24, John of Padua. 



from tlie Marchcse Selvatico some particulars that throw considerable 

 light upon the subject. The Marchese said :— " He could not 

 find in their national documents or histories any mention exactly of 

 an architect of that name : but there was a John Padova, of Milan, 

 a scholar of Solari, a carver of figures in 1524 ; though no mention of 

 his having gone to England. There was also a Giovanni Maria 

 Padovan, very clever as a sculptor, a moulder and maker of medals. 

 He wrote his name John Maria Patavinus. 1 He worked in sculpture 

 at Padua and at Venice, but of his being an architect nothing is 

 said. It is, however (says the Marchese), not impossible that he 

 was one, because all the eminent artists of the Revival Period were 

 often well accomplished in all the three arts. As he was also em- 

 ployed in 1548 by the King of Poland to construct a magnificent 

 mausoleum, for which he was liberally rewarded, this would allow 

 us to presume that he was also an able architect, seeing that the 

 sepulchres of that period seldom consisted of sculpture only, but 

 required to be constructed according to the rules of architecture." 2 



Novel and most fanciful decorative work was precisely the sort 

 that King Henry used in profusion at Nonsuch palace, so that if this 

 Giovanni Maria, " a clever sculptor and moulder/' at Venice, was 

 able, as he was, to supply King Henry with this, and also with new 

 music of the lighter sort for state concerts, we have in him at once 

 the very qualifications for which Henry conferred an annual pension, 

 as stated in the letters patent of 1544, viz., for having rendered, 

 and intending to render, great service in architecture and new musical 

 compositions. The Italian biographies, it is true, do not speak of 

 his having gone to England ; but this presents no difficulty : for an 

 Italian residing at home might, in return for musical compositions, 

 and architectural devices sent to England, receive English pay at 

 Venice as easily as in London. 



Of tbe John Padova of Milan, mentioned above by the Marchese 



1 Mr. Bawdon Browne says, in a private letter :— " I believe the name of 

 " Mosca," by which this man was generally known, was a surname, from his 

 having built the Kremlin, and it then became a family name : but its architects 

 could have had nothing to do with Longleat." 



2 An engraving of this mausoleum, if there is one, would supply a specimen 

 of the architectural taste of this " John Maria Padovani." 



