Giuliano da San Gallo (Giamberti)
architect, engineer, and woodcarver.
Giuliano was born in Florence; the oldest son of Francesco Giamberti, a woodworker who trained his sons to his own trade. Francione was also his teacher and associate. Milanesi derives the name San Gallo from his residence near the Porta di San Gallo in Florence. In 1465 he was in Rome, and was employed by Paul II (Pope 1464-1471) on the palace of S. Marco, the tribuna of S. Peter's, and the Vatican (Müntz). In 1488 he fortified and defended, unsuccessfully, the city of Castellina against Ferdinand I of Naples. For Lorenzo de' Medici Giuliano designed the octagonal sacristy of S. Spirito in Florence (begun 1489), and the famous villa of Poggio a Cajano (about 1485-1489). His chef-d'œuvre, the church of the Madonna delle Carceri at Prato, was built between 1485 and 1491. December 9, 1507, Giuliano was chosen Capomæstro (chief architect) of the Duomo, Florence. The cloister of S. Maddalena de' Passi, in which he copied an Ionic capital found at Fiesole, was begun in 1479. The Palazzo Gondi (Florence) is ascribed to Giuliano by Vasari. For the Cardinal della Rovere, afterward Julius II, he restored the fortress of Ostia (1484), and built the palace of Savona (1494). On one of the sketches of the Barberini collection is written an account of a journey to France in 1496. Giuliano built the dome of the church at Loreto, Italy (1497-1500), and was employed as civil and military architect in many Italian cities. During the reign of Leo X (Pope 1513—1521), he was associated with Raphael as architect of the Vatican and S. Peter's. July, 1515, he returned to Florence. Several of the designs which he made in competition for the façade of S. Lorenzo in 1516 are still preserved at the Utfizi Gallery. A list of his buildings is published by Milanesi in his Vasari. The San Gallo had a botega (shop) in Florence for wood-carving and sculpture. The wooden crucifix at the Annunziata, and a part of the high altar at the Duomo (Florence), and other works at Perugia and elsewhere, are attributed to Giuliano. Del Badia, in the Fabbriche di Firenze, has shown that between September 19, 1489, and February 6, 1490, Giuliano da San Gallo was paid 115 lire, 10 soldi for the model, still in existence, of the Strozzi Palace (Florence), of which he was undoubtedly the designer, instead of Benedetto da Maiano, as Vasari asserts. There is an album of his sketches in the Barberini Library (Rome). Another collection is in the library at Siena. They contain drawings of monuments in Italy, France, and Greece, which have disappeared.
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