GIAN CRISTOFORO ROMANO. — Sculptor, architect, medallist, Isaia da Pisa (v.), born in Rome in 1470, died at Loreto on 31 May 1512. In 1490 he was in Ferrara to carve the bust of Beatrice d'Este, now in the Louvre. The following year he was in Pavia, engaged on the funerary monument of Gian Galeazzo Visconti in the Certosa, a project that continued until 1497. In 1498 he was in Mantua at the court of Isabella d'Este Gonzaga, for whom he executed a fine medal. In Mantua, where he remained until 1505, he completed other works, including the small door of the marchesa’s studiolo in the Ducal Palace and the tomb of the Blessed Osanna Andreassi.
Towards the end of 1505 he was in Rome, where he modelled a medal of Julius II. Skilled in architecture, in 1509 he travelled with Bramante to Loreto to study the works required for that Basilica, and at Loreto, three years later, he brought his life to a close.
A characteristic exponent of a taste that was more refinedly neoclassical than traditional, and in many respects guided by the path shown him by his father, he was almost indifferent to the great movement of transformation then under way in the artistic field. Gian Cristoforo enjoyed fame among his contemporaries chiefly as an engraver of gems and crystals. Nothing survives of him in that genre, yet his sculptures and medals clearly reveal his taste for the grandiose manner and flawless execution.