Rossellino

a family of Early Renaissance Italian sculptors and architects.

Bernardo Rossellino. Born in 1409 in Settignano, Tuscany; died Sept. 23, 1464, in Florence. Architect and sculptor.

B. Rossellino collaborated with L. B. Alberti in the construction of the Rucellai Palace in Florence (1446–51). His principal architectural work was the planning and building of the city of Pienza (from 1459), which was the first municipality to embody the humanist concept of an “ideal city.” Among the buildings in Pienza designed by Rossellino is the Piccolomini Palace (1460–64). The clarity and balance distinctive of Rossellino’s architecture are also evident in his sculpture, such as the much-imitated tomb of L. Bruni in the Church of Santa Croce in Florence (marble, 1446–47).

Antonio Rossellino. Born in 1427 in Settignano, Tuscany; died circa 1479 in Florence. Sculptor. Brother and pupil of B. Rossellino.

The sculpture of A. Rossellino, such as Portrait of Giovanni Chellini (1456, marble, Victoria and Albert Museum, London) and the altar of St. Sebastian in the collegiate church in Empoli, Tuscany (c. 1470, marble), is freer in composition than that of his brother. His works are noted for a delicate, painterly modeling of faces and garments.