Architects and Sculptors Who Worked in Istrian Stone

BARTOLO, Nanni di

Italian sculptor (active 1419-51 in Veneto)


Bon, Giovanni - (b. cca. 1355, Bergamo, d. cca. 1443, Venezia)

Venetian sculptor and architect. With his son, Bartolomeo, he ran the most successful Venetian sculpture workshop of the period. Major work of the shop include the decoration of the Ca d'Oro (1422-34) and the Porta della Carta (1438-42) of the Doges' Palace. They epitomize the survival of the Gothic style in Venice into the mid-Quattrocento. [Source: http://gallery.euroweb.hu/bio/b/bon/giovanni/biograph.html]


LOMBARDO, Pietro - (b. cca. 1435, Carona, d. 1515, Venezia)

Lombardo (or Lombardi), family of Italian artists, the leading Venetian sculptors of their period: Pietro (1435-1515) and his sons Tullio (1455-1532) and Antonio (1458-1516).

Pietro, who came from Lombardy, settled in Venice in about 1467. He was an architect as well as a sculptor, and his church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli (1481-89) on the sculptural decoration of which he was assisted by his sons, has been called the choisest jewel of the Renaissance work in Venice. Of his numerous tombs in Venetian churches, the best known is that of Doge Pietro Mocenigo (SS. Giovanni e Paolo, 1476-81). His style is distinguished by polished mastery of marble cutting and an interest in the antique, features that recur in the work of Tullio.

Tullio's most imposing work is the Vendramin monument (1493) in SS. Giovanni e Paolo.

Antonio had less substance as an independent artist. His work included mythological reliefs for Alfonso d'Este. [Source: http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/bio/l/lombardo/pietro/biograph.html]


QUERCIA, Jacopo della (b. cca. 1367, Quercia Grossa, d. 1438, Siena)

One of the earliest Italian Renaissance sculptors, best remembered for his fountain for the public square of Siena, the Fonte Gaia (1419; now in Palazzo Pubblico, Siena), which has been replaced by a copy.

Born in La Quercia (now Madonna della Quercia), his earliest known sculpture, the tomb (1406) of Ilaria del Carretto in Lucca Cathedral, is entirely renaissance in conception and execution. It is in the form of a Roman sarcophagus, with winged cherubs bearing heavy garlands carved in extremely high relief around the sides. The serene effigy of Ilaria lies on the lid, swathed in superbly carved folds of drapery, her face radiant with peace.

A bronze relief, Zacharias in the Temple, for the font of the baptistery of Siena Cathedral was completed in 1430. His 15 biblical marble relief panels (begun 1425) in the portal of the Church of San Petronio, Bologna, were left incomplete at his death, but the Genesis scenes he sculpted for the portal are among his most striking creations, in the bold simplicity of their compositions, the sure handling of anatomy, and their effect of monumentality. These panels, and Jacopo's other works, were a direct inspiration to Michelangelo and other masters of the High Renaissance.

"Jacopo Della Quercia," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation. [Source: http://gallery.euroweb.hu/bio/q/quercia/biograph.html]


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Created: Sunday, October 01, 2000; Last Updated: Sunday, August 01, 2021
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