| Summary: | Between 1513 and 1529, Giovanni IV de’ Cappellani, Bishop of Bovino, built Palazzo dei Tufi in Lauro. The name comes from tufa stone ashlars covering the façade. Indeed, the main wall masonry is made up, at the base, of stones shaped like trunks of pyramids and, on the piano nobile, of diamond shaped stones like pointed pyramids. In Italian and European Renaissance architecture, there are many buildings like these, the so-called diamond palaces. The two most famous are the Roberto Sanseverino Palace in Naples, built in 1470, and the Sigismondo d’Este in Ferrara, built in 1493. In Italy, from north to south, and abroad (France, Spain, Portugal and Russia) we can find many buildings like these whose peculiarity is the masonry of the façade, but there are indeed many differences in the decorative style.
The following paper is a comparison between the façade of the Palazzo dei Tufi and the drawing by Giuliano da Sangallo of the Porta di Fano (reverse side of sheet number 61 in the Vatican Code Barberini 4424). Similarities can be found not only in the diamond shaped stones but also in the architectural style of the portal (Palazzo dei Tufi), with doors and windows, and in the belt course distinguishing the two floors. In conclusion, while we cannot attribute for sure the design of Palazzo dei Tufi to Giuliano da Sangallo we have indeed enough evidence to believe that Giovanni de’ Capellani was inspired by da Sangallo’s drawing of the Porta di Fano.
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