photo shows the fa�ade.

The fa�ade, which ingeniously recalls the Pantheon in Rome, has Corinthian pilasters, disposed outwardly in diminishing intervals in order to accentuate the centre, carrying a pediment set into a flat wall of brick before an oval drum capped by a stepped dome.

The photo shows the fa�ade.

The art-historical importance of the Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola, near Viterbo, is the famous pentagonal ground plan and round interior courtyard, and the interior frescoes. The Palazzo was built for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520-1589) who was made cardinal by his grandfather Pope Paul III (1468-1549), and named vice chancellor of the Holy Roman Church a year later, according him the highest position after that of the pope in the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

The architect of the construction, Giacomo da Vignola, found that the form of the ground plan and the site of the building were dictated by an incomplete fortress begun in the 1530s by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger - a project that had not gone further than the exterior walls on the ground floor. Vignola approached the unfinished structure as a challenge and opportunity to create a unique solution. What was built from 1559 onward had the form of a fortress and the function of a villa, but was in its extravagance an urban palace.

The photo shows the fa�ade from the arrival plaza.

View the ground plan of Villa Farnese, Caprarola.

The Villa Giulia was built in 1551 at the request of Pope Julius III (1550-1555) who called on three eminent architects: Vasari, Vignola and Ammanati. The villa has a first inner courtyard with a semicircular portico whose vault is frescoed. The wall paintings imitate an arbour full of vine shoots, roses and jasmine.

In 1552, Bartolomeo Ammanati created a second space with a loggia with a horseshoe staircase, a nymphaeum with rock gardens, false caves and caryatids, all decorated with Roman sculptures.

The photo shows the entrance.

View the ground plan of the Villa Giulia, Rome.

The Villa Giulia was built in 1551 at the request of Pope Julius III (1550-1555) who called on three eminent architects: Vasari, Vignola and Ammanati. The villa has a first inner courtyard with a semicircular portico whose vault is frescoed. The wall paintings imitate an arbour full of vine shoots, roses and jasmine.

In 1552, Bartolomeo Ammanati created a second space with a loggia with a horseshoe staircase, a nymphaeum with rock gardens, false caves and caryatids, all decorated with Roman sculptures.

The photo shows the entrance.

View the ground plan and section of Villa Giulia, Rome.

The picture shows the fountain with river gods and view of the garden fa�ade of the Villa Farnese in Caprarola.

The church is rectangular in plan with a projecting altar room opposite the entrance. The interior walls are subdivided by Corinthian pilasters, above which rise warped pendentives carrying an oval cornice and dome. By effectively uniting an oblong space focused on the altar with a dome that extends over the entire nave, Vignola succeeded in reconciling the traditional liturgical demand for axiality with the humanistic ideal of centrality.

View the ground plan and section of the church.

The most extraordinary feature of the Villa Farnese is the perfectly round interior courtyard. This form had been considered for Caprarola by Sangallo and it had been used by Vignola himself in his Villa Cervini project, but such examples fail to anticipate the consummate power of this solution. The absolute geometry of the circle is in stark contrast to the shifting, ambiguous prospects of the pentagonal exterior.

The photo shows the view looking down into the round courtyard.

The most extraordinary feature of the Villa Farnese is the perfectly round interior courtyard. This form had been considered for Caprarola by Sangallo and it had been used by Vignola himself in his Villa Cervini project, but such examples fail to anticipate the consummate power of this solution. The absolute geometry of the circle is in stark contrast to the shifting, ambiguous prospects of the pentagonal exterior.

The photo shows the round courtyard.

Inside the palace, ascent to the upper floors is facilitated by a large and comfortable spiral staircase with paired Doric columns inspired by Bramante’s ramp staircase in the Cortile del Belvedere at the Vatican.

The photo shows the staircase.

The Villa Giulia was built in 1551 at the request of Pope Julius III (1550-1555) who called on three eminent architects: Vasari, Vignola and Ammanati. The villa has a first inner courtyard with a semicircular portico whose vault is frescoed. The wall paintings imitate an arbour full of vine shoots, roses and jasmine.

In 1552, Bartolomeo Ammanati created a second space with a loggia with a horseshoe staircase, a nymphaeum with rock gardens, false caves and caryatids, all decorated with Roman sculptures.

The photo shows the first (entrance) courtyard.

View the ground plan of the Villa Giulia, Rome.

