AMMANATI, Bartolomeo

Florentine Mannerist architect and sculptor, strongly influenced by Michelangelo and by Sansovino, on whose Library in Venice he worked. His best-known works in Florence are the Ponte Sta Trinitá (1567-70), destroyed during the Second World War, but rebuilt, and his additions to the Pitti Palace (1558-70), including the rusticated courtyard.

In sculpture his chief work is the rather ponderous fountain (1560-75) in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence, with its marble Neptune and bronze Nymphs. Ammanati beat several sculptors, including Cellini and Giambologna, in a competition for this commission, but the work was not well received. In old age, influenced by Counter-Reformation piety, he wrote a recantation of his secular works (denouncing nude figures as lustful) and he is said to have destroyed some. He was married to Laura Battiferri, a poet who was the subject of a memorable portrait by Bronzino.