The third son, Tullio, however, was a bright star in the line. His sculpture was so delicate, and he attained such tenderness in the flesh of his marble statues, that it is thought he had studied under Donatello when he was in Padua in 1450. His decorative sculpture may be judged by the chimney-pieces in the chamber of Udienza, with its antechamber, in the Grand Ducal Palace; by the doors of the Scuola di S. Marco, and the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, all done about 1500. The beauty and grace of his figures may be seen in the four kneeling angels which support the altar of the Incoronation of the Virgin in S. Giovanni Crisostomo; a most exquisite group. This work is signed, "Opus Tullii Lombardi." The fine monument to the Doge Nicolò Marcello, at SS. Giovanni e Paolo, and those of Marco and Amerigo Barbarigo, in S. Maria della Carità, are also by him.
There is some confusion between the two cousins, Sante, eldest son of Giulio, and Sante, the second son of Tullio. Sante di Giulio was chief architect of the Scuola di San Rocco, from June 1524 to March 1527, and all the finest part of the building is attributed to him. He built the church of S. Giorgio for the Greek colony. This was finished in 1548 by Gian Antonio Lombardo da Cione (Carona), who was son of Pietro Antonio Solari of Carona, so that in this church the Milanese and Venetian branches of the Solari family meet, but the Milan branch has kept the old name, while in Venice it has been merged in the place name, and they are known as the Lombards. The Palazzo Trevisan, which belonged to the family of Bianco Capello, was said to be from the design of Sante.
We have followed up the Venetian architects sufficiently to prove that they, too, had their links with the great Comacine or Lombard Guild. Sansovino, who succeeded the Lombard Solari family in Venice, was a Master trained in the Florentine Lodge, so even he was not extraneous to the guild.
CHAPTER VI
THE ROMAN LODGE
THE ROMAN LODGE
NAPLES BRANCH OF THE ROMAN LODGE
| 1. | 1470 | Magister Pietro di Martino Lombardo (from Milan). | C.M. and designer of thetriumphal arch at CastelNuovo. | |
| 2. | M. Isaja da Pisa | Sculptors and architects employed by Pietro di Martino in the work of the arch. | ||
| 3. | M. Antonio da Pisa | |||
| 4. | M. Domenico di Montemignano | |||
| 5. | M. Francesco Arzara | |||
| 6. | M. Paolo Romano | |||
| 7. | M. Domenico Lombardodi Sumalvito | |||
| 8. | 1484 | M. Tomaso da Como | Sculptured monuments inMonte Oliveto. | |
| 9. | 1509 | M. Giovanni di Tomaso (his son) | Built the crypt of S.Gennaro at Naples. | |
Mention has been made, in the second chapter, of the early Christian Basilicas erected under Constantine, and the forty-six churches of the same era, which Genseric destroyed, and how the three Basilicas which were then saved—i.e. S. Agnese, San Lorenzo, and S. Maria in Cosmedin—have, during subsequent restoration, revealed, in the parts of the original buildings discovered, a style precisely analogous to the Basilicas which sprang up in the north of Italy in the time of the Lombards. The only difference between the fourth-century Roman churches and the seventh-century Lombard ones is not in form or style, but merely a deterioration in workmanship. This may easily be accounted for by the two or three centuries of decadence between the destruction of Rome by Genseric and his successors, in about A.D. 460, when it is supposed the remnants of the Collegio of architects fled to Como, and their revival under the Longobardic kings. During those centuries, no great buildings, or even restoration of edifices, took place. The Eternal City seemed, even when free of invaders, to be perishing in the clutches of time. Charlemagne led the way by rebuilding one or two ancient temples and palaces, and he established several schools, one of which was for Lombards—a proof that he was interested in those architects, and that they still had a seat in Rome, where the church of their four Patron Saints had stood, from the far-off time of Pope Melchiades—A.D. 311.