in bas-relief became the principal ornaments 
of the cathedrals which were built in Italy in 
their time. They were born at Pisa, and 
flourished in the middle of the 13th century. 
To their names is to be added that of Niccolo 
deli’ Area. 
To these succeeded Donatello, born at 
Florence, in 1393, whom an Italian author 
calls the reviver oi sculpture: and Lorenzo 
Ghiberti, celebrated for his admirable bas- 
reliefs in bronze on the gates of the Baptis- 
tery of St. John at Florence, of which Michael 
Angelo said, that they deserved to be the 
gates of Paradise. The compartments of 
these gates are filled with subjects taken from 
the Old Testament. The accompanying or- 
naments of fruits, flowers, &c. are of the most 
exquisite workmanship. 
The list of succeeding sculptors, in Tus- 
cany, is very numerous. Those of the greatest 
celebrity are Michael Angelo Buonaroti, no 
less eminent in sculpture than in painting; 
Baccio Bandinelii; ISiccolo, called ilTribolo; 
Gulielmo della Porta; Jacopo Sansovino; 
Annibale Fontana; Benvenuto Cellini; Mont 
Orsoli ; Giambologna, See. &e. 
To these is to be added the name of Pro- 
pertia di Rossi distinguished as much by her 
misfortunes as her talents. Her history is 
singularly interesting, if' the circumstances 
related of her are authentic. 
Propertia di Rossi was born at Bologna, at 
the close of the fifteenth century. She was 
not only versed in sculpture, but had reached 
also no common excellence in music. Her 
first works were carvings in wood, and on 
peach-stones, eleven of which were in the 
museum of the marquis Grassi at Bologna, 
each representing on one side one of the 
apostles, and on the other several saints. In 
these minute attempts having gained uni- 
versal applause, she then gave a public proof 
of her genius in a work of considerable im- 
portance, which she finished in marble, for 
the front of the cathedral of St. Petronius. A 
bust of count Guido Pepoli was likewise 
greatly admired. The rules of perspective 
'and architecture were equally familiar to her. 
With all these talents, and a fame unrivalled 
by her sex, Propertia was most unfortunate. 
In early life she had been married without 
sympathy, and had fixed her affections on 
one whose heart was totally insensible. 
Whi ie her health was daily yielding to de- j 
spair, she undertook the bas-relief, represent- 
ing the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, 
which forms the principal subject of the work 
above-mentioned, belonging to the church of 
St. Petronius. It w T as at once a monument 
of her hopeless passion, and of her admirable 
skill. 
The juvenile talents of Michael Angelo 
were displayed in the imitation, first of Do- 
natello, and next of the antique ; but he soon 
formed his own distinct style, consistent with 
the character of his native genius. This style 
was, like his painting, invariably grand, flis 
anatomical knowledge was at all times conspi- 
cuous, and the display of it sometimes ex- 
ceded the just bounds. His works in various 
cities of Italy are numerous. The principal 
ones are at Rome and Florence. In the former 
city , the monument of Julius II. in the church 
of St. Pietro in Vincoli, (which comprises 
the well-known statue of Moses) and the ce- 
lebrated work of the Pieta, in a chapel in St. 
Peter’s, are worthy of the highest admiration. 
SCULPTURE. 
At Florence, his greatest work is in the sa- 
cristy of St. Lorenzo, where he has placed the 
statues of the dukes Lorenzo and "Giuliano 
Medici, together with four emblematic 
figures of Night, Day, "Twilight, and Dawn. 
T lie superior genius of this great artist 
established the school of sculpture in Flo- 
rence ; and his successors were, for a long 
period, little more than imitators of his style. 
But although they succeeded in giving to 
their figures an appearance of anatomical 
knowledge, they were tar from equalling 
their great exemplar in his profound concep- 
tion of the principles of art. They may of 
course all be considered as his inferiors in a 
line which he had marked out for them. 
With the decline of the republic of Flo- 
rence, the arts also sunk into decay, or took 
their flight to Rome, where Algardi became 
the author of a new style, by studying to 
unite the effects of painting with those of 
sculpture, and thus deserting the real intent 
of his art ; which is to imitate the forms, not 
the appearances, of objects, the latter being 
the province of painting. 
By these means sculpture assumed, under 
the hands of Algardi, a mannered air, which 
it has never since wholly lost. 
One of the most extraordinary works of 
Algardi, is a large bas-relief, placed over an 
altar in St. Peter’s church ; in which he has 
represented St. Peter and St. Paul in the air, 
averting by their menaces the haughty At- 
tila, who was advancing to the attack of 
Pome. The principal figures in this singular 
work are of the highest relievo; those which 
are supposed less in front are in mezzo-re- 
lievo; and in the others the degree of relief 
is proportionally diminished, until the most 
distant figures are only marked with a simple 
line. '1 his was considered in his time as the 
mode of perfecting bas-relief; and Pope In- 
nocent the Tenth rewarded the artist with a 
present of 30,000 Roman crowns. 
