75 - Italian School,

Italian School, 16th/17th century- An architectural study; brown ink and wash on laid paper, inscribed 'Vignola' (lower left) and 'Profilo del oro[...]' (lower right), inscribed 'Alfonso' (to the verso), 27.8 x 12.6 cm. Provenance: Clarendon Gallery Ltd., London. Private Collection, UK. Note: The present drawing bears an old inscription that reads 'Vignola', which refers to the Italian Mannerist architect and Jacopo Barozzi, known as Il Vignola (1507-1573). He was born in Vignola, in the province of Modena, but trained in Bologna, where he learnt painting, drawing, and perspective. Interested in architecture from these early training years, he completed his studies in the Vitrubian Academy in Rome. There he met Francesco Primaticcio (1504-1570), and became his assistant, working with him in Rome and Fontainbleu serving François I. Back in Rome, he received his most important commissions, which would determine the rest of his career: he became, after Michelangelo's death, head architect of the ongoing St Peter's Basilica project, he worked for Pope Giulio III on Villa Giulia and Sant'Andrea (known in fact as 'del Vignola'), and became architect to the Farnese family. For the Farnese family, he built the famous Villa Farnese in Caprarola and the monumental Palazzo Farnese in Piacenza. Il Vignola is also one of the most important and renowned architectural treaty writers: the Regola delli cinque ordini d'architettura was published in 1562 and had an immense impact at the time and later. The other inscription visible in the drawing, at lower right, 'Profilo del oro[...]', is incomplete, as the sheet has been cut. The last and truncated word probably refers to 'orologio', indicating that the present architectural study could be a profile or side view of the clock or belltower of a church or civil building.