TRIBOLO. -(1485-1550.)

The proper name of Tribolo was NiccoIo Braccini. He first comes into notice with a bronze group for a fountain executed for Lorenzo Strozzi. In 1525 he went to Bologna, where he did twelve bas-reliefs for the door of the cathedral, which had been decorated by Jacopo Bella Quercia. Like all the artists of the sixteenth century, his style betrayed the influence of Michael Angelo. From Bologna he went to Rome, where he erected the tomb of Pope Adrian VI. in the church of Santa Maria dell' Anima, and from Rome the Pope sent him to Loretto, where he decorated the sanctuary, the bas-reliefs of which, it may be added, are of a commonplace and almost vulgar type. From Loretto he came to Florence, where Michael Angelo employed him upon the Medici Chapel, but falling ill, he went to Venice with Cellini, who hoped to find work for him with Sansovino. Failing that, be once more returned to Florence, and took an active part in getting up the decorations for the marriage festival of Alessandro de' Medici to Margaret of Austria. Cosimo I. employed him to make two fountains for the villas of Castello and Petraya, and on the marriage of that Prince with Eleanora of Toledo he erected a superb triumphal arch at the Porta al Prato. He became a sort of artistic master of ceremonies, and, as this was a period of great festivity in Florence, he never lacked employment. When the son of the Grand Duke was christened he transformed the Baptistery from ceiling to floor, bringing the "St. John" of Donatello from the Casa Martelli to surmount the temporary font which he had erected.

Turning his attention from sculpture to hydraulics, Tribolo got into serious difficulties. Inundations occurred during the execution of certain works planned by him, and chagrin at the popular manifestations of disapproval which resulted, is sometimes supposed to have been the cause of his death, which occurred in September, 1550. He was one of the leading sculptors of his day, surpassed only by Michael Angelo and Giovanni da Bologna.

VINCENZIO DANTI. -(1530-1576.)

Danti completed the marble group representing the Baptism of Christ upon the architrave of the eastern gate of the Baptistery. It was begun some critics say only modelled by Sansovino, and the angel was made by Spinazzi in the seventeenth century. Though most of his work was done at Florence, he was a native of Perugia, for which place he cast the large bronze statue of Pope Julius II., which stands just behind the cathedral. He was a military architect as well, and left several sonnets, being altogether a very notable representative of the Renaissance.

LORENZI STOLDI was one of the artists who were employed upon the Duomo and San Celso at Milan, and what value his sculptures possess they derive from being imitations of the antique.

PAOLO PONZIO (1500-157 ). This artist, taken to the Court of Francois I. by Primaticcio,was a naturalized Frenchman, and it was as " Paul Ponce " that he modelled the stuccoes for the gallery of Francois I., the frescoes in which were painted by Rosso and Primatiecio, and recently restored by M. Alaux. The Louvre contains several works of this artist, who remained in France during the reign of four monarchs, from Francois I. to Charles IX. The Renaissance Museum contains his statues of Albert Pius of Savoy, Prince de Carpi, Charles de Magny captain of Henri II.'s body-guard, and of Andre Blondel de Roquencourt, Controller of Finance. It is not known whether he died in France or in Italy, but he must have lived to a great age.

One of the last great sculptors of the period was PIETRO TACCA, a native of Carrara, who did a good deal of work at Florence. The Medici employed him very frequently, and some of the equestrian statues in the court-yard of the Royal Palace at Madrid are by him. He was a pupil of Giovanni da Bologna, and it was after a model made by that master that he cast the statue of Duke Ferdinand on the Piazza della SS. Annunziata. He was also the author of the bronze fountains which ornament the same square.

From this time the decadence of the art of sculpture proceeded rapidly, and though there has been a revival within the present century, the last of the long series of mighty artists belonging to the period of which this volume treats is Michael Angelo, whose name stands out as a model of civic virtue as well as of inspired genius.