every care, both with regard to buildings and in the management of the
papers and of the books that he held by virtue of his office,
acquitting himself with all possible diligence in the affairs of the
Church of S. Marco, of the Commissions, which are a great number, and
of the many other matters that are in the charge of those Procurators;
and he showed extraordinary lovingness towards those Signori, in that,
having turned his whole attention to benefiting them and to directing
their affairs to the aggrandizement, embellishment, and ornamentation
of the church, the city, and the public square (a thing never yet done
by any other in that office), he provided them with various
advantages, profits, and revenues by means of his inventions, with his
ingenuity of brain and readiness of spirit, yet always with little or
no expense to the Signori themselves. Among which benefits, one was
this; in the year 1529 there were between the two columns in the
Piazza some butchers' stalls, and also between the one column and the
other many wooden cabins to accommodate persons in their natural
necessities--a thing most filthy and disgraceful, both for the dignity
of the Palace and of the Piazza Pubblica, and for the strangers who,
coming into Venice by way of S. Giorgio, saw first of all on arrival
that filthiness. Jacopo, after demonstrating to the Prince Gritti the
honourable and profitable nature of his design, caused those stalls
and cabins to be removed; and, placing the stalls where they now are
and making certain places for the sellers of herbs, he obtained for
the Procurators an additional revenue of seven hundred ducats,
embellishing at the same time the Piazza and the city. Not long
afterwards, having perceived that in the Merceria (on the way to the
Rialto, near the Clock), by removing a house that paid a rent of
twenty-six ducats, a street could be made leading into the Spadaria,
whereby the rent of the houses and shops all around would be
increased, he threw down that house and increased their revenues by
one hundred and fifty ducats a year. Besides this, by placing on that
site the hostelry of the Pellegrino and another in the Campo Rusolo,
he brought them in another four hundred ducats. He obtained for them
similar benefits by the buildings in the Pescaria, and, on divers
other occasions, by many houses and shops and other places belonging
to those Signori, at various times; insomuch that the Procurators,
having gained by his care a revenue of more than two thousand ducats,
have been rightly moved to love him and to hold him dear.
Not long afterwards, by order of the Procurators, he set his hand to
the very rich and beautiful building of the Library opposite to the
Palazzo Pubblico, with such a variety of architecture (for it is both
Doric and Corinthian), and such a wealth of carvings, cornices,
columns, capitals, and half-length figures throughout the whole work,
that it is a marvel; and all without any sparing of expense, since it
is full of the richest pavements, stucco-work and scenes throughout
the halls of that place, and public staircases adorned with various
pictures, as has been related in the Life of Battista Franco, not to
speak of the appurtenances and rich ornaments that it has at the
principal door of entrance, which give it majesty and grandeur,
demonstrating the ability of Sansovino. Which method of building was
the reason that in that city, into which there had not entered up to
that time any other method but that of building their houses and
palaces in one and the same order, each man always continuing the same
things with the same measurements and ancient use, without varying
according to the sites as they found them, or according to
convenience; it was the reason, I say, that buildings both public and
private began to be erected with new designs and better order, and
according to the ancient teaching of Vitruvius; and that work, in the
opinion of those who are good judges and have seen many parts of the
world, is without any equal.
