convent; it is very carefully modelled, the flesh parts are well treated, and the drapery is disposed in natural folds. It has almost the effect of a corpse laid out for burial before the altar, and produces a striking effect. Two only of Francesco's works remind us of his master, namely a group of the Virgin and Child with S. Anne, at Or San Michele, which is far less Group at worthy of a Coryciana than Andrea's group at Rome of the same subject; and the monument of Bishop Angelo Marzi1 in the Annunziata, whose statue resembles those of the cardinals sculptured by Andrea Sansavino at Sta. Maria del Popolo in attitude, though not in the drapery, which is frittered away in tormented folds. Or San Michele, dated 1526. Finished in 1558. Giuliano di Sangallo. The statue of Paolo Giovio, Bishop of Nocera, in the cloisters of San Lorenzo, is a creditable, but by no means a striking work by this sculptor.2 His also are two heads in bas-relief at Sta. Maria Primerana di Fiesole, of the Madonna and San Rocco, which, from the inscription upon them, must have been sculptured and given to the church by him in fulfilment of a vow made. in time of sickness. Perhaps the poorest of his works is the monument of Piero de' Medici in the church of the Convent of Monte Cassino. A portion of it has been ascribed to his father Giuliano di Sangallo but to this we cannot agree, judging from the monument by the latter to Francesco Sassetti, in the Cappella 1 This prelate, who was learned in civil and ecclesiastical law, was persuaded by Cosimo I. to give up the Church, and take upon himself the cares of State. Grateful for his services, and much attached to him personally, Cosimo allowed him to call himself Angelo Marzi Medici. 2 Paolo Giovio, Bishop of Nocera, author of the History of his own Times; which is written in a turgid style, and is more remarkable for adulation than truth. He was wont to say that he wrote with two pens-one of gold, and the other of iron. 3 Litta, Famiglie celebri, vol. xii., says that the architectural portion of this tomb only is by Francesco. The statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, that of Piero, and the bas-relief of the Resurrection of our Lord, are by Antonio di Sangallo; the other reliefs are by Matteo di Quaranta, a Neapolitan sculptor. It was ordered by Clement VII. Sassetti at Sta. Trinità at Florence, which is quite in the style of the quattrocento, and vastly superior in taste and technical handling to any of Francesco's works. It consists of a sarcophagus of classical form, set under an arch, upon the base of which are sculptured an infinite number of little figures performing funeral obsequies, and sacrificing a lamb upon a tripod. The centre of the slab is occupied by a medallion portrait of Sassetti, flat in relief, and realistic in style. Altar of the Corbinelli Chapel in S. Spirito at Florence. Goes A.D. 1460 1490-1491 Madonna and Child. Duomo, Genoa. Group of St. John 1504 1509-1513 1513 1513 Monuments of Cardinal G. B. della Rovere, and of Cardinal Goes to Loreto There is a chimney-piece by Giuliano di Sangallo in Casa Gondi. The Sassetti monument is engraved at Tav. 45, in Gozzini's Mon. Sep. della Toscana. Vasari, vol. vii., Vita di Giuliano di Sangallo, makes no mention of him as author of this monument. Goes to Rome after Returns to Florence and sculptures a marble statue of Bacchus; A.D. 1509 . 1511 Sculptures the Madonna for the church of 1523 1527 at Venice, where he builds many important edifices 1527-1570 Dies at Venice in . 1570 FRANCESCO DI SANGALLO Born .. 1498 1546 1558 Statue of Paolo Giovio, cloister of S. Lorenzo. Monument to Dies GIULIANO DI SANGALLO Born 1443 Monument to Francesco Sassetti in the church of Sta. Trinità ROVEZZANO AND TORREGIANO. 257 CHAPTER X. BENEDETTO DA ROVEZZANO AND PIERO TORREGIANO. BENE di Rovez ENEDETTO DI BARTOLOMEO GUARLOTTI, who was Benedetto born at Rovezzano (a small town near Florence), in the zano. latter part of the fifteenth century, was especially distinguished as a sculptor of ornament, which he designed with a peculiar sense of fitness; and for his skill in working out small figures and decorative emblems in his bas-reliefs so nearly in the round, that, by their contrast with the graduated relief of the other portions, they produced a novel and striking effect. These pecu liar excellencies are conspicuous in the very beautiful chimneypiece of the Casa Roselli,' as well as in the tomb of Piero Soderini in the church of the Carmine at Florence, whose simple architecture is most effectively relieved by skulls, cross-bones, and other mortuary emblems, sculptured in every variety of relief upon the sarcophagus, as well as upon the pilasters and flat surfaces of the arch under which it stands. Soderini. The ex-gonfaloniere who lies buried here deserved such post- Piero humous honour from a city which had repaid his signal services by banishment, making small account of that disinterested patriotism to which Leo X. bore witness when he said, that out of the hundreds of exiles, who entreated him to espouse their cause and save Florence, but two overlooked their private wrongs and selfish interests, one, Piero Soderini, a really wise man, the other, Carafalla, a notable fool. The ornaments upon this tomb are repeated upon that erected His monu 1 Cicognara, vide vol. ii. plate xxx. ment in the Carmine. VOL. I. L L M. 1307. Monument to San Gualberto. by Rovezzano in the church of the SS. Apostoli to the memory of its patron, Prior Oddo Altoviti.' Its pilasters are covered with arabesque work as delicate in handling, and the skulls are sculptured with equal boldness upon the sarcophagus, which is supported upon Harpies, whose faces are of singular beauty. He also designed the door of this church, and sculptured the arms of the Altoviti above it. Excellent as Rovezzano proved himself to be in bas-relief and ornamental work, he was not successful in single statues, if we may judge by the uninteresting and heavily-draped figure of St. John the Evangelist, in the Duomo at Florence. His greatest work was the monument of San Giovanni Giovanni Gualberto, founder of the famous convent of Vallombrosa, which, after being left for fifteen years in the sculptor's studio outside the Porta Santa Croce, on account of the violent dissensions of the monks who had ordered it, was broken to pieces by the papal and imperial soldiers during the siege of 1530. Of the many lifesize statues belonging to it, which stood in niches divided by pilasters, none escaped; and of its bas-reliefs but five, which are now preserved in the Gallery of Tuscan Sculpture at the Uffizi. They represent:-1. San Pietro Igneo, passing unscathed through the flames by the help of San Giovanni Gualberto. 2. The monk Florenzio liberated from a demon. 3. His death and funeral 1 'Gerne erinnert man sich noch heute des Kunstgeschmacks des Hauses der Altoviti, wenn man in der kleinen, aber schönen und merkwürdigen Kirche SS. Apostoli zu Florenz ihre Denkmäler sieht, deren zierlichstes und vollendetstes ein dem Jahr 1507 gehörendes Werk des B. da Rovezzano ist, das Grabmal Oddo Altoviti's, Priors der Kirche, während eine Gedächtnisstafel an Bindo erinnert, der, wie man glaubt, in der Kirche S. Trinità zu Rom, eine durch keinen Stein bezeichnete Ruhestätte fand.'-Beiträge von Reumont, vol. iii. p. 376. 2 Vasari says he began it in 1515, and worked ten years upon it. This, however, is proved to be inexact by the mention which Albertini makes of it as in progress in 1511. Benedetto Rovezzano il quale fa quella di Sancto Gualberto.' Vide Mem. di molte Statue e Pitture della Città di Firenze, di F. Albertini, published in Ricordo di Nozze, by G. Milanesi, 1863, p. 16. |