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(2) Bartolommeo [Bartolomeo] Genga
(b Cesena, 1518; d Malta, July 1558). Architect, son of (1) Girolamo Genga. According to Vasari, he was apprenticed to his father at the age of 18. Around 1538 he was sent from Pesaro to Florence to continue his studies in drawing and painting. While there he came under the influence of Vasari and Bartolomeo Ammanati, two of the leading exponents of Tuscan Mannerism. When he returned to Pesaro three years later, his father decided that he showed more skill in architecture than in painting. Accordingly, Girolamo instructed him in perspective and sent him to Rome to measure antiquities. On his return to the Duchy of Urbino (c. 1545), he became the principal military architect to Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, who took him on one of his missions for the Republic of Venice, to draw fortifications. Vasari specifically refers to the fortress of S Felice, Verona, where work is documented as under way between late 1546 and 1547. Ferdinand I of Austria, King of Bohemia, saw work executed by Genga in Lombardy and tried to engage his services but was unsuccessful. Back in Pesaro, in 1548, Bartolommeo prepared a model for the port, but his project was abandoned, probably for lack of funds. His renown as a military engineer spread quickly. Around 1550, while in Rome with the Duke, he made drawings for the fortification of the Vatican Borgo. Also at this time, the Genoese tried to commission him to work on their defence system, but the Duke refused to give his architect leave of absence.
Part of the Genga family
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