Ammanati, Bartolommeo

Ammanati, Bartolommeo an illustrious Florentine sculptor and architect, was born in 1511. He first studied under the distinguished Baccio Bandinelli, and afterwards at Venice- under Jacopo Tatti, better known as Sansovino. He executed a colossal statue of Hercules at Padua by order of Marco di Mantova, a rich physician and a great patron of the arts. At Urbino he was employed to make the monument of duke Francesco Maria, in the Church of Santa Chiara. He made a handsome monument, which still exists in the Church of San Pietro at Montorio. As an architect, he designed and erected the new bridge of the Trinity over the Arno, at Florence, which still remains, and is considered one of the most elegantly designed and ingeniously constructed specimens of which the art can boast. He died in 1589.