The Round Temple on the Piazza S. Luigi dei Francesi, and ‘Maestro Gian.’
[See § 12, Of Travertine, ante, p. 51 f.]
It is surprising that practically nothing appears to be known, either about the French sculptor mentioned here, ‘Maestro Gian’ (or Jean), or about the French wood carver of the same name called by Vasari ‘Maestro Janni,’ who is referred to at the close of the ‘Introduction’ to Sculpture, postea, p. 174. Equally strange is it that their works, which Vasari describes in terms of high praise, and which are in public view in Rome and in Florence, do not seem to have attracted attention among students either of French art or of Italian. The standard older book on French artists abroad, Dussieux, Les Artistes Français à l’Étranger, Paris, 1856, takes no note of either of them, nor are they referred to in Bérard’s Dictionnaire Biographique des Artistes Français du XII au XVII Siècle, Paris, 1872. In the more recent Italian work however by A. Bertolotti, Artisti Francesi in Roma nei Secoli XV, XVI, e XVII, Mantova, 1886, there is a mention on p. 220 of ‘un Giovanni Chavenier, che forse disegno quel tempio tondo, attribuito dal Vasari all’ architetto Jean,’ and on p. 24 it is said that ‘Giovanni Chiavier, o Chavenier, di Rouen lavorò pel Governo pontificio e morì a Roma nel 1527.’ Bertolotti unfortunately gives no references to his authorities, while the work of Müntz, Les Arts à la Cour des Papes breaks off before the sixteenth century, and gives no help.