FRANCESCO DEL BORGO
(b. ca. 1415, Borgo San Sepolcro, d. 1468, Roma)

Palazzo Venezia: Courtyard

begun 1455
Photo
Piazza Venezia, Rome

In 1455, before his election to papacy, the Venetian Cardinal Pietro Barbo. later Pope Paul II, had begun building his cardinal's palace in Rome next to his titular church of San Marco. The palace, possibly designed by Francesco del Borgo, was never completed. The courtyard, with its superimposed arcades and applied half columns, is reminiscent of the Colosseum.