SANSOVINO, JACOPO

born July 2, 1486, Florence died Nov. 27, 1570, Venice original name Jacopo Tatti sculptor and architect who introduced the style of the High Renaissance into Venice. In 1502 he entered the Florence workshop of the sculptor Andrea Sansovino and as a sign of admiration adopted his master's name. In 1505 he accompanied the Florentine architect Giuliano da Sangallo to Rome, studying ancient architecture and sculpture while employed by Pope Julius II in the restoration of ancient statues. Back in Florence he carved the statue of St. James the Elder (151118; Santa Maria del Fiore) and the Bacchus (c. 1514; Bargello, Florence). From 1518 Jacopo worked in Rome, first on the Madonna del Parto (c. 1519; S. Agostino, Rome), which shows the continuing influence of Andrea Sansovino, and on the St. James (1520; Sta. Maria di Monserrato, Rome). After the sack of Rome in 1527, Sansovino fled to Venice, where he was made protomagister of the cathedral. He became a friend of the painter Titian and the author Pietro Aretino and was appointed chief architect of the city, a position he held until his death. His first Venetian building was the Palazzo Corner della Ca' Grande (1533), in which he retained the rusticated base and trabeated second story (piano nobile) of the Roman palaces of Bramante and Raphael. But Sansovino added a third story and altered the proportions of each story in order to conform more closely to Venetian traditions of palace design. His Zecca (Mint) dates from 1536 and is notable for the imaginative rustication of its columns and wall surfaces, which give the building an appropriately fortified appearance. The Library of St. Mark's, one of the major architectural works of the 16th century, was begun the same year. Sansovino's early Venetian bronzes, such as the statuettes of the Evangelists and the doors of the sacristy in St. Mark's (1540s), recall the easy grace of his Roman and Florentine works but show a new independence and maturity of conception. His marble statue of the youthful St. John the Baptist (1554) in Santa Maria dei Frari shows the transition from his mature style to that of his old age. Among the works showing his severe late style are the bronze portrait of Tommaso Rangone over the entrance to the Church of San Giuliano (1554), which Sansovino also designed; the colossal statues of Mars and Neptune (155456, Doges' Palace, Venice); and the monument to the doge Francesco Venier in the Church of San Salvatore (155661). Many of Sansovino's most important works are decorative elements of his architecture, and he was perhaps more successful than any other Renaissance architect in fusing architecture and sculpture. He remained an advocate of the balance and restraint of the High Renaissance style even while Mannerism was becoming the dominant artistic trend in Italy.