SANTI, Andriolo di Pagano de'

Jacopo or Giacomo I da Carrara, called the Great (Grande), was the founder of the Carraresi dynasty that ruled Padua from 1318 to 1405. He governed with the advice of the leading citizens during a rule characterized by unity within the city. He is usually considered the first lord (signore) of Padua, his election marking the transition from commune ad singularem dominum (to a single lord), a characteristic regime known as a signoria to contemporaries.

He died in 1324 and was buried in the Chiesa degli Eremitani in Padua.

The Chapel of San Giacomo Maggiore (now Chapel of San Felice) in the southern transept of the Basilica of Sant’Antonio (commonly called the “Santo”) was commissioned by the condottiere, Bonifazio de’ Lupi in 1372. Its principal designers were the architect and sculptor Andriolo de’ Santi, and the painter Altichiero.

The lay patron, Bonifacio Lupi, aided by the protohumanist Lombardo della Seta, contracted Andriolo to remodel this chapel, situated opposite that of Sant’Antonio, so as to make it fit with its surroundings. This included sculpture on the chapel entrance wall and tombs inside, all to have been carved by the master’s hand. Andriolo did not live to see the completion of the chapel, which was completed by his son Giovanni (d 7 Aug 1392), who received the final payment on 20 March 1376.

In transforming the pre-existing transept of the Basilica into the chapel, Andriolo solved many problems. He converted a large, unfocused space into an intimate one; he regularized an irregular ground plan; he resolved a potential conflict of longitudinal and lateral axes; and he established the means to focus the viewer’s attention on both the altar and the tombs of the chapel’s patron and his kinsmen.

Altichiero tailored his frescoes to Andriolo’s architectural container to make of the chapel a compelling Gesamtkunstwerk. He accentuated the powerful cross axes by pictorial means; he established cogent iconographical and formal interrelationships between the frescoes and other components of the chapel; and, finally, he integrated sunlight and compass orientations with the decorative scheme. By these means the artists fashioned a Trecento masterpiece which heralds the chapels of the Baroque era in which all three media are synchronized with one another and with their setting.

Andriolo de Santi is first documented on 7 November 1342 while working on the portal of San Lorenzo in Vicenza. He was master mason of this Franciscan commission, carried out between 1342 and 1345, and received the highest salary for the execution of two portals, despite the fact that he spent most of his time in Venice. The side portal was destroyed, but the main portal, forming part of the first major Franciscan fa�ade, survives.

For the first time in the Veneto a devotional image was placed on a church portal: the Virgin and Child with Sts Francis and Lawrence and the Donor Pietro da Marano (d. before 27 Sept 1342). Pietro da Marano, called the Dwarf, hoped with this act of generosity to get rid of the burden of a lived life by practicing usury. He is represented in the lunette kneeling in a repentant attitude before Mary and the Child.

In the framing interlaced acanthus there are five busts of the prophets on the left side, and five busts of Patriarchs on the right side. On the architrave in the centre is Christ blessing. On his right are Sts Vincent, Louis of Toulouse, Francis of Assisi and John the Evangelist, on the left Lawrence of Rome, Anthony of Padua, Clare and Stephen, four figures of tradition, four of the Franciscan repertoire.

In the church of San Lorenzo, for the first time in the Veneto a devotional image was placed on a church portal: the Virgin and Child with Sts Francis and Lawrence and the Donor Pietro da Marano (d. before 27 Sept 1342). Pietro da Marano, called the Dwarf, hoped with this act of generosity to get rid of the burden of a lived life by practicing usury. He is represented in the lunette kneeling in a repentant attitude before Mary and the Child.

Carved under transalpine influence, the plump, round-faced Virgin in the centre of this group looks forward to the Venetian sculpture of the early fifteenth century. By the end of the fourteenth century, this Northern type Virgin occurs frequently in sarcophagus reliefs.

Andriolo de Santi is first documented on 7 November 1342 while working on the portal of San Lorenzo in Vicenza. He was master mason of this Franciscan commission, carried out between 1342 and 1345, and received the highest salary for the execution of two portals, despite the fact that he spent most of his time in Venice. The side portal was destroyed, but the main portal, forming part of the first major Franciscan fa�ade, survives.

Duccio degli Alberti was the Florentine ambassador to the Serenissima. He died in the battle of the Brenta (1336) and his body, brought to Venice, was buried in the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari.

The sculptured portal was inserted in 1342-44 into the late-Romanesque fa�ade of the Franciscan church of San Lorenzo in Vicenza, built in the 1280s.

Jacopo or Giacomo I da Carrara, called the Great (Grande), was the founder of the Carraresi dynasty that ruled Padua from 1318 to 1405. He governed with the advice of the leading citizens during a rule characterized by unity within the city. He is usually considered the first lord (signore) of Padua, his election marking the transition from commune ad singularem dominum (to a single lord), a characteristic regime known as a signoria to contemporaries.

He died in 1324 and was buried in the Chiesa degli Eremitani in Padua.

Giacomo II da Carrara (sometimes Jacopo, died 1350) was an Italian politician, lord of Padua from 1345 to his death in 1350. He was stabbed to death by Guglielmo da Carrara, illegitimate son of Giacomo I.

Giacomo was buried in the church of Sant’Agostino in Padua in a sumptuous funeral monument, where an inscription was placed in elegiac Latin verses composed by his friend Francesco Petrarca. In 1820, when the church was demolished, the monument was moved to the Church of the Eremitani, where it is still located.

