In the history of the Renaissance the names of Titian and Aretino, themselves acclimatised aliens, are inseparably connected with that of their friend Sansovino.

At Venice he lived until his death in 1570, building the Zecca, the Library, the Scala d'Oro in the Ducal Palace, and the Loggietta beneath the bell-tower of S.Mark.In all his work he subordinated sculpture to architecture, and his statuary is conceived in the _bravura_, manner of Renaissance paganism.

Whatever may be the faults of Sansovino in both arts, it cannot be denied that he expressed, in a style peculiar to himself, the large voluptuous external life of Venice at a moment when this city was the Paris or the Corinth of Renaissance Europe.

At the same time, the shallowness of Sansovino's inspiration as a sculptor is patent in his masterpieces of parade--the "Neptune" and the "Mars," guarding the Scala d'Oro.

Separated from the architecture of the court and staircase, they are insignificant in spite of their colossal scale.