Lombardo

Lombardo, the name of a family of Venetian sculptors and architects; their surname was apparently Solaro, and the name of Lombardo was given to the earliest known, Martino, who emigrated from Lombardy to Venice in the middle of the 15th century and became celebrated as an architect. He had two sons, Moro and Pietro, of whom the latter (c. 1435-1515) was one of the greatest sculptors and architects of his time, while his sons Antonio (d. 1516) and Tullio (d. 1559) were hardly less celebrated. Pietro’s work as an architect is seen in numerous churches, the Vendramini-Calargi palace (1481), the doge’s palace (1498), the façade (1485) of the scuola of St Mark and the cathedral of Cividale del Friuli (1502); but he is now more famous as a sculptor, often in collaboration with his sons; he executed the tomb of the doge Mocenigo (1478) in the church of San Giovanni e Paolo at Venice, and a bas-relief for the tomb of Dante at Ravenna, and in 1483 began the beautiful decorations in the church of Sta Maria de’ Miracoli at Venice, which is associated with his workshop (see also Venice for numerous references to the work of the Lombardi). Antonio’s masterpiece is the marble relief of St Anthony making a new-born child speak in defence of its mother’s honour, in the Santo at Padua (1505). Tullio’s best-known works are the four kneeling angels (1484) in the church of San Martino, Venice, a coronation of the Virgin in San Giovanni Crisostomo and two bas-reliefs in the Santo, Padua, besides two others formerly in the Spitzer collection, representing Vulcan’s Forge and Minerva disputing with Neptune.