A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture

by Clara Erskine Clement Waters

Lombardo is the family name of three sculptors of this period in Venice. They were Pietro and his two sons, Tullio and Antonio, and the three together are spoken of as the Lombardi. Pietro, the father, was as much an architect as a sculptor, and the works of the father and son are so associated that it is difficult to speak of them separately. We know that Tullio was the superior artist of the three, but there are no works of theirs that command a detailed description here. The monument to the Doge Pietro Mocenigo, in the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, the angels of the font in San Martino, an altar-relief in the altar of San Giovanni Crisostomo, reliefs on the front of the Scuola di San Marco, and two reliefs in the Church of San Antonio at Padua, are the principal sculptures of the Lombardi.

Alessandro Leopardo, who flourished about 1490, was the most eminent bronze-caster of his time, and was distinguished for the happy manner in which he adapted classic ideas to his needs in his works.

Very little is known of the life of this sculptor, and that little is not to his credit. He lived in Venice, and had a studio in the Piazza del Cavallo, and in 1487 committed a forgery, for which he was banished from the city. But when Verocchio died, leaving the Colleoni statue unfinished, the Senate desired to have it completed by Leopardo, so they sent him a safe-conduct for six months, and he returned to Venice. As there is no account of his again leaving the city, it is supposed that he was allowed to remain as long as he chose. There has been much difference of opinion as to which artist—Verocchio or Leopardo—should be credited with the excellence of the Colleoni statue. The truth, as near as it can be told, seems to be that Verocchio designed and modelled it, that Leopardo completed and cast it, and made the lofty pedestal upon which it stands, and which, taken by itself, is a splendid work. It is of fine proportions, and has six Corinthian columns, in the capitals of which there are dolphins, while the frieze is composed of trophies and marine animals, all of which are symbols of the City on the Sea which erected the monument.

After the Colleoni statue was unveiled the Senate gave Leopardo an order for three standard bases of bronze to be placed in the Piazza of St. Mark's. He also made three splendid candelabra for the Venetian Academy. Leopardo was also an architect. The time of his death is very uncertain, but a writer speaks of him in 1541 as "the new glory of our age, who shines like a star in the Venetian waters."

Although an immense amount of sculpture of this period remains in various parts of Italy, it is very difficult to trace the story of separate artists and to give a satisfactory account of those whose works are worthy of high praise. There is scarcely an Italian city of any size which has not some splendid remains of this morning of the Renaissance. In Ancona there are the portal of San Francesco and the front of Mercanzia, with which the name of Giorgio da Sebenico is associated. At Rimini the Church of San Francesco, with its wealth of plastic ornament, cannot be ascribed to any one artist or to any number with surety; it is in the style of Luca della Robbia and Donatello, but in the execution does not reach their standard. In Cesena, Padua, and Verona there are fifteenth-century sculptures, and in the Milanese territory the plastic art of this period is very interesting.

Figs. 89, 90.—Terra-cottas from the Ospedale Grande. Milan.

In Milan, in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in the Ospedale Grande, and in the cathedral there is a wealth of sculpture to reward the student of this art who visits them; and in the Museum of the Breda there are many interesting works. The terra-cotta decoration of the Ospedale excels all other works of this sort in upper Italy, and the immense façade of this edifice is a marvel in its way (Figs. 89, 90). The differences between this hospital and the wonderful Milan Cathedral afford a remarkable contrast in works of the same period.

Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, or Omodeo (1447-1520), was born on a farm near the Certosa of Pavia. When but nineteen years old his name appears as one of those who were employed upon this splendid edifice, and the records of his payments show that his work was well considered, even then. Omodeo was undoubtedly the best sculptor of his time in all Lombardy, and his sculptures in the Colleoni Chapel at Bergamo would be sufficient to make any artist famous. The whole work may be called his, for he designed the building and the sculptures of the façade, which are in the richest style of the Renaissance; there are statuettes, colonettes, busts, medallions, and bas-reliefs, and wherever a flat surface exists it is divided into diamond-shaped slabs of colored marbles. The portal is very much ornamented: on each side of the rose window above this entrance there are busts of Cæsar and Augustus in contrast with numbers of angels' heads not far away. There are bas-reliefs representing children playing upon musical instruments, and the whole front of the chapel, with its numerous pilasters and colonettes, has been compared to a gigantic organ, by Mr. Perkins, in his "Italian Sculptors".

Of the interior decoration we can only say that it is much in Omodeo's style, though the monument to Colleoni, the founder of the chapel, is said to be the work of German sculptors, and to have been done after Omodeo left Bergamo.

At Pavia, Omodeo succeeded Guiniforte as chief architect of the Certosa, and designed the façade, which was made by him and his successors. The bas-relief of the Deposition from the Cross, which is on the front of the high-altar here, is the work of Omodeo. At Cremona and at Isola Bella he executed some monuments, but at length, in 1490, he began his work on the Cathedral of Milan. Here a cupola was commenced after his model and under his direction; but when it was partly done doubts of its solidity were expressed, and Omodeo was commanded to leave it and design the north door to the cathedral. He also constructed the spiral staircase leading to the roof through an elegant Gothic turret, where the medallion portrait of Omodeo may be seen. It has since been proved that the cupola of Omodeo was solid enough, for it has sustained the spire which was put upon it in 1772; but he was tormented concerning it in many ways, and died without justification.