Jacopo Sansovino

Jacopo Sansovino (baptized July 2, 1486, Florence [Italy]—died November 27, 1570, Venice) was a 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 St. James the Elder (1511–18; Santa Maria del Fiore) and the Bacchus (c. 1514).

From 1518 Jacopo worked in Rome, first on the Madonna del Parto (c. 1519), which shows the continuing influence of Andrea Sansovino, and on the St. James (1520).

After the sack of Rome in 1527, Sansovino fled to Venice, where he was made protoma gister (supervising architect) 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 Donato 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.

Sansovino planned a transformation of St. Mark’s Square into a unified arrangement of interrelated structures. Although his plan was incomplete at the time of his death, his influence on the urban landscape endured. 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 (also called the Old Library), one of the major architectural works of the 16th century, was begun the same year. The small but richly decorated Loggetta, also begun in the mid-1530s, was the first of the three to be completed (1542).

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 (1554–56); and the monument to the doge Francesco Venier in the Church of San Salvatore (1556–61).

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.