250 Sculpture in the Renaissance Period. interior of the monastery is even more worthy of study than that of the exterior. The pieta * of the high altar, ascribed to Sofari, is especially beautiful : the agony of the Virgin is expressed in every line of her face and figure, contrasting admirably with the peaceful repose in death of her Divine Son, and the confident hope in the uplifted eyes of the angels. Rome can scarcely be said to have possessed a Renais- sance school of sculpture, although the liberal patronage of the popes and princes frequently attracted the greatest masters to their capital. The only Neapolitan sculptor of eminence in the fifteenth century was Angelo Aniello Fiore, who executed several fine monuments in the church of San Domenico Maggiore at Naples. In the sixteenth century we find Florence still taking the lead in all the arts, and it was to her sons, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti, that she owe this great pre-eminence. Unfortunately the colossal bronze equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza which Da Vinci undertook to execute for Milan was never cast, and even the clay model was destroyed by the Gascon archers, who used it as a target when Milan was occupied by the French in 1499. Andrea Sansovino (1460 — 1529) attained great eminence in the early part of the sixteenth century. His marble group of the Baptism of Christ (Fig. 105) for the eastern gate of the Baptistery of Florence is considered his finest work, and his group of the Holy Family in S. Agostino at Rome is but little inferior to it.
- A Pitta is the name given to representations of the Virgin
embracing her dead Son.