To Algardi succeeded Lorenzo Bernini, 
born in 1398, who, pursuing the track which 
Algardi had begun, and distinguishing him- 
self at ati early age by extraordinary matu- 
rity of talents, consulted ever afterwards no 
other rules than the indulgence of his own 
fancy, and sought celebrity from the flights 
of caprice and extravagance. His first group 
was Apollo and Daphne, at the moment that 
the nymph begins to exhibit the change from 
her natural form to that of the laurel-tree. 
The figures are remarkably light and grace- 
ful, -end the fame which this work acquired 
for its author was of the most excessive de- 
gree. His latter works at Rome were the 
celebrated chair of St. Peter’s church, the 
monument of the popes Urban the Eighth 
and Alexander the Seventh, (he equestrian 
statue of Constantine, and the fountain in the 
Piazza Mavona. 
The sculptors who followed were the imi- 
tators sometimes of one, and sometimes of 
the other, of these two masters. 
At the same period flourished Francois du 
Quesnoy, called Fiammingo, unrivalled in 
the beautiful and tender forms of his infantine 
figures. In his statue of Saint Susanna, he 
proposed to imitate the simplicity of the 
antique ; and succeeded (says Mengs) in 
imitating the superficial appearance, but not 
the essential maxims, of the antieuts. 
£ 
f}3g 
I Rusconi is the last sculptor worthy of par- 
| ticular notice, until the appearance o An- 
tonio Canova, a Venetian, now living, and 
whose productions exhibit talents of a very 
extraordinary rank. Many accounts of his 
works are to be found in the relations of mo- 
dern travellers. 
Of a date very little later than the revival 
of art at Florence, is the commencement of 
its cultivation in France. While Michael 
Angelo was disclosing his wonderful powers 
at Rome, under the pontificate of Leo the 
Tenth, Jean Goujon attracted the admira- 
tion of Paris, in the reign of Francis the First, 
and continued to receive it in that of Henry 
the Second. His name is frequently placed 
in competition with the sculptors of" the Ita- 
lian school. “ The works of Goujon (savs h 
F rench writer) recai to our view the .simple 
and sublime beauties of flic antique.” His 
figures were however more esteemed on the 
score of grace than of correctness. Tie ex- 
celled particularly in works oi mezzo-relievo. 
The Fontaine des Saints Innocens, in the Rue 
St. Denis at Paris, is an instance of his merit 
in this kind; as is also the tribune, support- 
ed by colossal Caryatides, in the Salle des 
Cent Suisses at the Louvre. 
Girardon, bom in 1627, was at once (like 
the preceding artist) a sculptor and architect. 
His works were admired for the correctness 
of design, and beauty of composition ; and he 
was said by his countrymen to have produced 
chefs-d’ceuvres only. The magnificent mau- 
soleum of cardinal Richelieu in the church 
of the Sorbonne, the equestrian statue of 
Louis the Fourteenth in the Place Vendome, 
and numerous statues and groups in the gar- 
dens of Versailles, are testimonials oU ins 
merit. 
Cotemporary in age and fame with Girar- 
don, was Puget, born at Marseilles, in 1622, 
and denominated by Louis the Fourteenth 
“ the Inimitable.” He studied from the age 
of 16 to 21, in Italy, where he distinguished 
himself equally for the quickness of his ta- 
lents, and his extraordinary diffidence in 
them. Soon after his return to h s own 
country, he was invited to Paris by M. Col- 
bert, and executed many admirable works, 
particularly the groups of Milo, and of An- 
dromeda rescued by Perseus, in the park of 
Versailles. Iiis works are celebrated by the 
French for their elevated taste, correctness 
of drawing, nobleness of character, and im 
general the most happy fertility of genius. 
His artful disposition of drapery for the dis- 
play of the form beneath it, is much admired. 
Puget’s reputation was at its height when- 
Bernini became eminent at Rome; and it is 
not more creditable to one than to the other 
of these sculptors, that when Louis the Four- 
teenth sent an invitation to Bernini to come 
to Paris, that artist replied, that the king of 
France had no occasion for his talents, while 
he had such a sculptor as Puget in his domi- 
nions. 
The other countries on the continent hav- 
ing chiefly received the rudiments of art 
from the two already mentioned, have culti- 
vated a similar taste in most of their works 
of sculpture. Many artists, however, have 
appeared worthy of high praises : and in mo- 
dern days the names of Zauner in Vienna, 
Sergei in Stockholm, and Koslovski in P«- 
tersburgh, stand high in estimation. 
