The Palazzo Fantuzzi is a monumental

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

style palace located on Via San Vitale number 23 in central

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

, 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 treatise ...

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 l ...

, the palace was designed in 1517 by Andrea da Formigine. The facade with the

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

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 Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

staircase designed in 1680 by Paolo Canali. The statuary at the top of the stairs is by Gabriele Bunelli. The ball room of the palace was frescoed (1684) 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, and other ...

and

Trompe-l'œil ; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...

scenes by

Francesco Galli Bibiena Francesco Galli, called Francesco da Bibiena, or da Bibbiena (1659-1739) was a member of the theatrical Galli da Bibiena family and younger brother of Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena, Ferdinando Galli. Life and work He was born at Bologna. He first st ...

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. 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