Palazzo Farnese was initially built as a fortress, as the town and the surrounding area was a feud of the House of Farnese, by the cardinal Alessandro Farnese senio in 1530, according to a project of the architect Antonio da Sangallo, one of the most important architects of the time.
The DAI was modeled after the Casino in the gardens of the Villa Farnese at Caprarola, and the front hillside stairway after the Italian Renaissance garden stairs at the Villa d'Este, near Rome, and Italy.
Born in Borgo San Sepolcro, He first apprenticed with the painter Raffaello del Colle, then with Taddeo Zuccari, whom he assisted in the interior decoration of the Villa Farnese at Caprarola, a major work in the Mannerist aesthetics.