He began training in his native town under a minor painter named
Pompeo Cesura, but by 1560 he was in Rome, and collaborated on the decoration of the Cappella dell'Ascensione in the church of
Santo Spirito in Sassia. He also painted an altarpiece of the
Glory of Christ (c. 1570), in which he shows the influence of
Mannerist painters such as
Sebastiano del Piombo and
Pellegrino Tibaldi. Valeriano's work as an architect had greater impact than as a painter. In 1573, Valeriano travels to Spain, and by the next year he had joined the Jesuits. For this order, he helped design the church of
Villagarcía de Campos, and worked on other projects in
Seville,
Granada,
Córdoba,
Málaga, and
Trigueros. By way of Portugal, he returns to Italy in 1580, and helps design, in collaboration with
Giacomo della Porta, the
Collegio Romano, sometimes attributed to
Bartolomeo Ammanati. In Rome, he collaborates with
Scipione Pulzone and
Gaspare Celio respectively in designing the decoration of the Chapels of Strada (1588) and Passion (c. 1590) in the church of the
Gesù. In 1584, he completed designs for a building of the Collegio Massimo (now University of Naples), and began work on his masterpiece, the church of
Gesù Nuovo. This Jesuit church was built into what had been a fortified family palace in central Naples. Valeriano also designed the posterior part (1589) of the church of Gesù in
Genoa. He also provided plans for the order's
Michaelskirche (1591) in
Munich, though it is unclear how much influence they had in that construction. He also contributed plans for buildings in
Lisbon,
Malta, L'Aquila,
Marseille, and
Palermo (1592). It is impossible for him to have traveled to all these places in such short a span, and likely submitted plans "site unseen", which fits in with the Jesuit vision of itself as an international, homogenizing order for the apostolic spread of a unitary post-
Tridentine Catholic faith. == Bibliography ==