Life of BERTOLDO DI GIOVANNI

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  Italian sculptor, pupil and assistant of Donatello (whose pulpits in S. Lorenzo he finished) and the teacher of Michelangelo, since he was employed by Lorenzo de Medici, Il Magnifico, as keeper of his sculpture garden, which was one of the earliest modern academies. There he carved a Battle based on an antique sarcophagus, and probably also made the small bronzes of classical subjects - e.g. Bellerophon, Vienna. This was in the 1480s, and Bertoldo was said to be old ; but he is first recorded as Donatello s assistant in 1460, so the date of his birth may be later than c.1420, which is the current guess - he may have been a Medici bastard. There are works by him in Florence (Bargello), Modena and Paris (Louvre).