GIACOMO BAROZZI known as Il VIGNOLA

Vignola 1507 - Rome 1573
Italian architect and theoretician.

In Emilia, he was trained as a painter and decorator.
He then became a student of Sebastiano Serlio (the one who gave models to the Fontainebleau architects).
He worked mainly in Rome, as well as in Fontainebleau. Summoned by Francis I, he worked for him from 1541 to 1543.
In Bologna, he and Primaticcio designed plans for the San Petronio facade. In 1550, he moved definitively to Rome.
For Julius III, he worked on the Villa Julia, then on the Villa Farnese in Caprarola.
It is there that we discover his marvelous spiral staircase with open newels.

In 1566, Vignola started creating the Villa Lante in Bagnaia (casini, garden and park).

But what is considered to be his absolute masterpiece is
Il Gesù Church in Rome, which
he would build much later.

This is the wake-up call for the Baroque. Vignola invented the Baroque.

He is an absolutely fabulous architect.

The Five Orders of Architecture (1562) is a theoretical work by Vignola which was widely distributed in Europe until the 19th Century.