Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi

Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi (1481-1536), Italian architect and painter, born near Siena, and trained as a painter there and in Rome. In Rome he studied Roman antiquities, particularly architecture, and came under the influence of the painter Raphael and the architect Donato Bramante. He soon achieved distinction with his frescoes in the Church of Santa Maria della Pace. He also designed a palace, now known as the Villa Farnesina (1509-1511), famous for its graceful proportions and the skillful frescoes in the Sala delle Prospettive. Peruzzi was appointed architect of Saint Peter's Basilica by Pope Leo X in 1520. During the sack of Rome in 1527 by the armies of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Peruzzi fled to Siena, where he was made city architect. He returned to Rome in 1532 and began his architectural masterpiece, the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne (1535), notable for its restrained detail and ornament and its bold convex facade.