FONTA'NA, DomENico, an eminent entdneer and architect, b. in 1543, at Mili, in the vicinity of lake Como. At the age of 20 he joined his brother, also an architect in Rome, and in a brief period achieved a reputation sufficiently brilliant to attract the notice of the magnificent cardinal Montalto, to whom he was appointed private archi tect. The pomp of this cardinal seems to have given umbrage to pope Gregory XII., who, in consequence, discontinued the cardinal's private pensions, and thus disabled him from completing the splendid works he had intrusted to F.—viz., the Sistina chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore, and an adjoining palace. In this emergency, the spirited architect, out of his own funds, carried on the noble designs of his patron, on the same scale of magnificence in which they were commenced, and for his disinter ested devotion received later ample reward, when the cardinal, under the name of Sixtus V., was galled to the papal chair. F., as papal architect, was employed in a variety of important works, amongst which stands conspicuously the wonderful removal and re-erection of the Egyptian obelisk, to be seen now: in the piazza of St.
Peter's. He afterwards erected several other obelisks, and was intrusted by Sixtus with the construction of the Lateran palace, and of the famous vatican library. The restoration of the columns of Trajan and Antoninus, arid the construction of the aque duct known as the aqua felice, deserve mention amongst the many works of utility executed by Fontana. On the death of his friend and patron, pope Sixtus, F., through the intrigues of invidious enemies, was stripped of his post as papal architect in 1592, but was immediately proffered a similar appointment in the name of the.king of Naples_ During his sojourn in Naples, he executed many imposing designs; the royal palace, and a noble promenade along the bay, being amongst the chief. His conception of a grander harbor was carried into effect by others, his death, in 1607, at Naples, prevent ing his personal superintendence benefiting the undertaking. F.'s son, Giuglio Cesare, heir to his father's great wealth, and some of his genii's, was appointed royal architect on his decease.