Tullio Lombardo in Rome. The Arch of Constantine, The Vendramin Tomb, and The Reinvention of Monumental Classicizing Relief

Tullio Lombardo in Rome?
The Arch of Constantine, the Vendramin Tomb, and the

Reinvention of Monumental Classicizing Relief
Author(s): Wendy Stedman Sheard
Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 18, No. 35 (1997), pp. 161-179
Published by: IRSA s.c.
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1483545
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WENDY STEDMAN SHEARD
Tullio Lombardo in Rome? The Arch of Constantine,

Tomb, and the Reinvention of Monumental Classiciz
To imagine that Tullio Lombardo created the drawings

Tomb of ofDoge
Jacopo Bellini.3 During the 1470s, front
Andrea Vendramin [Fig. 1] and the monumental reliefs
form on the
of triumphal arches, painted in both manuscrip
facade of the Scuola di San Marco in Venice [Figs. 8-12]flowered.4
books, without The forms and symbolism of Rom
arches triumphal
having visited Rome and without having studied Roman underlay in a general way the ducal tombs des
arches there, most especially the Arch of Constantine [Fig. 3],
Lombardo's is,
father, Pietro,5 and a specific Roman arc
after careful consideration, well-nigh impossible. Although thereformed
Sergii at Pola, is the starting point for the design
no documentary evidence that proves Tullio made Portal
such a of
trip, theThe 1480s witnessed a quickening of in
1460.6
degree of his comprehension of the compositions, techniques,
the forms and symbolism of the Arch of Constantine.
expressive formulae, and ideological functioning ofa Imperial Roman
symbol of the triumph of Christianity, implicit in its
made plain
reliefs that is expressed in his sculpture and architectural by Botticelli's
designs of depiction of the Arch in his
the late 1480s and early 1490s strongly suggests fresco of 1481-82.7
that such a visit
took place. The earliest application of his studies of Now
ancient art in
magnificently dominating the left wall of th
Rome appears in the reliefs depicting episodes from the life
Giovanni e of St. the Vendramin tomb [Fig. 1] was er
Paolo,
Mark (St. Mark Healing Anianus and St. Mark Baptizing
ly in the Anianus
Church of the Servi near the Vendramin fam
[figs. 9-10]), which he designed and executed (probably with doge's
was the first the tomb to overtly replicate a Roman
help of his brother Antonio), on the facade of rather
the Scuola
than di S.
alluding to them in a generalized, water
ion.9
Marco, datable around 1488-1490.1 Therefore, one or In contrast
more trips toto Pietro Lombardo's use of Florentine
tombs
Rome during the later 1470s or early 1480s, probably as points
before 1485,of departure, tombs whose relations
should be postulated. arches was only very general and lacked the pointe
deliberate
The Tomb of Doge Andrea Vendramin [Fig. 1], who reigned allusion,
as Tullio, by going back to the cla
doge from March 5, 1476, to May 6, 1478, was all and
butstudying themin
complete afresh, declared himself independent of
Florentine
1493.2 Its design is a striking adaptation of the Arch precedents and of Florentine contemporary sculptors. He
of Constantine
thus expressed
[Fig. 3]. In Venice, the imagery of triumphal arches had pervaded his the
determination to forge a new approach to the use
161
1) Tomb of Doge Andrea Vendramin. Venice, SS. Giovanni e Paolo.
162
TULLIO LOMBARDO IN ROME?
angles of porphyry marble in the four corers around each circle

make the allusion even plainer, since the Arch too contained slabs of
WDREAE \- V DRAM\ENO DVCI porphyry and other precious colored marbles. In the tondo over the
VM -SPLENDc - C'IF .Oi-'.. ' \ IN PARIAM | right-hand niche, Perseus on horseback trampling the dead Medusa
ETATE-OPVM"'S'. 0 ON ( ? r :.t! , s!'. QYI-CROIA
'VRCARVi'M *OBSi30I:' :I Tir .;! . ' EORVNDEMQ~. is dressed in Roman armor. This figure echoes the "heroic rider fig-
RVFTION' iN' C .,R N' . ! :^:;C-'. IFELIX-JNSGNI: ures" on the Arch-Hadrian (later recarved as a portrait of
,. . .. IMPlETH'.
,(N.l .- P 'ix,.x L
' O'" N.
i.'; t0,:
vN.A..E:. EE;
F V..VNAE.. Constantine), riding galloping horses in two hunting scenes, and
ATVRAE l ' ' ''' I.S PINCGPiAT^ Trajan, riding against the Dacians in the monumental frieze under
ITI'F., ,, I :1'-':' x i i: . G. . I CGLORIA: -C PENC
the Arch.13
It is important to realize that Tullio's motives for readapting the
, OBI-I a "X.D L '-ON.AS MAIll I " . Arch
' of Constantine in the Vendramin monument were not limited to,
;, .. . I.N . N I) * L C iC. C . XX '
' ?..:.PRI, CIW;K i C iPAi^',?S.S,,., iANNO-SFCViD ,,. nor were they even primarily, considerations of form and style. His
choice can be fully explained only by reference to the Vendramin
monument's function as a memorial to a leader who, by means of its
specific forms as well as its unusual magnificence,14 was being
implicitly compared to Constantine. Through Divine inspiration, as is
daimed in the Arch of Constantine's inscription, Constantine had
saved his people (see Excursus). It was this quality of the first
2) Tomb of Doge Andrea Vendramin, detail: epitaph.Christian Roman emperor which Doge Vendramin, in this monu-
ment, was seen to have emulated: the Turkish assault on the
Venetians'empire, which since 1453 had steadily increased in inten-
sity, could be compared to the barbarian threat to Rome.
Evaluating the success of Doge Vendramin's response to the
of classical sources that would be distinctly Venetian and uniquely
his own. Turkish War from our twentieth-century perspective requires consid-
Tullio's analytical consideration of Roman arches, and particu- eration of the psychological impact of events. Note that the tomb's
larly the Arch of Constantine, explains the massive, architectonic epitaph [Fig. 2] credits the doge with defending the mountain fortress
quality of the Vendramin tomb which, unlike its predecessors in of Kroja (now Kruje, in Albania) from the Turks' siege, and with
Venice, is conceived as a freestanding architectural monument repulsing the Ottomans' incursion of September 1477 into the plain
rather than as a fundamentally two-dimensional construction of Friuli between the Piave and Isonzo Rivers. This attack had trau-
attached to the wall.10 The bold projection of its central section, with matized the Venetians, who from their city could actually see the
a barrel-vaulted arch carried on columns, speaks to this underlying flames rising from buring woods, houses and barns.15 The fact th
the Turks were prevented from reaching Venice itself could hav
architectural conception. Classical orders and moldings are handled
with a new assurance. been perceived as a miraculous, divinely inspired victory, and could
The breaking-forward of the entablature over the freestandingstill have remained vivid in the mind of Tullio Lombardo when possi-
columns with molded bases and plinths on tall pedestals, decoratedbly very soon afterwards or a few years later he saw the Arch of
with female personifications, is an obvious reference to the Arch of
Constantine's inscription [Fig. 3]. That inscription, repeated on bot
Constantine. The capitals, in their rich chiaroscural exuberance,sides
are of the Arch, praises Constantine as the divinely inspired savio
another reminder, even though they belong to a composite order. of his people from tyranny and should probably be considered th
The winged Victories holding a tabula ansata with the doge's principal source for Doge Vendramin's epitaph.16
epitaph [Fig. 2] recall the torchbearing Victories in the spandrels ofSix weeks after Doge Vendramin's death, however, the starving
the Roman arch, as well as the sarcophagus in Modena that may inhabitants of Kroja surrendered to the Turks, and the aftermath of h
have furnished another ancient Roman model closer to Venice.11 reign was experienced as a period of successive defeats, during which
The two niches, which contain the Warriors destined originally forthe
thekey Adriatic fortress of Scutari was also lost. The Peace of 147
lateral pedestals, allude to the Arch of Constantine's subsidiary
between the Turks and Venice was regarded throughout Italy a
openings, and Tullio's decision to face them with black stone, as awell
humiliating defeat for Venice and the West.17 Yet by 1490, when Dog
as pertaining to the monument's funerary program, emphasizedVendramin's
its monument was at last being planned, the treaty could we
triadic pattern of repeated arch shapes, the central one higherhave
and appeared in a more favorable light. Its terms had enabled Venice
wider, that follows the Roman model.12 The tondi above the to tworegain free passage of the seas and to secure its Levantine trade
niches recall the Constantinian Arch's Hadrianic medallions-the tri- and war with the Turks had not yet been renewed.18 Despite these pos
163
3) Arch of Constantine. Rome.
sible contradictory readings of the events of the later 1470s, Andrea

