Sansovino, Jacopo

Sansovino, Jacopo (yä`kōpō sänsōvē`nō), 1486–1570, Italian sculptor and architect of the Renaissance. His surname was taken in place of his own, Tatti, as homage to the Florentine sculptor Andrea Sansovino, under whom he was apprenticed. After early years devoted to sculpture, he was architect of several buildings in Rome and in 1527 moved to Venice, importing to that city the classic manner of high Roman Renaissance architecture. In Venice, besides his masterpiece, the Library of St. Mark's (designed 1536) in the Piazza San Marco, he built the Palazzo Corner della Ca' Grande, the mint, the loggia at the base of the great campanile, and several churches. His versatility as a sculptor is realized in his creation of the supple figure Apollo and the three other imposing statues in the niches of the campanile: Minerva, Mercury, and Peace. Among his other sculptural works are the gigantic Mars and Neptune outside the Doge's palace.

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Sansovino, Jacopo

 orig. Jacopo Tatti

(born July 2, 1486, Florence, Republic of Florence—died Nov. 27, 1570, Venice, Republic of Venice) Italian sculptor and architect. He trained in Florence under Andrea Sansovino, whose name he adopted. In 1505–06 he moved to Rome to study architecture and work on the restoration of ancient sculpture. After the sack of Rome in 1527 he fled to Venice, where he was appointed state architect (1529). His Library of St. Mark's (begun 1537) is one of the major architectural works of the 16th century. His vivid sculptures were often important decorative elements of his buildings. His best-known statues are the colossal figures of Mars and Neptune on the staircase of the Doges' Palace (1554–66). He was more successful than any other Renaissance architect in fusing architecture and sculpture.

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Sansovino, Jacopo 

(real surname, Tatti). Born July 2, 1486, in Florence; died Nov. 27, 1570, in Venice. Italian architect and sculptor of the High and Late Renaissance.

Sansovino studied in Florence under A. Sansovino. He worked in Rome from 1503 to 1510 and from 1518 to 1527. He worked in Florence from 1510 to 1518. Beginning in 1527 he worked in Venice and Padua, becoming chief architect of the Republic of Venice in 1529.

Sansovino’s major architectural works are in Venice. In 1534 he built the church of San Francesco della Vigna, which now has a facade built by A. Palladio in 1572. His other buildings in Venice include the Libreria Vecchia at St. Mark’s (1536–54), the Mint (begun in 1536), the Palazzo Cornero della Ca’ Grande (begun in 1532), and the Logetta in St. Mark Square (begun in 1537). These buildings are distinguished by rich, full contours, opulent sculptural molding and painted ornament, but Sansovino carefully subordinated all decoration to the principles of tectonics. Sansovino’s sculpture successfully combines striking chiaroscuro modeling with refined and expressive imagery. Examples include Bacchus (marble, 1518, National Museum, Florence), four statues on the facade of the Logetta in Venice (bronze, 1540–45), and the statue of the physician T. Rangone on the facade of the Church of San Giuliano in Venice (bronze, 1554).

REFERENCES

Weihrauch, H. R. Studien zum bildnerrischen Werke des Jacopo Sansovino. Strasbourg, 1935.
Tafuri, M. Jacopo Sansovino e l’architettura dell’ 500 a Venezia. Padua, 1969.