Ammanati, Bartholomew

, a celebrated architect and sculptor, was born at Florence in 1511, and was at first the scholar of Baccio Bandinelli, and then of Sansovino at Venice; but on his return to his own country, he studied with much enthusiasm the sculptures of Michael Angelo in the chapel of St. Laurence. His first works are at Pisa; for Florence he executed a Leda, and about the same time, for Naples, the three figures, large as life, on the tomb of the poet Sannazarius. Meeting with some unpleasant circumstances here, he returned to Venice, and made the colossal Neptune, which is in St. Mark’s place. At Padua he made another colossal statue, of Hercules, which is still in the Montava palace, and has been engraved. He then went to Rome to study the antique, and pope Julius III. employed him in works of sculpture in the capitol. Some time after, in conjunction withVasari, he erected the tomb of cardinal de Monti, which added very considerably to his fame. Besides these, he executed a great number of works for Rome, Florence, and other places. The porticoes of the court of the palace Pitti are by him, as well as the bridge of the Trinity, one of the finest structures that have been raised since the revival of the arts, the facade of the Roman college, and the palace Rupsoli on the Corso. This architect composed a large work, entitled “La Cita,” comprising designs for all the public edifices necessary to a great city. This book, after having passed successively through several hands, was presented some time in the eighteenth century to prince Ferdinand of Tuscany, and it is now among the collection of designs in the gallery of Florence, after having been long inquired after, and supposed to be lost. After the death of his wife, he devoted the greater part of his wealth to pious purposes, and died himself in 1592. His wife, Laura Battiferri, an Italian lady of distinguished genius and learning, was the daughter of John. Antony Battiferri, and was born at Urbino in 1513. She spent her whole life in the study of philosophy and polite literature, and is esteemed one of the best Italian poets of the sixteenth century. The principal merit of her poems, “L’Opere Toscane,1560, consists in a noble elevation, their being filled with excellent morals, | and their breathing a spirit of piety. The academy of Intronati, at Sienna, chose her one of their members. She died in November 1589, at seventy-six years of age. 1

1 Baldinucci, notiziede' professori del disegno. —Moreri. Biog. Universelle. —Dict. Hist.