SANSOVINO, ANDREA CONTUCCI DEL MONTE (146o-1529), Florentine sculptor and architect, was the son of a shepherd, Niccolo di Domenico Contucci, and was born at Monte Sansovino near Arezzo, whence he took his name. He was a pupil of Antonio Pollaiuolo, and at first worked in the style of 5th-century Florence. Early works are: the terra-cotta altar piece in Santa Chiara at Monte Sansovino, and the marble reliefs of the "Annunciation," the "Coronation of the Virgin," a "Pieta," the "Last Supper," and various statuettes in the Corbinelli chapel of S. Spirito at Florence. In 1490 he was invited to Portugal by King John II. and some pieces of sculpture by him still exist in the monastic church of Coimbra. These early reliefs show strongly the influence of Donatello. The beginning of a more pagan style is shown in the statues of "St. John baptizing Christ" over the east door of the Florentine baptistery. This group was, however, finished by the weaker hand of Vincenzo Danti. In 1502 he executed the marble font at Volterra, with good reliefs of the "Four Virtues" and the "Baptism of Christ." The statues of the
Virgin and John the Baptist in the cathedral of Genoa were com pleted in 1503. His earliest work in Rome is probably the monu ment of Pietro da Vicenza (1504), in the church of Ara Coeli. The monuments of Cardinal Ascanio Maria Sforza and of the bishop Hieronimus Bassus for the church of S. Maria del Popolo are among his most important works. In 1512, Sansovino exe cuted a group of the "Madonna and Child with St. Anne," now over one of the side altars in the church of S. Agostino. From 1513 to 1528 he was at Loreto, where he cased the outside of the Santa Casa in white marble, covered with reliefs and statuettes in niches between engaged columns; the greater part of his sculpture was executed by his assistants, and though the general effect is rich and magnificent, the individual pieces are both dull and feeble, the greater part of the work being executed by his assistants. The earlier reliefs, executed by Sansovino him self, are interesting. Jacopo Sansovino was his best pupil.