Following three decades of diversified and mainly collaborative artistic activity, Vignola emerged in the 1550s as the leading architect in Rome after Michelangelo and was in papal service for over three decades. His masterpieces (notably the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the church of Il Gesù in Rome) were produced as house architect to the wealthy and powerful Farnese family.

The commission for Il Gesù, Vignola’s most ambitious and influential church, came from Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who underwrote the cost of its construction for the Society of Jesus. Farnese stipulated that the church must have a single vaulted nave with side chapels. Vignola’s response was in part conditioned by his project of Santa Maria in Traspontina, Rome (1566; not executed), a Latin-cross church with a nave and two aisles, relatively shallow transept and domed crossing. At Il Gesù the elimination of side aisles allowed for enlarged lateral chapels and a broader nave that turns the cupola into a highly visible culminating element. The innovative plan brought these ecclesiastically differentiated parts into unprecedented visual and spatial unity. Overall cohesion was enhanced by lining the interior with paired Composite pilasters without pedestals and a continuous belt-like entablature. Lowered entrance arches rendered the six nave chapels unobtrusive; above their flattened oval vaults are screened-off galleries.

Under Vignola’s direction, Il Gesù was constructed to the height of the main entablature; the barrel vault of the nave and the dome were built later, and higher than he had intended, by Giacomo della Porta.

In the following decades, Il Gesù profoundly influenced the Roman church designs of della Porta, Martino I Longhi and Carlo Maderno, while as the home church of the Jesuit Order it became a prototype for countless churches world-wide. Vignola’s initial fa�ade project for Il Gesù, recorded in the foundation medal of 1568, features giant Corinthian pilasters topped by a high pedimented attic with obelisks. The emphatically horizontalizing design failed to please Cardinal Farnese, whose munificence the fa�ade was to celebrate, and in 1570 Vignola produced a more elaborate second design that acknowledged the authority of traditional Roman double-order aedicular schemes. In 1571 this design was rejected and Cardinal Farnese turned from his architect of 20 years to award the commission to a younger man, Giacomo della Porta.

View the ground plan of of Il Gesù, Rome.

Following three decades of diversified and mainly collaborative artistic activity, Vignola emerged in the 1550s as the leading architect in Rome after Michelangelo and was in papal service for over three decades. His masterpieces (notably the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the church of Il Gesù in Rome) were produced as house architect to the wealthy and powerful Farnese family.

The commission for Il Gesù, Vignola’s most ambitious and influential church, came from Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who underwrote the cost of its construction for the Society of Jesus. Farnese stipulated that the church must have a single vaulted nave with side chapels. Vignola’s response was in part conditioned by his project of Santa Maria in Traspontina, Rome (1566; not executed), a Latin-cross church with a nave and two aisles, relatively shallow transept and domed crossing. At Il Gesù the elimination of side aisles allowed for enlarged lateral chapels and a broader nave that turns the cupola into a highly visible culminating element. The innovative plan brought these ecclesiastically differentiated parts into unprecedented visual and spatial unity. Overall cohesion was enhanced by lining the interior with paired Composite pilasters without pedestals and a continuous belt-like entablature. Lowered entrance arches rendered the six nave chapels unobtrusive; above their flattened oval vaults are screened-off galleries.

Under Vignola’s direction, Il Gesù was constructed to the height of the main entablature; the barrel vault of the nave and the dome were built later, and higher than he had intended, by Giacomo della Porta.

In the following decades, Il Gesù profoundly influenced the Roman church designs of della Porta, Martino I Longhi and Carlo Maderno, while as the home church of the Jesuit Order it became a prototype for countless churches world-wide. Vignola’s initial fa�ade project for Il Gesù, recorded in the foundation medal of 1568, features giant Corinthian pilasters topped by a high pedimented attic with obelisks. The emphatically horizontalizing design failed to please Cardinal Farnese, whose munificence the fa�ade was to celebrate, and in 1570 Vignola produced a more elaborate second design that acknowledged the authority of traditional Roman double-order aedicular schemes. In 1571 this design was rejected and Cardinal Farnese turned from his architect of 20 years to award the commission to a younger man, Giacomo della Porta.

View the ground plan and section of Il Gesù, Rome.

Following three decades of diversified and mainly collaborative artistic activity, Vignola emerged in the 1550s as the leading architect in Rome after Michelangelo and was in papal service for over three decades. His masterpieces (notably the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the church of Il Gesù in Rome) were produced as house architect to the wealthy and powerful Farnese family.

