Bartolomeo Sansovino

“ The works here described, caused Sansovino to bv. considered a most excellent and graceful artist by all Florence, and by every one connected with art; wherefore Giovanni Bartolini, having built a house in the Gualfonda, requested him to execute a Bacchus in marble, represented by a youth the size of life; when, the model being made by Sansovino, was found to be entirely satisfactory, and Giovanni having supplied him with the marble, he set to work with a good will, that gave wings both to his thoughts and hands. ”

“ All which works not only have given lustre and adornment to that Republic, but also have caused Sansovino to become daily more known as a most excellent craftsman, and to be loved by those Signori and honoured by their magnificent liberality, and likewise by the other craftsmen; for every work of sculpture and architecture that has been executed in that city in his time has been referred to him. ”

“ When writing, he sat with his head up, not supporting himself in any manner, as it is usual for men to do. He liked to be handsomely dressed, and was singularly nice in his person. The society of ladies was acceptable to Sansovino, even to the extremity of age, and he always enjoyed conversing with or of them. ”

“ Three most beautiful figures in stucco by his hand, also, may be seen in the possession of his son, one a Laocoon, another a Venus standing, and the third a Madonna with many children about her; which figures are so rare, that in Venice there is seen nothing to equal them. The [Pg 221] said son also has in drawing sixty plans of temples and churches of Sansovino's invention, which are so excellent that from the days of the ancients to our own there have been seen none better conceived or more beautiful. ”

“ He sometimes permitted himself to be overcome by anger, which in him was an exceedingly violent passion, but one that soon passed over, and a few gentle words often sufficed to brings tears into his eyes. His love for his art was immense; nay, that the knowledge of sculpture might be the more widely diffused, Sansovino brought up numerous disciples, establishing what might almost be called a Seminary of that art in Italy.
Among those of his disciples who attained the most distinguished name, were the Florentines Niccolò Tribolo and Solosmeo ”

“ The same face, at once handsome and bestial, never to be forgotten after a first acquaintance, leans out, in the company of Sansovino and Titian, from the bronze door of the Sacristy in S. Mark's Church. [544] The high relief is full of life and movement, one of Sansovino's masterpieces. And yet it strikes one here with even greater strangeness than the myths of Ganymede and Leda on the portals of S. Peter's at Rome.
Aretino is, in truth, not the least of the anomalies which meet us everywhere in the Italian Renaissance. ”

“ From 1513 to 1528 he was at Loreto, where he cased the outside of the Santa Casa in white marble, covered with reliefs and statuettes in niches between engaged columns; a small part of this sculpture was the work of Andrea, but the greater part was executed by Montelupo, Tribolo and others of his assistants and pupils. Though the general effect is rich and magnificent, the individual pieces of sculpture are both dull and feeble. The earlier reliefs, those by Sansovino himself, are the best. ”

“ George of Trebizond, who, in 1459, laid the Latin translation of Plato's Laws at the feet of the Doge, was appointed professor of philology with a yearly salary of 150 ducats, and finally dedicated his 'Rhetoric' to the Signoria. If, however, we look through the history of Venetian literature which Francesco Sansovino has appended to his well-known book, we shall find in the fourteenth century almost nothing but history, and special works on theology, jurisprudence, and medicine ”

“ Sansovino’s work, however, ends at the sixteenth arch from the Campanile corner. Twelve years after his death it was finished by Scamozzi. He was a most lovable artist, ever ready with help and counsel to those who entreated him; the friend of every great man of his time; in youth a most winning personality; in age venerable and alert. At ninety-three, if we may trust Vasari, his eyes were undimmed, and he bore himself erect as ever. ”

“ Sallies of laughter, snatches of song, and pelting of flowers, like a May-day frolic, made the work long in the doing, but full of grace; and now and again, as if any purpose were wearying for such light-hearted maidens, they dropped their garlands and glided over the polished floor, twining and untwining their arms—a reflex in active life, and not less radiant, of the nymphs of Bassano on the painted ceiling, between those wonderful, gilded arabesques of Sansovino. ”

