Spavento, Giorgio
Extract
(fl 1486; d Venice, April 17, 1509).
Italian architect and engineer. He was one of a group of Lombard craftsmen who dominated Venetian architecture in the period preceding the outbreak of the Cambrai Wars in 1509. He apparently came from Lake Como and was trained as a woodworker. He is first recorded in Venice in 1486, when he was appointed architect (proto) to the Procurators of S Marco, a post he held until his death. In this capacity he built the sacristy of S Marco and the adjoining chapel of S Teodoro. The rear façade of the chapel and sacristy on the Rio della Canonica shows a stately simplicity remarkable in Venice at that time, with a grid of panelled pilaster strips and a notable absence of ornament.
Spavento’s technical skills were widely sought after. In 1489 he supplied a model for repairs to the campanile of S Marco. In 1496 he began to work in the Doge’s Palace where the new east wing was already in progress. After Antonio Rizzo fled in disgrace in ...
