Quick Facts
Biography
Giacomo della Porta (c. 1533 – 1602) was an Italian architect and sculptor, who worked on many important buildings in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica. He was born at Porlezza, Lombardy and died in Rome.
Biography
Della Porta was influenced by and collaborated with Michelangelo, and Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, his teacher of architecture. After 1563 he carried out Michelangelo's plans for the rebuilding of the Campidoglio or Capitoline Hill's open spaces where he completed the façade and steps of Palazzo Senatorio, and the Cordonata capitolina or the ramped steps up to the Piazza del Campidoglio.
After the death of Vignola in 1573, he continued the construction of Il Gesù, the mother church of the Jesuit order, and in 1584 modified its façade after his own designs.
From 1573 he was in charge of the ongoing construction of St. Peter's Basilica, and later, in collaboration with Domenico Fontana, completed Michelangelo's dome between 1588-1590.
Giacomo della Porta completed a number of Rome's fountains from the 16th century; these included the fountains in the Piazza del Popolo, the Fountain of Neptune, Rome and La Fontana del Moro in the Piazza Navona.
Selected works
- Oratorio del SS. Crocifisso (1562-1568)
- Chiesa del Gesù (1571-1575)
- Fountains at the Palazzo Borghese (1573)
- Fountains in Piazza Colonna (1574)
- Small fountains at Piazza Navona (1574)
- One fountain at the Piazza della Rotonda
- Palazzo Senatorio at the Capitol Hill (1573-1602)
- Palazzo della Sapienza (1578-1602)
- Palazzo Capizucchi (1580)
- Santa Maria dei Monti (1580)
- Sant'Atanasio dei Greci (1581)
- Façade of San Luigi dei Francesi (1589)
- Fontana delle Tartarughe (1584)
- Santa Maria Scala Coeli
- Palazzo Marescotti (1585)
- Palazzo Serlupi (1585)
- SS. Trinità de' Monti (1586)
- Fontana di Piazza alli Monti (1589)
- Cupola of St. Peter's Basilica (1588–90)
- Fountains at the Piazza di Santa Maria in Campitelli (1589)
- Fountains opposite SS. Venanzio e Ansovino (1589)
- Fontana della Terrina (1590)
- Sculpture "Christ delivering the keys of Heaven to St. Peter" (1594), altar of the St. Peter chapel, church Santa Pudenziana
- Palazzo Fani (1598)
- San Paolo alle Tre Fontane (1599)
- San Nicolò in Carcere (1599)
- Palazzo Albertoni Spinola (1600)
- Villa Aldobrandini (1600–02) in Frascati
- Cappella Aldobrandini (1600–02) in Santa Maria sopra Minerva