MONTAUTI, ANTONIO. — Sculptor and architect, born probably in Florence and died there around 1740. He was a pupil of the skilled sculptor and chaser Giuseppe Piamontini.
In the Florentine church of S. Filippo Neri there are two of his oval reliefs depicting scenes from the life of the Saint; but his most significant activity took place in Rome, where he carved a S. Benedetto for the Vatican Basilica (1725) and the marble group of the Pietà, in the underground of the Corsini chapel at S. Giovanni in Laterano (1732), a work which brought him widespread renown and about which it was even rumored that it derived from a design by G. L. Bernini, although the soft sentimentalism that pervades its harmonious structures is quite distant from the spirit of the great Baroque sculptor. M. was also appreciated as a medallist and in that capacity portrayed the likenesses of Frederick IV of Denmark (1708) and Aretafia Salvini Rossi (1710).