1910] on Renaissance Monuments in the Roman Churches. 875 



with Paulo Romano on the tabernacle made to contain the head of 

 Saint Andrew, a priceless relic brought to Italy by Thomas Palaeolo- 

 gos, Despot of Morea. The remains of this tabernacle are now in 

 the crypt of Saint Peter's, and a comparison of the pieces from two 

 lunettes is interesting as showing the difference between the work of 

 Isaiah and Paulo. 



I must content myself with but a brief reference to-night to that 

 interesting personality in the history of Roman sculpture, Paolo di 

 Mariani, known as Paulus de Urbe, or Paolo Romano, who is not to 

 be confounded with another earlier Magister Paolo, the author of 

 several monuments erected at the beginning of the fifteenth century. 

 He will, however, serve to introduce to you another name, which 

 presents a very curious problem. 



Yasari knew but little of either Isaiah or Paolo Romano. He 

 assigns to the Florentines, Niccola and Yarrone, the tabernacle of 

 St. Andrew, and to the latter the statue of St. Andrew, near the Ponte 

 Molle, erected on the spot where the relic was received. But the 

 evidence of the pontifical accounts is conclusive, and they show that 

 Paolo Romano was paid 38 ducats for its execution. In his short 

 biography, however, Yasari tells a curious story of a rivalry which 

 sprang up between Paolo and a certain Mino del Reame, or del Regno, 

 which means, of course, the kingdom of Naples. This Mino, whose 

 name he says was perhaps Dino, challenged the Roman sculptor to 

 compete with him for the execution of a colossal statue of St. Paul, 

 and adds that Paolo was so harassed by the persecutions of this 

 Mino that he renounced his intention of carrying out a colossal 

 statue of St. Peter, which had been ordered from him by Pope 

 Pius II. Now it is true that the Yatican accounts contain records of 

 payments for pedestals for the statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, 

 ordered of Paolo Romano, which were to be placed at the foot of the 

 steps leading to the old Basilica, as well as for a statue of St. Paul, 

 while there is no entry of payment for a statue of St. Peter. On the 

 other hand, the two statues which originally decorated the approach to 

 the church actually exist in the sacristy of the present St. Peter's, and 

 both of them would seem to be from the same workshop, and resemble 

 the other work of the Roman sculptor. Again, there is another 

 statue of St. Paul, stated by Yasari to be by Paolo Romano, which 

 now stands on the bridge of St. Angelo. The idea of two sculptors 

 making statues 14 or 15 feet high, merely in a spirit of rivalry is 

 rather extravagant, but there is probably, as usual, some truth behind 

 Yasari's story, and curiously enough we find over the door of the 

 church of St. Giacomo in Piazza Navona two angels by different hands 

 supporting an obliterated shield. Under one of them is carved in 

 large letters Opus FaoU, and under the other Opus Mijii. The 

 latter, which is much the better and freer of the two, is, in my opinion, 

 not the work of Mino da Fiesole. There are other references in 

 Yasari, too circumstantial to be ignored, to this second Mino, and I 



