Pietro Facchetti (Mantua 1535-1619 Rome)


Portrait of the architect, Domenico Fontana (1543-1607), three-quarter-length, seated beside a desk with a book in one hand and a pair of dividers in the other, a view of the dome of Saint Peter's, Rome, beyond oil on canvas119.7 x 102.6cm (47 1/8 x 40 3/8in).
|ProvenanceKing Umberto II of Italy (1904-1983), by whom given to the present owner's uncle, Marchese Cesare Alberto Godi di Godio, Minister Plenipotentiary in the Italian diplomatic service, and thence by descent The celebrated Renaissance architect, Domenico Fontana was born at Melide, a village on Lake Lugano which was at that time a joint possession of the Swiss cantons of the old Swiss Confederacy. He went to Rome in 1563, before the death of Michelangelo, to join his elder brother, Giovanni, who was also an architect. Here he won the confidence of Cardinal Montalto, later Pope Sixtus V, who entrusted him in 1584 with the erection of the Cappella del Presepio in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore which is based on a Greek Cross and has been admired for its remarkably well-balanced structure. For the Cardinal he then constructed the Palazzo Montalto near Santa Maria Maggiore. Following Cardinal Montalto's election as Sixtus V, the Pope appointed Fontana Architect of Saint Peter's, bestowing upon him, among other distinctions, the title of Knight of the Golden Spur. He added the lantern to the dome of Saint Peter's and proposed the prolongation of the interior in a well-defined nave. Hence the prominence of the great basilica in the present portrait. In 1586 Fontana erected the 327 tonne obelisk in the Square of Saint Peter's. This feat of engineering took the concerted effort of 900 men, 75 horses and countless pulleys and metres of rope. Fontana himself gave a detailed account of the event in Della transportatione dell'obelisco Vaticano e delle fabriche di Sisto V (Rome, 1590; see figs. 1 and 2). Fontana also used his remarkable engineering skills in order to erect three other ancient obelisks: on the Piazza del Popolo, the Piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore, and the Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano - to universal acclaim at the time and celebrated today as classic elements of Rome's topography. Indeed, without Fontana's numerous contributions Rome would lack much of its striking present day visual identity. Of more architectural importance were the alterations he made to the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, around 1586, where he introduced into the loggia of the north façade an imposing double arcade of wide span and ample sweep, and probably added the two-story portico of the Scala Santa. His secular buildings included the Lateran Palace, also begun in 1586, the monumental, unembellished style of which he repeated in his design for the later part of the Vatican, which contains the present papal residence. The same general style was employed again in the additions to the Quirinal Palace. Fontana furthermore designed the transverse arms separating the courtyards of the Vatican and collaborated with his brother in the design of fountains, for example, the Fontana dell'Acqua Paola and the Fontana di Termini.Facchetti was a Mantuan artist who was long active in Rome under the patronage of Pope Sixtus V. He painted a mural in the Sala Sistina of the Vatican Library which depicts a multiple portrait of Domenico Fontana presenting the plans of the Library to Sixtus V. Fontana's portrait was also painted by Federico Zuccaro, formerly in the collection of Giuseppe Bossi and now in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. We are grateful to Antonio Vannugli, Associate Professor University of Eastern Piedmont, for his assistance in cataloguing this portrait.