Domenico Fontana (1543 – June 28, 1607) was a Swiss-born Italian architect of the late Renaissance.
He was born at Melide on the Lake Lugano and died at Naples. He went to Rome before the death of Michelangelo. He won the confidence of Cardinal Montalto, later Pope Sixtus V, who entrusted him in 1584 with the erection of the Cappella del Presepio (Chapel of the Manger) in Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, a powerful domical building over a Greek ...
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Domenico Fontana (1543 – June 28, 1607) was a Swiss-born Italian architect of the late Renaissance.
He was born at Melide on the Lake Lugano and died at Naples. He went to Rome before the death of Michelangelo. He won the confidence of Cardinal Montalto, later Pope Sixtus V, who entrusted him in 1584 with the erection of the Cappella del Presepio (Chapel of the Manger) in Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, a powerful domical building over a Greek cross. It is a marvellously well-balanced structure, notwithstanding the profusion of detail and overloading of rich ornamentation, which in no way interferes with the main architectural scheme. It is crowned by a dome in the early style of S. Mario at Montepulciano.
For the same patron, he constructed the Palazzo Montalto near Santa Maria Maggiore, with its skilful distribution of masses and tied decorative scheme of reliefs and festoons, impressive because of the dexterity with which the artist adapted the plan to the site at his disposal....
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