He then built the Palace of Messer Giovanni Delfino, situated on the
Grand Canal on the other side from the Rialto, opposite to the Riva
del Ferro, at a cost of thirty thousand ducats. He built, likewise,
that of Messer Leonardo Moro at S. Girolamo, a work of great cost,
which has almost the appearance of a castle. And he erected the Palace
of Messer Luigi de' Garzoni, wider by thirteen paces in every
direction than is the Fondaco de' Tedeschi, with so many conveniences,
that water runs through the whole fabric, which is adorned with four
most beautiful figures by Sansovino; which palace is at Ponte Casale,
in the neighbourhood of Venice. But the most beautiful is the Palace
of Messer Giorgio Cornaro on the Grand Canal, which, without any doubt
surpassing the others in convenience, majesty, and grandeur, is
considered perhaps the finest that there is in Italy. He also built
(to have done with speaking of private edifices) the Scuola or
Confraternity of the Misericordia, a vast work costing one hundred and
thirty thousand crowns, which, when carried to completion, will prove
to be the most superb edifice in Italy. And his work, also, is the
Church of S. Francesco della Vigna, where the Frati de' Zoccoli have
their seat, a work of great size and importance; but the façade was by
another master. The Loggia about the Campanile of S. Marco, in the
Corinthian Order, was from his design, with a very rich ornament of
columns, and with four niches, in which are four supremely beautiful
figures in bronze, little less than the size of life, which are by his
hand, together with various scenes and figures in low-relief. That
work makes a most beautiful base to the said campanile, which has a
thickness, on one of the sides, of thirty-five feet, which is about
the extent of Sansovino's ornamentation. In height, from the ground to
the cornice where are the windows of the bells, it is one hundred and
sixty feet; from the level of that cornice to the other above it,
where the corridor is, twenty-five feet; and the other dado above has
a height of twenty-eight feet and a half. From that level of the
corridor up to the pyramid is sixty feet; at the summit of which
spire, the little square, upon which rests the Angel, is six feet
high, and the said Angel, which turns with every wind, is ten feet
high; insomuch that the whole height comes to be two hundred and
ninety-two feet.
But the finest, richest, and strongest of his edifices is the Mint of
Venice, all of iron and stone, for there is not in it one single piece
of wood, in order to render it absolutely safe from fire. And the
interior is distributed with such order and convenience for the sake
of the many artificers, that there is not in any part of the world a
treasury better ordered, or with greater strength, than that one,
which he built entirely in the Rustic Order and very beautiful; which
method, not having been used before in that city, caused the
inhabitants to marvel not a little. By his hand, also, may be seen the
Church of S. Spirito on the lagoons, of a very delicate and pleasing
workmanship; and in Venice there is the façade of S. Gimignano, which
gives splendour to the Piazza, in the Merceria the façade of S.
Giuliano, and in S. Salvadore the very rich tomb of the Prince
Francesco Veniero. He also erected in the Rialto, on the Grand Canal,
the new fabrics of the vaults, with such good design, that almost
every day there assembles there a very convenient market of townsmen
and of other persons who flock to that city. And a very marvellous
thing and new was that which he did for the Tiepoli at the
Misericordia, in that, they having on the canal a great palace with
many regal chambers, and the whole building being badly founded in the
water, so that it was likely enough that in a few years the edifice
would fall to the ground, Sansovino rebuilt all the foundations in the
canal below the palace with very large stones, maintaining the house
on its feet with a marvellous support of props, while the owners lived
in their house with perfect security.
Nor for all this, while he has given his attention to so many
buildings, has he ever ceased to occupy himself every day for his own
delight with vast and beautiful works of sculpture, in marble and in
bronze. Over the holy-water font of the Friars of the Cà Grande there
is by his hand a statue made of marble, representing S. John the
Baptist, which is very beautiful and highly extolled. At Padua, in the
Chapel of the Santo, there is a large scene in marble by the same
hand, with very beautiful figures in half-relief, of a miracle of S.
Anthony of Padua; which is much esteemed in that place. For the
entrance of the stairs of the Palace of S. Marco he is even now
executing in marble in the forms of two very beautiful giants, each of
seven braccia, a Neptune and a Mars, signifying the power which that
most illustrious Republic has on land and sea. He made a most
beautiful statue of Hercules for the Duke of Ferrara; and for the
Church of S. Marco he made six scenes of bronze in half-relief, one
braccio high and one and a half long, for placing on a pulpit, with
stories of that Evangelist, which are held in much estimation for
their variety. Over the door of the same S. Marco he made a Madonna of
marble, the size of life, which is held to be a very beautiful thing;
and at the entrance to the sacristy of that place there is by his hand
the door of bronze divided into two most beautiful parts, with stories
of Jesus Christ all in half-relief and wrought excellently well. And
over the door of the Arsenal he made a very beautiful Madonna, who is
holding her Son in her arms, of marble. All which works not only have
given lustre and adornment to that Republic, but also have caused
Sansovino to be better known every day as a most excellent craftsman,
and loved and honoured by the magnificent liberality of those Signori,
and likewise by the other craftsmen, every work of sculpture and
architecture that has been executed in that city in his time being
referred to him. And in truth the excellence of Jacopo has well
deserved that he should be held in the first rank among the craftsmen
of design in that city, and that his talents should be loved and
revered by all without exception, both nobles and plebeians, for the
reason that, besides other things, as has been told, with his judgment
and knowledge he has brought it about that the city has been made
almost entirely new and has learned the true and good method of
building.
