Nanni Di Baccio Bigio
Nanni Di Baccio Bigio [1]
a Florentine sculptor and architect, lived in the first part of the 16th century. He studied sculpture under Raffaelle de Montelupe, and produced the statue of pope Clement VII in the Minerva at Rome, and a goo'd copy of Michael Angelo's Piety, which he executed, it is said, under his direction for the church of the Madonna dell' Anima. After having studied architecture under Lorenzetto, he was employed upon St. Peter's Church by Antonio de San-Gallo. It is known that Michael Angelo, succeeding San-Gallo, commenced by destroying all that his predecessor had done, discharging all those who had worked under his orders Hence the hatred that Nanni bore to the prince of the Florentine school, De Quincey says, "Nanni has left no work of his own to assure him a distinguished place among the architects of his time, and perhaps he would have ill deserved one in the history of architecture if his rival, whom he twice overreached by intrigue, had not given him a kind of celebrity." Michael Angelo having been commissioned to restore the bridge Santa-Maria over the Tiber, Nanni took the work from him, and accomplished it so that at the first inundation the bridge was carried away. Afterwards he succeeded in joining Michael Angelo in the work upon St. Peter's. Michael Angelo protested with his usual vivacity, and proved the ignorance of Nanni, who, says Vasari, was dismissed under disgrace. Several considerable edifices of Rome have been built after his designs, particularly the palaces Ricci and Salirati. See Hoefer, Nouv. Bioq. Generale, s.v.
