FONTANA

fontana, domenico (1543-1607), italian architect and mechanician, was born at mili, a village on the lake of como, in 1543. after a good training in mathematics, he went in 1563 to join his elder brother, then studying architecture at rome. he made rapid progress, and was taken into the service of cardinal montalto, for whom he erected a chapel in the church of santa maria maggiore and the villa negroni. when the cardinal's pension was stopped by the pope, gregory xiii., fontana volunteered to complete the works in hand at his own expense. the cardinal being soon after elected pope, under the name of sixtus v., he immediately appointed fontana his chief architect. amongst the works executed by him were the lateran palace, the palace of monte cavallo (the quirinal), the vatican library, &c. but the undertaking which brought fontana the highest repute was the removal of the great egyptian obelisk, which had been brought to rome in the reign of caligula, from the place where it lay in the circus of the vatican. its erection in front of st peter's he accomplished in 1586. after the death of sixtus