URBANO DA CORTONA

Italian sculptor. He was first mentioned working as an assistant to Donatello in September 1447 when he and Giovanni da Pisa (died c. 1460), Antonio Chellini and Francesco del Valente (active 1446-1464) were each paid for the execution of an Evangelist’s symbol and a relief of an angel for the high altar of the Santo, Padua (although which sculptor did which pieces is not specified). Soon afterwards Urbano apparently worked in Perugia, designing the tomb of the university professor Ubaldo Bartolini (Perugia University) and the wall tomb of Archbishop Andrea Giovanni Baglioni (d. 1451; Perugia Cathedral), before establishing himself permanently in Siena. In July 1451 he was commissioned to design two marble statues of saints for the Loggia di Mercanzia (Loggia di S Paolo), Siena, which were never carved. In 1462 Urbano carved a marble bench for the loggia ornamented with personifications of the four Cardinal Virtues.