User:Beepboop327/Pietro Lombardo

Pietro Lombardo (1435–1515) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor and architect; born in Carona (Lombardy). Lombardo was the son of Martino de Carona, a stonecutter identified as a relation of the Solari family, notable for their Milanese school artists such as Andrea and Cristoforo Solari. He was the father of Tullio Lombardo and Antonio Lombardo. Between the years of 1498 and 1515, Lombardo acted as master mason of the Palazzo Ducale.

Early Years
While his earliest documented commissions were executed in a rented workshop at San Petronio, Bologna, between July of 1462 and May of 1463, it was in early 1464 that he began work in Padua on his more celebrated wall tomb of Dodge Antonio Roselli in the Basilica of Saint Anthony. In 1466 Lombardo also designed the Casa Olzignan. His early work is reflective of Florentine artistic traditions, while Northern influences came to be of greater significance in his later works.

Funerary Monuments
In 1467, Lombardo relocated to Venice. It was there that he spent much of the late 15th century sculpting works included in many Venetian tombs with the help of his sons. These tombs included those of Dante Alighieri, Doge Pasquale Malipiero and Pietro Mocenigo.

Situated on the wall of the entrance to the Ravenna tomb of Dante Alighieri is a low relief carving by Lombardo of the poet in profile dating to 1483. The tomb received a cursory description in the nineteenth century great compendium of Venetian Renaissance sculpture and architecture by Pietro Paolétti. Lombardo's decorative contribution to the site was also described in a letter by Percy Bysshe Shelley in a letter to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley dated to August 15th, 1821. Shelley wrote:"'I have seen Dante's tomb, and worshipped the sacred spot. The building and its accessories are comparatively modern, but, the urn itself, and the tablet of marble, with his portrait in relief, are evidently of equal antiquity with his death. The countenance has all the marks of being taken from his own; the lines are strongly marked, far more than the portraits, which, however, it resembles; except, indeed, the eye, which is half closed, and reminded me of Pacchiani. It was probably taken after death.'" Lombardo's Monument to Dodge Pasquale Malipiero is a marble work consisting of a lunette featuring a Pietà, statuary depicting the personifications of Justice, Abundance, and Peace, and roundels decorated with the the Lion of Saint Mark. This work was completed shortly after the death of Malipiero in 1462 and is housed within the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo. Within the same church, the frame of the altarpiece is thought to have been designed by Lombardo in collaboration with the work's painter, Giovanni Bellini. The same Basilica hosts Lombardo's masterpiece Monument of Pietro Mocenigo. Executed between the years of 1476 and 1481, the monument, crafted from marble and Istrian stone, depicts the Dodge as a triumphant military leader accompanied by both allegorical and mythological figures within an triumphal arch. Lombardo executed this work consisting of fifteen life-size statues with the assistance of his sons.

In 1488, the Lombardo workshop completed the tomb of Bishop Giovanni Zanetti in the Treviso Cathedral. The overall composition of the tomb is accredited to Pietro, and draws inspiration from the no longer existent tomb for Lodovico Forscarini, a sepulchral commission completed by Lombardo in 1485.

Architectural Projects
Lombardo was the architect and chief sculptor for the Church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli, Venice (1481–1489) and of San Giobbe in Venice.

While the Santa Maria dei Miracoli began as a simple chapel, Lombardo was forced to increase its capacity for worshippers due to the popularity of its purportedly miraculous Virgin and Child image. Owing to the limited space of the site, Lombardo approached expansion by elevating the chancel, and he utilized strategically placed external pilasters to give the relatively small structure (approximately 10 x 47 meters) the illusion of greater scale. In addition to his structural innovations, Lombardo also elevated the church through his exemplary internal and external decorative panels, which incorporated colorful marble, porphyry, and verd antique.

Lombardo's contributions to San Giobbe, a votive church consecrated in 1493, served as the first Renaissance building completed in Venice. He also depicted saints and the Virgin Mary on the walls of several Catholic churches, often in classicized modes reflective of his exposure to the works of Donatello during his time in Padua.

In Popular Culture
Pietro Lombardo is mentioned in line 27 of Canto XLV by Ezra Pound as the first in a list of Italian renaissance artists whom Pound admired.