This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2023) |
Giovanni Fontana (Melide, 1540 – Rome, 1614) was a late-Mannerist architect, as well as brother of Domenico Fontana, and uncle of architect Carlo Maderno.[1]
Life
editFontana began his career as an architect as an assistant to Giacomo della Porta, implementing designs by Michelangelo.[2] In 1585 he was commissioned to design the Arch of Pope Sixtus V by Pope Sixtus V, who two years later completely rebuilt the church of San Girolamo dei Croati for the Croatian-speaking community in Rome, to designs by Fontana and Martino Longhi the Elder.[3] In 1596 he undertook some engineering projects, such as the draining of the Rieti Valley which was commissioned by pope Clement VIII.
He built one of the most important rural villas of the Roman Campagna in 1601–1605 for the Aldobrandini family. Castello di Torrenova was originally a medieval farmhouse that Fontana enlarged and embellished with Renaissance details and crenellated walls. Next to the castle, a small late Renaissance church was built dedicated to Saint Clement, the patron saint of the Aldobrandini Pope, Clement VIII. He also worked on the garden of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini's Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati.[4][5]
Fontana was the first great architect-engineer who carved out a role in hydraulics that deals with the leveling of land, the conduct of canals, and the control of the speed of water.[citation needed] He brought water back to Rome by reorganizing and exploiting the hydraulic works of the past.[2] Around 1612, Pope Paul V commissioned Fontana to design the Fontana dell'Acqua Paola on the Janiculum to create a source of clean drinking water for the residents.[6] The form of the fountain served as an inspiration for the later Trevi Fountain.
References
edit- ^ "Giovanni Fontana". The British Museum.
- ^ a b Antonini, Checchino (24 October 2021). "Giovanni Fontana, l'uomo che sapeva condurre l'acqua". tvsvizzera.it. Italy. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
- ^ "San Girolamo dei Croati", Churches of Rome
- ^ Attlee, Helena (2006). Italian Gardens - A Cultural History, London: Frances Lincoln. p. 92 ISBN 9780711233928
- ^ Wass, Stephen. Seventeenth-century Water Gardens and the Birth of Modern Scientific thought in Oxford, Windgather Press, 2022, p. 31 ISBN 9781914427183
- ^ D'Onofrio, Cesare (1962). Le Fontane di Roma, con documenti e disegni inediti (in Italian) (2nd ed.). Rome.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)