Vignola, Giacomo da

Vignola, Giacomo da (jä`kōmō dä vēnyō`lä), 1507–73, one of the foremost late Renaissance architects in Italy. His real name was Giacomo Barozzi or Barocchio. Appointed (1550) papal architect to Pope Julius III, he spent his later life in Rome, where most of his important works are found. After Michelangelo's death, Vignola succeeded him as architect in charge of the work on St. Peter's. His finest productions are the Villa Caprarola, near Viterbo, for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and the beautiful Villa Giulia for Pope Julius III in Rome. As designer of the interior (1568) of the Church of the Gesù, in Rome, mother church of the Jesuit order, he developed a plan that greatly influenced ecclesiastical architecture. In the Gesù he combined the longitudinal axis of medieval churches with the central domical scheme of the Renaissance. His designs for the facade of the Gesù were rejected in favor of those by Giacomo della Porta. Vignola is universally known for his treatise (1562) on the five orders of architecture. Based upon the work of Vitruvius, it undertook to formulate definite and minute rules for proportioning the classical orders appearing in the buildings of the Romans. This work, which has been in continuous use, has been scrupulously adhered to by many as an almost inviolable authority.