# Exterior view [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [PERUZZI, Baldassare]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Photo ## Commentary Peruzzi's final work, begun in 1532 and completed after his death, was the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne in Rome. The intention was to provide a home for Pietro Massimo \(d. 1544\) on a key location along the Via Papalis \(now Corso Vittorio Emanuele\). The site alone was problematic, for at that point the road curves sharply on its route between the Vatican and the Capitoline Hill, but Peruzzi also had to accommodate the distinction between the brothers' sites. His solution, evolved slowly and visible in a number of drawings, was to bend the façade itself, taking account not only of the road's curve but also of the axial lane that meets it. From the lane it can be read as a symmetrical unit in which pilaster piers are paired across the open front with columns. From the main street, however, the palazzo is a sequential discovery leading to the raised loggia above street level. There is no centralizing focus over the main portal as in most Renaissance palaces and no vertical linkage to the floors above. Peruzzi thus abandoned the traditional organizing system favoured by Renaissance architects for one in which the elements of the façade establish their own natural relationship. Above, for example, Peruzzi designed small rectangular windows surrounded by delicate curved frames. The wall surface itself has a lightly textured rustication. View the <a href="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/support/plans/p/peruzzi/colonna.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=400,height=600'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return false">ground plan</a> of Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne, Rome. ## Related artworks - [Apollo and the Muses]() - [Ceiling decoration]() - [Ceiling decoration \(Volta Dorata\)]() - [Decoration of the Sala delle Prospettive]() - [Exterior view]() - [Interior view]() - [Perseus and Pegasus]() - [Perspective view of the Sala delle Prospettive]() - [Perspective view of the Sala delle Prospettive]() - [Perspective view of the Sala delle Prospettive]() - [Tomb of Pope Hadrian VI]() - [Tomb of Pope Hadrian VI]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()