The commission for Il Gesù, Vignola’s most ambitious and influential church, came from Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who underwrote the cost of its construction for the Society of Jesus. Farnese stipulated that the church must have a single vaulted nave with side chapels. Vignola’s response was in part conditioned by his project of Santa Maria in Traspontina, Rome (1566; not executed), a Latin-cross church with a nave and two aisles, relatively shallow transept and domed crossing. At Il Gesù the elimination of side aisles allowed for enlarged lateral chapels and a broader nave that turns the cupola into a highly visible culminating element. The innovative plan brought these ecclesiastically differentiated parts into unprecedented visual and spatial unity. Overall cohesion was enhanced by lining the interior with paired Composite pilasters without pedestals and a continuous belt-like entablature. Lowered entrance arches rendered the six nave chapels unobtrusive; above their flattened oval vaults are screened-off galleries.

Under Vignola’s direction, Il Gesù was constructed to the height of the main entablature; the barrel vault of the nave and the dome were built later, and higher than he had intended, by Giacomo della Porta.

In the following decades, Il Gesù profoundly influenced the Roman church designs of della Porta, Martino I Longhi and Carlo Maderno, while as the home church of the Jesuit Order it became a prototype for countless churches world-wide. Vignola’s initial fa�ade project for Il Gesù, recorded in the foundation medal of 1568, features giant Corinthian pilasters topped by a high pedimented attic with obelisks. The emphatically horizontalizing design failed to please Cardinal Farnese, whose munificence the fa�ade was to celebrate, and in 1570 Vignola produced a more elaborate second design that acknowledged the authority of traditional Roman double-order aedicular schemes. In 1571 this design was rejected and Cardinal Farnese turned from his architect of 20 years to award the commission to a younger man, Giacomo della Porta.

View the ground plan and section of Il Gesù, Rome.

This illustration is from Vignola’s treatise Le Due Regole della Prospettiva Practica. It shows how the observer’s viewpoint is critical for understanding why an object (in this case an octagon) is depicted as it is within the artist’s illusion.

Following three decades of diversified and mainly collaborative artistic activity, Vignola emerged in the 1550s as the leading architect in Rome after Michelangelo and was in papal service for over three decades. His masterpieces (notably the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the church of Il Gesù in Rome) were produced as house architect to the wealthy and powerful Farnese family.

The commission for Il Gesù, Rome (1568-75), Vignola’s most ambitious and influential church, came from Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who underwrote the cost of its construction for the Society of Jesus. Farnese stipulated that the church must have a single vaulted nave with side chapels. Vignola’s response was in part conditioned by his project of Santa Maria in Traspontina, Rome (1566; not executed), and perhaps by Santa Maria degli Angeli, Assisi (1568), which he laid out. These are Latin-cross churches with a nave and two aisles, relatively shallow transepts and domed crossings. At Il Gesù the elimination of side aisles allowed for enlarged lateral chapels and a broader nave that turns the cupola into a highly visible culminating element. The innovative plan brought these ecclesiastically differentiated parts into unprecedented visual and spatial unity. Overall cohesion was enhanced by lining the interior with paired Composite pilasters without pedestals and a continuous belt-like entablature. Lowered entrance arches rendered the six nave chapels unobtrusive; above their flattened oval vaults are screened-off galleries.

Under Vignola’s direction, Il Gesù was constructed to the height of the main entablature; the barrel vault of the nave and the dome were built later, and higher than he had intended, by Giacomo della Porta.

In the following decades, Il Gesù profoundly influenced the Roman church designs of della Porta, Martino I Longhi and Carlo Maderno, while as the home church of the Jesuit Order it became a prototype for countless churches world-wide.

Vignola’s initial fa�ade project for Il Gesù, recorded in the foundation medal of 1568, features giant Corinthian pilasters topped by a high pedimented attic with obelisks. The emphatically horizontalizing design follows from his Santa Maria in Traspontina project and from the fa�ade he built at Santa Maria dell’Orto, Rome (1564-67). In these a single order of pilasters masks the entire width of the church and, with the central entrance accentuated by columns, the higher nave is covered as a subordinate element. Such a conception failed to please Cardinal Farnese, whose munificence the fa�ade was to celebrate, and in 1570 Vignola produced a more elaborate second design that acknowledged the authority of traditional Roman double-order aedicular schemes. In 1571 this design was rejected and Cardinal Farnese turned from his architect of 20 years to award the commission to a younger man, Giacomo della Porta.

