Bartolomeo Ammanati (1511-1592) was a Florentine architect and sculptor. Ammanati studied under Baccio Bandinelli and Jacopo Sansovino, and closely imitated the style of Michelangelo. He was more distinguished in architecture than in sculpture. He designed many buildings in Rome, which included work at the Villa Giulia complex, also at Lucca and Florence, where his work at the Pitti Palace is one of his most celebrated achievements. He was also employed in 1569 to build the beautiful bridge over the Arno, known as Ponte della Trinità--one of his celebrated works. The three arches are elliptic, and though very light and elegant, have resisted the fury of the river, which has swept away several other bridges at different times. Another of his most important works was the fountain for the Piazza della Signoria. In 1550 Ammanati married Laura Battiferri,
an elegant poet and an accomplished woman. Later in his life he had a religious crisis which resulted in condemning of his own works depicting nudity, and he left all he had to Jesuits.
