Marchionni was born in
Rome.
His early career was fostered by his lifelong friend
Alessandro Cardinal Albani, a great collector of antiquities. His mature style exhibits a richly-detailed idiomatic repertory on the cusp of
Late Baroque and
Neoclassicism that may be compared with the similar style by his Italian contemporaries
Alessandro Galilei, Ferdinando Fuga or
Vanvitelli, or indeed with their French contemporary,
Ange-Jacques Gabriel, who designed the (
Petit Trianon)
Marchionni's earliest training was as a sculptor. He studied architecture at Rome's
Accademia di San Luca, as pupil of
Filippo Barigioni, who favored the elaborated style of
Borromini. In 1728 Marchionni had come to Albani's attention after winning first prize in the Academy's
Concorso Clementino. Marchionni's Borromini-influenced style is identifiable in Marchionni's early work (1728) for Cardinal Albani's villa at
Anzio and at the papal retreat of
Castel Gandolfo.
Marchionni helped restore and rebuild the choir at
San Giovanni in Laterano along with
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, who is best known for his etchings of Roman ruins. Piranesi's picturesque approach to Roman antiquity likely influenced Marchionni's style. However, Marchionni's mature work, such as the
Villa Albani (1746-63) expresses the courtly decorative classicism of his patron's circle, which included the neoclassicist
Winckelmann, curator of Albani's antiquities. After Nicola Salvi's death in 1751, Marchionni help design the Villa's garden façade (
illustration, right) is without central emphasis or end pavilions, a single sequence of bays defined by an order of
Corinthian pilasters standing on rusticated pilasters of an arcade with
arch-head openings of "Palladian" form. The whole façade is surmounted by a running balustrade that emphasizes its linearity. The balustrades,
herms and stone vases of the Gardens must be from designs of Marchionni (Gatta).
Marchionni was appointed papal architect and overseer of works at
St Peter's Basilica by
Pope Benedict XIV. In 1766, the pope commissioned Marchionni to rebuild the entrance façade of the
Museo Profano, the papal collection of antiquities originally displayed by
Bramante in the
Braccia Nuova of the Vatican, along one side of the
Cortile del Belvedere.
Two commissions from
Pope Pius VI constituted Marchionni's last official Roman projects. One was the new
sacristy for St Peter's (1776-84), which had been envisaged by the preceding pontiff, who demolished the mausoleum dedicated to the
Madonna of the Fevers that stood on its site. The project was preceded by a public competition.
Giovanni Domenico Porta's commemorative canvas from 1776 shows Pope Pius presenting two large sheets depicting a plan and elevation, which are open upon a draped table. However, the plans in the painting are identified from a detailed contemporary description as those submitted by
Giuseppe Subleyras, whereas in the engraving by
Camillo Tinti (1780), Marchionni's plans has been substituted, and the half-built sacristy, complete to the first floor, appears in the background view . The imposing Sacristy, an independent building as large as a church, is sited in the angle of the left transept. It consists of the octagonal
Sagrestia Comune, the Sacristy of the Canons, and the
Sala of the Chapter. It is connected to the basilica by raised galleries in which Marchionni inserted fragments of Roman
bas reliefs .
Marchionni also designed church furnishings, such as the high altar and rich tabernacle of
Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli (1787). Cardinal Albani commissioned from Marchionni the funerary monument (1737-39) located in
Santa Maria sopra Minerva, with sculpture by his frequent collaborator
Pietro Bracci, to honor
Pope Benedict XIII. Marchionni's contribution was limited to a pictorial basrelief on the sarcophagus, and it may be questioned how much of the Roman sculpture attributed to his design was by his hand: statuary (1741) for the façade of
Santa Maria Maggiore; Benedict XIV (1743) for
Santa Croce in Gerusalemme; St Ignatius Loyola (1748) for S Apollinare; and patrons' busts (ca. 1745) for the
Collegio di Propaganda Fide. Outside Rome is credited with reliefs depicting scenes from the
Life of the Virgin (1747) for the chapel of St John the Baptist, Sao Roch, Lisbon, and for the chapel of the
Madonna del Voto (1748) in the
Duomo of Siena and the funerary monument (1747) of Cardinal Giacomo Millo in
San Crisogono in Rome.
Outside Rome, Cardinal Albani commissioned a façade for the collegiate church at
Nettuno (1734). He received papal commissions for the churches of San Domenico in
Ancona (from 1763) and
Santa Maddalena de Cassinessi in
Messina (from 1765). As an engineer, he was responsible for work in the port of
Ancona overseen by
Luigi Vanvitelli.
Throughout his career his scenographic talents were called upon for the temporary decorations required for public events, which are documented in preparatory drawings or presentation drawings, some of which, such as a canonization in
Santa Maria sopra Minerva in 1746, have only been recognized as Marchionni's in recent years Similar drawings by Marchionni are at the
Cooper-Hewitt, New York.
Not all of Marchionni's drawings are architectural designs. Two albums of his drawings were acquired by the
Louvre
The developing
Neoclassicism soon dismissed Marchionni's conservative classicised
Baroque style. While
Winckelmann had declared the Villa Albani "the most beautiful building of our time", in a famous letter from Francesco Milizia to the Venetian connoisseur
Zulian Milizia dismissed "Marchionnisti", "
Michelangiolisti", "
Berniniani" and "
Borrominiani" as reactionary obscurantists who execrated the young
Antonio Canova's fully classical monument to
Pope Clement XIV of 1787. Marchioni became
principe or director of the Accademia di San Luca starting from 1775.
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