Giovanni Battista Magnani

Who was Giovanni Battista Magnani?

Giovanni Battista Magnani was an Italian architect working entirely in Parma in the first half of the 17th century. He was the most successful of a family of masons and architects that included his father Nicostrato and his son Carlo.

He was trained in the workshop of Giovan Battista Aleotti, with whom he collaborated at the hexagonal church of Santa Maria del Quartiere, and which he completed after Aleotti's death, altering the design. He completed Aleotti's indoor theatre for Ranuccio Farnese, the first theatre with changeable scenery. Among his early works on his own are the monument erected in the Duomo to his friend, the painter Agostino Carracci, the altar to Saint Joseph in the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Steccata and, in fulfilment of a vow, that for the Carmelites in Santa Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi.

In 1622 he was nominated architect to the city, in the service of the Farnese dukes.