Following three decades of diversified and mainly collaborative artistic activity, Vignola emerged in the 1550s as the leading architect in Rome after Michelangelo and was in papal service for over three decades. His masterpieces (notably the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the church of Il Gesù in Rome) were produced as house architect to the wealthy and powerful Farnese family.

The commission for Il Gesù, Rome (1568-75), Vignola’s most ambitious and influential church, came from Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who underwrote the cost of its construction for the Society of Jesus. Farnese stipulated that the church must have a single vaulted nave with side chapels. Vignola’s response was in part conditioned by his project of Santa Maria in Traspontina, Rome (1566; not executed), and perhaps by Santa Maria degli Angeli, Assisi (1568), which he laid out. These are Latin-cross churches with a nave and two aisles, relatively shallow transepts and domed crossings. At Il Gesù the elimination of side aisles allowed for enlarged lateral chapels and a broader nave that turns the cupola into a highly visible culminating element. The innovative plan brought these ecclesiastically differentiated parts into unprecedented visual and spatial unity. Overall cohesion was enhanced by lining the interior with paired Composite pilasters without pedestals and a continuous belt-like entablature. Lowered entrance arches rendered the six nave chapels unobtrusive; above their flattened oval vaults are screened-off galleries.

Under Vignola’s direction, Il Gesù was constructed to the height of the main entablature; the barrel vault of the nave and the dome were built later, and higher than he had intended, by Giacomo della Porta.

In the following decades, Il Gesù profoundly influenced the Roman church designs of della Porta, Martino I Longhi and Carlo Maderno, while as the home church of the Jesuit Order it became a prototype for countless churches world-wide.

Vignola’s initial fa�ade project for Il Gesù, recorded in the foundation medal of 1568, features giant Corinthian pilasters topped by a high pedimented attic with obelisks. The emphatically horizontalizing design follows from his Santa Maria in Traspontina project and from the fa�ade he built at Santa Maria dell’Orto, Rome (1564-67). In these a single order of pilasters masks the entire width of the church and, with the central entrance accentuated by columns, the higher nave is covered as a subordinate element. Such a conception failed to please Cardinal Farnese, whose munificence the fa�ade was to celebrate, and in 1570 Vignola produced a more elaborate second design that acknowledged the authority of traditional Roman double-order aedicular schemes. In 1571 this design was rejected and Cardinal Farnese turned from his architect of 20 years to award the commission to a younger man, Giacomo della Porta.

The drawing shows the comparison of the plans by Giacomo da Vignola and Giacomo della Porta.

The Farnese table is one of the most beautiful and evocative pieces of Renaissance furniture in existence. It was designed by Giacomo da Vignola, the marble piers were carved by Guglielmo della Porta, and the pietre dure top is attributed to the French stonecutter Jean M�nard (active Italy, 1525-1582).

In its form - a marble top supported on three marble piers - the table reflects ancient Roman prototypes, such as are depicted in ancient frescoes. Each pier is carved in the centre of each side with a grotesque torso and a coat of arms and on each end with a sphinx emerging from foliage. The top is a slab of white marble sumptuously inlaid in ancient Roman style with many different coloured marbles and with semiprecious stones called pietre dure. So rich is the inlay that the white marble matrix is visible only in the lines that surround various borders and the larger geometric figures, which include medallions, cartouches, rectangles, and ovals. In the centre of the slab, enclosed within black slate borders decorated with pietre dure rosettes and stylised lilies, are two panels of Egyptian alabaster.

The Farnese table is one of the most beautiful and evocative pieces of Renaissance furniture in existence. It was designed by Giacomo da Vignola, the marble piers were carved by Guglielmo della Porta, and the pietre dure top is attributed to the French stonecutter Jean M�nard (active Italy, 1525-1582).

In its form - a marble top supported on three marble piers - the table reflects ancient Roman prototypes, such as are depicted in ancient frescoes. Each pier is carved in the centre of each side with a grotesque torso and a coat of arms and on each end with a sphinx emerging from foliage. The top is a slab of white marble sumptuously inlaid in ancient Roman style with many different coloured marbles and with semiprecious stones called pietre dure. So rich is the inlay that the white marble matrix is visible only in the lines that surround various borders and the larger geometric figures, which include medallions, cartouches, rectangles, and ovals. In the centre of the slab, enclosed within black slate borders decorated with pietre dure rosettes and stylised lilies, are two panels of Egyptian alabaster.