He also erected a magnificent fountain in the island of the Boboli Gardens. In the Palazzo Vecchio is a marble group by Giovanni representing Virtue conquering Vice. At Petraja there is a beautiful Venus crowning a fountain remarkable for grace and delicacy, and, all in all, his works prove him to have been the best sculptor of his own time. Tuscany may claim him and be proud of him, for he was far more her son than that of his native Flanders.
Giovanni da Bologna was far less successful in reliefs than in statues, as may be seen in the bronze gates to the Cathedral of Pisa, which he made in the last years of his life. In his character this master was attractive and much beloved by his friends. One of them wrote of him: "The best fellow in the world, not in the least covetous, as he shows by his poverty; filled with a love of glory, and ambitious of rivalling Michael Angelo."
Fig. 109.—Mercury.
By Giovanni da Bologna.
Giovanni decorated a chapel in the Church of the Annunziata with several reliefs in bronze and with a crucifix; he not only wished to be buried here himself, as he was, but he also desired to provide a place of burial for any of his countrymen who might die in Florence. The chapel is called that of the Madonna del Soccorso.
The decline of sculpture in Italy at this period makes its study so unpromising that it is a pleasure to turn to France, where the works of Jean Goujon show that he had the true idea of sculpture in relief. From 1555 to 1562 this sculptor was employed on the works at the Louvre, and during the massacre of St. Bartholomew he was shot while on a scaffold quietly working at a bas-relief on that palace.
Goujon was an architect as well as a sculptor, and also a medal engraver, as is shown by the curious and rare medal which he made for Catherine de' Medici. Many of his works are preserved in different parts of France, and some bas-reliefs in the Museum of the Louvre are excellent specimens of his style.
One also sees in France many works by Germain Pilon, who died in 1590. He executed the monument to Francis I., and took a part in that of Henry II. and Catherine de' Medici at the Church of St. Denis. He was the sculptor of the group of the three Graces in the Louvre, which formerly bore an urn containing the heart of Henry II., and was in the Church of the Celestines.
But the sculptors of France at this time are not of such interest as to hold our attention long. There was a certain amount of spirit in their decorations of palaces and tombs, but there were no men of great genius, and no splendid works upon which we can dwell with pleasure or profit.