DUCA, Giacomo del
(b. ca. 1520, Cefalù, d. 1604, Cefalù)

Exterior view

1570s
Photo
Santa Maria di Loreto, Rome

Santa Maria di Loreto is located just across the street from the Trajan's Column, near the Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II. The church was built atop an earlier 15th century chapel, which contained an icon of the Virgin of Loreto, hence the church retained the icon and acquired the title.

The church had been begun by Donato Bramante c. 1507 and continued by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. Built on a restricted site, to a centralized plan, it has a square base and an octagonal drum with a prominent cupola; the small chancel projects at the rear. The lower parts of the church and the principal façade to the south were complete when work restarted under Giacomo del Duca, after 1573. The detailing of the body of the church is restrained, but Giacomo's cupola is a powerful work, with strongly moulded ribs and circular windows in bold, simple frames; it displays his inheritance from Michelangelo in a context too refined for the strength of its forms. The complex lantern, with its pinnacles and colonettes, is too elaborate for the bold expression of the dome. His designs for the flanking façades broadly respect Sangallo's principal elevation.

The photo shows the view from the Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II.