FRANCESCO (b. 1437, d. after 1492), son of that Simone di Nanni who assisted Ghiberti. Perhaps a collaborator of Desiderio da Settignano in the Tabernolo of S. Lorenzo, he imitated his forms in the friezes of the Bedafiesolana (1460–66) and in the Balducci monument (1471–72, S. Egidio). Under the influence of Verrocchio, his sculpture tended to become more deeply embedded and more intricately intertwined in the funerary monument of Barbara Manfredi (1467–80, S. Biagio at Forlì), and especially in the figures of the Tartagni monument (S. Domenico in Bologna), whose stylistic elements have enabled critics to reconstruct the artist’s activity. The same delicate eclecticism is found in decorations executed in the Palazzo Ducale at Urbino (1474–80), in the Angels of the Tabernacle of S. Maria at Monteleone (1483, Perugia), and in the Oliva tombs (1485–88, Montefiorentino).
ANDREA, called da FIESOLE, was perhaps his pupil (b. 1465, d. 1526); influenced by the style of Sansovino, Mino da Fiesole, and Benedetto da Masavo in the altarpiece of the cathedral of Fiesole (1492–91), in the one now in London at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in the baptismal font of the cathedral of Pistoia (1497–99), and in the altar for the Cappella Balcica (1519, cathedral of Eastergom). Michelangelesque forms found in him a fervent, though superficial, imitator, owing to his constant Quattrocento tone: evidence of this eclecticism is provided by the S. Andrea (1512–13, cathedral of Florence), the busts of Marsilio Ficino (1521–22) and Virgilio Adriani (1522, S. Salvatore al Monte).
FRANCESCO di Giovanni del Taddeo, called del TADDA, born at Fiesole or Florence in 1497 and died there on 29 May 1585, belonged to another branch of the family. Although he was no more than a mediocre imitator of Michelangelesque forms—as the tomb of G. F. Vegio in the cemetery of Pisa and the decorations of the S. Casa at Loreto demonstrate—he is important and became famous for having discovered how to carve porphyry, in which he executed the basin fountain in the first courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio (Florence), and a head of Criato (Prague Museum). Ably assisted by his son Romolo, he carved Justice for the Roman column of S. Trinita (Florence), numerous low-relief medallions, including one of Cosimo I (Victoria and Albert Museum in London), as well as numerous tomb decorations.
di S., in Dedolo, 3 (1922–23), pp. 368–69. For Andrea: O. H. Giglioli. Il dorsale di altare di A. F., in L'osservatore fiorentino, 1914, pp. 52; C. Gamba, A. F., in Dedolo, 10 (1920–30), p. 228. Fabis Borroni