884 Sir Rennell Rodd [June 3, 



active production when the nepotism of the Popes filled Rome with 

 wealthy and ambitious prelates, which are properly traceable to the 

 workshop of i^ndrea Bregno, but as I am lecturing in London and 

 not in Rome, it is useless to weary you with lists. The latest, 

 perhaps, in which his direct influence may be traced, is the Savelli 

 grave in Aracceli, which cannot be dated before 1495, when Bregno 

 was already a man of 75. In design it is practically a remodelling 

 of the Lebretto grave in the same church, with a lunette superadded 

 above the architrave. The saints below the pilasters have their 

 prototypes in those of the tabernacles of Sta. Maria del Popolo. 

 The sarcophagus is a copy, vastly inferior in workmanship and 

 delicacy to that of the Riario grave in the SS. Apostoli, which I have 

 given my reasons for attributing rather to Mino da Fiesoli's inventive 

 genius than to Andrea. The Madonna and Child of the lunette 

 belong to the type produced by Luigi Capponi of Milan, who, it 

 would seem, succeeded to the direction of the great workshop. 



From an inspection of the various monuments to which I have 

 referred, if not from their photographic reproduction, it is possible to 

 derive some idea of Bregno's manner. His recumbent figures are finely 

 executed, suggesting able portraiture, without the strength and deli- 

 cacy of Mino's. He created the types of saints, in the subordinate 

 parts of these Roman monuments, which were reproduced by numbers 

 of contemporaries and successors, whose work it is not easy to differ- 

 entiate from his own. They display much skill and facility without 

 strong individuality of style or the impression of a dominant person- 

 ality. They remind us rather of the art of the ivory carver, complete 

 within its limitations. Above all, Bregno was a master of ornament, 

 and if he lacks great originality he taught many others the rules and 

 methods of a charming art of surface decoration. 



The great activity which the nepotism of Sixtus lY. provided for 

 the sculptors bottega, which produced the monuments of the Riarios, 

 the delle Roveres, and the Bassi, was continued through the pontificate 

 of Innocent VIII., to which belong a whole series of kindred pieces. 

 In this and the following reign, moreover, a French prelate, Guillaume 

 de Perier, who became very wealthy as auditor of the Rota, erected a 

 whole series of altar-pieces which bear the stamp of the same work- 

 shop. From the mass of craftsmen who must have been employed 

 it is diflicult to disengage distinct personalities. But I am inclined 

 to think that students of the work of Cristofero Romano, the son of 

 Isaiah of Pisa, in the Certosa at Pavia, will see in details of not a 

 few of the Roman monuments evidence of a similar hand, and it is 

 legitimate to assume that before going north, in or about 1491, he 

 was one of the numerous band of assistants of Bregno. The name 

 of Jacopo di Andrea of Florence is also preserved to us in a record as 

 the author of the beautiful tomb of Marc Antonio Albertoni in Sta. 

 Maria del Popolo. This is one of the first instances of a somewhat 

 different type of smaller monument which came into use towards the 



