(b Rome, 12 Oct 1575; d Milan, ?1630). Italian architect, engineer and bronze-caster. He learnt the principles of design and goldworking from his father, a Venetian goldsmith, then turned to the study of civil and military architecture. He took part in the Spanish campaigns in the southern Netherlands, whence he was ordered back to Rome in 1598 by Pope Clement VIII to work on the elaborate bronze ciborium (completed 1600) for the altar of the Blessed Sacrament in the Pope’s completely renovated transept of S Giovanni in Laterano, Rome. Subsequently, Targone worked in Flanders, Mantua and Cologne as a military engineer but was again recalled to Rome (1607) by Pope Paul V, who sought his expertise in hydraulics, marsh drainage, water supply and military fortifications. For a monthly salary Targone acted as Paul’s adviser, supervising many of his schemes, for example the building of the Aqua Paola (1607–11) to the designs of Domenico Fontana and Carlo Maderno. He was the architect assigned to complete the fortification of Ferrara (1607–9), one of the Pope’s costliest building projects. Targone’s superior knowledge of metalwork was called on when he was assigned the task of refining the model and casting (1611) the intricate bronze framing device surrounding the image of the Virgin and Child on Girolamo Rainaldi’s altar in the Borghese Chapel in S Maria Maggiore, Rome. In 1627 he was in the service of Louis XIII of France as a military engineer at the siege of La Rochelle, but fell into disfavour and left France to settle with his family in Milan. Targone’s reputation was marred by the failure of some of his key military and hydraulic engineering designs, for example his wooden bridge over the Tiber, which was swept away in a flood.

• Targone, Pompeo
  • Borghese: (1) Paul V
  • Rome, §IV, 2: Centre of production: Marble inlay