Gottfried Semper

Gottfried Semper
b. Hamburg, 1803;
d. Rome, 1879.
Architect of some of the most successful Neo-Renaissance buildings in 19-Century Europe who also produced a large body of theoretical writings on the origins and nature of architecture which were to have a major impact on the early advocates of Modernist, functional design. Before completing his mathematical studies at Gottingen, [...]

Sebastiano Serlio

Sebastiano Serlio
b. Bologna, 1475;
d. Fontainebleau, 1554.
The first popularizer of architecture in print, author of the first architectural picture books. He went to Rome in 1514 and was a pupil probably of Raphael and certainly of Peruzzi when the latter succeeded the former as associate architect to St Peter’s in 1520. Peruzzi accumulated plans and [...]

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott
b. London, 1880;
d. London, 1960.
English architect who occupied an important position between the wars. Grandson of Sir George Gilbert Scott, Giles became an assistant to Temple Moore, a pupil of his father, George Gilbert Scott Jr. Here he received a thorough grounding in the Gothic Revival tradition, which is apparent in [...]

Antonio da Sangallo The Younger

Antonio da Sangallo The Younger
b. Florence, 1483;
d. Florence, 1546
Builder and engineer more than an imaginative or innovative famous architect, he resisted the “mannerism” with which so many others endeavoured to emulate Michelangelo. This Antonio was nephew to the brothers Giuliano da Sangallo and Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, with Cordiano as his surname within [...]

Michele Sanmichele

Michele Sanmichele (Sanmicheli)
b. Verona, c. 1484;
d. Verona, 1559.
Michele Sanmichele was a prolific, if rather pedestrian, designer, much of whose work for clients in Venice and the mainland (Veneto) was a compromise between Venetian and Tuscan influences, delegated to assistants from his workshop. Descended from a long line of Lombard stone-cutters, Sanmichele went to Rome [...]