Vendramin's caim to a monument so explicitly triumphal in nature prob-
ably had more to do with the merging of his individual identity with that
of the state, a symbolic status common to all doges of the Quattrocento,
than with any actual or pretended military victory.
Yet we must still ask: why is his monument so much more
sumptuous and splendid than any other doge's monument of the
Quattrocento? Our answer must, of course, include the artistic per-
sonality of its sculptor and designer Tullio Lombardo. Among his ear-
liest impressions of a contemporary art deeply imbued with an
archeologically aware aura of Roman antiquity were Andrea 4) Arch of Constantine, detail: ,,Profectio>,, Aurelian relief.
Mantegna's Ovetari Chapel frescoes in the Eremitani Church in
Padua-presumably carefully studied during the three years Tullio's
father, Pietro, was resident in Padua (1464-67). In particular, the
looming triumphal arch that forms the dramatic di sotto in su back-
drop of Mantegna's St. James Led to Execution19 would naturally
have remained a vivid memory, one that would have predisposed the Verrocchio plan that the doge's commissaria had been co
Tullio to wonderment and awe when at last he encountered the ering before the Florentine sculptor's death in 1488.20 The imme
grandest Roman arch in existence [Fig. 2]. Furthermore, theunparalleled
sculp- wealth of Andrea Vendramin during his lifetime, an
tor's association, in the creation of the Vendramin tomb, with stated
a man wish for an exceptionally ornate memorial, are additiona
who had good claim to be considered the foremost expert ontors
ancient
to be considered as potentially relevant, both to the choice o
Roman literature in Venice, Ermolao Barbaro, a grandson Constantinian
of Doge Arch as major model, and to the tomb's emphas
Vendramin, might have bolstered his inclination to choose the Arch
rare and expensive stones, the quality that Marino Sanudo si
out for
as the tomb's most salient prototype, while rejecting the elements of a laconic mention.21
164
saa :i:
bi?.
!j.
e., ii
_ .,
w iwk.lk V_ .....
---P' 6) Arch of Constantine, detail, view from above of <Lustra

Aurelian relief.
commemorated a crucial phase of Venice's struggle with the Turks

as well as the salvation of an individual leader.
It has usually been assumed that, like Mantegna before his trip
to Rome in 1488-90, Tullio knew only the ancient remains in
Venetian possessions, such as Verona, Bergamo, Padua, Ravenn
and other locations in north Italy, such as Mantua, or in the Marches
(Rimini, Ancona), where Pietro Lombardo's commissions suggest h
went with his sons. The Istrian peninsula, including the town of Pola,
Tullio would have visited in the course of purveying the region
stone. Whether or not he saw the two monumental imperial reliefs at
Ravenna is hard to resolve, since it is not known whether they had
yet been excavated in the 1480s, when the Lombardos first execut
ed projects for the town.24
How could Tullio, without going to Rome, have gained sufficient
familiarity with the Arch of Constantine to permit such knowledge-
able employment of several of its architectural and relief sculptur
5) Arch of Constantine, detail, raking view of <Adlocutio,>, features? Would this have been possible via the study of othe
Aurelian relief. artists' drawings? I believe that this category of drawing was no
informative enough to communicate the illusionistic techniques and
methods of carving seen in monumental imperial reliefs in enough
detail to explain Tullio's grasp of them.25
As we would expect, the tomb imitates Constantine's Arch in

expressing a specifically Christian triumph as well as a military vic-
tory (see Excursus). Important signifiers of this are the votive relief As dose as the Vendramin tomb is in spirit and in certain forms
and, higher up, the blessing Christ Child holding the orb of the
to the Arch of Constantine, the visual evidence that supports an
World.22 The triumph of Doge Vendramin's soul's salvation is con-
assumption of a prior trip to Rome on the sculptor's part is not limit
ed to that one monument. The reliefs Tullio designed and carved
flated with a triumph of the Venetian state.23 Significantly, the Arch
provided the identical quadruple association of personal, political,
(probably with Antonio's assistance) for the facade of the Scuola d
S. Marco [Fig. 8] suggest the Rome visit, and close study of Roman
military and Christian triumph suitable for a doge's monument that
165
. ,,,.... . . . ... . - .--~ *~ .! *i:
i:1 . ,1?: :7;:.A

?
a. ~~~~~~~~~~~-
si~~~~~~~~~~r-~. I*
7) Arch of Constantine, detail from Trajanic frieze.
imperial grand reliefs, even more insistently.26 The new facadeCodussi;

of the but Pietro Lombardo must have been responsible fo
meetinghouse of the charitable confraterity of St. Mark was erect-
design of the ground story at the very least, probably in collabo
ed to replace that of the preceding building, which had burned
within
Tullio and perhaps with Antonio Lombardo as well.
1485. The design of the ground story is documented to Pietro On this fa9ade, Tullio's reliefs of St. Mark Healing Anianus
Lombardo and Giovanni Buora and predates November of 9] 1489.
and St. Mark Baptizing Anianus [Fig. 10] are the pioneering
One year later, Marco Codussi became proto of the building. The of an entirely new type of relief in Venice, classicizing
examples
upper story and crowning ornaments are sometimes attributed to
monumental in composition, conception, style, and technique.
166
ferences in format and compositional type could hardly have

depth, approximately 11 cm. from background plane to outermost
escaped their attention.38 It was obvious that the vertical format o
surface, is unique in Quattrocento relief sculpture in Venice. The fig-
the panels went hand in hand with a reduction in the number of fig
ures are about 4/5 life-sized, the height of the blocks, which have
been inserted into the building fabric, is approximately 130 cm.,ures
and and greater condensation or compression of action. In oth
their width somewhat narrower, about 110 cm. words, the vertical and the circular formats (the latter employed for
the Hadrianic reliefs)39 were associable with abstraction or symbo
Many aspects of these reliefs' technique and underlying con-
ception are owed to monumental grand style Roman reliefs of ization,
the as against documentary historical narrative such as wh
Renaissance artists observed on the Column of Trajan.40 The vert
type most often associated with triumphal arches.27 The aBa pattern
cal and circular formats served to single out the emperor and his sig
of the three left-hand bays, with the portal's arch creating the central
focus, recalls a triumphal arch having two minor openings. Then nificant gestures more emphatically than did the continuous narr
there is the idea of movement through the fabric itself, conveyedtive
byfrieze in the horizontal formats that were more familiar to these
artists in the form of, say, mythological or battle scenes on sar-
the pictorial use of perspectival recession in the narrative reliefs'
cophagi.
enframements [Fig. 8], and by the illusionistic effect of a loggia-type
There are eight Aurelian panels on the Arch of Constantine41
architecture that makes the lions sculpted in the bays on either side
and three in the Conservatori. The latter were accessible during the
of the main portal appear to be stopped in the midst of forward (out-
late Quattrocento, as they were located in the Church of Sta. Martina
ward) motion, as if they were staring guardedly ahead before mov-
ing beyond the confines of their depicted spaces.28 This deviceontoo
the Forum, together with two others, now lost.42 The composi-
tions of these vertical panels were well suited as models for the St.
reminds us of the triumphal arch as a massive pile through which
Mark reliefs [compare Figs. 4, and 9-10].43 Here too the significant
a person can move in a ritual of triumphal celebration.29 Another
actors,
allusion to Rome, if not to the Arch of Constantine, is the motif in the essentially St. Mark and St. Anianus, are compositionally dis-
frieze of the fagade's principal architectural articulation of winged
tinguished from the unidentified onlookers. The squarish proportions
griffins facing each other, which Tullio could have seen on the of Tullio's panels at first glance contrast with the tall rectangles of the
tem-
ple of Antoninus and Faustina in the Forum.30 Aurelian panels, yet when the perspectival surroundings of the St.
The entire surface of the facade was revetted with Istrian stone
Mark reliefs are considered, the formats appear more similar [Figs.
4 and 8]. Comparing the Aurelian panels to the Scuola di S. Marco
and expensive marbles, making the Scuola one of the few buildings
reliefs containing narratives from the life of St. Mark suggests a moti-
in Venice ever to have such a magnificent veneer.31 Some of its mar-
vation for the decision to frame these monumental narrative reliefs
bles were colored dark red, green, or a pale yellow streaked with
gray. Its friezes and capitals were originally picked out in gilding, with
with huge and airy halls illusionistically carved as fictive architectur-
al environments whose amplitude provides a spatial metaphor for
some painted accents also, so that color and opulence of material
the dignity and gravity of the events they contain.44 Could this have
played a major role in the facade's original visual effect, something
that the fifteenth-century appearance of the Arch of Constantine been Tullio's way of "correcting" what he perceived as the crude, dis-
could have helped to inspire.32 proportionately depicted architectures of the Aurelian reliefs, which
both look too small in relation to the figures and lack the perspective-
Some of the salient characteristics of imperial grand style reliefs
determined forms that Renaissance artists considered one of their
that Tullio adopted are: emphasis on the human figure, isocephaly,
achievements that surpassed ancient art?45
and minimal landscape or topographic detail.33 This latter quality
Tullio has pushed further than any of the sculptors responsible forComparing the relief of St. Mark Healing Anianus [Fig. 9] to the
Profectio
the reliefs that were later reused for Constantine's Arch [the reliefs in on the Arch of Constantine [Fig. 4] invites the conclusio
Figs. 4 and 7 are examples].34 We know that by 1519, when
that the latter suggested the main outlines of Tullio's composition of
the former. But apart from matters of composition and figural motif
Raphael wrote a letter to Pope Leo about the Arch,35 the differences
in style between its Trajanic, Aurelian, and Constantinian reliefswhat
had deserves special notice is Tullio's adaptation of the heroic spi
been observed. No doubt this awareness was sharpened duringitthe of grandeur and stateliness that pervades the imperial reliefs a
restoration of the Arch in 1498-99.36 Tullio Lombardo's ability
thetoappropriate mode for the Scuola's reliefs' "elevated Heroic con
tent."46
notice and exploit such stylistic differences is amply testified to by In addition, an intention to improve on the Roman models b
the sophistication of his employment of various antique styles as
rendering the architectural backgrounds of the events in a more true
points of departure in most of his sculptural works.37 to-life proportional relationship to the figures, as suggested abov
When Renaissance artists compared the Hadrianic tondi and could have motivated the unusual emphasis on the fictive architec
tures in which St. Mark heals and baptizes Anianus.
the Aurelian panels, such as the Profectio [Fig. 4], to the fragments
of the Great Trajanic frieze on the Arch [Fig. 7], they must have beenImagining what the experience of looking at these Aurelia
intrigued by more than just the obvious differences of style. The panels
dif- was like for Tullio Lombardo leads to the observation that h
167
8) Scuola di San Marco. Venice. Detail of facade.
would have been struck by their exceptionally large size in compar-

