Domenico da Cortona called "''Boccador''" (ca 1465 – ca 1549) was an Italian architect, a pupil of

Giuliano da Sangallo Giuliano da Sangallo (c. 1445 – 1516) was an Italian sculptor, architect and military engineer active during the Italian Renaissance. He is known primarily for being the favored architect of Lorenzo de' Medici, his patron. In this role, Giuli ...

. He was brought to France by Charles VIII and remained in the service of

François I Francis I (; ; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed and father-in-law Louis& ...

. His design for the royal

Château de Chambord The Château de Chambord () in Chambord, Centre-Val de Loire, France, is one of the most recognisable châteaux in the world because of its very distinctive French Renaissance architecture, which blends traditional French medieval forms with ...

, represented in a wooden model, survived into the seventeenth century but responsibility for the design is also given to

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

, who was at the royal court at

Amboise Amboise (; ) is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. Today a small market town, it was once home to the French royal court. Geography Amboise lies on the banks of the river Loire, east of Tours. It is also about awa ...

at the same time, and the actual construction, during which much was improvised, was under the on-site supervision of Pierre Nepveu. Domenico da Cortona was domiciled at Blois. He was at Amboise, responsible for design planning in festivities marking the birth of the dauphin in April 1518. He also supervised military engineering works at the châteaux of

Tournai Tournai ( , ; ; ; , sometimes Anglicisation (linguistics), anglicised in older sources as "Tournay") is a city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, Province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies by ...

and

Ardres Ardres (; ; ) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. Geography Ardres is located 10.1 mi by rail (station is at Pont-d'Ardres, a few kilometers from Ardres) S.S.E. of Calais, with which it is also connected by a ...

. Domenico is sometimes credited with designing the

Église Saint-Eustache The Church of St. Eustache, Paris (, ), is a church in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The present building was built between 1532 and 1633. Situated near the site of Paris' medieval marketplace (Les Halles) and rue Montorgueil, Saint-Eustach ...

in Paris, although other architects have also been suggested.Andrew Ayers, ''The Architecture of Paris'', Stuttgart: Axel Menges, 2004, , p. 52. Ayers says the architect of Saint-Eustache is unknown, but mentions Jean Delamarre and Pierre Le Mercier as likely candidates. He does not mention Domenico da Cortona. The Hôtel de Ville of Paris, destroyed during the Commune, 24 May 1871, bore an inscription ending ''Domenico Cortonensi architectante''. The standard monograph is P. Lesueur, ''Dominique de Cortone dit Boccador'' (Paris) 1928.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cortona, Domenico da 15th-century Italian architects 16th-century Italian architects 1460s births 1540s deaths