SCULPTURE. 



of St. Martin's at Lncca, the bas relief in the cathedral at 

 Otvictto, and in other parts of Italy, in which his conftant 

 attention to the ancip:it 'ins reliefs is every where obfervable. 

 At this time the crufad's h-.d .liffufed Tuch a fpirit of piety, 

 that m: ;;nificv.nl churches \vcr> built all over Italy, in the 

 defigninir of which, as well as the decoration with fculp- 

 ture, Nicolo Pifano and his fcholars were univerfally em- 

 ployed. 



On the bafement in the weft front of the cathedral of 

 Orvietto, there is a f rie^ of baffo rehevos, the work of Ni- 

 colo Pifano and hi^ fchcol. contnining the moft important 

 fubjefts of the Old ant' New TelUment, from the Creation 

 to the Lnit Judgment, with feparate figures of the prophets. 

 The different fuijefts ar:; contained in a running foUage, 

 making the moft rici: and beautiful decoration to the four 

 bafements formed by the three doors in that part of the 

 church. The fiai es are each about twenty-two inches 

 high, very hi^hlv rinifhed in ftatuary marble. There is in 

 many of the.;\ a beautiful fimplicity of fentiment, and in 

 thofe of the Laft Judg nent, and the other bas rehefs that 

 immediately n late to it, there are various ftriking inftances 

 of paffion and terror. The pulpits alfo in the cathedral of 

 Sienna, and in the baptiftery of Pifa, which were before 

 mentioned, are magnificent architeftural defigns, richly 

 adorned with fcriptural baflo relievos by this artift. 



At Pifa, in 1174, William Oltramontano and Bonnauo, 

 a fculptor, founded the fteeple of the dome. The royal 

 gate of brafs in tliis church was made by Bonnano. 



John Cimabue was born at Florence in the year 1 2 1 1 ; he 

 very much improved the art of defigning ; his difciple 

 Ghiotto was both a painter and fculptor. Cimabue learned 

 his art of Greek painters, who were employed in Florence. 

 At the fame time with Cimabue, flourifiied Andrea Taffi, a 

 Florentine painter in mofaic ; he went to Venice to perfedl 

 himfelf in his art ; having learned that there were Grecian 

 painters who worked in that way in Venice, he engaged 

 ApoUonius, one of them, to come and work with him m 

 Florence, where they made ftveral pieces. Taffi learned of 

 this Grecian the art of making enamels and plaiters that 

 would laft a long time : he died in the year 1 294. 



About the year 12 16 appeared Marchione, architeft and 

 fculptor of Arezzo, who worked much at Rome for the 

 popes Innocent III. and Honorius III. : he made the fine 

 chapel of marble at St. Mary Maggiore, with the fepulchre 

 of that pope, which is of the beft iculpture of thofe times. 

 But one of the firft architefts who began to reform in Italy, 

 was a German named James, who built of (tone the great 

 convent of St. Francis ; he dwelt at Florence, where he 

 made the chief fabrics ; he had a fon, named Jacopo Amalfo 

 Lapo, who learned architefture of his father, and defigning 

 of Cimabue. He founded the church of St. Crofs, at Flo- 

 rence, and feveral other buildings, the moft confiderable of 

 which is the magnificent church of St. Mary del Fiore. 



John Pifano was the fon of Nicholas, and was alfo a 

 fculptor and architeft. In 1283 he was at Naples, and 

 built there, for king Charles, the new callle, and feveral 

 churches, and being returned into Tufcany, he made feveral 

 pieces of fculpture at Arezzo, and alfo of architefture in 

 that province, and died in the year 1320. 



