Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola

Born in October 1507, Giacomo Barozzi took his name from Vignola, the town that sent him into the world. He rose through 16th-century Italy as Mannerism replaced the High Renaissance, becoming the architect Rome leaned on most. His Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the Church of the Gesù gave the era its clearest forms — the latter especially, a Jesuit commission that redefined church design. Alongside Serlio and Palladio, he carried the Italian Renaissance style across Western Europe, but it was his buildings that became the grammar others learned to speak. He died in July 1573, leaving Rome reb…