Michele Sanmicheli, sometimes transcribed as Sammicheli, Sanmichele or Sammichele (Verona, 1484There is no certainty about the date of his birth. Vasari reports 1484, while architectural historian Giulio Sancassani, through a study of his father's will, concluded that the date of birth had to be some time after 1486 and no later than 1488. In , and . - Verona, 1559), was an Italian architect and urban planner who was a citizen of the Republic of Venice.
After staying in Rome to complete his education studying the art of Bramante, Raphael, Sansovino, and Sangallo, he returned to Verona, where he received numerous prestigious commissions throughout his life.
Hired by the Serenissima as a military architect, he designed numerous fortifications in the vast Venetian republic, thus ensuring a great reputation for himself. His works can be found in Venice, Verona, Bergamo, and Brescia, and he worked extensively in Dalmatia, in Zadar and Šibenik, Crete, and Corfu. Due to his sojourns in the latter locations he was probably the only Italian architect of the 16th century to have had the opportunity to see and study Greek architecture, a possible source of inspiration for his use of Doric columns without bases.
A tireless worker, in addition to constructions of a military nature he was also involved in the design of palaces and religious architecture of great value.
Biography
Childhood
Much of the information about Michele Sanmicheli's life is known through his first biographer, Giorgio Vasari, who wrote about the Veronese architect in his famous work Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori, though providing scant information for the entire period of his training between Verona and Rome..
Sanmicheli was born in Verona, at that time part of the Republic of Venice. He learned the basics of his profession, along with his brother Jacopo (who died young) and his cousin Matteo Sanmicheli, from his father Giovanni and his uncle Bartolomeo, both stonemasons in Verona,. originally from Cima, a hamlet of Porlezza on Lake Ceresio, or Lugano... The family workshop was a simple artisan's workshop, albeit in contact with several high-quality ateliers. Probably Michele was also able at a young age to acquire intellectual stimulation from his family's acquaintance with Bernardino and Matteo Mazzola, stonemasons and humanists, with whom they collaborated on the construction of the Loggia del Consiglio..
Toward the end of 1505 the young Sanmicheli was already orphaned of both parents while one brother, Jacopo, was close to death, and another brother, Alessandro, was locked in a convent in Bologna. This situation gave him little reason to stay in his hometown and so, having sold some family properties in Azzano, he decided to move to Rome..
First commissions in Rome and Orvieto
Sanmicheli went to Rome at a young age (in his early twenties),Vasari estimates the move to Rome to have been in the 1500s, but according to newly ascertained information that shifts the date of his birth to a later date, the correct date can be assumed to be around 1505. to work as an assistant to Antonio da Sangallo. In the Urbe, where he was probably able to move because of the support of two of his brothers, who held prominent positions in the congregation of the Canons Regular of St. Anthony, he had the opportunity to study classical sculpture and architecture. In Rome he also frequented the architect and inlayer Fra Giovanni da Verona, who was active at the papal court, and the circle of the Bramanteschi.. He soon won praise, so much so that Vasari wrote that "in a short time he became, not only in Rome, but throughout all the places surrounding it, renowned and famous."
In 1509 he then went to Orvieto,Vasari wrote in this regard, "Because of his fame, the people of Orvieto brought him with honorable stipends to be architect of their highly regarded temple." In . where he stayed for the next two decades. In 1512, a great opportunity presented itself to him: he was offered the role of master builder at the construction site of the Orvieto Cathedral,. a position that allowed him not only to supervise the work of one of the major works of central Italy, but also to be the successor to a dense array of great architects who had previously taken part in the project. This assignment brought him great prestige, and the experience he gained from it, especially in the management of the workforce, would prove most useful when, in the future, he was put in charge of the re-fortification of the Venetian state..
Also in 1512, under the title of "marmoraio," he went to Rieti as a guarantor in a dispute over a payment to a Florentine sculptor, while in 1516 he traveled to Spello for an estimate of the ciborium kept in the collegiate church of Santa Maria Maggiore..
Due to the fame he gained from being master builder at the cathedral, Sanmicheli was able to obtain some important private commissions, as for example, on April 19, 1516, when he was commissioned by the Sienese merchant Girolamo Petrucci in Orvieto for the family chapel in the church of San Domenico, on which he worked until 1524 and which became one of his most important works..
Between 1525 and 1526Perhaps as early as 1521. he worked to prepare, on the commission of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the first design of the Montefiascone Cathedral, an octagonal building surmounted by a dome in the style of Bramante, reminiscent of the one in the church of Santa Maria di Loreto in Rome.. Only the colonnade with entablature remains of this building, due to the fire of 1670 and the subsequent radical renovation by Carlo Fontana. During his time in Montefiascone he also had a love affair of which he did not speak much but which led to the birth of a daughter.
