centre, St Terome in the wilderness kneeling before a crucifix, and at the sides standing figures of St Damasus and St Eusebius, St Paolo and St Eustachia; below is a predella with small subjects. Though dry and hard in treatment, the figures are designed with much dignity. The Berlin Gallery possesses three pictures by Rosselli: "The Virgin in Glory," "The Entombment of Christ," and "The Massacre of the Innocents." In 1480 Rosselli, together with the chief painters of Florence, was invited by Sixtus IV. to Rome to assist in the painting of the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. Three of these were executed by him-" The Destruction of Pharaoh's Army in the Red Sea," "Christ Preaching by the Lake of Tiberias," and "The Last Supper." The last of these is well preserved, but is a mediocre work. Vasari's story about the pope admiring Rosselli's paintings more than those of his abler brother painters has probably little foundation. Rosselli's Sistine frescoes were partly painted by his assistant Piero di Cosimo, who was so called after Cosimo Rosselli. His chief pupil was Fra Bartolommeo. According to Vasari, Rosselli died in 1484, but this is a mistake, as his will exists dated 25th of November 1506 (see Gaye, Car. irled. ii. 457 rl.). For an account of Rosselli's Sistine frescoes, see Platner and Bunsen, Beschreiburzg der .Stadt Rom, ii. pt. i.; and Rumohr, Ilalien. Forschungen, ii. 265.
ROSSELLINO, ANTONIO (1427-C. 1479), Florentine sculptor, was the son of Matteo di Domenico Gamberelli, and had four brothers, who all practised some branch of the fine arts. Almost nothing is known about the life of Antonio, but many of his works exist, and are full of religious sentiment, and executed with the utmost delicacy of touch and technical skill. The style of Antonio and his brother Bernardo is a development of that of Donatello and Ghiberti; it possesses all the refinement and sweetness of the earlier masters, but is not equal to them in vigour or originality. Antonio's chief work, still in perfect preservation, is the lovely tomb of a young cardinal prince of Portugal, who died in 1459. It occupies one side of a small chapel, also built by Rossellino, on the north of the nave of San Miniato al Monte.[1] The recumbent effigy of the cardinal rests on a handsome sarcophagus, and over it, under the arch which frames the whole, is a beautiful relief of the Madonna between two flying angels. The tomb was begun in 1461 and finished in 1466; Antonio received four hundred and twenty-ive gold florins for it. A reproduction of this tomb with slight
Marble Relief by Antonio Rossellino.
alterations, and of course a different effigy, was made by Antonio for the wife of Antonio Piccolomini, duke of Amalfi, in the church of S. Maria del Monte at Naples, where it still exists. For the same church he also executed some delicate reliefs, which perhaps err in being too pictorial in style, especially in the treatment of the backgrounds. A fine medallion relief by him in marble, originally modelled in terra-cotta, is preserved in the Bargello at Florence (see fig.).
Bernardo Rossellino (1409-1464), Florentine sculptor, was no less able than his younger brother Antonio. His finest piece of sculpture is the tomb, in the Florentine Santa Croce, of Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo, the historian of Florence, executed in 1443 some years after Bruni's death; the recumbent effigy is of great merit. The inner cathedral pulpit at Prato, circular in form on a tall slender stem, was partly the work of Mino da Fiesole and partly by Bernardo Rossellino. The latter executed the minute reliefs of St Stephen and the Assumption of the Virgin. For his part in the work he received sixty-six gold florins. The South Kensington Museum possesses a relief by Bernardo, signed and dated (1456). It is a fine portrait of the physician Giovanni da S. Miniato. Bernardo's works as an architect were numerous and important, and he was also a skilful military engineer. He restored the church of S. Francis at Assisi, and designed several fine buildings at Civita Vecchia, Orvieto and elsewhere. He also built fortresses and city walls at Spoleto, Orvieto and Civita Castellana. He was largely employed by Nicholas V. and Pius II. for restorations in nearly all the great basilicas of Rome, but little trace of his work remains, owing to the sweeping alterations made during the 17th and 18th centuries. Between the years 1461 and 1464 (when he died while engaged on the Lazzari monument at Pistoia) he occupied the important post of capo-maestro to the Florentine duomo. A number of buildings at Pienza, executed for Pius II., are attributed to him; the Vatican registers mention the architect of these as M° Bernardo di Fiorenza, but this indication is too slight to make it certain 'that the elder Rossellino is referred to (see Vasari, ed. Milanesi, iii. 93 seq.). See Wilhelm Bode, Die Ilalienisehe Plaslik (Berlin, 1902).
ROSSETTI, CHRISTINA GEORGINA (1830-1894), English poet, was the youngest of the four children of Gabriele Rossetti (see the article on her brother DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI). She was born at 38 Charlotte Street, Portland Place, London, on the 5th of December 1830. She enjoyed the advantages and disadvantages of the strange society of Italian exiles and English eccentrics which her father gathered about him, and she shared the studies of her gifted elder brother and sister. As early as 1847 her grandfather, Gaetano Polidori, printed privately a volume of her Verses, in which the richness of her vision was already faintly prefigured. In 1850 she contributed to The Germ seven pieces, including some of the finest of her lyrics. In her girlhood she had a grave, religious beauty of feature, and sat as a model not only to her brother Gabriel, but to Holman Hunt, to Madox Brown and to Millais. In 18 53-54 Christina Rossetti for nearly a year helped her mother to keep a day-school at Frome-Selwood, in Somerset. Early in 1854 the Rossettis returned to London, and the father died. In poverty, in ill-health, in extreme quietness, she was now performing her life-work. She was twice sought in marriage, but each time, from religious scruples (she was a strong high church Anglican), she refused her suitor; on the former of these occasions she sorrowed greatly, and her suffering is reflected in much of her early song. In 1861 she saw foreign countries for the first time, paying a six weeks' visit to Normandy and Paris. In 1862 she published what was practically her earliest book, Goblin Market, and took her place at once among the poets of her age. In this volume, indeed, is still to be found a majority of her finest writings. The Prince's Progress followed in 1866. In 1867 she, with her family, moved to 56 Euston Square, which became their home for many years. Christina's prose work Commonplace appeared in 1870. In April 1871 her whole life was changed by a terrible affliction, known as "Graves's disease"; for two years her life was in constant danger. She had already composed her book of children's poems, entitled Sing-Song, which appeared
- ↑ Illustrated by Gonnelli, Mon. Sepol. della Toscana (Florence, 1819), pl. xxiii.