The picture shows the tomb of Giacomo II da Carrara with the epitaph of Petrarca.

Giacomo II da Carrara (sometimes Jacopo, died 1350) was an Italian politician, lord of Padua from 1345 to his death in 1350. He was stabbed to death by Guglielmo da Carrara, illegitimate son of Giacomo I.

Giacomo was buried in the church of Sant’Agostino in Padua in a sumptuous funeral monument, where an inscription was placed in elegiac Latin verses composed by his friend Francesco Petrarca. In 1820, when the church was demolished, the monument was moved to the Church of the Eremitani, where it is still located.

The picture shows the tomb of Giacomo II da Carrara with the epitaph of Petrarca.

Ubertino da Carrara (d. 1345) was an Italian politician and condottiero. He was the lord of Padua from 1339 until his death. He was buried in the church of Sant’Agostino in Padua. In 1820, when the church was demolished, the tomb was moved to the Church of the Eremitani, where it is still located.

In Andriolo de Santi’s the tomb of Raniero degli Arsendi at the Santo, Padua, (1358) the tabernacles housing the carved figures are raised above the level of the top of the sarcophagus, and the figures themselves are planned as statuettes rather than as reliefs. The tomb of Ubertino da Carrara, also by Andriolo, follows the same plan, and by the end of the 1350s this had spread to Verona, in the boldly conceived monument designed by Andriolo de Santi for Giovanni della Scala (Scaliger Tombs, Santa Maria Antica, Verona).

The picture shows the tomb of Ubertino da Carrara.

Ubertino da Carrara (d. 1345) was an Italian politician and condottiero. He was the lord of Padua from 1339 until his death. He was buried in the church of Sant’Agostino in Padua. In 1820, when the church was demolished, the tomb was moved to the Church of the Eremitani, where it is still located.

In Andriolo de Santi’s the tomb of Raniero degli Arsendi at the Santo, Padua, (1358) the tabernacles housing the carved figures are raised above the level of the top of the sarcophagus, and the figures themselves are planned as statuettes rather than as reliefs. The tomb of Ubertino da Carrara, also by Andriolo, follows the same plan, and by the end of the 1350s this had spread to Verona, in the boldly conceived monument designed by Andriolo de Santi for Giovanni della Scala (Scaliger Tombs, Santa Maria Antica, Verona).

The picture shows the tomb of Ubertino da Carrara.

Ubertino da Carrara (d. 1345) was an Italian politician and condottiero. He was the lord of Padua from 1339 until his death. He was buried in the church of Sant’Agostino in Padua. In 1820, when the church was demolished, the tomb was moved to the Church of the Eremitani, where it is still located.

In Andriolo de Santi’s the tomb of Raniero degli Arsendi at the Santo, Padua, (1358) the tabernacles housing the carved figures are raised above the level of the top of the sarcophagus, and the figures themselves are planned as statuettes rather than as reliefs. The tomb of Ubertino da Carrara, also by Andriolo, follows the same plan, and by the end of the 1350s this had spread to Verona, in the boldly conceived monument designed by Andriolo de Santi for Giovanni della Scala (Scaliger Tombs, Santa Maria Antica, Verona).

The picture shows the tomb of Ubertino da Carrara.

The detail shows a candle-holder angel.

The detail shows St Catherine of Alexandria.

The detail shows a holy monk holding a book.

The detail shows an apostle.

The detail represents the Madonna handing a fruit to the reading Christ Child.

The detail shows a candle-holder angel.

The detail shows Apostle St Paul.

The Chapel of San Giacomo Maggiore (now Chapel of San Felice) in the southern transept of the Basilica of Sant’Antonio (commonly called the “Santo”) was commissioned by the condottiere, Bonifazio de’ Lupi in 1372. Its principal designers were the architect and sculptor Andriolo de’ Santi, and the painter Altichiero.

The lay patron, Bonifacio Lupi, aided by the protohumanist Lombardo della Seta, contracted Andriolo to remodel this chapel, situated opposite that of Sant’Antonio, so as to make it fit with its surroundings. This included sculpture on the chapel entrance wall and tombs inside, all to have been carved by the master’s hand. Andriolo did not live to see the completion of the chapel, which was completed by his son Giovanni (d 7 Aug 1392), who received the final payment on 20 March 1376.

In transforming the pre-existing transept of the Basilica into the chapel, Andriolo solved many problems. He converted a large, unfocused space into an intimate one; he regularized an irregular ground plan; he resolved a potential conflict of longitudinal and lateral axes; and he established the means to focus the viewer’s attention on both the altar and the tombs of the chapel’s patron and his kinsmen.

Altichiero tailored his frescoes to Andriolo’s architectural container to make of the chapel a compelling Gesamtkunstwerk. He accentuated the powerful cross axes by pictorial means; he established cogent iconographical and formal interrelationships between the frescoes and other components of the chapel; and, finally, he integrated sunlight and compass orientations with the decorative scheme. By these means the artists fashioned a Trecento masterpiece which heralds the chapels of the Baroque era in which all three media are synchronized with one another and with their setting.

The main portal on the fa�ade is the work of Andriolo de Santi. It was carried out between 1342 and 1345. Andriolo received the highest salary for the execution of two portals, despite the fact that he spent most of his time in Venice. The side portal was destroyed, but the main portal, forming part of the first major Franciscan fa�ade, survives.