Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/443

 _ % May 24, 1872. THE BUILDING NEWS. 421 CRITICAL NOTES ON GREAT ITALIAN ARCHITECTS.—XIU. By J. B. Warine. THE FAMILY OF SAN GALLO. USCANY, amongst whom few laboured more their actual family or joiners. “an exceedingly ingenious person, tinction for his artistic works in wood, especially those of the choir in the Cathedral, which he executed shortly after practising on Strangely enough, the next we hear of him is as military engineer to his own account. Lorenzo de’Medici, who despatched him to Castellana to defend it against the Duke of Calabria : ‘‘ For the purpose of constructing bastions and defences of various kinds, and who should also take charge of artillery, to the management of which few men were at that time competent.” Vasari asserts that his ingenuity and firm- ness caused the Duke to raise the siege, but Muratori, the historian, declares that Castel- Jana surrendered to the Duke in 1478. From this time Giuliano appears to have devoted his attention more particularly to architecture, and he was commissioned by Lorenzo de’Medici to erect his country residence of Poggio-a-Cajano, near Florence, after a competition with his old master Francione and others. From this time forward he would appear to have received a regular annual stipend from the Medici, and not long after we find him engaged in a design for a palace to be erected at Naples for his former opponent the Duke of Calabria (son of the King of Naples), and employed by the Bishop della Rovere, Castellan of Ostia, afterwards Pope Julius IL., to strengthen the fortifications of Ostia, at which place he remained two years, and erected the present massive and picturesque ‘ Castello,” over the principal entrance of which still remain thearmorial shield of Della Rovere and an inscription in his honour. His brother Antonio meanwhile continued his designs for the Neapolitan palace. The model being completed, Giuliano, by the advice of Lorenzo de’Medici, took it to Naples himself, and after a sojourn there tosetthe work going, requested permission to return to Florence, declining to receive any money payment from the King, and suggesting that if a reward were to be given him for his labours, he would prefer some of the antiquities which the King had collected. A right royal gift of some choice statues was then presented to Giuliano, who, in turn, presented them asa gift worthy of a monarch to his patron, Lorenzo de’Medici, by whom, as Vasari observes, he was, on his return, ‘‘most graciously received,” and at once commissioned to erect a large convent outside the gate ‘*San Gallo” (since destroyed), and it was on this account that Lorenzo one day called him Giuliano da San Gallo; an example quickly followed by others, for the Italians delight in nicknames, and although Giuliano demurred at first, and objected against it to Lorenzo, yet did it finally supplant his family name of Giam- berti. For Giuliano Gondi, a rich merchant, he built, about the year 1481, the fine, but unfinished, Palazzo Gondi at Florence, with prolific as of old in great artists, produced an extraordinary number of architects at the period of the Renaissance, in- dustriously, or were more honoured, than the two brothers Giuliano and Antonio da San Gallo and their nephew Antonio, who, like so many other of the Italian architects, are better known by their souhriquet of San Gallo than name of Giamberti. Their father, Francesco di Paolo Giamberti, having been also an architect and much employed by Cosmo de’Medici, brought up his two sons Giuliano and Antonio as artists in wood, or, as they describe themselves in a MS. Fiscal Return, dated 1498, ‘‘ Legnaiuoli,” Giuliano was apprenticed to a certain Francione, whom Vasari describes a we versed in perspective, and an able wood carver,” under whom he soon acquired dis- its beautiful marble chimney-piece (engraved in Cicognara’s ‘Storia della Scultura Mo- derna”). This palace is quite in the Tuscan style, but the cornice of lesser size than usual. Among other works at this time was the fortification of Poggio Imperiale on the Roman road out of Florence, and his fame was now so widely spread that he was invited to Milan by the Duke, and prepared a model of a magnificent palace for him, which ap- pears, however, never to have been executed. On his return to Florence he induced his brother Antonio, who had obtained much consideration as a carver in wood, to abandon sculpture, and join him in his practice as an architect; but Lorenzo de’Medici dying un- expectedly in 1492, the brothers lost their principal patron, and Giuliano retired to Prato, where he remained for three years, and designed the ‘* Madonna delle Carcere,” a church of the Greek cross form, with cen- tral cupola, and a high altar carved by An- tonio. About this time he was invited to Loretto to complete the Duomo, commenced by Giuliano da Majano, by the erection of its octagonal cupola, a difficult work, success- fully executed under his directions. From thence he went to Rome, and was employed by Pope Alexander VI. to restore the roof of Santa Maria Maggiore, a fine and effective piece of woodwork. His old friend the Bishop of Ostia, who was then at Rome and a cardinal, engaged him to design a palace for him at Savona, which Giuliano undertook, and left for that town against the wish of the Pope, leaving Antonio in charge of the works at S. M. Maggiore, by which apparently injudicious act he lost the Pope’s fayour, who transferred his patronage to Antonio, by whom the Mausoleum of Hadrian was converted into the Castle of S. Angelo, much as we now seeit, and who built the Citadel of Civita Castellana. Indeed, Antonio became the Pope’s architect and engineer, whilst Giuliano was at Albizola, near Savona, busied in the erection of the Cardinal’s palace, which, vast as it