Architect Jacopo Vignola was born on this day in 1507. The leading architect in Rome by midcentury, Vignola is best known for projects executed for the wealthy Farnese family, including his villa built at Caprarola and the mother church of the Jesuit order, Il Gesù, supported by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. Vignola’s simple classicism had a lasting influence on Counter-Reformation architects, as did his treatise on the orders, Regola delli cinque ordini d’architettura, published in in 1562.

Reference: Richard J. Tuttle. “Vignola, Jacopo.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. .

Further reading: Canon of the Five Orders of Architecture by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola

Villa Farnese, façade from arrival piazza, begun 1559. Caprarola, near Viterbo

Il Gesù, 1568-75, plan and interior, Rome

Tags: 16th century, alessandro farnese, architecture, Caprarola, church, church architecture, counter reformation, italian architecture, Italian Renaissance, Italy, jesuit, Renaissance, Rome, Vignola, villa