Girolamo Rainaldi

Girolamo Rainaldi
A self portrait of Girolamo Rainaldi
Born	4 May 1570, Rome
Died	15 July 1655, Rome
Nationality	Italian
Known for	Renaissance architecture

Girolamo Rainaldi (4 May 1570 – 15 July 1655) was an Italian architect who worked mainly in a conservative Mannerist style, often with collaborating architects. He was a successful competitor of Bernini. His son, Carlo Rainaldi, became an even more notable, more fully Baroque architect.

Biography

The son of a painter from Norcia, Rainaldi was born in Rome.

He trained with the architect-engineer

Rainaldi's most influential single design was the façade of the Chiesa di Gesù e Maria; the project began in 1642, and was not completed before Rainaldi's death. In his official capacity Rainaldi also designed the palazzo to house the Jesuits in the Piazza del Gesù, a Mannerist façade without a trace of Baroque in its details. As the favored architect of Cardinal Pamphili, he temporarily eclipsed Bernini when this cardinal became Pope as Innocent X in 1644 and he became Papal architect of Rome in 1644.^[4]

The elder Rainaldi's important projects in Rome the Palazzo Pamphilj in Piazza Navona (c. 1645 – 1650), where he designed the ground plan of Sant'Agnese and laid its foundations beginning in 1652, but was replaced the following year by Francesco Borromini, who erected quite a different façade on Rainaldi's foundations; after Rainaldi's death his son Carlo was called in to replace Borromini.

He also designed the Tombs in

The elder Rainaldi was all but house architect for the

Girolamo Rainaldi is modestly buried next to his father in the Church of Santi Luca e Martina; designed in part by Rainaldi's father, and part by Pietro da Cortona.

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