Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola was responsible for some of the most important buildings of the Italian Renaissance such as Villa Giulia for Pope Julius II in the centre of Rome, Palazzo Caprarola, the palace of the Farnese near Viterbo; and the Chiesa del Gesù also in the centre of Rome. Yet despite being one of the principal exponents of the Renaissance, he is one of its least known and studied figures. This year however, the town of Vignola in the province of Modena, birthplace of Barozzi, has decided to play homage to one of the greats of the 1500s and his work with a retrospective from 30 March to 7 July.

Painter, set designer, decorator and expert craftsman, Jacopo Barozzi (1507-1573) returns after a long silence; it is necessary to go back to the beginning of the 1900s (conference in 1907) or the early sixties (monograph published in 1960) to find the most recent contributions regarding this contemporary of Palladio. One of the greatest scholars of Barozzi, Christoph Frommel, is one of the curators of the exhibition, the catalogue and amongst the organisers of the study conference on the work of Barozzi as a writer of treatises and his relationship with the Farnese, at Palazzo Farnese in Piacenza from 18 April to 20 April.

From 30 March to 7 July 2002
Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola
Rocca Boncompagni Ludovisi e Palazzo Boncompagni, Vignola (Modena)