874 Sir Rennell Rodd [June 3, 



tradition. While here, he no doubt came across an old associate 

 whom he had known at Pisa, who was now engaged on various works 

 in the Vatican, one Pippo, or Filippo di Gante, a Pisan sculptor, 

 whose father had exercised the same craft before him, and whose 

 son, Isaiah of Pisa, brought up it would seem in the eternal city, 

 may be regarded, in conjunction with his constant associate, Paolo 

 Eomano, as the founder of the Pi^oman Renaissance school. Isaiah's 

 son, Gian Cristofero Eomano, well known for his work in the Certosa 

 of Pavia, became its most skilful exponent in the early years of 

 the sixteenth century. We have thus four generations of craftsmen 

 in the same family. The principal works of Isaiah were recorded in 

 a contemporary Latin panegyric poem by one, Porcellio de' Pandini, 

 preserved at Pisa, and others we are able to identify by his well- 

 marked archaic style, formed it would seem by the study of late 

 Roman classical models, or again by the entries of payments in the 

 pontifical accounts during the reign of Pius II., where he is found 

 constantly working with the favourite artist of that pope, Paolo di 

 Mariani di Tacco, better known as Paolo Romano. Time will not 

 allow me to-night to investigate in detail the work of these two 

 masters, and the parts they took in the most considerable monument 

 of the time, the triumphal arch of Alfonso of Aragon, at Naples, but 

 one or two points I must ask you to hold in mind in view of their 

 bearing on the subsequent evolution of sculpture in Rome. 



In the first place it seems to have been Isaiah of Pisa who set and 

 fixed the type in Rome, generally adopted for the sepulchral monu- 

 ments of the Renaissance. At any rate the first complete example 

 we have is from his hand, in the tomb of Pope Eugene IV., who died 

 in 1447. It was executed during the reign of his successor, which 

 extended to 1455. Removed from St. Peter's to San Salvatore in 

 Lauro, probably in the reign of Paul II., it may have suffered in 

 transport, as certain portions, the two figures in the niches on the 

 left side and the kneehng angels in the recess, are the work of another 

 and apparently somewhat later artist employed to reproduce the broken 

 pieces. The monument was evidently similar in design to another 

 tomb of Isaiah's, namely that of Saint Monica in the church of S. 

 Agostino, which was broken up when the church was modernised. 

 Only the recumbent figure and the plain sarcophagus remain in situ. 

 The four saints from the pilaster niches, much mutilated, are now set 

 up in the porch of the transept entrance, and they are identical in 

 design with the figures on the tomb of Eugene IV. Another monu- 

 ment by Isaiah, slightly earlier in date perhaps than either of these, 

 that of the Portuguese Cardinal Chiaves, might be reconstructed from 

 the pieces scattered over the Church of St. John Lateran. The type 

 of Isaiah's monuments is rather Tuscan in character, modified per- 

 haps by a study of the Roman triumphal arch. The latest record 

 we possess of his activity is an entry in the pontifical accounts, in the 

 year 1464, when he received payment for work done in conjunction 



