ANDREA CONTUCCI DEL MONTE SANSOVINO (1460-1529), Florentine sculptor, was the son of a shepherd called Niccolo di Domenico Contucci, and was born at Monte Sansavino near Arezzo, whence he took his name, which is usually softened to Sansovino.
From 1491 to 1500 Andrea worked in Portugal for the king, and some pieces of sculpture by him still exist in the monastic church of Coimbra.
In 1502 he executed the marble font at Volterra, with good reliefs of the "Four Virtues" and the "Baptism of Christ." In 1505 Sansovino was invited to Rome by Julius II.
Sansovino was only able to make a few of the reliefs, such as the "Annunciation" and the "Birth of Christ", the other reliefs and statuettes were made by his assistants and successors.
Sansovino made for the Chapel of St. Anthony at Padua a marble relief in the grand style; it represents the bringing back to life of one who had been drowned, and contains extraordinary contrasts of graceful and repellent figures.
Sansovino gathered about him a large number of assistants, who executed the decorations of the buildings he erected.
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