FANCELLI, FAMIGLIA. – Tuscan artists, including, in chronological order, Luca, Domenico, Pandolfo, and Cosimo.
LUCA (born at Settignano in 1430; died there in 1495) is remembered as a sculptor and, above all, as one of the finest architects of his time in Mantua and Tuscany. From 1450 he was in the service of Ludovico II Gonzaga, marquis of Mantua, and subsequently of Federico I and Francesco II. He travelled to Milan, where in 1487 he was a guest of Gian Galeazzo Sforza; to Naples, where he prepared the designs for Castel Capuano; and to Florence, where he continued Brunelleschi’s buildings of S. Maria del Fiore and Palazzo Pitti, and collaborated on the work at Palazzo Riccardi.
But the centre of his most intense activity remained Mantua. In this city his stylistic presence is attested by the façade of the «Nova domua», the Torre dell’Orologio, the inner portico of the Palazzo di S. Sebastiano, the tower-house of the Arrivabene family, Palazzo Andreasi, Palazzo Benzoni, the Palazzo del Broletto (a thirteenth-century construction that was enlarged), Palazzo Cadenazzi, the former hospital in Via Salita, the chapel of the Incoronata in the cathedral (designed by Alberti), and certain sections of the public porticoes. In the province of Mantua, the castle of Revere, with its exceedingly elegant portal, and the Gonzaga villas at Luzzara and Gonzaga are likewise to be attributed to the same artist. Other works by Luca are probably to be found in Mantua: several marble pilasters and several chimney fronts now preserved in the Palazzo Ducale; the fireplace and doors of the «sala degli
sposi» in the same palace; and the exterior and interior decorations of the church of S. Andrea. Luca supervised the building works of S. Andrea from 1472, after Alberti’s death. In 1460, following a design by Alberti himself, he began work on the construction of the church of S. Sebastiano, proving himself, as always, an executor of scrupulous fidelity and «extraordinary diligence» (Vasari). Luca’s skill as a military architect is demonstrated by the defensive works of the castles of Sermide, Villimpenta, and Casteldario. He also worked on the reclamation of certain areas of the Mantuan territory between the Fissero and the Mimico.
A contemporary of Luca was DOMENICO, sculptor (born at Settignano in 1460, died at Saragossa in 1519). Educated in the school of Mino da Fiesole, he moved to Spain, where he introduced and propagated the Italian sculptural manner. In Seville he executed the tomb of the archbishop d. Diego Hurtado de Mendoza; in 1512 he completed the work on the tomb of the son of Isabella the Catholic, in the church of S. Tommaso Dávila; in 1518, after completing the mausoleum of the Catholic Monarchs in the royal chapel of Granada, he was commissioned to execute the mausoleum of Cardinal Ximenes, but, overtaken by illness and death, could produce only its design.
Less well known is the figure of PANDOLFO, sculptor, perhaps a collaborator of Domenico in Spain. In the cathedral of Pisa, the capital of the Easter candlestick and the altar of S. Biagio (completed in collaboration with Stagi) bear the imprint of his artistic style.
The last of the F. in chronological order is the sculptor COSIMO (born and died in Rome, 1620–88). After executing, under Bernini’s direction, the stucco decoration of the central nave of S. Pietro, Cosimo worked alongside Pietro da Cortona from 1647 until 1669. In 1656 he composed the bas-relief of the Deposition in S. Maria della Pace, and in 1660 the tomb of Cardinal Widman in S. Marco. In collaboration with C. Ferrata, he sculpted a great many statues for the Roman churches of S. Maria Maggiore, del Gesù, S. Giovanni in Fonte, and others. These works too, completed after Pietro da Cortona’s death, clearly express Cosimo’s formal dependence on his second master.
BIBL. For Luca: Venturi. VIII, 1. V. indice. For Domenico: P. Andrei, Sopra Domenico F. fiorentino e B. Ordone spagnolo. Massa 1871. For Pandolfo: L. Fanfani, Delle opere di scultura di Pandolfo F... Pisa s. d.: C. Cottafavi e J. Alazard, s. V. Est. Ital., XIII (1932), pp. 783-84. Pietro Gazzola