Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work!
Baldassarre Peruzzi, (born Jan. 15, 1481, Anciano, Republic of Siena [Italy]—died Jan. 6, 1536, Rome), Sienese architect and painter, one of the earliest artists to attempt illusionist architectural painting (quadratura), the extension of real architecture into imaginary space.
Peruzzi was a contemporary of Raphael and Donato Bramante. He began his career as a painter of frescoes in the Cappella San Giovanni in Siena’s cathedral. His first architectural work was the Villa Farnesina in Rome (1509–21), and he also assisted in the fresco decoration of this palace. On Raphael’s death, in 1520, Peruzzi was appointed one of the architects for St. Peter’s in Rome.
Among the many edifices attributed to Peruzzi, the most significant is probably the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne (begun 1532) in Rome. To meet the challenge of an unusual site, Peruzzi curved the facade to match the road, organizing the design of the structure for its site rather than according to prevailing principles of central focus and vertical linkages between floors. The atrium was designed with reference to ancient Roman houses, as a reminder of the family’s long Roman heritage. Once a year, on March 16, the palace is open to the public as a commemoration of a miracle performed on that date in 1583 by the priest who became Saint Philip Neri.
Learn More in these related Britannica articles:
Western architecture: High Renaissance in Italy (1495–1520)…Farnesina (1509–11) at Rome by Baldassarre Peruzzi from Siena. Designed for the fabulously wealthy Sienese banker Agostino Chigi, the villa was the scene of numerous elaborate banquets for the pope and cardinals. A suburban villa, the Farnesina was planned in relation to the gardens around it with two small wings…
Rome: Renaissance palacesMannerist architecture is typified by Baldassarre Peruzzi’s Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne (c. 1535), the name of which comes from a colonnaded palace on the site destroyed in the 1527 sack. It disregards all Renaissance canons, with its brooding entry and heavy cornice below a slightly bowed and airy facade punched…
Sebastiano Serlio…where he studied architecture under Baldassarre Peruzzi, one of the initiators of the Mannerist style of architecture. He traveled to Venice about 1527 and remained there until 1540, when King Francis I of France employed him as a consultant in the building of the palace of Fontainebleau. Only two extant…