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
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. These I have heard that the son will publish for the
benefit of the world, and already he has had some pieces engraved,
accompanying them with designs of the numberless labours that have
been carried into execution by Sansovino in various parts of Italy.
For all this, although occupied, as has been related, with the
management of so many things both public and private, and both in the
city and abroad (for strangers, also, ran to him for models and
designs of buildings, for figures, or for counsel, as did the Duke of
Ferrara, who obtained a Hercules in the form of a giant, the Duke of
Mantua, and the Duke of Urbino), he was always very zealous in the
private and particular service of each of his own Lords Procurators,
who, availing themselves of him both in Venice and elsewhere, and not
doing a single thing without his assistance or counsel, kept him
continually at work not only for themselves, but also for their
friends and relatives, without any reward, he consenting to endure any
inconvenience and fatigue in order to satisfy them. But above all he
was greatly loved and held in infinite price by the Prince Gritti, who
delighted in beautiful intellects, by Messer Vettorio Grimani, brother
of the Cardinal, and by Messer Giovanni da Legge the Chevalier, all
Procurators, and by Messer Marc'Antonio Justiniano, who became
acquainted with him in Rome. For these illustrious men, exalted in
spirit and truly regal in mind, being conversant with the affairs of
the world and well informed in the noble and excellent arts, soon
recognized his merit and how worthy he was to be cherished and
esteemed, and availed themselves of him in due measure; and they used
to say, in accord with the whole city, that the Procurators never had
and never would have at any time another equal to him, for they knew
very well how celebrated and renowned his name was with the men and
princes of intellect in Florence and Rome and throughout all Italy,
and every one held it as certain that not he only but also his
descendants and all his posterity deserved to be endowed for ever in
return for his singular genius.
Jacopo was in body of ordinary stature, without any fat, and he walked
with the person upright. He was white in complexion, with the beard
red; and in his youth he was very graceful and handsome, and therefore
much beloved by various women of some importance. After he became old,
he had a venerable presence, with a beautiful white beard, and walked
like a young man, insomuch that, having come to the age of
ninety-three, he was still very strong and healthy and could see every
least thing, however distant it might be, without spectacles, and when
writing he kept his head erect, not bending over at all as is done by
others. He delighted to dress handsomely, and was always very neat in
his person; and he always took pleasure in women down to extreme old
age, and much loved to talk of them. In his youth, by reason of his
excesses, he was not very robust; but when he had become old he never
suffered any illness, insomuch that for a period of fifty years,
although at times he felt indisposed, he would never avail himself of
any physician; nay, having had an apoplectic stroke for the fourth
time at the age of eighty-four, he recovered by staying only two
months in bed in a very dark and warm place, despising medicines. He
had so good a stomach, that he was not afraid of anything, making no
distinction between food that might be good and food that might be
harmful; and in summer he lived almost entirely on fruits, eating very
often as many as three cucumbers at a time, and half a citron, in his
extreme old age. As for his qualities of mind, he was very prudent and
foresaw future events in the matters of the present, weighing them
against the past; and he was zealous in his affairs, not considering
any fatigue, and never left his business to follow pleasures. He
discoursed well and with many words upon no matter what subject that
he understood, giving many illustrations with much grace; on which
account he was very dear both to the great and to the small, and to
his friends. And in his last years he had a memory still very fresh,
and remembered in detail his childhood, the sack of Rome, and many
things, fortunate or unfortunate, that he experienced in his time. He
was courageous, and from his youth took delight in contending with
those greater than himself, because, he used to say, by contending
with the great a man advances, but against the little he lowers
himself. He esteemed honour above everything in the world, wherefore
in his affairs he was most loyal and a man of his word, and so pure in
heart, that no offer, however great, could have corrupted him,
although he was put to the test several times by his Signori, who for
this and for other qualities regarded him not as their protomaster or
minister, but as a father and brother, honouring him for his goodness,
which was in no way feigned, but real. He was liberal with every man,
and so loving towards his relatives, that he deprived himself of many
comforts in order to assist them; although he lived always in repute
and honour, as one who was observed by everyone. At times he let
himself be overcome by anger, which was very great in him, but it soon
passed; and very often with a few humble words you could make the
tears come to his eyes.