view, taken from the scaffolding above, of the Lustratio panel on
ison to any contemporary relief sculpture-they measure approxi-
Arch of Constantine [Fig. 6] illustrates this feature of the Aur
mately 3.5 by 2.3 meters-and by their correspondingly large and In the two St. Mark reliefs, the ground plane was treat
reliefs.
imposing figures.47 Equally remarkable in the context of Quattro-
a similar fashion as a deep ledge supporting sequential layer
cento practice would have been their depth dimension. A flattened
raking figures.48 This concept of deep relief stood in marked c
168
1wriv
-;: - ' jE;-=ZL8oL rf. " '

': X. * .;i : *. - :
9) Scuola di San Marco. Detail, relief

10) Scuola
of di San
<<St.
Marco. Mark
Detail, relief
Healing
of <<St. Mark Baptizing
Anianus,>. Anianus,.
trast to Donatello's schiacciato or low relief, which Tullio knew from

as he would consciously vie with Verrocchio when creatin
the Florentine's bronze reliefs of Miracles of St. Anthony in the Vendramin tomb.
Santo, Padua. It had influenced Paduan and Venetian artists during Relief construction by means of sequential layering [Figs. 4-5]
was a characteristic technical feature of imperial grand relief.52
the period just prior to, and overlapping with, Tullio's artistic forma-
tion.49 Sources for Tullio's very deep reliefs-the term mezzorilievo Figures in the foreground are carved in high relief, while secondary
does scant justice to their depth-existed virtually nowhere other figures appear in several receding planes, so that those in the back-
than Rome.50 In his reinvention of monumental classicizing reliefground
at are sometimes only traced on the surface. Tullio adapted this
the Scuola di S. Marco, Tullio forcefully rejected the concept under-
relief-structure, and particularly the "flat, cameo-like rendering of the
lying Donatello's schiacciato relief-that of the fundamental unitybackground
of heads"53 [Figs. 9-10]. Moreover, Hadrianic and Aurelian
painting and sculpture. Donatello's precise descriptions of pictorial
sculptors developed the device of detaching the principal foreground
space, his genre-like crowds of massed onlookers, and other natu- figures, creating a "stereoscopic effect,"54 in that the nearly three-
ralistic features of the Santo reliefs, as well as their horizontal dimensional figures, normally the emperor and his close associates,
oblong format, are purposely avoided.51 He thus seized the oppor- appear to move in relation to the background as the viewer crosses
tunity offered by the Scuola di S. Marco facade to declare his inde- in front of the relief. The resultant illusion of movement is an optical
pendence from Florentine traditions, and set out to rival Donatello metaphor for the awe-inspiring potency of the emperor.55 It cannot
169
be documented in still photographs, however. Tullio's re-creation of

sequentially layered relief structure and near-three-dimensionality of
the foreground figures [Figs. 9-12] are two of the principal novelties
of his Scuola di S. Marco reliefs.
Tullio understood that a fundamental esthetic quality of Roman
imperial grand style reliefs was their inherent illusionism. Elsewhere
I have argued that two opposite kinds of illusionistic effect were
achieved in the Scuola di S. Marco facade. The pictorial illusionism
of the fagade as a whole can be apprehended best from a distant
viewpoint across the campo. Yet if the viewer looks at the reliefs from
a close-up vantage point, another kind of illusion becomes opera-
tive-the reliefs seem to occupy more volume than they actually
do.56 Such a "volumetric" or forward-projecting illusionistic effect
depends on carving techniques similar to those employed in Roman
imperial state reliefs [Figs. 4-7].
These Roman second-century illusionistic techniques include:
anamorphic distortion, sometimes used to counteract the visual
effects of foreshortening; artificial flattening or compression of
shapes or surfaces [as evident in Fig. 5]; and undercutting to exag-
gerate chiaroscural effects or create an illusion of increased distance
between the principal relief planes. It is not possible to summarize the
development and occurrences of these technical features of Roman
grand style reliefs, since their history has not yet been written sys-
tematically, but Gerhard Koeppel's work provides an excellent intro-
duction, both to the devices themselves and to the historiography of
how they have been grouped under various stylistic rubrics.57
h St. Mark Baptizing Anianus [Figs. 10 and 12], Tullio employed
the devices of flattening, anamorphic distortion, and undercutting in
a way that suggests close familiarity with imperial grand style reliefs
as their likeliest source. The reveal of the left-hand pilaster has been
cut sharply back to create a dramatic line of shadow separating the
framing element from the front plane of the relief and visually push-
ing the latter back [Fig. 12]. Anianus's forward arm and leg are
deformed and flattened to increase the apparent projection of the
basin, even though the basin actually does project beyond the limit
of the relief plane as defined by the architectural frame. Similar illu-11) Scuola di San Marco. ((St. Mark Healing Anianus,,, detail.
sionistic carving techniques can be observed in St. Mark Healing
Anianus [Figs. 9 and 11], where Anianus's drapery also recalls that
of the emperor in the Adlocutio panel on the Arch [Fig. 5].
Because of Tullio's detailed and subtle comprehension of the
formal and technical properties of Roman grand style imperial
reliefs, and particular reminiscences and readaptations of composi-Lombardo undertook to rebuild the cappella maggiore do Treviso
Cathedral, which included the Tomb of Bishop Giovanni Zanetto da
tions, motifs, and techniques typical of the Aurelian reliefs on the
Arch of Constantine and in S. Marina, I would like to propose thatUdine and the Memorial to Saints Theonistus, Tabra, and Tabrata
Tullio, probably accompanied by his brother Antonio, visited Rome.(contract signed 25 January 1485).59 A pro forma contract pledging
Tullio's personal responsibility for overseeing the work at Treviso
The most likely date of their visit seems to be sometime in the late
1470s or early 1480s. In 1481, work was begun on the Miracoli was signed on 6 May 1488, following a partial collapse of the dome
Church, a project that took up a great deal of the Lombardo shop'sover the choir in 1486.60 Thus, as the 1480s advanced, the
energies for the next few years.58 Probably in that same year, PietroLombardo shop's major architectural responsibilities increased,
170
in Venice after about 1480, that the city of Rome, even wi

ancient monuments in ruins, had to be considered the greatest
sure house and thesaurus for any artist's or humanist's ambit
acquire in-depth knowledge of classical Rome considered as
culture and ethos. As this awareness grew, Rome's ruins g
increasingly positive value as information-filled remnants or
ments with the potential for decipherment in the light of Roman
ary remains, whose availability was becoming more widespr
publication of them accelerated.61 At the same time, contempo
comprehension that an abyss of time and history separated m
the late Quattrocento from classical culture, no matter how
their erudition or diligent their study, was growing. The t
between these apparently contradictory perceptions contribu
the romantic melancholy that characterized certain bench
experiences, reenactments, or fictions, particularly those occu
in north Italy,62 that twentieth-century scholars have conside
definitive reflections of the Quattrocento's attempts to come to
with ancient Rome.
In conclusion, the High Renaissance aspects of Tullio