was intended to be, was never completed, and of what was done little now remains. Returning to Florence, he was taken prisoner on the road from Pisa, and was only ran- somed, after six months’ detention, for 300 ducats. Antonio also now desired to meet his brother once more, and, with the Pope’s permission, returned to Florence, where the brothers were re-united in 1503. Pope Alexander and his successor, Pius III., being dead, Giuliano’s old friend, the Castellan of Ostia, came to the Pontificate, as Julius II., and he immediately repaired to Rome, where he was kindly received by the Pope, and appointed superintendent of his buildings, and to design a chapel for the monument of Pope Julius, to be executed by Michael Angelo. At this time Bramante arrived at Rome, and, numerous architects being con- sulted, the idea of the great Church of S. Peter was gradually developed, and Bra- mante selected as architect, which caused so much displeasure to Giuliano, that he resigned his official post, and, declining to act as associate with Bramante in other works, once more returned to Florence, where he was im- mediately employed by the Gonfaloniere Piero Soderini; but very shortly, at the pressing request of the Pope, returned to Rome, where he was reinstated in his appointment, but evidently found the influence of Bramante disagreeable, and finally returned to Florence, and was engaged with his brother as military engineer against the Pisans. In 1510, Giovanni de’Medici having succeeded to the Pontificate as Leo X., Giuliano was once more induced to visit Rome, and the Pope offered him, on Bramante’s death, sole charge of the building of S. Peter’s ; but, being now aged and in bad health, he declined that honour, and, after a long illness, died in 1517. Antonio still continued to practice as a sculptor, engineer, and architect, and in his latter capacity designed the beautiful church of the Madonna di San Biagio, and several good palaces at Montepulciano, a range of houses for the Servite Monks at Florence, and other minor works in Tuseany. He died at a ripe old age in 1554, and was buried in the same vault with his brother in Santa Maria Novella. ‘‘Large is the debt of gratitude,” says Vasari, ‘due to these artists, by whose labours the Florentine State has been fortified, while the city itself has received great increase of beauty from their labours.” We now come to Antonio, the nephew of the San Galli (by his mother’s side), the son of Bartolommeo Picconi, a cooper of Mugello, who was brought up as a‘carpenter, but, in- spired by his uncle’s fame, left his employ- ment, and, going to Rome, devoted himself also to the study of architecture, and with such success that Bramante, who found him acting as a most valuable assistant to his uncle Antonio, with whom Bramante was officially associated, employed him on his own account, and took him regularly into his service. His ability becoming known he was commissioned by the Cardinal Alessandro Farnese to design a palace for him on the site of his old one in the Campo de’Fiori, which resulted subsequently in the erection of the present celebrated Palazzo Farnese, the most characteristic example of the master now remaining. It is unnecessary to mention the numerous military engineering works carried out under Antonio’s direction at Perugia, Civita Castellana, Civita Vecchia, Monte Fiasecne, Florence, Ancona, &c., buta remarkable specimen of his ingenuity is still to be seen in the curious well executed from his design at Orvieto, commenced during the pontificate of Clement VII. (Giulio de’ Medici) in 1527, and completed (externally) by Simone Mosca in 1540. It consists of a hollow circular tower with double walls, be- tween which two spiral staircases are carried, one for descent, one for ascent, constructed so that animals laden with water may easily pass. The well is about 179ft. deep and 46ft. in diameter, and is furnished with seventy- two openings throughout for the admission of light. It is at present no longer used, but is not undeserving of the praises which Vasari lavishes on it. It was under his old patron, the Cardinal Farnese, who became Pope (Paul IIT.) in 1534, that the star of Antonio came completely in the ascendant, and being now appointed sole architect to S. Peter’s he caused his pupil Labacco to execute an entirely new model for its comple- tion, still preserved in the Vatican, which, however, does not appear to have met with general approval, and was openly derided by Michael Angelo. This large wooden model, which, according to Vasari, is 35 palms, or about 24ft., long, cost for material and labour alone, 4,184 scudi, or about £1,000, equiva- lent to nearly double that sum now. San Gallo adopted a modified form of the Latin cross, as originally designed by Bramante, whilst his successor, Michael An- gelo, adopted the Greek cross, originat- ing with Balthazar Peruzzi. As regards style, San Gallo’s design appears to have been fairly good; but he never had the opportunity of carrying it out, since, having been despatched by the Pope to Terni, in order to make a new channel for the junction of the Velino and Nar (since suc- cessfully accomplished at the Falls of Terni), he was taken with fever, and died in 1546, his remains receiving honourable sepul- ture in 8. Peter’s. As regards the style of the younger San Gallo, it is to be remarked that it holdsa middle place between that of Bramante and Michael Angelo. Unlike his uncles, who may be considered as followers of the Tuscan school, he is properly ranged among the Romans, and his manner is best seen in the Farnese Palace, the Capella Paolina in the Vatican, the unfinished gate of San Spirito, simple and good ; his own house, now the Palazzo Sachetti, the court-yard of which, with Doric and Ionic columns and niches, is very good; and the Palazzo Palma, plain but