AMMANNATI, BARTOLOMEO

(1511-1592)

   Tuscan sculptor and architect who assisted Jacopo Sansovino in Venice and Michelangelo and Giacomo da Vignola in Rome. By 1555, Ammannati was in Florence serving the Medici dukes. His most important architectural work is the Palazzo Pitti Courtyard (beg. 1560), a commission he received from Cosimo I de' Medici who purchased the palace in 1549 and that is one of the great masterpieces of the Mannerist movement. His Neptune Fountain (1563-1575), in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence, is his most notable sculpture commission. In the early 1580s, Ammannati developed strong ties to the Jesuit Order. The influence of the Jesuits led to his public renunciation of the depiction of the nude form, which he now deemed sinful. In his declaration, he contended that an artist could just as well show his skill by rendering the clothed figure and he made specific reference to the shameful nude god of the oceans featured in his Neptune Fountain.