Biography

Torrigiano was a Florentine sculptor, who, in youth, studied under Bertoldo di Giovanni and in a fight broke the nose of Michelangelo and for this has been hated by all Florentines ever since. He was a brilliant and versatile sculptor and also one of the first Italian Renaissance artists to work in France, the Netherlands, Spain and perhaps Portugal. He was in the Netherlands 1509-10. He worked in England 1511-18 on the Tombs of Lady Margaret Beaufort, Elisabeth of York and Henry VII in Westminster Abbey, the latter being his masterpiece. He introduced the pure Renaissance style into England. He went to Seville in 1522. There according to Vasari (who also hated him for breaking Michelangelo's nose), he fell into the hands of the Inquisition and starved himself to death from sheer spleen.