Giovanni Battista Montano

Giovanni Battista Montano (1534–1621) was an Italian architect, designer and engraver of primary importance as a recorder of Antique Roman architectural remains.

Montano was born in Milan and trained primarily as a sculptor and a wood carver. In particular he has done two great carved works in the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano and the Church of Santa Maria di Loreto. In the early 1570s, Montano relocated to Rome, where he intensely studied the city’s antique monuments and ruins.

Montano was a member of the Accademia di San Luca, and in 1602 he was commissioned by the Carpenters' guild to oversee the completion of the Church of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami, the construction of which had already begun in 1597. Montano designed the façade of the church, but his death in 1621 meant that the work had to be continued by his pupil Giovanni Battista Soria. Numerous wooden furnishings inside the church confirm the craftsmanship of Montano and his workshop.

Although Montano carried out several sculptural and architectural projects during his time in Rome, his reputation is primarily due to his work as a designer and researcher of ancient architecture. By drawing from the ancient ruins, Montano intended to reconstruct the original appearance of Rome, creating fantastic designs unrelated to the classical sixteenth-century buildings of Rome. While not famous during his lifetime, Montano’s drawings of ancient architecture became widely circulated when they were made into engraving by his pupil G. B. Soria and published in 1624 as Scielta di varii tempietti antichi (Selection of Various Antique Temples). His other works include:

Montano's work influenced some of the most important Baroque artists of Rome, including Francesco Borromini, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Pietro da Cortona. His influence can be seen in Cortona's Santi Luca e Martina (1634–69) and in the façade of Bernini's Sant'Andrea al Quirinale (1658–70).

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