“ With Andrea Sansovino, born in 1460, we come to the art of the sixteenth century, very noble and beautiful, at any rate in its beginning, but so soon to pass into a mere affectation. The pupil, according to Vasari, of Antonio Pollaiuolo, Sansovino's work is best seen in Rome. Here in Florence he made in his youth the altar of the Blessed Sacrament in the left transept of S. Spirito, and in 1502 the Baptism of Christ, over the eastern gates of the Baptistery, but this was finished by another hand. ”

“ Sansovino’s friends soon triumphed, for they were many and powerful. I do not know whether a vaulted ceiling only just constructed can suddenly collapse and fall in of itself without some fault on the part of the{143} architect, but Sansovino was unanimously declared to be entirely innocent, and the unlucky magistrate who, with some show of reason, had ordered his arrest was thrown into prison in his place. ”

“ Sansovino was most especially beloved and valued by the Prince Gritti, a firm friend to men of genius, by Messer Vettorio Grimani, brother of the Cardinal, and by the Cavalier Messer Giovanni da Legge, who were all Procurators. Messer Marcantonio Giustiniano, who had known him in Rome, was also the friend of Jacopo: these great and illustrious men, well practised in the affairs of the world, and having full knowledge of our Arts, were all well aware of his value, and the esteem in which he deserved to be held ”

“ Sansovino’s greatest work in Venice was the library of St Mark’s, which was commenced in 1531; in this he has shown not only remarkable powers of design but great boldness in the projection of his columns, cornices and other architectural features. The upper frieze has been increased in height, so as to admit of the introduction of small windows to light an upper storey, and this gives much greater importance and dignity to the entablature crowning the whole structure. ”

“ Meanwhile, the rival friends had changed lodgings; they left the Piazza del Grano, and took rooms in the Sapienza, a street between the Piazza San Marco and the S. Annunziata. Andrea chose this because it was near his work, and also because his great friends, Sansovino and Rustici, already lived there. Commissions began to pour in on him, which he fulfilled, while still at work at the Servi. Judging from the style of his early manner, we may date at this time a Virgin and Child, with S. John and S. Joseph, now in the Pitti. ”

“ Jacopo Sansovino, when Tribolo, now restored to health, went to work under him, was executing in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, in competition with Benedetto da Rovezzano, Andrea da Fiesole, and Baccio Bandinelli, the marble statue of S. James the Apostle which is still to be seen at the present day at that place together with the others. ”

“ Sansovino's most important pupil was Jacopo Tatti, who, on account of his master, is called Jacopo Sansovino (1477-1570) . He was born at Florence, and when Andrea Sansovino returned from Portugal Jacopo became his pupil. Early in life he went to Rome, and there studied and copied the works of antiquity; among other things he made a copy of the Laocoon, which was cast in bronze at a later time. Soon after his return to Florence, in 1511, Jacopo received orders for some works, but the most important statue which he made about this time is the Bacchus, now in the Uffizi. ”

“ Sansovino rejoined that men of his sort, men of worth and genius, were free to do that and greater things besides. Tribolo shrugged up his shoulders and muttered: "Patience, patience," several times. Thereupon, without regarding the copious dinner which Sansovino had given me, I took the part of my comrade Tribolo, for he was in the right. All the while at table Sansovino had never stopped chattering about his great achievements, abusing Michel Agnolo and the rest of his fellow-sculptors, while he bragged and vaunted himself to the skies. ”

“ Whereupon orders were given to Sansovino that he should make a triumphal arch at the Porta S. Gallo, and he, not falling back in any way from his own standard, executed it similar to the other works that he had done—namely, beautiful to a marvel, and full of statues and painted pictures wrought excellently well. His Holiness having then determined that the façade of S. Lorenzo should be executed in marble, the while that Raffaello da Urbino and Buonarroti were expected from Rome, Sansovino, by order of the Pope, made a design for it ”

