Carlo Francesco Bizzaccheri

Carlo Francesco Bizzaccheri (1656-1721^[1][2]) was an Italian architect.^[3] He worked in an early Baroque and Rococo style.^[4] His works, mostly confined to ecclesiastical buildings in the vicinity of Rome, include the fountain in the Piazza dell Bocca della Verità, Rome.^[5]

Biography

Bizzaccheri trained under the architect Carlo Fontana and later became a member of the Pontificia Insigne Accademia di Belle Arti e Letteratura dei Virtuosi al Pantheon.^[6] He is not famed for large and monumental buildings; in fact, he never built a church in its entirety, but was frequently responsible for smaller chapels within greater churches. Such chapels can be found in many large, European Roman Catholic churches. Usually dedicated to one individual saint, they were often patronised by a member of the nobility who had purchased a vault beneath as a family mausoleum. In this way, the decoration and style of each chapel often became quite different from both its neighbouring chapel and the mother church within which it was located - as each patron through their architect displayed their cultivation, piety and wealth. The Baroque style, in which Bizzaccheri often worked, with its generous use of elaborate sculpture, painting and gilding was an accommodating vehicle for those nobles wishing to display their wealth if not their piety.

Works

Works by Bizzoccheri include:

• Chapel of Sant'Anna, Santa Maria in Montesanto, Roma. (1679)
• Convent of Santa Maria Maddalena, Rome (c. 1680)
• Chapel of Sant'Antonio di Padova, San Isidoro, Rome (1681)
• Convent of San Lorenzo in Lucina (1690)
• Memorial to the Principessa Flavia Bonelli, Chapel of the Madonna del Divino Aiuto (1691)
• Chapel of the Monte di Pietà, Rome (1695). The chapel's dome and decoration is considered one of Bizzaccheri's finest works - however the design of the chapel itself was by Giovanni Antonio de'Rossi.^[7]
• Campanile of San Marcello (minor work, late 17th century)
• Convent of San Basilio (minor work, late 17th century)
• Garden walls and gate of the Villa Aldobrandini (1699)^[8]
• Palazzo Aragona Gonzaga (1701) addition of an upper floor.
• Memorial to Cardinal Aldobrandini,Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome

Notes

1. Abbate Carlo Stefano, locked manuscript in the Accademia di S. Luca
2. Unpublished notes by F Noack kept in the Biblioteca Hertziana give his date of birth as 13 April 1655
3. Mallory, p27
4. Mallory, p. 27
5. Scholar Source
6. Mallory
7. Mallory, p33.
8. G B Falda, Il quatro libro del nuovo teatro delli palazzi in prospettiva di Roma moderna, Rome, 1699

Sources

• Carlo Francesco Bizzaccheri (1655-1721), by Nina A. Mallory and John L. Varriano. 1974. Society of Architectural Historians.

External links

• Scholar Source (Carlo Francesco Bizzacheri). Retrieved 29 April 2010.