Lombardo's reliefs for the Scuola di S. Marco facade, astonishingly
precocious for their date of c. 1489-90, can be summed up as their
qualities of gravity, dignity, sobriety, abstraction, and monumentality.
These are the very qualities by which Heinrich Wolfflin differentiated
"High" from "Early" Renaissance style-and they were derived by
Tullio in large part from the same monumental imperial reliefs in
Rome that were later to inspire those same qualities in the Roman
High Renaissance style of Raphael. As experimental prototypes, the
S. Marco reliefs, as well as their setting within spacious arcaded
halls depicted by ingenious shallow-relief illusionistic perspectives,
provided the basic organizational and formal concepts that underlay
the design and execution of the monumental narrative reliefs of
Miracles of St. Anthony of Padua in that saint's burial chapel in the
Santo.63As Sarah McHam has shown, that program, which spanned
seventy-seven years (1500-77, but the Chapel's altar was not com-
pleted before the 1590s), represented the flowering of Venetian High
12) Scuola di San Marco. (<St. Mark Baptizing Anianus,,, detailRenaissance sculpture and the fulfillment of the promise shown by
from raking angle. Tullio's earlier projects, such as the Scuola di S. Marco reliefs, the
Vendramin tomb and the Coronation of the Virgin relief in the
Bernabo Chapel in San Giovanni Crisostomo (1500-01).
How early can Venetian Renaissance art be termed "High
Renaissance"? Does the W6offlin term retain any relevance to art
even before Pietro undertook the commission to rebuild the facade
outside central Italy? Twenty-five years ago, this question might
of the Scuola di S. Marco, which occurred at some point betweenhave been debated; today I suspect most American scholars would
the
fire of 1485 and November of 1489. The pressures of so many probably
archi- pass over it in silence. Nevertheless, the Wolfflin-defined
tectural and sculptural commissions would have made it more qualities
diffi- of gravity, dignity, sobriety, abstraction and monumentality
do characterize
cult for Tullio and Antonio to find enough time to make a study trip to Raphael's frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura
Rome as the decade advanced. and his Vatican tapestry cartoons64-the canonical works from
The younger Lombardos' trip to Rome as here postulated was
which W6offlin derived his definition of High Renaissance art. Those
same qualities link Raphael's frescoes and cartoons with the most
a decisive factor in the new awareness, which gathered momentum
171
and
visible examples of Roman imperial relief, and the evidence of sketches how fragments of sculpture from past eras
employed
Raphael's study of those reliefs is ample.65 In the Venetian milieu it on it to integrate the theme of Christian triumph wi
was Tullio Lombardo's much earlier Scuola di S. Marco reliefs-and ditional Roman state iconography. See further L'Orange a
even more compellingly his and Antonio's first reliefs for the Chapel Gerkan, 1939; F. Magi, "II Coronamento dell'Arco di Costan
of St. Anthony completed during the opening years of the Pontifica Accademia Romana di Archeologia, Rendiconti,
Cinquecento-that first encapsulated those "High Renaissance" XXIX (1956-57), 83-110; J. Ruysschaert, "Essai d'lnterpret
qualities. In 1511, Titian painted three frescoes for the Scuola di San Synthetique de I'Arc de Constantin," Pontificia Accademia Ro
Antonio, located in Padua diagonally across from the Santo, two of Archeologia, Rendiconti, XXXV, 1962-63, 79-100 and "Unita e
which (The Miracle of the Speaking Baby and The Miracle of the ficato dell'arco di Costantino," Studi Romani, XI, 1, 1963, 1-1
Repentant Son) shared exactly these characteristics, and to this Richardson, Jr., "Date and Program of the Arch of Constanti
writer it appears incontrovertible that the Lombardo reliefs furnished in fn. 32), proposing 326 A.D. as the date of the Arch; and
the decisive impetus for their sculptural, friezelike qualities, just as Buttrey, 'The Dates of the Arches of 'Diocletian' and Consta
Leonardo's studies for individual apostles' heads in his Last Supper Historia, XXXII (1983), 375-83, refuting Richardson. Appa
fresco (and copies of those studies which circulated in Venice and Richardson now accepts the traditional dating of A.D. 315/3
the Veneto around the turn of the sixteenth century) had provided his entry on the Arch cited in fn. 7).
the point of departure for their psychological naturalism.66 The time On "arcum insignem triumphis," see Giuliano, 1955, 1. O
has arrived to confer upon Tullio Lombardo the appropriate status as phrase "instinctv divinitatis," see H. Schrors, Konstanti
a key formulator of High Renaissance style in Venice, with a role Grossen Kreuzerscheinung: Eine Kritische Untersuchung,
comparable to that of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael in cen- 1913. Timothy D. Barnes discusses the panegryric delive
tral Italy, a role which depended upon formidable qualities of obser- Constantine in 313 at Trier, the Roman Senate's decree of 31
vation, analysis, synthesis, and imagination, deployed in personal which the title "Maximus" was conferred on Constantine and the
circumstances that were rendered problematic because of his posi- decision to erect the Arch was recorded, and other relevant contem
tion as elder son in the workshop of a demanding father.67 porary occurrences, in Constantine and Eusebius, Cambridge
[Mass.] and London, 1981, 46f. and fn. 24.
A good introduction to the triumphal arch as a Roman invention,
Excursus: Inscriptions on the Arch of Constantine with summaries of past theories about its history, function and sig
and the Vendramin Tomb nificance, and full bibliography, is F. Kleiner, The Arch of Nero in
Rome, Rome, 1985, esp. Pt. I. 9-66.
The epitaph on Doge Vendramin's Tomb [Fig. 2] reads:
The Arch of Constantine's inscription (carved on both long sides
ANDREAE VENDRAMENO DUCI / OPVM SPLENDORE CLARO
of the attic) reads: "IMP(eratori) CAES(ari) FL(avio) CONSTANTINO
MAXIMO / P(io) F(elici) AVGVSTI S(enatus) P(opulusque SED EX MIRA IN PATRIAM / PIETATE OPVM VSV LONGE
CLARISSIMO
R(omanus) / QUOD INSTINCTV DIVINITATIS MENTIS / MAGNITV- QUI CROIA / TURCARVM OBSIDIONE LIBERATA
DINE CVM EXERCITV SVO TAM DE TYRANNO QVAM DE OMNI EORVNDEMQ / IRRUPTIONE IN CARNIAM REIECTA FELIX
EIVS / FACTIONE VNO TEMPORE IVSTIS / REMPVBLICAM INSIGNI / PROLE IMPLETIS OMNIBUS ET FORTUNAE ET / NAT-
URAE ET
VLTVS ESTARMIS / ARCVM TRIVMPHIS INSIGNEM DICAVIT' VIRTVTIS NVMERIS PRINCIPATVS / BREVITATEM
(To
SEMPITERNA
the Emperor Caesar Flavius Constantine Maximus, / Pius Felix CAELI GLORIA COMPENSAT / VIXIT ANNOS
LXXXV
Augustus, the Senate and the Roman People, / Since through MENSES VIII / OBIIT PRIDIE NONAS MAII / ANNO MCCC-
divine
CLXXIIX
inspiration and great wisdom / He has delivered the state from the/ PRINCIPATVS SVI ANNO SECVNDO / (To Andrea
Vendramin,
tyrant / And his party by his army and noble arms, / Dedicate this doge, / who, with the illustrious merit of his resources /
arch, decorated with triumphal insignia). The translation yet out of pious allegiance to his patria, I and with the well-known
is quoted
from Richard Brilliant, entry on the north facade of theemployment
Arch of of [these] resources, / liberated Kroja from the Turkish
Constantine in Kurt Weitzmann, ed., Age of Spirituality, siege
exh. /cat.,
and repulsed their invasion of Carnia. / Happy in his distin-
guished offspring and because of having attained all the good
Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y., 1980, no. 58, 67f. The inscription
things,
is as reported by Capodiferro (1993). Two further inscriptions / of Fortune and nature and all excellences, / the eternal glory
on the
central archway acclaim the emperor as "Liberator urbis e of
Fundator
Heaven compensates him / for the brevity of his reign. / He lived
quietis," reflecting the consensus on Constantine's war against years and eight months. / He died on the sixth of May,
eighty-five
Maxentius (Leander Touati as in fn. 48, 27, fn. 74; Capodiferro,
1478 / 87).
in the second year of his reign.)
By suggesting that Tullio Lombardo may have been able to
Brilliant's catalogue entry on the north facade [Fig. 3] conve-
decipher
niently summarizes the significance of the Arch on its particular the Arch's inscription and associate Constantine's victory
site
172
over Maxentius with Venice's repulsion of the Turkish advance Arch,

