Giuliano da Sangallo
b. Florence, c.1443;
d. Florence, 1516. I

Giuliano da Sangallo was somewhat conservative designer at the opening of the High Renaissance period. Born into the Florentine Sangallo clan of fine craftsmen in wood specializing in inlay, picture frames and model-building, Giuliano (family name Giamberti) went to Rome in the 1460s. There he became involved in the papal plans for modernizing the city. While still primarily a sculp?tor, Giuliano took the opportunity of studying and drawing the major remains of the imperial Roman buildings, especial?ly the great vaulted baths (thermae). Back in Florence (c.1470) he set up as an architect. His Roman studies showed in the villa commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent at Poggio a Caiano. Giuliano also designed the Greek-cross church of Santa Maria delle Carceri at Prato, where the all-over marble cladding depicted, rather than embodied, Roman details. Further visits to Rome (1503, 1513) disappointed his hopes of papal commissions, and showed him how far architecture had moved since his friends Bramante, Michelangelo and Raphael started working in the city. In 1515 Giuliano da Sangallo entered the Florentine competition for the facade of S. Lorenzo with designs that impressed Michelangelo. For some 18 months before his death, Giuliano held the mastership of the works at St Peter’s, Rome, jointly with Bramante at first, and then with Raphael.

List of major buildings / works:
Villa del Poggio a Caiano, 1480-85.
Santa Maria delle Careen, Prato, 1485.
Palazzo Gondi, Florence, 1490-94.

Bibliography:
G. Marchini, Giuliano da Sangallo, Florence, 1943.