SANSOVINO, JACOPO

(1486-1570)

   Jacopo Sansovino is credited with introducing to Venice the classical architecture that was devel-oped further in the next generation by the famous Venetian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. Jacopo Sansovino was born in Florence but spent most of his early years working in Rome. During this time, the papal court in Rome sponsored many architectural commissions to restore the city to its ancient grandeur, and so the High Renaissance style flourished there during the first two decades of the century. However, in 1527, Rome was pillaged by members of the army of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy had been maintaining an uneasy alliance, and indeed the Emperor was in northern Italy at the time to help drive the French out of the region.His victory so drained the imperial treasury that the majority of his soldiers abandoned their duties after finding out that they would not receive their salaries. Around 35,000 of these soldiers, together with their commanding officers, marched on Rome to loot the city, and Rome was nearly destroyed. Most of the leading artists and architects, including Jacopo Sansovino, fled the city along with many other people.

   In 1529, Sansovino settled in Venice and became the chief architect to the Procurator of San Marco. It is in the central piazza of San Marco that Sansovino's most famous buildings are located, including the Mint, called the "Zecca"; the small portico called the "Loggetta" that adjoins the belltower, or campanile; and the library, located across from the Doges' Palace. The library, built by Sansovino in the 1530s, is innovative in design and format. It effectively provides the final link to the traditional branches of city life. These include the economic center, located in the thriving market area behind the library; the religious authority, symbolized by the adjacent Cathedral of San Marco; the secular political power, represented by the Doges' Palace; and finally, the new Renaissance interest in the intellectual aspirations of its citizens, represented by the library itself.

   Libraries had been built prior to Sansovino's structure, but this is the first library to attain such a prominent location and to be so fully integrated into a city's identity. The library mimics the general appearance of the opposing Doges' Palace by following the same long, rectangular shape and the two-story open portico. The Doges' Palace, however, is larger and has an additional third story, marking its central importance in the city. The architectural importance of the library is that it replaced the Gothic style, which had continued to be very popular in this northern Italian city, with a Renaissance classicism imported from Rome. Accordingly, Sansovino's columns are not the fanciful versions separated by Gothic arches and exotic decoration that characterize the Doges' Palace. Instead, he used the Vitruvian Doric and then Ionic capital orders to support each story, together with rounded arches that form the open porch areas and are flanked by smaller columns. Finally, a classical Roman balustrade runs along the roof. The levels are separated by classical molding that serves to create a rational design, in keeping with classical principles. Thus, here Sansovino successfully brought to the city of Venice both the style of classical antiquity and its Renaissance symbolism.

A Florentine architect and sculptor, Jacopo Sansovino orchestrated the archi­tectural renewal of the political center of Venice, helping to modernize the city and bring it into the High Renaissance. In Florence, Italy, Jacopo Tatti trained as a sculptor with Andrea Sansovino and subsequently adopted the surname of his mentor. While he was in Florence, he encountered the High Renaissance as it was currently unfolding in the studio and the city. Around 1506 Sansovino went to Rome, where he established himself as an important sculptor whose work was deeply influenced by ancient sculpture and the art of Michelangelo.* Sansovino also continued to pursue his interest in architecture as he studied ancient buildings and eventually received religious and private architectural commissions.

After the sack of Rome, Sansovino moved to Venice in 1527, where he was in demand from the beginning, subsequently becoming famous as an architect.His formation and commissions in Rome and Florence meant that he brought with him the latest artistic and architectural innovations to Venice. In 1529 he was named chief architect of St. Mark's and received the commission to restruc­ture and unify the central piazza of St. Mark, the political, economic, and cul­tural center of the city. The Roman vocabulary and the scale of his projects there, including the Library, the Loggetta underneath the campanile, various offices, and the Venetian mint, made a tremendous impact. While outwardly modern, Sansovino's buildings responded to the local architectural tradition and Venice's specific construction needs as Sansovino likewise adapted the design to the site and function of the building. Stylistically, his architecture reflects his sculptural formation with a pictorial dynamism owing to the play of light and shade on the surface.

Sansovino also continued to sculpt in Venice, renewing the Venetian and northern Italian sculptural scene there with his sculptures, tombs, and reliefs that embodied his mixture of classical and modern models, as evidenced in his sculp­tures for the Loggetta. Sansovino simultaneously continued to study fifteenth-century sculpture, especially the work of Donatello, as he sensitively responded to the northern Italian artistic tradition and fused it with central Italian devel­opments. Sansovino worked in Venice for more than forty years, helping to visibly establish the all'antica style there with his sculptures and architecture.

B. Boucher, The Sculpture ofJacopo Sansovino, 1991.

D. Howard, Jacopo Sansovino: Architecture and Patronage in Renaissance Venice, 1975.

(Jacopo Tatti; 1486-1570)

   Florentine architect and sculptor who trained with Andrea Sansovino from whom he adopted his surname. He traveled to Rome in 1505 or 1506 where he entered Donato Bramante's circle. For the next two decades he split his time between Rome and Florence, leaving the papal city permanently in 1527 when imperial forces invaded. Sansovino established himself in Venice, where he spent the rest of his life. In 1529, he was appointed principal architect of the Venetian Republic, an office he held for 40 years.In 1537 he began his greatest masterpiece, the Library of St. Mark, built directly across from the Doge's Palace. The purpose of the structure was to house the famous book collection of the humanist Cardinal Basilius Bessarion who bequeathed it to the Venetian Republic in 1468. In 1545, a major frost caused part of the building's ceiling to collapse, resulting in Sansovino's imprisonment. His friends Titian and Pietro Aretino spoke out in his favor and he soon was released and able to resume his position as official architect. Sansovino did not see the building completed; his pupil, Vincenzo Scamozzi, finished the structure after his death.

   The library adjoins the Campanile of the Basilica of St. Mark. At the Campanile's foot, Sansovino built a small loggia, called the Loggetta (beg. 1538), meant as a meeting hall for Venetian patricians during the Councils of State. Its design, based on an ancient triumphal arch, harmonizes with the design of his library. The other major commission Sansovino received from the Venetian Republic was the Zecca or mint (beg. 1536), adjoining the library. With this structure, Sansovino introduced to Venice the Mannerist custom of rusticating the columns of the façade, already used by Giulio Romano in the Palazzo del Tè (1527-1534) in Mantua. The Palazzo Corner de la Cà Grande (beg. c. 1545) is the only major commission Sansovino received from a private family. The structure, with its Mannerist elements also inspired by Giulio Romano, established a new Venetian palace type that was to be emulated by future architects in the 16th and 17th centuries.

   See also Sack of Rome.

(1486-1570)

   Florentine architect and sculptor, born Jacopo Tatti. He was a pupil of Andrea Sansovino, whose surname he took when he followed his master to Rome in 1505. His early career was in Rome, but after the Sack of Rome by the imperial army in 1527 he settled in Venice, where he did his most important work. His most famous architectural work was the Bib-lioteca Marciana in Venice, which was begun in 1536 and completed a decade after Sansovino's death; it was praised by Andrea Palladio and subsequent critics because of its historically correct usage of the classical architectural orders.