so whose architectural design Raphael was later to praise at the
close to home during Doge Vendramin's reign, both being triumphs
expense of its decadent sculptural styles (see note 35), with an
of Christian over pagan powers, I do not mean to imply that the
episode of "miraculous" victory and the saving of a people. Thus the
sculptor bore sole responsibility for deciding to allude toconditions that fostered Tullio's choice of this particular prototype
Constantine's Arch by using it as an obvious visual source, or thatcan be understood as embracing a time period of a decade or so
he could have composed the wording of the monument's epitaph. before he actually tackled the creative problem; and if both the artist
Ermolao Barbaro, a grandson of the doge, whose father Zaccaria and the intellectual luminary most deeply involved in the tomb pro-
was a member of Vendramin's commissaria, might have proposed ject understood the significance of the Arch of Constantine (as well
the visual rhetoric created by the use of the Arch of Constantine as
as its formal power and beauty), the decision to proclaim the ancient
the tomb's architectural model. The probable connection of Barbaromodel so overtly becomes more understandable.
to the tomb's commission, form and iconography is proposed and A suggestive sidelight on a Renaissance artist's attentive obser-
discussed by Sheard, 1971, 85-93, and 1978, 145 and fn. 69. Yet vation
it of a triumphal arch inscription is furnished by the drawing of
is important to note that at some point before 1488, the earliest datethe Arch of Septimius Severus from the Codex Coner, fol. 48r., pub-
at which the Lombardo shop could have received the commission for
lished as fig. 11 in P. W. Lehmann, "Alberti and Antiquity: Additional
Vendramin's tomb (Sheard, 1978), Tullio could have associated the
Observations," Art Bulletin, LXX/3, 1988, 388-400.
Angelicoussis, E. 'The Panel Reliefs of Marcus Aurelius," RdmischeMcAndrew, J. Venetian Architecture of the Early Renaissance, Cambridge
Mitteilungen, XCI, 1984, fasc. 1, 141-205. [Mass.], 1980.
Babinger, F., ed. by W. Hickman. Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time, trans.McHam, S. The Chapel of St. Anthony at the Santo and the Development of
R. Mannheim, Princeton, 1978. Venetian Renaissance Sculpture, Cambridge, N.Y., and Melbourne, 1994.
Bober, P. and Rubenstein, R. Renaissance Artists and Antique Sculpture,
Rilievi Storici Capitolini. II Restauro dei pannelli diAdriano e di Marco Aurelio
London, 1986. del Palazzo dei Conservatori, exh. cat., ed. by La Rocca, E. and C.B.C.
Capodiferro, A. "Arcus Constantini," E. M. Steinby, ed., Lexicon Conservazione Beni Culturali, Comune di Roma, Assessorato alla Cultura,
Topographicum Urbis Romae, vol. I (A-C), Rome, 1993, 86-91. Rome, 1986.
Degenhart, B. and Schmitt, A Jacopo Bellini. The Louvre Album of Drawings,Ryberg, I. S. Panel Reliefs of Marcus Aurelius, New York, 1967.
trans. F. Mecklenburg, New York, 1984. Sheard, W. S. 'The Tomb of Doge Andrea Vendramin in Venice by Tullio
Giuliano, A Arco di Costantino, Milan, 1955. Lombardo," Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1971.
Haskell, F. and Penny, N Taste and the Antique, New Haven and London, - "Sanudo's List of Notable Things in Venetian Churches and the Date of the
1981. Vendramin Tomb," Yale Italian Studies, I/3, 1977, 219-68.
Koeppel, G. 'The Grand Pictorial Tradition of Roman Historical Representa- - '"Asa adorna': the Prehistory of the Vendramin Tomb" Jahrbuch der
tion during the Early Empire," in H. Temporini and W. Haase, eds., AufsteigBerliner Museen, XX, 1978, 117-156.
und Niedergang der Romischen Welt, pt. II, XI/1, Berlin and New York, 1982, - 'The Birth of Monumental Classicizing Relief in Venice on the Fagade of
507-535. the Scuola di San Marco," in D. Rosand, ed., Interpretazioni Veneziane.
Lieberman, Ralph. Renaissance Architecture in Venice, New York, 1982.
Studi di Storia dell'Arte in Onore di Michelangelo Muraro, Venice, 1984,
L'Orange, H. P. and von Gerkan, A Die Spatantike Bildschmuck des 149-74.
Constantinsbogen, 2 vols., Berlin, 1939. Sohm, P. The Scuola Grande di San Marco, 1437-1550, New York, 1982.
Luchs, A. Tullio Lombardo and Ideal Portrait Sculpture in Renaissance Zava Boccazzi, F. La Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venezia, Venice,
Venice, 1490-1530, Cambridge, 1995. 1965.
173
This article is based on a lecture delivered at the 1987 Symposium in also the exhibition Natur und Antike in der Renaissance, Frankfurt a
Rome
Liebieghaus,
in honor of Richard Krautheimer and Leonard Boyle. It is fitting that its final Museum alter Plastik, 5 December 1985-2 March 1986, cat
form is appearing in a volume honoring the memory of Carolyn Kolb, by S. Ebert Schifferer, Frankfurt, 1985, cat. no. 17, 333. Two talks delive
whose
exploration of Tullio Lombardo's subtle but purposeful revival of medieval
at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in April 1986, stressed Botticelli's deviations f
architectural forms in the Villa Giustinian at Roncade (see fn. 60 below) has appearance of the Arch in his symbolic reconstruction: G. Daltr
the actual
"Dieof
inspired all subsequent writers on Tullio's architecture. With the exception Darstellung des Konstantinsbogens im Quattrocento: zyklus d
its final three pages, this text remains essentially unchanged from its Sixtinischen
redac- Kapelle," and R. Quednau, "Anmerkungen zu Studium
tion in 1988. The footnotes have been revised to account for a few more Rezeption des Konstantinsbogens in der Italienischen Renaissance."
recent relevant publications. In addition, some new discoveries about Tullio's
On the Arch itself, see now Capodiferro, 1993, with complete references,
uses of ancient sources have been included as footnotes. Professors Lilian the brief entry in L. Richardson, Jr., A New Topographical Dictionar
Ancient Rome, Baltimore, 1992, 24-25. For the Arch's inscription and
Armstrong, Fred S. Kleiner, and Jack Freiberg offered valuable bibliographic
advice. tional references, see Excursus at end of this article. An important contr
1 About the Scuola di San Marco facade, see Sheard, 1984, and W. S.tion to the Arch's sixteenth-century history and to its politicization durin
Sheard, "Bramante e i Lombardo: ipotesi su una connessione," in Carlo papacy of Clement VII (1523-34) is H. W. Bredekamp, "Lorenzinos de' M
Pirovano, ed., Venezia Milano. Storia, civilita e cultura nel rapporto tra dueAngriff auf den Konstantinsbogen als 'Schlacht von Cannae,"' in XX
capitali, Milan, 1984, 25-56, esp. 25-32. Tullio Lombardo's career prior to theCongres International d'histoire de I'Art, Strasbourg, 1-7 September 1
Vendramin tomb is handily summarized by Luchs, 1995, ch. 2, with complete Actes: L'Art et les revolutions, section 4, Les iconoclasmes, ed. S. Micha
bibliographic references. G. Agosti noted that during Tullio's lifetime CesareStrasbourg, 1992, 95-115.
Cesariano, in his ed. of Vitruvius' De architectura (Como, 1521, xlviii v.), 8 Sheard, 1971; ills. in Sheard, 1978; Zava Boccazzi, 1965, figs. 66-
included him in a list of artists who had visited Rome: "Sul gusto per I'antico R. Goffen, Piety and Patronage in Renaissance Venice. Bellini, Titian, and
a Milano, tra il regime Sforzesco e la dominazione farnese," Prospettiva XLIXFranciscans, New Haven and London, 1986, 28-9, uses the example o
(1987 [appeared December 1988]), 33, 45, fn. 5. Vendramin to support her contention that in Venice, unlike in Florence
On Antonio Lombardo, see J. Pope-Hennessy, Italian Renaissance Sculpture, location of patrician families' patronage in churches was often geographic
3rd ed., New York, 1985, 343-45, 370. disconnected from their residences. This assertion does not, however,
2 The tomb's dating is discussed by Sheard, 1971, 73-85; Sheard,to the Vendramin tomb; Goffen was unaware that it had been erected o
1977, passim, and Luchs, 1995, 41f., 48f. Luchs dates the tomb c. 1489-1493 nally in the Servi Church which was located close to houses belonging t
(and later?). She accepts autumn 1494 as a terminus ante quem for the Vendramin (see Sheard, 1971, 93-95).
Vendramin Warrior wearing a helmet. 9 Before the Vendramin tomb, the monument of Doge Pietro Moceni
3 Degenhart and Schmitt, 1984, with relevant bibliography to which (late 1470s) had alluded somewhat pointedly to Roman triumphal arches
should be added: B. Degenhart and A. Schmitt, "Ein Musterblatt des Jacopomore via its nearly exclusively non-Christian iconography and predom
