privy purse accounts of Prince Sigismund for 1502 we learn that the Prince kept in his court an Italian artist named Franciscus, and it may fairly be supposed that he built that sepulchral niche in Renascence style; he was probably a disciple of Ambrogio da Milano. With this monument of Renascence Art we enter on a new epoch, which, by the great number and extraordinary beauty of kings', magnates', bishops', and citizens' tombs produced in it, has become the golden age of Cracow sculpture. It extends over a long series of years, from 1501 to 1610. The primitive medieval form of a sarcophagus with a stone canopy gives way to the new model, with its slender columns, niches, and cornices, all harmoniously combined, and animated by highly imaginative ornamentation. The various colours of the material (marble, alabaster, sandstone, bronze) add new splendour to it, and give proof not merely of mastery in handling the chisel, but also of the thorough knowledge of architecture which these artists possessed. The Italians of Sigismund I's reign did not like to use the native white sandstone of Poland for figure sculpting; they preferred for that purpose the red marble of the Zips country (now in Northern Hungary, then a Polish territory), because this material allowed of detailed and exact treatment of contours and minute particulars. White freestone or limestone, on the other hand, proved to give wider play to the artist's imagination. Accordingly the Italian sculptors in Poland used both, taking red marble for the figure, and native stone for the architectural setting. In that period of the Wawel's history, when the Sigismund Chapel was added to the Cathedral, a large field was opened for the display of sculptors' talents. At the head of the sculptors then active doubtless stands Bartolomeo Berecci. To him probably must be ascribed the tomb of Bishop Tomicki (d. 1535). For the task of ornamenting the King's Chapel, Giovanni Cini, of Siena, was selected, a disciple of the famous Lorenzo di Mariano, called Marina. The grotesque character of his ornamentation had a deep influence on the further development of Cracow sculpture in the sixteenth century. About 1530 Gian Maria Padovano, called Musca, came to the royal court. He was medal-maker, sculptor,