“ Many of his subjects were mythological; among them were the story of Phrixos and Helle, Mercury, Apollo, Pallas, Mars, and Neptune, the last two being colossal figures on the steps of the Doge's Palace. [Pg 187]
Among the pupils and associates of Sansovino were Niccolo Braccini (1485-1550) , called Il Tribolo, and Francesco Sangallo (1498-1570) , neither of whom were important artists, though many works by them are seen in various places in Italy.
Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1572) is a far more interesting study than were many sculptors of his time. ”

“ Having completed this statue, it was adjudged to be the best ever executed by a modern master, Sansovino having overcome a difficulty no longer attempted; one arm of the figure being fully detached and raised in the air, while a Tazza, cut from the same piece of marble, is held aloft in the hand, or rather, so delicate and subtle is the work, by the fingers, whereon it is so lightly poised, that they scarcely appear to touch it. ”

“ Hence his early works are by far the best, such as the terra-cotta altarpiece in Santa Chiara at Monte Sansavino, and the marble reliefs of the “Annunciation,” the “Coronation of the Virgin,” a “Pietà,” the “Last Supper,” and various statuettes in the Corbinelli chapel of S. Spirito at Florence, all executed between the years 1488 and 1492. ”

“ Wherefore, having recognized that the genius of Sansovino was equal to their every need in the service of the city, they caused him to attend for many years to the fortifications of their State. Nor did any long time pass before he took in hand, by order of the Council of Ten, the very rich and beautiful fabric of the Library of S. Marco, opposite to the Palazzo della Signoria, with such a wealth of carvings, cornices, columns, capitals, and half-length figures [Pg 199] over the whole work, that it is a marvel ”

“ It had a pleasant garden of flowers and trees, into which the painter descended by an open stairway, and in which he is said to have studied the famous tree in The Death of Peter Martyr. Here he entertained the great and noble of his day, and here he feasted and made merry with the gentle sculptor Sansovino, and with their common friend, the rascal-poet Aretino. The painter’s and the sculptor’s wives knew each other, and Sansovino’s Paola was often in the house of Cecilia Vecellio ”

“ Carpaccio, with his naïve and picturesque reproductions of Venetian life. Among the living, Sansovino, simultaneously architect and artist, who built marvellous palaces and adorned them with graceful frescoes; Tintoretto, sombre genius whose creative power largely redeemed the somewhat obscure tints of his palette; and above them all, Titian, the great Titian, who at that time was already eighty years of age, yet still manipulated his brush with the firm hand of youth. ”

“ The Epiphany is also a remarkable work, more lively than the last; it is also less carefully painted, the graceful feminine element is wanting; there is plenty of activity, a crowded composition, and richness of colour. Three figures are especially interesting as likenesses; that of the musician Francesco Ajolle—a great composer of madrigals, who went to France in 1530, and spent the remainder of his life there; Sansovino, on the right of Ajolle; and near him Andrea himself—the same face as the portrait in the Uffizi already spoken of. ”

“ The plaster model for the work, Sansovino gave to the prior of the Salviati, who placed it in a chapel of his palace, beside the Piazza of San Pietro at the end of the Borgo Nuovo. No long time afterwards he made a Statue of San Jacopo in marble, four braccia high, for the Altar of a Chapel which Cardinal Alborense had built in the Church of the Spaniards in Rome; this also, which is in a very graceful attitude and exhibits infinite judgment, procured the artist a great increase of fame ”

“ Although Andrea di Domenico Contucci of Monte Sansovino, was born of extremely poor parents, his father being a labourer of the earth, and was himself brought up to guard the flocks, he was nevertheless of so exalted a mind, of intelligence so remarkable, and of so bold a spirit, that, whether in works or discourses relating to the difficulties of architecture and perspective, the period at which he lived could show no genius more truly elevated, no mind more subtle than his own. ”