ROSSELLINOAntonio (1427-c. 1479), one of the most skilful of Florentine sculptors, was the son of Matteo di Domenico Gamberelli, and had four brothers, who all practised some branch of the fine arts. Almost nothing is known about the life of Antonio, but many of his works still exist, and are of the highest beauty, full of strong religious sentiment, and executed with the utmost delicacy' of touch and technical skill. The style of Antonio and his brother (see below) is a development of that of Donatello and Ghiberti; it possesses all the refinement and soft sweetness of the earlier masters, but is not equal to them either in vigour or originality. Antonio’s chief work, still in perfect preservation, is the very lovely tomb of a young cardinal prince of Portugal, who died in 1459, aged only twenty-six. It occupies one side of a small chapel on the north of the nave of San Miniato. The recumbent effigy of the cardinal is very remarkable for the grace of its pose and the beauty of the portrait face. It rests on a handsome sarcophagus, and over it, under the arch which frames the whole, is a beautiful relief of the Madonna between two flying angels. The tomb was begun in 1461 and finished in 1466; Antonio received four hundred and twenty-five gold florins for it. A reproduction of this tomb with slight alterations, and of course a different effigy, was made by Antonio for the wife of Antonio Piccolomini, duke of Amalfi, in the church of S. Maria del Monte at Naples, where it still exists. For the same church he also executed some delicate reliefs, which perhaps err in being too pictorial in style, especially in the treatment of the backgrounds. A fine medallion relief by him is preserved in the Bargello at Florence (see fig.), and the original terra cotta model for this ...is in the possession of Mr Drury Fortnum; in some small matters of detail the original terra cotta is superior to the finished marble, especially in the treatment of the infant Christ.
ROSSELLINOBernardo (1409-1464), was no less able as a sculptor than his younger brother (see above), and was also a very distinguished architect. His finest piece of sculpture is the tomb, in the Florentine Santa Croce, of Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo, the historian of Florence; the recumbent effigy is a work of great merit. The inner cathedral pulpit at Prato, circular in form on a tall slender stem, was partly the work of Mino da Fiesole and partly by Bernardo Rossellino. The latter executed the very minute reliefs of St Stephen and the Assumption of the Virgin. For his part in the work he received sixty-six gold florins. The South Kensington Museum possesses a relief by Bernardo, signed and dated (1456). It is a fine portrait of the physician Giovanni da S. Miniato. Bernardo’s works as an architect were very numerous and important, and he was also very skilful as a military engineer. He restored the church of S. Francis at Assisi, and designed several fine buildings at Civita Vecchia, Orvieto, and elsewhere. He also built fortresses and city walls at Spoleto, Orvieto, and Civita Castellana. He was largely employed by Nicholas V. and Pius II. for restorations in nearly all the great basilicas of Rome, but at present little trace of his work remains, owing to the sweeping alterations which were made during the tasteless 17th and 18th centuries. Between the years 1461 and 1464 (the date of his death) he occupied the important post of capo-maestro to the Florentine duomo. A number of buildings at Pienza, executed for Pius II., are attributed to him; the Vatican registers mention the architect of these as MBernardo di Fiorenza, but this indication is too slight to make it certain that the elder Rossellino is referred to (see Vasari, ed. Milanesi, iii. 93 sq. ∖
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