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 FrançoisI 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).
From 1564 Vignola carried on Michelangelo's work at St Peter's Basilica,[4] and constructed the two subordinate domes according to Michelangelo's plans.
Jacopo Barozzi died in Rome in 1573.[4] In 1973 his remains were reburied in the Pantheon, Rome.
Major architectural works
Vignola's main works include:
Church of the Gesù, Rome, also named Church of the Most Holy Name of Jesus at the "Argentina"
Villa Giulia for Pope Julius III, in Rome (1550–1553). Here Vignola was working with Ammanati, who designed the nymphaeum and other garden features under the general direction of Vasari, with guidance from the knowledgeable pope and Michelangelo. A medal of 1553 shows Vignola's main villa substantially as it was completed, save for a pair of cupolas.
Palazzo Farnese, Piacenza. This was a grandiose project of a vast palace on a scale paralleled only by the Vatican Palace in Italy; the rectangular plan is circa 111 metres by 88 metres. The actual construction, however, made up only less than half of Vignola's original project and lacked many of the planned architectural features; missing elements include part of the exterior surrounding walls, the main façade, modelled on the ancient triumphal arch and with a large tower, and a theatre in the large inner courtyard.
Cloister of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum is traditionally attributed to Vignola but completed after his death. Ten arches on the long sides and seven on the short are sustained by pilasters with Tuscan-style ornamentation that rise from high plinths. A simple frieze with smooth triglyphs and metopes separates the lower from the upper levels.[5]
His two published books helped formulate the canon of classical architectural style. The earliest, Regola delli cinque ordini d'architettura ["Canon of the five orders of architecture"] (first published in 1562, probably in Rome), presented Vignola's practical system for constructing columns in the five classical orders (Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite) utilising proportions which Vignola derived from his own measurements of classical Roman monuments.[7] The clarity and ease of use of Vignola's treatise caused it to become in succeeding centuries the most published book in architectural history.[8] Vignola's second treatise, Due regole della prospettiva pratica ["Two rules of practical perspective"], published posthumously with extensive commentary by the mathematician Ignazio Danti (Bologna 1583), favours one-point perspective rather than two-point methods such as the bifocal construction. Vignola presented— without theoretical obscurities— practical applications which could be understood by a prospective patron.[9][full citation needed]
Vignola, Canon of the Five Orders of Architecture, translated with an introduction by Branko Mitrovic (New York: Acanthus Press, 1999), p. 17. ISBN0-926494-16-3.
