Martino Longhi the Younger (1602–1660) was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 architect of the Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 period active in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, in a milieu when the most prominent competition for commissions came from no less than Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Gian Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian artist who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sculptor of his age and also a prominent architect...

, Francesco Borromini

Francesco Borromini

Francesco Borromini, byname of Francesco Castelli was an architect from Ticino who, with his contemporaries, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona, was a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture.A keen student of the architecture of Michelangelo and the ruins of...

, Carlo Rainaldi

Carlo Rainaldi

Carlo Rainaldi was an Italian architect of the Baroque period.Born in Rome, Rainaldi was one of the leading architects of 17th century Rome, known for a certain grandeur in his designs. He worked at first with his father, Girolamo Rainaldi, a late Mannerist architect in Rome. After his father's...

 and Pietro da Cortona

Pietro da Cortona

Pietro da Cortona, by the name of Pietro Berrettini, born Pietro Berrettini da Cortona, was the leading Italian Baroque painter of his time and also one of the key architects in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important decorator...

.

He was born in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 to a family of architects. His grandfather Martino Longhi the Elder

Martino Longhi the Elder

Martino Longhi the Elder was an Italian architect, the father of Onorio Longhi and the grandfather of Martino Longhi the Younger.He was born in Viggiù into a family of architects, and initially worked in Germany for the Altemps family, who were relatives of the Milanese Borromeo...

 had completed many buildings in Rome. His father Onorio Longhi

Onorio Longhi

Onorio Longhi was an Italian architect, the father of Martino Longhi the Younger and the son of Martino Longhi the Elder.Born in Viggiù, Lombardy, Longhi began as assistant for his father, and inherited the latter's commission at his death in 1591...

 was also a prominent architect, and Martino inherited the work at San Carlo al Corso

San Carlo al Corso

Sant'Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso is a basilica church in Rome, Italy, facing onto the central part of the Via del Corso. It is dedicated to Saint Ambrose of Milan and Saint Charles Borromeo, also a native of that city...

 upon the death of his father in 1619. The church itself may have been designed by his grandfather. By 1625, Martino publiishes a treatise on architecture. By 1625, he is a member of the Accademia di San Luca

Accademia di San Luca

The Accademia di San Luca, was founded in 1577 as an association of artists in Rome, under the directorship of Federico Zuccari, with the purpose of elevating the work of "artists", which included painters, sculptors and architects, above that of mere craftsmen. Other founders included Girolamo...

. In the 1630s he also began working in the construction of Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi

Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi

The church of Saint Anthony in Campo Marzio, known as Saint Anthony of the Portuguese , is a Baroque roman catholic titular church in Rome, dedicated to Saint Anthony of Lisbon.Established as titulus S...

. In 1644, he designed the façade for San Giovanni Calibita. In 1645, he began construction on the striking vertical façade of Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio. In 1650s, he worked on the reconstruction of the now destroyed San Adriano.

Longhi had no children and he is buried in Viggiù

Viggiù

Viggiù is a comune in the Province of Varese in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 50 km northwest of Milan and about 8 km northeast of Varese, on the border with Switzerland...

, in Lombardy

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...

, where he died. Like some of his contemporary competitors, Longhi seems to have suffered from a lack of sociability.