Sculptor architect and engineer
Florence 1500-1558

His work unites the influence of Michelangelo with a lively pictorial taste that came from Sansovino. He worked as a sculptor in Rome, Loreto and Bologna (the minor doorways of San Petronio, 1525-27), carrying out various reliefs.

As an architect he is famous both for his imaginative scenographic effects (like the one created for Charles V's entrance into Florence in 1536), as well as for his elegant and ingenious landscaped gardens, with their flights of steps, grottos and fountains (Boboli, the Medici villas of Petraia and Castello), where he also revealed his unexpected skill as a hydraulic engineer. He can be considered the father of the Italian formal garden.