GIOVANNI DA BOLOGNA (1529-1608) was born in Douai, in Flanders, and was called Il Fiammingo for this reason. Giovanni was intended for a notary by his father, who planned his education with that end in view; but the boy's passion for sculpture was so great that the father was obliged to yield to it, and placed him under the instruction of a sculptor named Beuch, who had studied in Italy. Later Giovanni went to Rome, and finally settled in Florence, where his most important works remain. He was an imitator of Michael Angelo, and one of his best imitators; but when his works are compared with those of the great master, or with the masterpieces of the fifteenth century, we see a decline in them. In religious subjects Giovanni was not at home; his most successful works were those which represented sentiment or abstract ideas, because on them he could lavish his skill in execution, and use ornaments that did not suit the simplicity of religious subjects. In the Loggia de' Lanzi, at Florence, there are two groups by him, the Rape of the Sabines and Hercules and Nessus. In the Piazza della Signoria is his excellent statue of Duke Cosmo I., and in the Uffizi Gallery a bronze statue of Mercury. The Rape of the Sabines is his masterpiece, and the Mercury is one of the best works of its kind since the days of classic art. It is the favorite Mercury of the world, and has been frequently copied. It is seen in many galleries and collections in its original size, and a small copy is much used in private houses. (Fig. 109.) Giovanni was especially happy in his designs for fountains, and that which he erected in Bologna, in 1564, in front of the Palazzo Pubblico, is a splendid work of this kind. The statue of Neptune at its summit is stately and free in its action; the children are charming and life-like, and the Sirens at the base give an harmonious finish and complete the outline with easy grace. He also erected a magnificent fountain in the island of the Boboli Gardens. In the Palazzo Vecchio is a marble group by Giovanni representing Virtue conquering Vice. At Petraja there is a beautiful Venus crowning a fountain remarkable for grace and delicacy, and, all in all, his works prove him to have been the best sculptor of his own time. Tuscany may claim him and be proud of him, for he was far more her son than that of his native Flanders. Giovanni da Bologna was far less successful in reliefs than in statues, as may be seen in the bronze gates to the Cathedral of Pisa, which he made in the last years of his life. In his character this master was attractive and much beloved by his friends. One of them wrote of him: "The best fellow in the world, not in the least covetous, as he shows by his poverty; filled with a love of glory, and ambitious of rivalling Michael Angelo."