The Later Sculpture of Antonio Rossellino

Antonio Rossellino's reputation as one of the most talented marble sculptors of mid-fifteenth century Florence has been based largely on his portrait busts and Madonna reliefs, his statue of St. Sebastian in Empoli, and the Tomb of the Cardinal of Portugal in San Miniato al Monte, Florence. Nearly all of these works date, or have been thought to date, to first forty years of Rossellino's life (b. 1427-d. 1479). In his final decade the sculptor was involved in at least as many projects as in all the rest of his career; ones of comparable creativity and far greater diversity. Following an introductory review of Antonio Rossellino's life, work and critical fortunes, I have devoted separate chapters to eight major commissions of his later career, arranged in approximate order in which it now appears they were executed: Internal Pulpit in Cathedral, Prato; Nori Monument and Tedaldi Tomb in S. Croce, Florence; Piccolomini Chapel in S. Anna dei Lombardi, Naples; Roverella Monument in S. Giorgio, Ferrara; Martini Chapel in S. Giobbe, Venice; Striding Baptist in Museo Nazionale, Florence; Capacci Chapel in Collegiata, Empoli. Among the more important findings of my research are confirmation of Schmarsow's old attribution of Martini Baptist to Rossellino, in context of its patron's unsuspected artistic, familial and commercial ties to Florence, and identification of patrons and interdisciplinary chapel context for which Rossellino's statue of St. Sebastian was made after 1476, not early in his career as has often been proposed. Despite the less well-integrated and occasionally widespread intervention of Rossellino's assistants and associates in his later commissions, I also have found the level of innovation and technical and compositional mastery in the parts for which he was responsible to have remained high to the end of Rossellino's life. I have appended a number of unpublished documents pertaining to the Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal. They include the Cardinal's testament, an unknown description of his funeral, endowment of his chapel, and release of his funds from the Monte Comune of Florence.