He had a surpassing love for the art of sculpture; such a love,
indeed, that, to the end that it might be dispersed widely in various
parts, he formed many disciples, making as it were a seminary of that
art in Italy. Among these, very famous were Niccolò Tribolo and
Solosmeo, Florentines; Danese Cattaneo of Carrara, a Tuscan, of
supreme excellence in poetry as well as in sculpture; Girolamo da
Ferrara, Jacopo Colonna of Venice, Luca Lancia of Naples, Tiziano da
Padova, Pietro da Salò, Bartolommeo Ammanati of Florence, at the
present day sculptor and protomaster to the great Duke of Tuscany,
and, finally, Alessandro Vittoria of Trento, a rare master in
portraits of marble, and Jacopo de' Medici of Brescia; who, reviving
the memory of the excellence of their master, have employed their
talents on many honoured works in various cities.
Sansovino was much esteemed by Princes, among whom Alessandro de'
Medici, Duke of Florence, sought his judgment in building the Citadel
of that city. And Duke Cosimo in the year 1540, Sansovino having gone
on his affairs to his native city, not only sought his counsel in the
matter of that fortress, but also strove to engage him in his service,
offering him a good salary; and on his return from Florence Duke
Ercole of Ferrara detained him about his person and proposed various
conditions to him, making every effort to keep him in Ferrara. But
he, being used to Venice, and finding himself comfortable in that
city, where he had lived a great part of his life, and having a
singular love for the Procurators, by whom he was so much honoured,
would never listen to any of them. He was also invited by Pope Paul
III, who wished to advance him to the charge of S. Pietro in the place
of Antonio da San Gallo, and with this Monsignor della Casa, who was
then Legate in Venice, occupied himself much; but all was in vain,
because he said that he was not minded to exchange the manner of life
of a republic for that of living under an absolute Prince. And King
Philip of Spain, on his way to Germany, showed him much kindness at
Peschiera, whither Jacopo had gone to see him.
He had an immoderate desire of glory, and by reason of that used to
spend his own substance on others (not without notable harm to his
descendants), in the hope that there might remain some memory of him.
Good judges say that although he had to yield to Michelagnolo, yet in
certain things he was his superior. Thus in the fashioning of
draperies, in children, and in the expressions of women, Jacopo had no
equal, for the reason that his draperies in marble were very delicate
and well executed, with beautiful folds and curves that revealed the
nude beneath the vestments; his children he made tender and soft,
without those muscles that adults have, and with their little arms and
legs as if of flesh, insomuch that they were in no way different from
the life; and the expressions of his women were sweet and pleasing,
and as gracious as could be, as is clearly seen from various Madonnas
made by him in many places, of marble and in low-relief, and from his
statues of Venus and other figures.
Now this man, having thus become celebrated in sculpture and in
architecture a master without a rival, and having lived in the grace
of mankind and also of God, who bestowed upon him the genius that made
him illustrious, as has been related, when he had come to the age of
ninety-three, feeling somewhat weary in body, took to his bed in order
to rest; in which having lain without any kind of suffering, although
he strove to rise and dress himself as if well, for a period of a
month and a half, failing little by little, he asked for the
Sacraments of the Church, which having received, while still hoping to
live a few years, he sank gradually and died on the 2nd of November in
the year 1570; and although in his old age he had run the whole course
of nature, yet his death was a grief to all Venice. He left behind him
his son Francesco, born at Rome in the year 1521, a man learned both
in the law and in the humanities, from whom Jacopo saw three
grandchildren born; a male child called, like his grandfather, Jacopo,
and two female, one called Fiorenza, who died, to his infinite grief
and sorrow, and the other Aurora. His body was borne with much honour
to his chapel in S. Gimignano, where there was erected to his memory
by his son the marble statue made by Jacopo himself while he was
alive, with the epitaph given below in memory of his great worth:
JACOBO SANSOVINO FLORENTINO QUI ROMÆ JULIO II, LEONI X, CLEMENTI
VII, PONT. MAX., MAXIME GRATUS, VENETIIS ARCHITECTURÆ
SCULPTURÆQUE INTERMORTUUM DECUS PRIMUS EXCITAVIT, QUIQUE A SENATU
OB EXIMIAM VIRTUTEM LIBERALITER HONESTATUS, SUMMO CIVITATIS
MOERORE DECESSIT, FRANCISCUS F. HOC MON. P. VIXIT ANN. XCIII. OB.
