Giuliano da Sangallo was the first eminent member of a dynasty of architects. Perhaps the most imaginative Florentine architect of the later Quattrocento, he was imbued with the refined classicism of the age. His knowledge of Roman antiquity was derived from study of the original monuments. His delightful Florentine buildings of the 1480s include the villa at Poggio a Caiano, built for Lorenzo de' Medici on a small hill (poggio is Italian for hill) near the plain of Prato. The site was chosen to command views of the plain and the mountains to the north and south.The simple block of Giuliano's structure, with its plain walls and sharply projecting eaves, is interrupted by the temple portico, apparently the first in a long line of such porticoes for Renaissance and Baroque villas. The pediment features the Medici arms framed by flowing ribbons in an antique style to fill the space. The columns are Ionic. Behind the pediment, a barrel vault covers a loggia where the Medici and their guests could sit in the shade. A similar barrel vault, much larger, roofs the central hall of the villa, which was later decorated with a fresco by Pontormo.