Francesco di Giorgio

(b Siena, bapt 23 Sept 1439; d Siena, bur 29 Nov 1501). Italian architect, engineer, painter, illuminator, sculptor, medallist, theorist and writer. He was the most outstanding artistic personality from Siena in the second half of the 15th century. His activities as a diplomat led to his employment at the courts of Naples, Milan and Urbino, as well as in Siena, and while most of his paintings and miniatures date from before 1475, by the 1480s and 1490s he was among the leading architects in Italy. He was particularly renowned for his work as a military architect, notably for his involvement in the development of the BASTION, which formed the basis of post-medieval fortifications (see MILITARY ARCHITECTURE & FORTIFICATION,

See the Abbreviations for further details.

Sienese architect, theorist, and engineer. His architectural tracts of 1475–92 and his version of Vitruvius were influential in C16. He proposed a complete theory for Renaissance architecture based on that of Antiquity, argued for the placing of altars in centralized church-plans, gave a rational explanation of ecclesiastical symbolism, and invented fortifications that were a defence against gunfire. On moving to Urbino (1476) he contributed (possibly the refined loggia) to the design of the Palazzo Ducale (1476–82) and other works. In 1484 he designed Santa Maria della Grazie al Calcinaio, near Cortona (finished 1516), an accomplished harmonious Renaissance building; (probably) the Palazzo degli Anziani, Ancona (completed 1493—destroyed), and the severe Palazzo del Comune, Iesi (completed 1503). Many other buildings have been attributed to him, including Santo Spirito, Siena (1498–1509), which has a barrel-vault penetrated by lunettes, but his architectural career is not well documented. Vasari held him in high regard.

Bibliography

• Croix (1972)
• Frampton &Turner(1993)
• Giorgio di Martini (1967)
• Heydenreich (1996)
• Papini (1946)
• Rotondi (1950–1, 1970)
• van Vynckt (ed.) (1993)
• Weller (1943)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

Extract from a notebook of Francesco Giorgio Martini - 1470

Chess game (detail)

La Rocca de San Leo

Francesco di Giorgio Martini (baptised 23 September 1439 – 1502) was an Italian painter of the Sienese School, a sculptor, an architect and theorist, and a military engineer who built almost seventy fortifications for the Duke of Urbino.

Born in Siena, he apprenticed as a painter with Vecchietta. In panels painted for cassoni he departed from the traditional representations of joyful wedding processions in frieze-like formulas to express visions of ideal, symmetrical, vast and all but empty urban spaces rendered in perspective. Francesco di Giorgio is also known for architectural designs and sculptural work for Federico III da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, for whom he built star-shaped fortifications.

He composed an architectural treatise Trattato di architettura, ingegneria e arte militare that he worked on for decades and finished sometime after 1482; it circulated in manuscript.^[1] Its projects were well in advance of completed projects at the time. The third book is preoccupied with the "ideal" city, constrained within star-shaped polygonal geometries reminiscent of the star fort, whose wedge-shaped bastions are said^[2] to have been his innovation.

Francesco di Giorgio finished his career as architect in charge of the works at the Duomo di Siena, where his bronze angels are on the high altar.

Further reading

• Bertrand Gille, 1978. Les Ingénieurs de la Renaissance, Thèse Histoire, Paris, 1960. Seuil, in series Points Sciences) ISBN 2-02-004913-9

External links

• Palladio's Literary Predecessors
• Francesco di Giorgio Works at Artst.org
• Web Gallery of Art Biography on Francesco di Giorgio MartiniHis works appear in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool(England)and the Lowe Art Museum (Coral Gables,Florida).

Notes

1. ^ Center for Palladian Studies in America, Inc., Palladio's Literary Predecessors The treatise was not printed until 1841, in Turin.
2. ^ Siegfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture, 4th ed. 1962:43, fig. 6.

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