In early 1526 he carried out, at the behest of Clement VII, a survey of the fortifications of the northern borders of the Papal States, which were under threat from Charles III of Bourbon, which was followed by a detailed report signed with Antonio da Sangallo the Younger.The two went as far as Veneto. In From the existing sources it is not immediately clear why the pope turned to Sanmicheli rather than another person for such a delicate assignment;. perhaps it was given to him on the recommendation of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese or, more likely, at the behest of Antonio da Sangallo himself.. This assignment represented a further turning point in his career in that he thus had the opportunity to visit the most advanced military architecture and to associate with the most highly regarded architects and engineers of the time, who greatly influenced him in his way of designing.
Return to Verona and assignment at the Serenissima
After finishing his service for Clement VII Sanmicheli decided to return, in 1527, to Verona: Vasari wrote that the "desire came to Michele after so many years to see again his homeland and his relatives and friends, but much more the fortresses of the Venetians." After spending a few days in his hometown, he went to Treviso and Padua to study their military architecture. Of his stay in the city of Padua, there is a legend that he was placed under arrest on suspicion of espionage activities, given his great interest in defensive structures.No definite information is available, however. In .. On a subsequent stay in Legnago for the renovation of the fortress, he met the captain general of the Venetian Republic, Francesco Maria della Rovere, whose acquaintance, as well as the fame he had now acquired, meant that he was offered the position of military engineer for the Serenissima. Thus, in the same way as Jacopo Sansovino, he became a salaried officer of the Republic: his acclaim among the Venetians and the tragedy represented by the sack of Rome convinced Sanmicheli never to return to Lazio.
His first assignment in this role was in Verona, between 1527 and 1528, where he was called by Giovanni Emo, podestà of the city, to take charge of the restoration of the Ponte Nuovo bridge over the Adige River. In addition, around the end of 1527, the noblewoman Margherita Pellegrini offered him to design a chapel in memory of her son Nicolò at the church of San Bernardino in Verona: to this work the architect applied himself with considerable enthusiasm, producing a work that was much appreciated by the client.. The Pellegrini Chapel was then the subject of subsequent retouches by Bartolomeo Giuliari in 1793. On October 28, 1530, when the private work was completed, he was officially appointed superintendent of the military factories of Verona (a position he would hold until his death). With this role he designed the monumental gates of the city: Porta NuovaOn the wall of Porta Nuova the Serenissima granted him the honor of placing his name next to that of Doge Andrea Gritti and the governors of Verona. In . (1532), Porta San Zeno (1541) and Porta Palio (1547); he also began to transform the fortifications of Verona using the bastion system.He built the Barbarigo (1531), Faler (1535), San Benardino (1535), San Zeno (1542) and, still extant, San Francesco (1546) and Spagna (1547) bastions. In . At the same time (between 1531 and 1532) he was responsible for studying and designing the reorganization of the Visconti Citadel of Verona, in collaboration with his nephew Giangirolamo Sanmicheli, who was his faithful collaborator and successor.
As a result of his work in Verona, Sanmicheli's skills as a military architect became known and appreciated outside the borders of the Republic, and thus it was that Francesco II Sforza, in 1531, obtained permission to have him as a consultant on the strongholds of Vigevano, Pavia, Alessandria, Lodi, and Como for the Lombard duchy. In 1539 Charles V also made a request to the Serenissima, which was, however, rejected, for his services to fortify Antwerp..
His fame as an architect is linked not only to works of a military character but also to civil architecture in the Renaissance style. In 1530 Ludovico di Canossa, a bishop of Bayeux who had returned to Verona during the 1520s, commissioned him to design a town house near Castelvecchio, between Porta Borsari and the Gavi Arch,At that time the Arch of the Gavi was placed along today's Corso Cavour at the height of Castelvecchio and in front of Porta Borsari. Following the dismantling carried out by Napoleonic troops, it was rebuilt in 1932 in its present location next to the castle. and a country villa in Grezzano of Mozzecane. Palazzo Canossa was completed shortly after the bishop's death in 1532; among other things, the architect, precisely through Ludovico, got to know the brothers Giovan Francesco, Antonio and Gregorio Bevilacqua, who entrusted him in the late 1520s with the construction of Palazzo Bevilacqua, which faced the Canossa Palace along what is now Corso Cavour, and the restoration of Bevilacqua Castle in 1532..
In 1531 he began work (which would continue until 1537) on the walls of Orzinuovi, while in the following year he completed studies for the fortifications of Treviso and Brescia, and for the renovation of Piazza Contarena in Udine. The following year he was in Padua for extensive studies leading to the construction of the Cornaro bastion.
In 1533 he was very active in Verona, where he built the portals of the palaces of the Capitanio and Podestà at the behest of the Venetian rectors Dolfin and Giustinian, and renovated his family home; he also went to Pesaro and Senigallia for consultations related to ports.
Fortification of Venice and the eastern borders