that chapel of the palace called the Sistine, and which is decorated with fine paintings.[1] He likewise rebuilt the new Hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia, which, in the year 1471, had been burnt almost to the foundations, adding a very long loggia, with every other accommodation that can be desired for such an edifice. Within the Hospital, Baccio Pintelli caused paintings to be executed throughout its entire length, the subjects chosen being stories from the Life of Pope Sixtus, from his birth to the time when that fabric was completed; or, rather, to the end of the pontiff’s life. He also constructed the bridge, which, from the name of that pope, is called Ponte Sisto, and which was esteemed to be an admirable work, Baccio having made the buttresses so massive, and distributed the weight so judiciously, that the bridge is exceedingly strong and excellently well founded.[2]
In the year of the jubilee of 1475, many small churches were erected in various districts of Rome; these, which may be known by the arms of Pope Sixtus afiixed to them, were likewise built by Baccio Pintelli; those of Sant’ Apostolo,[3] San Pietro in Vincula, and San Sisto, may more especially be particularized. For the Cardinal Guglielmo, bishop of Ostia, Baccio Pintelli prepared a model for the church of that place, as he did also for the steps and façade, which were constructed as we now see them. Many affirm that the design for the church of San Pietro a Montorio in Rome, was also given by Baccio Pintelli, but I could not say with truth that I have found this to be the case. The church of San Pietro a Montorio was built at the expense of the King of Portugal, about the same time when the Spanish nation caused the church of Sant Jacopo to be erected in Rome.[4]
- ↑ “Was afterwards painted, that is to say, by other hands,” observes the German commentator, Forster. The chapel, according to Platner and Bunsen, Beschreibung der Stadt Rom., was built about 1473.
- ↑ This bridge had existed from the times of the Cæsars, under the name of the Janiculum bridge, and was rebuilt by Pintelli, who used the old materials. — Ed. Flor. 1849.
- ↑ Bottari informs us that the church of Sant’ Apostolo was afterwards demolished, with the exception of the portico, and was rebuilt with much increased magnificence.
- ↑ The Florentine commentators of 1849 have a note to the following effect:—”Titi adds Sant’ Agostino and Santa Maria del Popolo to the works here enumerated as executed by Baccio Pintelli, and it seems highly probable that San Pietro in Montorio was also built by one of his disciples