John Pifano deviated from his father's rigid imitation of 

 antiquity, in giving a more waving line to his figures, and 

 broader and lefs determined folds to his draperies, like the 

 paintings and defigns of Ghiotto. There is a general grace 

 and delicacy in the charafter of his figures ; of which the 

 bronze ftatues of a madonna and angels in the cathedrals of 

 Orvietto and Florence are examples : and there is fo ftrong 

 a refemblance between the ilyles of thefe ftatues and thofe 



of queen Eleanor at Northampton, Geddington, and 

 Waltham, on her croffes ; as affcrds reafon to believe they 

 were produced by one of the ableft of John Pifano's fcholars, 

 if not from fome ftatue or model by himfelf: nor is it here 

 that the refemblance ceafes, for this ttrle i-; to be traced in 

 moft of the fculpturcs of Europe from this time to the reign 

 of Henry VII. This fculptor had for pupils, Agoftino 

 and Agnolo Sanefi ; they were, in th„- opinion of Ghiotto, 

 the beft fculptors of the time, which pi )cured them the 

 chief bufinefs of Tufcany. They worked alio at Bologna 

 and Mantua, and bred up feveral ii',;en'ous pupils, and 

 particularly carvers in filver, as I .ul Arctino, a goldfmith, 

 Maeftro Cione, and Jacomo Lanfranco, a Venetian, and 

 Peter Paul, of the fame city. 



Ghiotto made defigns for the braEen doors in the bap- 

 tiltery of Florence, which were engraven by A 1 drew Pifano, 

 who alfo made feveral figures of marble in the church ot 

 St. Mary del Fiore. Andrew was as famous for fculpture 

 as Ghiotto was for painting. The bas reliefs on the doors 

 of the baptiftery reprefent the life of St. John the Baptift, 

 and pod'efs great fimphcity and grandeur for the age in 

 which they were produced. 



Stephen Florentin, Taddeo Gaddi, and Peter Cavallini, 

 were fcholars of Ghiotto, and in 1 350 they formed at Flo- 

 rence an academy of defigning, which was the firft that had 

 been formed fince the revival of the arts. Taddeo Gaddi 

 began to coUetf ancient fculpture for his ftudies, and there 

 is a fine Greek body of a faun which belonged to him, which 

 is kept in the ducal gallery, and is known by the name of 

 Gaddi's Torfo. 



This ingenious fociety was afterwards encouraged and 

 affifted by the princes of Medicis, which perfefted at Flo- 

 rence the eftabliftiment of the arts of defign, for there came 

 out of that fchool a great number of painters, fculptors, 

 and architefts, who cmbelhftied that famous city, and all 

 Italy, like another Sicyon, where, in the time of the firft 

 ancients, the firft academy of defign had been eftablifhed ; 

 this quickly ftiewed at Florence thofe great geniufes Lo- 

 renzo Ghiberti, Donatello, and Brunilefchi, and many other 

 ingenious contemporaries. 



Bartoloccio Cione was a fculptor in bronze, gold, and 

 filver, and father of Lorenzo Ghiberti, who, befides fol- 

 lowing his father's profelfion, added to it the ftudy of 

 painting and architefture. He made the two fine brazen 

 gates in the baptiftery of St. John, one of which reprefents 

 the hillory of the Old Teftament, which Michael Angelo 

 faid was worthy to be a gate of Paradife ; the other gate is 

 adorned with the principal adfs of our Saviour's life. Be- 

 fides the beauty of the hiftorical fubjefts in the pannels, the 

 architraves and friezes of thofe gates are of exquillte defign, 

 containing flowers, fruits, plants, and animals, fo perfeft that 

 they feem to have been caft from nature. He executed a 

 figure of St. Matthew, in bronze, of a coloflal fize, in the 

 church of San Michele, but this figure is inferior to his 

 fmaller works, from an attempt at exceffive grace ; the folds 

 of drapery alfo are too minute, curvilinear, and not well ac- 

 counted for. He executed fome bafib relievos in bronze, of 

 the life of St. John the Baptiit, on the baptifmal font in the 

 cathedral of Sienna ; he alfo executed fome painting in the 

 iame church when he was young. Ghiberti made alfo feveral 

 curious (hrines, and a triple crown for pope Eugenius ; it 

 was of gold and jewels, valued at thirty thoufand ducats of 

 gold. Afterwards he became fupreme magiftrate of Flo- 

 rence, but itill praftifed architedfure, managing for fome 

 time the building of the church of St. Mary del Fiore. 



Donatello very much excelled the fculptors who had 

 gone before him, in his copious compofitions, and the paflion 



and 