V. CAL. DEC. MDLXX.
His obsequies were likewise celebrated publicly at the Frari by the
Florentine colony, with no slight pomp, and the oration was delivered
by Messer Camillo Buonpigli, an excellent man.
LEONE LIONI OF AREZZO
OF LEONE LIONI OF AREZZO, AND OTHER SCULPTORS AND ARCHITECTS
Since that which has been said above, here and there, of the Chevalier
Leone, a sculptor of Arezzo, has been said incidentally, it cannot but
be well to speak here in due order of his works, which are truly
worthy to be celebrated and to pass into the memory of mankind. This
Leone, then, having applied himself in the beginning to the
goldsmith's art, and having made in his youth many beautiful works,
and in particular portraits from life in dies of steel for medals,
became in a few years so excellent, that he came to the knowledge of
many great men and Princes, and particularly of the Emperor Charles V,
by whom, having recognized his talents, he was set to works of greater
importance than medals. Thus, not long after he became known to his
Majesty, he made a statue of that Emperor in bronze, larger than life
and in the round, which he then furnished with a very delicate suit of
armour formed of two very thin shells, which can be put on and taken
off with ease, and all wrought with such grace, that whoever sees the
statue when covered does not notice it and can scarcely believe that
it is nude below, and when it is nude no one would believe without
difficulty that it could ever be so well clad in armour. This statue
rests on the left leg, and with the right foot tramples on Fury, which
is a recumbent figure bound in chains, with the torch beneath it and
arms of various kinds. On the base of this work, which is now in
Madrid, are these words:
CÆSARIS VIRTUTE FUROR DOMITUS.
After these statues Leone made a great die for striking medals of his
Majesty, and on the reverse the Giants being slain by Jove with
thunderbolts. For all which works the Emperor gave to Leone a pension
of one hundred and fifty ducats a year on the Mint of Milan, with a
very commodious house in the Contrada de' Moroni, and made him a
Chevalier and of his household, besides giving him many privileges of
nobility for his descendants. And while Leone was with his Majesty in
Brussels, he had his rooms in the palace of the Emperor himself, who
at times would go for recreation to see him at work. Not long
afterwards he made another statue of the Emperor, in marble, and also
those of the Empress and King Philip, and a bust of the same Emperor
for placing on high between two panels in bronze. He made, likewise in
bronze, the head of Queen Maria, that of Ferdinand, at that time King
of the Romans, that of Maximilian his son, now Emperor, and that of
Queen Leonora, with many others, which were placed in the Gallery of
the Palace of Binche by Queen Maria, who had caused them to be made.
But they did not stay there long, because King Henry of France set
fire to the building by way of revenge, leaving written there these
words, "Vela fole Maria";[14] I say by way of revenge, because a few
years before that Queen had done the same to him. However it may have
been, the work of that gallery did not proceed, and those statues are
now partly in the Palace of the Catholic King at Madrid, and partly at
Alicante, a sea-port, from which her Majesty intended to have them
conveyed to Granada, where are the tombs of all the Kings of Spain. On
returning from Spain, Leone brought with him two thousand crowns in
cash, besides many other gifts and favours that were bestowed upon him
by that Court.
[Footnote 14: The story runs that in the year 1533 Queen
Maria attacked and destroyed the Castle of Folembrai, and
that in the following year King Henry of France, out of
revenge, destroyed the fortress of Binche in Upper Hainault,
leaving on the ruined walls the words "Voilà Folembrai";
which in the Italian have been corrupted into "Vela fole
Maria."]
[Illustration: TOMB OF GIAN JACOPO MEDICI
(_After =Leone Lioni=. Milan: Duomo_)
_Alinari_]