SPECCHI Alessandro

(Rome 1668 – 1729)

Roman architect and engraver, first a pupil and then collaborator of Carlo Fontana, an illustrious architect and sculptor of the second half of the 17th century.
His architectural works, especially in the early stages of his production, were affected by the lesson of Borromini.
Alessandro Specchi planned the urban arrangement of the Porto di Ripetta with a picturesque staircase and the Palazzo della Dogana (now destroyed), the construction of Palazzo Pichini in Piazza Farnese, and that of Palazzo De Carolis along the Via del Corso, the fountain De Carolis in Frosinone and the main altar of the Pantheon.
In 1711 he was accepted in the Accademia di San Luca and in 1723 he took part in the construction of the monumental staircase of Piazza di Spagna. For the quality of his work, Alessandro Specchi is one of the greatest exponents of architecture in Rome with Carlo Francesco Fontana during the period between the 17th and 18th centuries.
Without any doubt, he must be considered as an essential link in that chain of development which, in the cultural maturation of the Roman environment, led to the affirmation of the so-called “baroque classicism” around 1730. His activity as an architect was suddenly interrupted in 1725 following the collapse of the Portico of the church of San Paolo Fuori Le Mura he had built.
As an engraver, his notoriety is mainly due to the numerous etchings depicting Roman churches and palaces  of the 17th century. His are also the engravings of the monumental work of the Vatican Temple by his teacher Carlo Fontana and the 52 plates engraved for the IV book of the New Theater of the Palaces in perspective of modern Rome (1699), in continuation of the three previous volumes engraved by Giovanni Battista Falda.