Bellini mit Zeichnungen nach der Antike," in J. A. Schmoll et al., eds., themes of military triumph than by its basic architectural design, w
Festschrift Luitpold Dussler, Munich and Berlin, 1972, 139-68. stacked niches on each side echoed the Porta della Carta on the Ducal
4 This development is connected to the appearance of triumphal arch- Palace (see Sheard, 1971, ch. 7). Luchs, 1995, stresses that work on t
es in Paduan painting, and to Pietro Lombardo's adaptation of the Florentinemonument would have presented Tullio and Antonio with the idea of Ve
triumphal arch-based tomb in the Antonio Roselli monument in the Santo (fin- as the successor to the glory and the artistic heritage of ancient Rome
ished in 1467), by L. Armstrong (Renaissance Miniature Painters and but she dates Tullio's probable trip to Rome to ca. 1490, i.e., after his work
Classical Imagery, London, 1981, 22ff.). the Pietro Mocenigo tomb, the Zanetti monument (see fn. 59), and the Scuo
5 Sheard, 1971, 238-43. di San Marco reliefs. She thereby connects the presumed trip primarily wi
6 R. Lieberman, "Real Architecture, Imaginary History: the Arsenale the shift toward archeological accuracy that is apparent in Tullio's architec
Gate as Venetian Mythology," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld al design, cuirassed Warriors, figural motifs, decorative features, and epigr
Institutes, LIV (1991), 120-2; McAndrew, 1980, 17-23. phy on the Vendramin tomb, rather than with his earlier invention
7 The Conturbation of the Laws of Moses, fifth fresco on left wall. See Renaissance classicizing grand style relief (41, 49).
R. Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1978, I, 66-67 and 10 Sheard, 1971, 241-45.
plate 25; II, 44-45, no. B32. The inscription on Botticelli's arch is the text from 11 H. Gabelmann, Die Werkstattgruppen der Oberitalienisch
Hebrews V:4 (slightly altered) which provides the moral of the three episodes Sarkophage, Bonn, 1973, no. 57, 214, plate 25.
illustrated in the fresco: "NEMO.SIBI.ASSVMM / AT.HONOREM.NISI. / 12 In the niches originally were the Adam, now in the Metropolita
VOCATVS.A DEO /TANQVAM.ARON" (Let no man take the honor unto him- (Fletcher Fund 36.163), and probably a lost Eve (an Eve high up
Museum
self but he that is called by God, as Aaron was). Botticelli thus appropriates
the exterior apse of Milan Cathedral is probably a copy). The Warriors t
the Roman pagan imagery of triumph but inscribes on it a message ofwere moral placed in the niches c. 1818-1819 after the monument had been set
superiority and suitability for leadership of those who are called by God.
in its present position and the Adam and Eve removed are remarkably "
Lightbown explains that contemporaries would have understood therect" allusion
versions of antique Roman cuirassed figures. At the same time, t
of the fresco as a whole to the papal rejection of the conciliar doctrine
relatethat
to the theme of the Ages of Man that Pietro Lombardo had embod
a General Council of the Church was superior in authority to the pope
in his caryatids on the Tomb of Doge Pietro Mocenigo (SS. Giovanni e Pa
(Lightbown, I, 65f.). A discussion of Raphael's letter to Leo X about the
innerArchfacade wall, left of main portal), and express a pathos appropriate
of Constantine, and a list of representations of it in the Renaissance,their is function
in as mourners (Sheard, 1971, 100-14 and 197-212, with bib
Bober and Rubenstein, 1986, 214-16 (with bibliography). graphic references; S. Romano, Tullio Lombardo, II Monumento al d
Andrea Vendramin, Venice, 1985).
More about the impact on artists of the Arch and its reliefs in the Renaissance
can be found in the exhibition Da Pisanello alla nascita dei Musei Capitolini.
13 Ills. in Giuliano, 1955, figs. 6-8. The motif of the "heroic rider figu
in antiquity
L'Antico a Roma alla vigilia del Rinascimento, held at the Musei Capitolini, 24 is discussed in Ryberg, 1967, 12-13. The Perseus tondo on
May-19 July 1988, cat. ed. by A. Cavallaro and E. Parlato, Rome, 1988: cf.
Vendramin monument is illustrated in Sheard, 1978, fig. 5.
174
14 Andrea Vendramin, in a will of 1472, ordered a tomb for himself answer to the conspicuous splendor of his palace front may lie in the role he
played as negotiator of the Peace Treaty of 1479: "Never in the history of
which was to be "[assai] grande e ben fatto e [assai] adorna..." See Sheard,
1978, 117-25. Venice had a peace negotiator been given similar powers, but never perhaps
15 The Turkish incursion and the siege of Kroja are recounted in in the
S. history of the republic had the Signoria found itself in so terrible a situ-
ation..." (Babinger, 1978, 368). The perceived success of Dario in concluding
Romanin, Storia Documentata di Venezia, second ed., 10 vols., Venice, 1912-
an advantageous treaty is what seems to have merited an unprecedented dis-
1921, IV, 369-85. The Ottomans'deep penetration into the Venetians' home
play of personal triumph and opulence in his palace front.
territory and the siege of Kroja were the most disastrous events of the Turkish
War during Vendramin's reign. See further F. C. Lane, Venice, Baltimore Onand
Dario, especially his role as a leading figure in the Scuola Grande di San
Giovanni Evangelista, see P. F. Brown, Venetian Narrative Painting in the Age
London, 1973, 236, and the reference to Babinger's account in fn. 17 infra.
For Doge Vendramin's epitaph, see Excursus. of Carpaccio, New Haven and London, 1988, 241-42.
16 See Excursus. 19 III. in R. Lightbown, Mantegna, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1986,
An additional allusion made by the monument to the "savior of a people" plate 14.
theme is the relief of Judith with the Head of Holoferes on one of its column 20 Verrocchio's design for Doge Vendramin's tomb is analyzed in
bases (Sheard, 1971, 225f., interpreting Judith more generally as a civic Sheard, 1978, where there is also a discussion of the circumstances in which
Virtue figure). At the time of my dissertation, I did not fully comprehend that Barbaro probably joined Vendramin's commissaria; parallels linking aspects
Doge Vendramin could be presented as a savior of his people, because I of the tomb to Barbaro's interests and methods are pointed out in Sheard,
interpreted the military efforts against the Turks during his reign as a failure 1971, ch. 3. On Barbaro, consult V. Branca, "Ermolao Barbaro and Late
(Sheard, 1971, 12). For an ill. of Judith with the Head of Holofernes on the Quattrocento Venetian Humanism," in J. R. Hale, ed., Renaissance Venice,
tomb, see Zava Boccazzi, 1965, 137, fig. 78. London, 1973, 218-43 and idem, "L'umanesimo veneziano alla fine del
A general account of Andrea Vendramin and his reign as doge is in A. Da Quattrocento. Ermolao Barbaro e il suo circolo," in Storia della Cultura
Mosto, I dogi di Venezia, Milan, 1966, 243-50. There it is stated (247) that Veneta, ed. G. Arnaldi and M. Pastore Stocchi, vol. III: 1 (1980), 123-75. Also
frescoes of the triumph and coronation of Caesar were painted by "Maffeo see Excursus.
Verona" in a grand house on the Giudecca at S. Eufemia that Vendramin used 21 For Vendramin's testament see Sheard, 1978, 120-25 (and fns.). I
as a "luogo di delizia." If the tradition refers to the Matteo Verona born c. 1574 bequests are summarized in Appendix I, 150-53. For Sanudo's remarks a
(d. 1618 in Venice) listed in Thieme-Becker (Kunstlerlexicon, XXXIV, 1940, their context see Sheard, 1977.
290), the Roman triumphal subject matter obviously bears no relationship to 22 Visible in Zava Boccazzi, 1965, 130, fig. 66; discussed by Shea
the fifteenth-century Andrea Vendramin. 1971, ii-iii and 192.
A suggestion by John McAndrew about how the Vendramin monument relates 23 Cf. the iconographic program implicit in Verrocchio's design for Do
to the doge's taste for antiquities as expressed in his collection (McAndrew, Vendramin's tomb (Sheard, 1978, 136-45, esp. 144).
1980, 464) is based on a mistaken identification of the doge as the Andrea 24 On the Lombardos in Ravenna, P. Paoletti, L'architettura e la scul
Vendramin who had a famous collection of paintings. ThatAndrea Vendramin del Rinascimento in Venezia, Pt. I, Venice, 1893, 214-15. On the Ravenn
lived in the seventeenth century (see T. Borenius, The Picture Gallery of reliefs: H. Jucker, "Die Prinzen auf dem Augustus-Relief in Ravenna," i
