Biography

Italian architect and theorist. He was the son of Bartolomeo Serlio, an artist and architect, active mid- to late 15th century.

Serlio began his career as a painter. After a period of study in Rome, he moved to Venice, where he established his reputation as an architectural adviser. In 1541, Serlio moved to France, where he was appointed consultant for the architecture and decoration of the castle Fontainebleau and for the king's other castles. His only complete buildings were executed in France.

Serlio was the author of the highly influential "L'archittetura," published posthumously in 1584, one of the first architectural treatises in a modern language that was printed with illustrations in sixteenth-century Europe.