Giovanni Battista Cavagna, also known as Cavagni or Gavagni (c. 1545 in Rome – 1613) was an Italian architect, engineer, and painter mainly in Naples, but also in Rome and Ascoli Piceno, Italy.
Biography
In Naples, he worked in 1572–1577 at the church of San Gregorio Armeno together with Giovanni Vincenzo della Monica.[1] He helped design the Bank in Naples, called the second Monte di Pietà, started in 1539 with goal, according to Sasso, of liberating citizens from the supposed usury of the Jews. By 1597, the building was completed and unified all the banks in the city. In this project, he was aided by Giovanni Giacomo Di Conforto and Giovanni Cola di Franco.
After leaving Naples for Rome, he worked in the studio of Federico Zuccari and performed numerous frescoes. He returned to Naples in 1590 to design several transition edifices from the Renaissance. For example, he helped complete the Muscettola chapel in the church of Santa Maria della Stella, now no longer extant. In 1591, he helped reconstruct the nave and apse of the church of Sant'Anna dei Lombardi. He also succeeded Francesco Grimaldi in the direction of the construction of San Paolo Maggiore.