SANGALLO, Antonio da, the Elder
(b. ca. 1455, Firenze, d. 1534, Firenze)

General view

1518-34
Photo
Madonna di San Biagio, Montepulciano

In 1518, Antonio da Sangallo the Elder accepted one of the major commissions of the period, the pilgrimage church of the Madonna di San Biagio at Montepulciano. The church was built to commemorate a miracle that took place on one of the slopes surrounding the city, and thus Antonio had a site in the midst of a magnificent landscape with no preexisting constructions.

Antonio's most important work is the pilgrimage church of the Madonna di San Biagio (begun 1518). The dome was completed in 1543, the east tower in 1564, and the west tower (not completed) was added in 1574. The lantern and the upper floor of the tower were designed in 1543 by Baccio d'Agnolo.

Antonio's numerous drawings of the project (Florence, Uffizi) are evidence of a careful process of planning. Taking the model of his brother's Santa Maria delle Carceri, Prato, as a starting-point, he created a vast centralized building. The plan is a Greek cross, without aisles. A square block projects above the crossing to form a base for the drum, pilastered inside and out, which supports a hemispherical dome. The arms of the cross are barrel-vaulted, and the four supporting arches at the crossing spring from a jutting entablature borne on ensembles of deeply modelled Doric pilasters and engaged columns on a low plinth, which project well forward into the crossing space.

The church is designed into its landscape setting and, while enhancing the significance of its site, defers to the ambient buildings. The church, on which he worked from 1518 until his death in 1534, was the most ambitious church building of the period with the exception of St. Peter's in Rome.

View the ground plan and section of the church.