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 Trinitą--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.
Fountain of Neptune is situated on the Piazza della Signoria (Signoria square), in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, in Florence, Italy.
This work by BartolomeoAmmannati (1563-1565) and some assistants, such as Giambologna, was commissioned on the occasion of the wedding of Francesco I de' Medici with grand duchess Johanna of Austria in 1565.
The assignment had first been given to Baccio Bandinelli, who designed the model but he died before he could start working on the block of Apuan marble.
BartolomeoAmmannati was the great architect to make the modifications most relevant, like those to close the lateral doors with "kneeling" windows and to create the monumental courtyard that everyday fills with thousands of visitors.
Ammannati transformed two side doors into ground-floor windows, lengthened the facade, and created the most beautiful of Renaissance courtyards, the Cortile dell' Ammannati, in the interior of the Palazzo.
The architect in 1569 was succeeded to BartolomeoAmmannati, under whom the amphitheater was constructed.