Torrigiano, Pietro

Torrigiano, Pietro

(pyĕ`trō tōr-rējä`nō), 1472–1528, Florentine Renaissance sculptor. Upon leaving Florence in 1492, he worked in Rome and small Italian cities until his departure for the Netherlands, where he worked for the court. By 1511 he was in England, where his gilt bronze masterpiece, the tomb of King Henry VII and his queen, is preserved in Westminster Abbey. In Spain from c.1522, he executed the fine terra-cotta statues of St. Jerome and the Virgin and Child (both: Seville Mus.). Two male portrait busts in the Metropolitan Museum exemplify his firmly modeled, refined, and dignified style. Torrigiano is said to have broken Michelangelo's nose in a quarrel when they were fellow students.