The Palazzo Fantuzzi is a monumental

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

style palace located on Via San Vitale number 23 in central

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

, region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The palace is also known as the ''Palazzo degli Elefanti'' for its sculpted decoration, and it stands near the church of Santi Vitale e Agricola.

History

While attributed by some to

Sebastiano Serlio Sebastiano Serlio (6 September 1475 – c. 1554) was an Italian Mannerist architect, who was part of the Italian team building the Palace of Fontainebleau. Serlio helped canonize the classical orders of architecture in his influential treat ...

Baldassare Peruzzi Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi (7 March 1481 – 6 January 1536) was an Italian architect and painter, born in a small town near Siena (in Ancaiano, ''frazione'' of Sovicille) and died in Rome. He worked for many years with Bramante, Raphael, and la ...

, the palace was designed in 1517 by

Andrea da Formigine Andrea Marchesi da Formigine, also called "Andrea da Formigine" or "Il Formigine" (Formigine, c. 1485–1559) was an Italian architect, sculptor and carver of the Renaissance period, active mainly in Bologna, Italy. Father of Jacopo da Formigine. H ...

. The facade with the

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

columns was commissioned in 1521 by Francesco Fantuzzi; the carved elephants with towers above the corner niches refer to the senatorial family coat of arms. The coat of arms was a pun on the ''ele-fantuzzi'' family. The interior courtyard has a monumental

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

staircase designed in 1680 by Paolo Canali. The statuary at the top of the stairs is by Gabriele Bunelli. The piano nobile has a room painted with

quadratura Illusionistic ceiling painting, which includes the techniques of perspective ''di sotto in sù'' and ''quadratura'', is the tradition in Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo art in which ''trompe-l'œil'', perspective tools such as foreshortening, an ...

(1684) by

Francesco Galli Bibiena Francesco Galli, called Francesco da Bibiena (or da Bibbiena), a member of the theatrical Galli da Bibiena family and younger brother of Ferdinando Galli, was born at Bologna in 1659. He first studied under Lorenzo Pasinelli; but he was afterwar ...

and other rooms were frescoed by

Angelo Michele Colonna Angelo Michele Colonna (21 September 1604 - 1687) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active in Bologna, northern and central Italy and Spain. He is sometimes referred to as Michelangelo Colonna. Biography He was born in Rovenna. As a ...

. Part of the palace is now used for exhibitions.Bologna Today article.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fantuzzi Renaissance architecture in Bologna Baroque architecture in Bologna Fantuzzi