Jacopo Sansovino
contributed by Mark Walker
JACOPO SANSOVINO, born Jacopo Tatti, began his career as a sculptor and soon assumed the name of his mentor, the sculptor Andrea Sansovino [Andrea Contucci, c. 1467-1529]. Giorgio Vasari, the artist and early art historian of the period, attests that Sansovino was of average height, "not at all fat," with a pale complexion and a red beard. After establishing a successful artistic role in Rome, primarily as a sculptor, Sansovino left Rome for Venice in the aftermath of the Sack of Rome, 1527, expecting to return to Rome later to resume his uncompleted commissions there
Sansovino was warmly received in Venice, Lorenzo Lotto referring to him upon his arrival as "second only to Michaelangelo." With the encouragement of Doge Andrea Gritti, Sansovino quickly became the most influential architect of Venice and his imprint is found throughout the city today. Despite invitations and commissions proffered by Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England, Sansovino after his arrival there left the Veneto only once, for a brief trip to Bologna.
In 1529 Sansovino was appointed proto of the Procurators of San Marco, the most influential architectural office in the Republic. In that role he moved quickly to promote the reworking of the Piazza di San Marco into its present form. Construction of the new Zecca [Mint] to his design began in 1536, after tedious negotiations with the cheese-and-salami sellers guild who had occupied a portion of the site for hundreds of years. He also designed the Biblioteca [Library] Marciana opposite the Doge's Palace and the Loggetta begun at the base of the Campanile of the Basilica, construction of both beginning 1537. The Fabbriche Nuove di Rialto, begun 1554, was another of his public structures.
While continuing his own sculpture output, he also supervised the production of others in his sculpture workshop and, at the same time, began to accept religious and private architectural commissions. For monastic clients he designed the Church of S. Francesco della Vigna (begun 1534) and completed the Church of Santo Spirito in Isola. Sansovino was also involved with three parish churches--S. Martino, S. Giuliano and S. Geminiano--and with the hospital church of the Incurabili. For charitable institutions, he created the Scuola Grande della Misericordia and the state hospital Ca' di Dio. For private clients, Sansovino's works include Palazzo Dolfin (begun 1538), Ca' Cornaro della Ca' Granda (begun 1545), Ca' Moro (perhaps) and, in the countryside of the Veneto, the fascinating Villa Garzoni at Pontecasale (c. 1537).
Text From This SiteSt. Mark's Library
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Also called Marciana it is one of the greatest architectural masterpieces of Jacopo Sansovino; initiated in 1537 it was finished, after the death of the architect (1570), by Vincent Scamozzi (1583-1588). The building was in ancient time assigned to the coinage of the coins of the Venetian Republic (Mint). The median portal decorated with two big caryatids, leads to the superior spaces, which were the ancient seat of the Library (today they are visible only in the occasion of expositions; today the reading room is made up by the inside courtyard covered by a skylight). Climbing the great staircase, whose very refined stucco works are due to Vittoria and they develop the theme of the progressive illumination along the walk of knowing, we can get in the vestibule whose ceiling houses one of the late work of Tiziano, the Wisdom (1564), symbol of supreme synthesis of the iconographic program of the staircase route. The large hall, planned by the Sansovino, is wonderful, and on its walls are put the paintings representing the philosophers, works of Veronese, Jacopo Tintoretto, Sustris and Andrea Schiavone. The ceiling frames some paintings with allegorical subject, performed between 1556 and 1557 from painters chosen by Tiziano and Sansovino. Among the whole Veronese won a gold necklace, the prize for the best paintings. Today the Library is to a large extent constituted with the donation of the Cardinal Bessarione, from donations coming from suppressed religious orders: among the most important works there is the Grimani Breviary of the end of the fifteenth century, very precious masterpiece of miniated code.
The other masterpiece of Sansovino was Villa Garzoni
The other architectural creations of the artist were Palazzo Dolfin (1536-1540); the church of San Maurizio; the New Factories of Rialto (circa 1555); Golden Stair-case in the Palazzo Ducale (1544); presbytery of San Fantin (1549-1564); the facade of San Giuliano ( after 1552); Ospedale degli Incurabili (from 1560), in which he inserted the church of the oval form. Text Taken From This Site
The most famous sculpture works created by Sansovino are: Madonna, il Bambino e San Giovannino (1537-1540) for the Loggetta del campanile, and bronze relieves for the choir and the door of the Sagresty in San Marco. Madonna