Andrea Vendramin, London, 1923). Doge Vendramin's great-nephew Ducray et al., eds., Melanges d'Histoire Ancienne et d'Archeologie offer
Gabriele, the son of his nephew Leonardo, owned one of the most famous Paul Collart, Lausanne, 1976, 237-67 [Cahiers d'Archeologie Romande de
Venetian art collections of the sixteenth century, which included Giorgione's Bibliotheque historique vaudoise, no. 5], with earlier bibliography (con
Tempesta, copies of the cartoons for Mantegna's Triumph of Caesar series iently illustrated in D. Strong, Roman Art, Baltimore, 1976, plates 54 and
(could these be connected to the triumphal frescoes at the Vendramin villa at These reliefs were first described in 1511 as having been found "under"
S. Eufemia?) and paintings and drawings by Jacopo, Gentile and Giovanni Mausoleum of Galla Placidia (Jucker comments [242] that this was a gen
Bellini, panels by Raphael and northern painters, engravings by DOrer, and reference and could have meant "nearby"); therefore no written evidence s
hundreds of antique heads, torsos, fragments, vases, lamps and figurines, of vives that would date their discovery more precisely. The relief with a gro
marble, bronze, wood and other materials, some of which were listed by portrait of Julio-Claudian princes has figures that appear almost fully thr
Marcantonio Michiel in 1530 (Notizia d'Opere del Disegno, ed. T. Frimmel, dimensional because of the degree of their detachment from the block,
Vienna, 1888, 106-10; A. Rava, "II 'Camerino dell' Antigaglie' di Gabriele its height (1.04 meters) is close to the Scuola di S. Marco reliefs, but un
Vendramin," Nuovo Archivio Veneto, n.s., XXXIX, 1920, 151-81; J. Anderson, them it is not narrative and lacks a layered structure. The relief of a Sacr
"A Further Inventory of Gabriel Vendramin's Collection," Burlington Magazine, shows generally a closer correspondence in composition and technique to
CXXI, 1979, 639-48; L. Campbell, "Notes on Netherlandish Pictures in the grand style imperial reliefs in Rome that can be compared to Tullio's St. M
Veneto in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries," Burlington Magazine, reliefs (see text below). When news of the discovery of these relief
CXXIII, 1981, 467-73). For Vendramin family genealogy during the fifteenth Ravenna reached Venice, Tullio would certainly have journeyed to see th
and sixteenth centuries, see Sheard, 1978, appendix 2, 154-55. It is interesting to note that the Ravenna reliefs are regarded as among
17 Babinger, 1978, 372-73; for the peace treaty and its effects, including highest-quality sculptures that survive from the first century CE.
the Turkish invasion of Italy at Otranto, 369-98. Babinger provides an excel- By the early 1520s, when Tullio was working on the Tomb of Guido Guida
lent account of Venice's war with the Turks (passim). destined for the church of S. Francesco, Ravenna (see S. Wilk [McHam],
18 The government of Venice regarded the treaty as very favorable, Sculpture of Tullio Lombardo. Studies in Sources and Meaning, New York
considering the military situation. One might consider the facade of the Ca London, 1978, ch. 6, esp. 157-59), he would have seen the Ravenna relie
Dario on the Grand Canal in this light (illustrated and discussed in Lieberman, but their format and technique are unrelated to the Guidarelli effigy. On
1982, plate 16). The Ca Dario is the only palace front revetted with expensive other hand, nearly everything about them could well have influenced the
marbles in the manner of Sta. Maria dei Miracoli (Lieberman, plates 12 and of Tullio's second relief for the Chapel of St. Anthony in the Santo
28) and the Scuola di S. Marco (Lieberman, plate 66), both of which were Miracle of the Miser's Heart, 1520-25: for example, the increased illusio
either religious or civic buildings (the Scuola a blend of both). Yet Ca Dario's weight imparted to drapery), and I believe they should be considere
patron, Giovanni Dario, secretary of the Venetian Senate, was not a noble. An important a source for that second relief as the Arch of Constantine was f
175
the Vendramin tomb. S. McHam, 1994, 46, notes that the figures of this sec-
reconstructed at the top of the sheet, Codex Vaticanus Barberinianus Latinus
ond relief are more deeply carved-"parts of their bodies are cut free from thefols. 60 and 19v, respectively; ills. in C. Hulsen, II libro di Giuliano da
4424,
background slab"-and that draperies are given greater weight than in Sangallo.
the Codice Vaticano Barberiniano Latino 4424, Leipzig, 1910, and
sculptor's earlier relief for the Chapel (The Miracle of the Reattached Leg, and Rubenstein, 1986, 190, figs. 158e and 163a. Another relevant
Bober
drawing
1500-01, installed 1505), and attributes the change in style to the influence of by an artist whose influence on Tullio was considerable: Andrea
the Laococn, which was unearthed in Rome in 1506. Mantegna's Trajan Battling the Dacians from the Great Trajanic frieze on the
Certainly the Laoco6n's influence on the pathosformel of High Renaissance
Arch, in the Albertina (ill. in W. Koschatsky et al., eds. Italian Drawings in the
art was crucial and all-enveloping: see L. D. Ettlinger, "Exemplum Doloris.
Albertina, Greenwich, Conn., 1971, no. 16 [n.p.]). Even though in comparison
Reflections on the Laoco6n Group," in De Artibus Opuscula XL, Essays in
to Giuliano da Sangallo's drawings Mantegna's provides more information, for
Honor of Erwin Panofsky, New York, 1961, 121-26 and M. Winner, "Zum example about the use of layering in the Trajanic relief, it still must be con-
Nachleben des Laokoon in der Renaissance," Berlin Jahrbuch, XVI, 1974, 83- insufficient to provide a technical explanation of Roman imperial
sidered
121. Nevertheless, expressive relationships between Tullio's Miracle of the The success of the ancient Roman sculptors in achieving the illusions
relief.
Miser's Heart and the famous antique need to be considered in the wider for
con-
which their carving techniques had evolved guaranteed that renderings of
text of the development of psychological naturalism in Venetian art, in their
whichreliefs would not reproduce the optically corrective distortions that were
Tullio himself had been a pioneer beginning c. 1490 with such works calculated
as the to achieve the desired image.
Couple (Venice, Ca' d'Oro) and the Adam and Warriors for the Vendramin A quite literal drawing of the Adventus Augustion the Arch, no. 1911-10-18-1
tomb. For the former see this writer's catalogue entry in Tiziano: Amor in the British Museum, attributed to an anonymous north Italian artist ca.
Sacro
e Amor Profano, exh. cat., Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, 22 March-22 1500, before the head of Constantine in the relief was defaced, transmits the
May 1995, ed. M. G. Bemardini, no. 29, 260-62, and Luchs, 1995, ch. 3, 51- basic forms and composition (although there are discrepancies). Just
relief's
66, with complete bibliographic references; to the references provided in asfn.
with Mantegna's drawing of the Trajanic relief, it gives no clue about the
12 above for the Vendramin tomb figures should be added Luchs, loc. cit., Aurelian
42- relief's facture. See A. E. Popham and P. Pouncey, Italian Drawings
48. To conclude that such features of Tullio's second Santo relief as its in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. The 14th
and 15th Centuries, 2 vols., London, 1950, I, no. 334, 201-2; II, plate
increased freeing of the figures from the block of marble by extensive under-
CCLXXXVI. The drawing is not included in Bober and Rubenstein, 1986.
cutting are to be attributed solely or even partly to the Laocoon, a sculpture
of a fundamentally different character regardless of how much future genera- There are also important considerations about the availability of drawings
such
tions would speculate on its "relieflike" qualities, is to confer upon it both tooas Giuliano's and Mantegna's. It is doubtful whether Tullio could have
obtained
exclusive and too general an influence on Tullio, fourteen years after its dis- access to them; moreover the dating of Mantegna's drawing to c.
covery in Rome. 1489-1490 makes it too late to be of use in the planning and execution of the
Nevertheless McHam, 1994, is now the authoritative monograph on the di S. Marco reliefs (see further on in text).
Scuola
Chapel of St. Anthony. She dates Tullio's relief of The Miracle of the 26 The most informative treatment of the design, construction, and sym-
