From Florence he passed to Rome, where he came under the patronage of the Pope Julius II, of Bramante, the architect, and of Perugino, the painter, and learned much by his studies there.  Returning to Florence, he became one of the most desired of sculptors and executed that superb modern-antique, the Bacchus in the Bargello.  Taking to architecture, he continued his successful progress, chiefly again in Rome, but when the sack of that city occurred in 1527 he fled and to the great good fortune of Venice took refuge here.  The Doge, Andrea Gritti, welcomed so distinguished a fugitive and at once set him to work on the restoration of S. Mark’s cupolas, and this task he completed with such skill that he was made a Senior Procurator and given a fine house and salary.

As a Procurator he seems to have been tactful and active, and Vasari gives various examples of his reforming zeal by which the annual income of the Procuranzia was increased by two thousand ducats.  When, however, one of the arches of Sansovino’s beautiful library fell, owing to a subsidence of the foundations, neither his eminent position nor ability prevented the authorities from throwing him into prison as a bad workman; nor was he liberated, for all his powerful friends, without a heavy fine.  He built also several fine palaces, the mint, and various churches, but still kept time for his early love, sculpture, as his perfect little Loggetta, and the giants on the Staircase, and such a tomb as that in S. Salvatore, show.

[Illustration:  S. JEROME IN HIS CELL FROM THE PAINTING BY CARPACCIO At S. Giorgio dei Schiavoni]

This is Vasari’s description of the man:  “Jacopo Sansovino, as to his person, was of the middle height, but rather slender than otherwise, and his carriage was remarkably upright; he was fair, with a red beard, and in his youth was of a goodly presence, wherefore he did not fail to be loved, and that by dames of no small importance.  In his age he had an exceedingly venerable appearance; with his beautiful white beard, he still retained the carriage of his youth:  he was strong and healthy even to his ninety-third year, and could see the smallest object, at whatever distance, without glasses, even then.  When writing, he sat with his head up, not supporting himself in any manner, as it is usual for men to do.  He liked to be handsomely dressed, and was singularly nice in his person.  The society of ladies was acceptable to Sansovino, even to the extremity of age, and he always enjoyed conversing with or of them.  He had not been particularly healthy in his youth, yet in his old age he suffered from no malady whatever, in-so-much that, for a period of fifty years, he would never consult any physician even when he did feel himself indisposed.  Nay, when he was once attacked by apoplexy, he would still have nothing to do with physic, but cured himself by keeping in bed for two months in a dark and well-warmed chamber.  His digestion was so good that he could eat all things without distinction:  during the summer he lived almost entirely on fruits, and in the very extremity of his age would frequently eat three cucumbers and half a lemon at one time.