Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 09 (of 10): Michelagnolo to the FlemingsVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 09 (of 10): Michelagnolo to the Flemings
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
It remains for us to make mention, as the last of Sansovino's
disciples, of Danese Cattaneo, the sculptor of Carrara, who was
already with him in Venice when still a little boy. Parting from his
master at the age of nineteen, he made by himself a boy of marble for
S. Marco, and a S. Laurence for the Church of the Friars Minors; for
S. Salvadore another boy in marble, and for SS. Giovanni e Polo the
statue of a nude Bacchus, who is grasping a bunch of grapes from a
vine which twines round a trunk that he has behind his legs, which
statue is now in the house of the Mozzenighi at S. Barnaba. He has
executed many figures for the Library of S. Marco and for the Loggia
of the Campanile, together with others of whom there has been an
account above; and, in addition to those named, the two that have been
mentioned already as being in the apartments of the Council of Ten. He
made portraits in marble of Cardinal Bembo and Contarini, the
Captain-General of the Venetian forces, which are both in S. Antonio
at Padua, with rich and beautiful ornaments about them. And in the
same city of Padua, in S. Giovanni di Verdara, there is by the same
hand the portrait of Messer Girolamo Gigante, a most learned jurist.
And for S. Antonio della Giudecca, in Venice, he has made a very
lifelike portrait of Giustiniano, the Lieutenant of the Grand Master
of Malta, and that of Tiepolo, who was three times General; but these
have not yet been set in their places. But the greatest work and the
most distinguished that Danese has ever executed is a rich chapel of
marble, with large figures, in S. Anastasia at Verona, for Signor
Ercole Fregoso, in memory of Signor Jano, once Lord of Genoa, and then
Captain-General of the Venetians, in whose service he died. This work
is of the Corinthian Order, in the manner of a triumphal arch, and
divided by four great columns, round and fluted, with capitals of
olive-leaves, which rest upon a base of proportionate height, making
the space in the centre as wide again as one of those at the sides;
with an arch between the columns, above which there rest on the
capitals the architrave and cornice, and in the centre, within the
arch, a very beautiful decoration of pilasters, with cornice and
frontispiece, and with a ground formed by a tablet of most beautiful
black basanite, where there is the statue of a nude Christ, larger
than life and in the round, a very good figure; which statue stands in
the act of showing the Wounds, with a piece of drapery bound round the
flanks and reaching between the legs to the ground. Over the angles of
the arch are Signs of His Passion, and between the columns that are on
the right side there stands upon a pedestal a statue in the round
representing Signor Jano Fregoso, fully armed after the antique save
that he shows the arms and legs nude, and he has the left hand upon
the pommel of the sword at his girdle, and with the right hand he
holds the general's baton; having behind him as a pendant, within the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account