Giorgio, Francesco di

Giorgio, Francesco di (Francesco di Giorgio Martini) (fränchās`kō dē jôr`jō), 1439–1502, also called Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Italian engineer, architect, painter, and sculptor, b. Siena. With Renaissance versatility he worked as military architect and engineer, first at Siena (1463–78) and later in the service of Lorenzo de' Medici and the duke of Urbino. He constructed parts of the ducal palace at Urbino and influenced architectural design in the Marches. In Milan he made a model for the dome of the cathedral. As a sculptor, he is remembered for his work in the choir of the Siena Cathedral. His paintings, which show the influence of the Botticelli circle, have great charm. They remain mostly in Siena. His treatise Trattato di architettura civile e militare, written c.1482 and based on Vitruvius is one of the most important documents of Renaissance architectural theory. It was first published in 1841.

Bibliography

See study by A. S. Weller (1943).