Peruzzi, Baldassare

Peruzzi, Baldassare

(bäldäs-sä`rā pāro͞ot`tsē), 1481–1536, Italian architect and painter of the High Renaissance and mannerist periods. His outstanding architectural works are the Villa Farnesina (c.1505–c.1511) and the Palazzo Massimi (c.1535) in Rome. He also did architectural and painting projects for the Vatican and succeeded Raphael in 1520 as architect of St. Peter's. In painting, his use of perspective illusionism and classical figures may be seen at the Villa Farnesina, while a turn toward mannerist composition and spatial arrangement is visible in Presentation of the Virgin (c.1518; Santa Maria della Pace, Rome). In both architecture and painting Peruzzi adapted forms derived from ancient art to his own elegant and sophisticated style.

Bibliography

See study by R. N. Adams (1977); biography by W. W. Kent (1925).

Peruzzi, Baldassare

(1481–1536)High Renaissance and Mannerist Italian architect; designed the Villa Farnesina, Rome (1505). Inside are brilliant frescoes by Raphael, Peruzzi, and others.

Peruzzi, Baldassare

 

Baptized Mar. 7, 1481, in Siena; died Jan. 6, 1536, in Rome. Italian architect and painter.

Peruzzi worked with Bramante and Raphael. After Raphael’s death, he supervised the construction of St. Peter’s Church in Rome, adhering basically to Bramante’s centralized plan. Peruzzi combined High Renaissance and early mannerist influences. Whereas his early buildings, such as the Villa Farnesina in Rome (1509-11), are marked by a lyricism and lightness of form, his later Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne in Rome (1536) is distinguished by sharp contrasts between the supporting and supported elements and by a dynamic relationship with the urban surroundings.

Peruzzi’s frescoes, for example, those in the Villa Farnesina (from 1511), are delicately decorative and reflect a love of illu-sionistic effects. His settings for spectacles, including those on fantastic, fairy-tale themes (L. Ariosto’s I Suppositi, 1519), greatly influenced the use of perspective in set design.

REFERENCES

Kent, W. W. The Life and Works of Baldassare Peruzzi. New York [1925].
Frommel, C. L. Baldassare Peruzzi als Maler und Zeichner, vols. 1-3. Vienna-Munich, 1967-68.