FANCELLI FAMILY. - Tuscan artists, among whom are, in chronological order, Luca, Domenico, Pandolfo, Cosimo.
LUCA (b. at Settignano in 1430; d. there in 1495) is remembered as a sculptor and, above all, as one of the best 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 made journeys to Milan, where in 1487 he was a guest of Gian Galeazzo Sforza; to Naples, where he produced the designs for Castel Capuano; to Florence, where he carried forward the Brunelleschian buildings of S. Maria del Fiore and Palazzo Pitti, and collaborated on the works of Palazzo Riccardi.
But the seat of his most intense activity remains Mantua. In this city his stylistic presence is attested by: the facade of the «Nova domus», the Torre dell'Orologio, the inner portico of the Palazzo di S. Sebastiano, the house-tower of the Arrivabene, the Palazzo Andreasi, that of the Benzoni, the Palazzo del Broletto (a thirteenth-century construction enlarged), the Palazzo Cadenazzi, the old hospital in Via Salita, the chapel of the Incoronata in the Duomo (designed by Alberti) and some stretches of the public porticoes. In the province of Mantua, the castle of Revere, with its most elegant portal, and the Gonzaga villas of Luzzara and Gonzaga are to be attributed to the same artist. Other works by Luca are probably in Mantua: some marble pilasters and some fireplace heads now preserved in the Palazzo Ducale; the fireplace and the doors of the «sala degli sposi» of the same palace; external and internal decorations of the church of S. Andrea. Luca supervised the works of the building of S. Andrea from 1472, after the death of Alberti. In 1460, on a design by Alberti himself, he began the works for the construction of the church of S. Sebastiano, proving himself, as always, a scrupulously faithful executor and of «extraordinary diligence» (Vasari). Luca's value as a military architect is declared by the defensive works of the castles of Sermide, of Villimpenta, of Casteldario. He also worked on the reclamation of some zones of the Mantuan territory, comprised between the Fissero and the Mimico.
A contemporary of Luca is DOMENICO, sculptor (b. at Settignano in 1460, d. at Saragossa in 1519). Educated in the school of Mino da Fiesole, he moved to Spain, where he brought and spread the Italian sculptural manner. At Seville he executed the tomb of the archbishop d. Diego Hurtado de Mendoza; in 1512 he finished the works for the tomb of the son of Isabella the Catholic, in the church of S. Tomás Dávila; in 1518, after having brought to completion the mausoleum of the Catholic kings in the royal chapel of Granada, he was charged with the execution of the mausoleum of Card. Ximenes, but, overtaken by illness and death, he could execute 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 paschal candelabrum and the altar of S. Biagio (completed in collaboration with Stagi) bear his artistic imprint.
Last in time of the F. is the sculptor COSIMO (b. and d. at Rome 1620-88). Having executed, in the service of Bernini, the stucco decoration of the central nave of S. Pietro, Cosimo from 1647 was also at the side of Pietro da Cortona, until 1669. In 1656 he composed the bas-relief of the Deposition in S. Maria della Pace and in 1660 the tomb of Card. Widman in S. Marco. In collaboration with C. Ferrata, he sculpted very numerous statues for the Roman churches of S. Maria Maggiore, of the Gesù, of S. Giovanni in Fonte, etc. These works too, completed after the death of Pietro da Cortona, clearly express Cosimo's formal dependence on his second master.
BIBL. For Luca: Venturi. VIII, 1. see index. 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 and J. Alazard, s. v. in Est. Ital., XIII (1932), pp. 783-84.
Pietro Gazzola