e also
executed some excellent sculptures, among which are the fine monument of
Lionardo Bruni in the Church of Santa Croce, and that of the Beata
Villana in Santa Maria Novella, Florence. The first is one of the best
monuments in Tuscany. In the Uffizi are a bust of St. John, a charming
work, and a portrait bust of Battista Sforza.

ANTONIO ROSSELLINO (1427-1490), called PROCONSOLO, from the quarter of
Florence in which he was born, was by far the best sculptor of the
family. He is called a pupil of Donatello, but his work very closely
resembles that of Ghiberti. Among his best works are the monument to
Cardinal Portogallo, in the Church of San Miniato, near Florence; that
of Mary of Aragon in Monte Oliveto at Naples; a relief of the Nativity
in the same church, and a relief of the Adoring Madonna in the Uffizi
Gallery. His characteristics were grace, delicacy of treatment,
sweetness of expression, and all these combined with a noble dignity.

Other Tuscan sculptors of this period were DESIDERIO DA SETTIGNANO, MINO
DA FIESOLE (1400-1486), ANDREA FERRUCCI (1465-1526), and BENEDETTO DA
MAJANO (1442-1498), who was eminent as an architect as well as for his
sculpture. His father was a stone-cutter, and two other sons in the
family were artists. Benedetto began life as a worker in wooden mosaics,
or intarsiatore, as it is called. He made two beautiful inlaid chests,
and carried them to Hungary as a gift to King Matthias Corvinus, whose
fame as a patron of art had reached his ears. But the young artist was
doomed to a dreadful disappointment, for when he unpacked his chests in
the presence of the king it was found that the sea-damp had spoiled
them, and the mosaics had fallen apart. Benedetto then determined to
work in more durable materials, and executed some sculptures in marble
and terra-cotta while he remained in Hungary.

After his return to Florence, Benedetto worked as an architect, and the
Strozzi Palace was built after his design. His masterpiece in sculpture
was the monument to Filippo Strozzi, in the Strozzi Chapel in Santa
Maria Novella, and it also merits mention among the best works of the
fifteenth century. A pulpit in Santa Croce, by Benedetto, is also very
fine, and his skill was shown here in his supporting the pulpit against
a column and putting the staircase by which the pulpit is entered inside
the column; thus it was concealed, and the building in no wise weakened,
while the pulpit is far more beautif