SANSOVINO, Andrea
(b. ca. 1467, Monte Sansovino, d. 1529, Monte Sansovino)

Tabernacle of the Holy Oil

1490-91
Marble
Santa Margherita a Montici, Florence

The glazed terracotta frieze for the portico of the Villa Medici at Poggio a Caiano and the marble Tabernacle of the Holy Oil at Santa Margherita a Montici are early works by Sansovino. They are marked by a tension between verisimilitude and classical idealization which is characteristic of late 15th-century art. They indicate familiarity not only with Antonio Pollaiuolo, with whom Vasari asserted that Andrea trained, but with the narrative relief style, figural grace and techniques of the marble sculptors Benedetto da Maiano and Andrea del Verrocchio.