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, or more properly Andrea Pisano, an eminent sculptor and architect, was born at Pisa in 1270, at a time when Arnolfo di Lapo, John de Pisa, and others, following the designs of Cimabue and Giotto, had renounced the Gothic style, and were introducing those purer models, which promised a revolution in architecture, sculpture, and painting. Andrea, entering into their ideas, had some peculiar circumstances in his favour, as at that time his countrymen, who were powerful at sea, traded with Greece, and brought thence ancient statues, bas-reliefs, and valuable marbles, which they employed in the ornament or construction of their public edifices, particularly the cathedral and the Campo Santo. By studying these, Andrea acquired a portion of that taste which was afterwards so conspicuous in Donatelio, Brunelleschi, and Ghiberti. His first attempts were so favourably received, that he was invited to Florence to execute, from the designs of Giotto, the sculptures on the facade of St. Marie del Fiore, the most magnificent edifice of that time. He began with the statue of Boniface VIII. the protector of the Florentines, which he followed by those of St. Peter, St. Paul, and other saints. In 1586, when it was determined to repair this facade upon a more modern plan, these were all removed, and when that design was not approved of, they were put up in the church and in other places, and some were deposited in the Poggio imperiale, a country-house belonging to the grand dukes of Tuscany. There was also a Madona and two angels in the church of the Misericordia, which are said to have been executed by Andrea at the same time. On the death of Arnolfo di Lapo, the republic of Florence employed Andrea in all the great works constructing in their territories. As an engineer, he built the fortifications round Florence, and the strong castle of Scarperia. During more peaceable times, he employed himself in making figures in bronze; and the Florentines, who were ambitious of rivalling the magnificence of the ancients in their temples, employed him to execute the sculpture of the gates of the baptistery, from designs by Giotto. These gates were accordingly covered with basreliefs, representing the whole history of John the Baptist. The composition is excellent, and the attitudes of the figures natural and expressive, although with some degree of stiffness, but the minute parts are executed with great skill. These gates, which were begun in 1331, were finished, polished, and gilt in eight years, and at first were placed at the principal entrance, but they were afterwards removed to one of the side entrances, where they now are, and the admirable gates of Laurent Ghiberti substituted in their room. Andrea also executed in bronze the tabernacle of San Giovanni, the has reliefs, and statues belonging to the campanile of St. Marie del Fiore, and many others. At Venice, his works are, the sculpture oa the façade of the church of St. Mark; the model of the baptistery of Pistoia, executed in 1337; and the tomb of Cino d'Angibolgi; and he was employed in many fortifications by Gaultier de Brienne, duke of Athens, during his usurpation at Florence; but Andrea did not suffer by the duke’s disgrace in 1343; and the Florentines, who looked only to his merit, admitted him a citizen of Florence, where he died in 1345, and was buried in St. Marie del Fiore. His son Nino, also a sculptor of considerable note, erected a monument to his memory.

, an eminent sculptor, was born at Florence in 1487, and died in 1559. He was intended by his father, who was a goldsmith, to follow that business, but discovered an early and much higher relish for sculpture. It is said that at the age of nine he made a statue of snow, which was remarkable for justness of proportion. He attempted also painting, but was deficient in colouring, and wanted perseverance to acquire execution and handling. He was, however, a great designer, and his compositions of the Martyrdom of St, Lawrence, and the Massacre of the Innocents, shew exuberance of fancy. In the former, the draped figures that compose the upper rank of spectators, are equally admirable for simplicity and elegance, whilst the saint' himself, and those around him, exhibit little more than clumsiness, or barefaced contrast. The Massacre of the Innocents, with a display of anatomic prowess, presents a scene, not of terror and pity, but loathsomeness and horror. As a sculptor, however, he was esteemed the greatest after Michael Angelo. Among his most admired "works is the copy of the Laocoon, in the garden of the Medicis at Florence. This was intended by pope Clement VII. as a present to Francis I. but when he saw it, he was so much pleased that he could not part with it, and in its stead sent a present of antique statues to the king of France. Another of his admired productions was a bas relief of a Descent from the Cross, which he presented to Charles V. who rewarded him with a commandery of St. James and to this, not inferior in excellence, maybe added his Hercules and Cacus, a colossal groupe, and his statues of Leo X. and Clement VII. Vasari, who has written his life, justlv censures his envious disposition, and particularly his jealous hatred of Michael Angelo.

, an eminent sculptor and architect of Paris, lived under Francis I. and Henry II. and is supposed to have designed the fronts of the old Louvre. This artist’s figures, in demi -relief, have never been surpassed; nor can any thing of that kind be more beautiful than his Fountain of the Innocents, in the street of St. Denis at Paris. The cariatides which support a tribune in the hall of the Hundred Swiss at the Louvre are no less so. Many more of his works may be seen in that city, which are the admiration of connoisseurs, and remind us of the simple and sublime beauties of the antique style; for which reason he is justly called the Corregio of sculpture.

, an eminent sculptor, was born at Paris in November 1666. From his infancy he made so rapid a progress in the art of designing, that, at eighteen, the celebrated Girardon intrusted him with the care of teaching his children, and of correcting the designs of his disciples. He committed to him also, in conjunction with Noulisson, the execution of the famous tomb of cardinal Richelieu in the Sorbonne, and of his own tomb at St. Landres, in Paris. On his return from Rome, he finished several pieces at Marseilles, which had been left imperfect by the death of M. Pu-get. He was received into the academy of sculpture, Oct. 1701, when he composed his Galatea for his chef d'ceuvre, a work universally esteemed. Lorrain afterwards made a Bacchus for the gardens at Versailles, a fawn for those at Marli, and several bronzes; among others, an Andromeda, &c. The academy elected him professor May 29, 1717; and he died their governor June 1, 1743, aged 77.

, an Italian poet and historian, was born in 1521 at Rome, and was the son of James Sansovino, an eminent sculptor and celebrated architect, whose eulogy Vasari has left us. He studied the belies lettres at Venice, and took his degrees in law at Padua; but that science not suiting his taste, he devoted himself wholly to poetry, history, and polite literature, and died in 1586, at Venice, aged sixty-five, leaving more than fifty works, all written in Italian. They consist of “Poems;” notes on Boccaccio’s “Decameron, on Ariosto, Dante, &c.” translations of ancient historians and some histories written by himself, as his “Venezia descritta,” of which the best edition is that of 1663, 4to; “Istoria Universale dell' origine, guerre, ed imperio deTurchi,” 1654, 2 vols. 4to, reckoned a capital work. His “Satires” are in a collection with those of Ariosto, and others, Venice, 1560, 8vo his “Capitoli” with those of Aretino, and different writers, 1540, and 1583, 8vo to which we may add his “Cento novelle Scelte,” Venice, 1566, 4to.