The Architect and Theorist Sebastiano Serlio was an Italian Mannerist architect, painter, writer, designer, and civil engineer. Born in Bologna, he worked in the atelier of Baldassare Peruzzi in Rome and later lived in Venice. His career was significantly shaped by an invitation from François I to France, where he advised on the construction and decoration of the Château of Fontainebleau. While he took several private commissions, the Château d'Ancy-le-Franc is the only one of his works that has survived in a recognizable way. He also designed fortifications as a civil engineer. Architectura…