A BIT IN DEEP: GIACOMO DELLA PORTA

Giacomo della Porta belongs to that tribe Ticinese Lombard, consisting of engineers, architects and stonemasons, who moved to Rome to reach the great Domenico Fontana, who became the architect of Pope Sixtus V, appointed to realize the Sistine plan, that revolutionized the urban structure of Rome.

Were part of this tribe the illustrious Giovanni Fontana, Carlo Maderno, Stefano Maderno, Francesco Castelli "Borromini" and Carlo Fontana, nephew of Domenico.

When Michelangelo died in 1564, he left unfinished the dome of St. Peter and remained such until Sixtus V, in 1587, entrusted Giacomo, with the help of Domenico Fontana to finally complete the dome.
Thanks to the energetic papal defense, Giacomo did not hesitate to modify the design of Michelangelo (hemispherical dome), comforted by Domenico , according to whom the drum would not hold the weight of the hemispherical dome. Giacomo then drew a slender ellipsoid, which led the height of the dome to 28 meters, thus obtaining also the aim of containing the lateral thrusts.

Even at the Campidoglio square Michelangelo did not see the results of his project. Giacomo once again had to build the Senatorial Palace, drawing the double staircase, with at the base the statues of the Tiber and the Nile, coming from the Thermae of Constantine, and in the center the fountain. The extent of  the intervention of Giacomo, in the Palace of the Conservatori, it is not clear, certainly he was responsible for the central window that enlivens the facade, is equally certain that the interior of the building was designed or redesigned by Giacomo, on the basis of needs of the customer.
Fundamental work of Giacomo della Porta is the mother church of the Jesuits: the Jesus, with its constant references between arcs and triangles. This church became the prototype of the Counter-Reformation church and opened the way to the Baroque era.
His inexhaustible creativity gave still prove at St. Athanasius of the Greeks, at the Madonna dei Monti and at the Trinità dei Monti.

Of his activity as the largest designer of Fountains of Rome, we shall give account in the monograph "The Fountains of Rome".

To remember close to Rome, in Frascati, the majestic Aldobrandini Villa.

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