LAURETI, Tommaso
(b. ca. 1530, Palermo, d. 1602, Roma)

Biography

Italian painter, designer and engineer. A pupil of Sebastiano del Piombo, he spent his formative years in Bologna in the circle of Ignazio Danti. He was working there between 1563, if not earlier, and 1582, though he was recorded as working in 1579 for Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. He was closely involved in redesigning the Piazza Nettuno in Bologna, providing the designs and the hydraulic engineering for fountains, one of which - the Fountain of Neptune (1566) - was adorned with bronze sculptures by Giambologna, while the Fonte Vecchia (1565) was undertaken by Laureti in collaboration with Giacomo della Porta.