Reattached Leg 1500-05 because 1505 was the date of its installation and of the facade of the Scuola di S. Marco is Sohm, 1982, which super-
bolism
a dispute about payment between Tullio and Antonio and the massari of sedes
theP. Paoletti, La Scuola Grande di San Marco, Venice, 1929 (still highly
Santo was not resolved until that year, but the relief was referredusefulto as for ills., however). Sheard, 1984, deals with the facade's sculptural
"already begun and for the most part complete" in a contract dated 17decoration
June and illusionistic aspects, with special focus on their relationship to
Roman imperial reliefs. Also important to consult are McAndrew, 1980, 182-
1501 (McHam, Document 13, 203-4), and the original contract for it stipulat-
93 and Lieberman, 1982, 24-26 (and commentary to plate 66).
ed a completion date of 13 June 1501 (the Feast of St. Anthony). Moreover,
Tullio was paid 300 ducats, including 50 for the lunette he had carved,Antonio's
on 2 possible participation in the carving of St. Mark Healing Anianus is
August 1501. The dating of his second relief to 1520-1525 follows discussed
from in Sheard, 1984, 153 and 162.
Antonio Sartori's discovery of the contract dated 16 June 1520, as McHam 27 A complete bibliography pertaining to Roman imperial reliefs up to
reports (45; Document 20, 206), yet there remains the possibility that he is provided by G. Koeppel, "Official State Reliefs of the City of Rome in
1982
began work on it as early as 1516 (McHam, 164, fn. 140). The datethe Imperial Age. A Bibliography," in H. Temporini and W. Haase, eds.,
1525
inscribed on its base has been considered the relief's terminus ante quem,
Aufsteig und Niedergang der Romischen Welt, pt. II, Xll/1, Berlin, 1982, 477-
506. on
but a more precise idea of its completion comes from a receipt Tullio wrote
2 December of that year (McHam, 164, fn. 139). 28 Sheard, 1984, 155-56.
About Antonio Lombardo's use of the Laocoon as a source for his so-called 29 The fagade of the Scuola di S. Marco considered as a whole is filled
Forge of Vulcan, a marble narrative relief carved for the studio di marmi ofwith reminiscences of triumphal arches, and its use of a three-arch motif in
Alfonso d'Este (duke of Ferrara from 1508-1534), whose court sculptor he the three left-hand ground story bays, of which the central splendid aedicular
became in 1506, see W. S. Sheard, "Antonio Lombardo's Reliefs for Alfonso portal particularly expresses the facade's message of triumphal celebration,
recalls the Arch of Constantine specifically (Sohm, 1982, 141-44; Sheard,
d'Este's Studio di Marmi: Their Significance and Impact on Titian," in Titian
1984, 153-54).
500 (Studies in the History of Art 45; Center for Advanced Study in the Visual
Arts, Symposium Papers XXV), Joseph Manca, ed., Washington, D.C., 1993, 30 McAndrew pointed out the source of this motif but cautioned against
314-57, esp. 321-22 and fn. 33, and, conceming a possible trip to Rome by concluding from it that Tullio had been to Rome (1980, 185).
Antonio between January of 1506 and 1511, fn. 81 at p. 351. 31 Sohm, 1982, 111, 121-26.
25 In support of this conclusion, one can examine drawings that have 32 For the presence of porphyry and other precious marbles on the Arch
been praised for their accuracy, for example, those of Giuliano da Sangallo,of Constantine, see L'Orange and von Gerkan, 1939, 161. L. Richardson, Jr.,
and easily conclude that the subtlety and completeness with which Tullio had'The Date and Program of the Arch of Constantine," Archeologia Classica,
grasped ancient Roman techniques could not have been gleaned from them. XXVII, 1975, 72-78, noted the Arch's embellishment with porphyry and other
Useful to study with this question in mind are Giuliano's drawing of therare marbles. He linked this feature with Constantine's "oriental" tastes. Could
porphyry already have acquired the imperial cosmic symbolism of world
"Clementia" relief in the Conservatori, and his great pioneering drawing of the
dominion and therefore have been employed on the Arch for programmatic
Arch of Constantine with the two sections of the Trajanic frieze from the inside
176
reasons? Cf. J. Deer, The Dynastic Porphyry Tombs of the Norman Period Rome.
in On them could be found details of sacrificial ceremonies, military uni-
forms, triumphal processions and other matters of the very greatest fascina-
Sicily, Cambridge, Mass., 1959, passim. For the uses of color on the Scuola
di S. Marco fa9ade, see p. 167 above. tion to artists and antiquarians" (256), and that Vasari mentions the high
33 Koeppel, 1982, passim; summary on 518. regard in which the Aurelian panels on the Arch were held (Vite, ed. A.
34 Ills. of Aurelian reliefs reemployed in the Arch of Constantine:
Venturi, Florence, 1896, I, 224). For Mantegna's use of Aurelian reliefs in the
Giuliano, 1955, figs. 17-24, and Capodiferro, 1993, 91, with references. Conservatori
For and on the Arch, see A. Martindale, The Triumphs of Caesar by
reused Hadrianic reliefs, see fn. 39 below. Andrea Mantegna, London, 1979, index, 340, s.v. Rome, Arch of Constantine
and Palazzo dei Conservatori.
35 Published in V. Golzio, Raffaello nei documenti, nelle testimonianze
dei contemporanei e nella letteratura del suo secolo, Citta del Vaticano, 1936,43 Other imperial grand style reliefs of similar vertical format may also
82-92; for comment on Arch, see 85. have provided models for Tullio's St. Mark reliefs: for example, the Adventus
36 L'Orange and von Gerkan, 1939, 2. relief in the Conservatori Museum (Rilievi Storici Capitolini, 1986, 13-16, fig.
37 Sheard, 1971, esp. 48, 168-69, 197-201; Wilk [McHam], Sculpture5), ofwhich was set into a wall on the Piazza Sciarra before 1573 when it was
Tullio Lombardo (as in fn. 24) passim; D. Pincus, 'Tullio Lombardo as
transferred to its present location. Haskell and Penny note that until late in the
a Restorer of Antiquities: an Aspect of Fifteenth Century Venetian nineteenth century this relief had been considered part of the Marcus Aurelius
Antiquarianism," Arte Veneta, XXXIII, 1979, 29-42 and idem, "An Antique series (loc. cit., 256). For the relief's original context, see F. Castagnoli, "Due
Fragment as Workshop Model; Classicism in the Andrea Vendramin Tomb," archi trionfali della Via Flaminia presso Piazza Sciarra," Bullettino della
B. M., CXXIII, 1981, 342-46; Sheard, 1984; McHam, 1994; Sheard, 'Tullio Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma, LXX, 1942, 57-59 and 74-82.
Lombardo's Employment of Sarcophagus Types on the Vendramin Tomb," See also Koeppel, "Bibliography," as in fn. 27.
talk delivered at a conference on "Venezia e I'Archeologia," University of Also to be considered are the two Hadrianic panels from the "Arco di
Venice, 25-29 May 1988. Portogallo" (up-to-date bibliography in Koeppel, loc. cit., 498; Rilievi Storici
38 Awareness of such differences is implicit in the drawing of the Arch Capitolini, 21-37 and plates VII and XV). Both reliefs were accessible during
of Constantine by Giuliano da Sangallo referred to in fn. 25. the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. See Sheard, 1984, 162 and fn. 58. In its
39 For the eight Hadrianic medallions on the Arch of Constantine, see relative austerity and reticence, Tullio's adaptation of Roman Classicism in
Giuliano, 1955, figs. 9-16; bibliography in Capodiferro, 1993, 91. the St. Mark reliefs seems to reflect familiarity with these Hadrianic panels in
40 For the Column of Trajan, see E. Nash, Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient addition to the Aurelian reliefs discussed here (cf. Sheard, 1984, 161).
Rome, 2nd ed., New York, 1968, I, 283-86 and G. Becatti, "La Colonna 44 Several mutually compatible explanations for the existence of these
Traiana, espressione somma del rilievo storico romano," in H. Temporini and tall fictive loggias opening up behind the narrative reliefs of St. Mark have
W. Haase, eds., Aufstieg und Niedergang der Romischen Welt, Pt. II, XII/1, been put forward by Philip Sohm and by Sheard, 1984, 149, 154ff., (with ref-
Berlin and New York, 1982, 536-78. Representations of the Column in the erences to relevant passages in Sohm, 1982 in notes).
Renaissance: Bober and Rubenstein, 1986, no. 159, 159-60; G. Agosti and V. 45 Compare the architectural backgrounds in the following Aurelian reliefs
Farinella, "Un Monumento: la Colonna di Traiano..." in S. Settis, ed., Memoria (using Ryberg's designations); Adventus, Profectio, Rex Datus (on the Arch)
dell'antico nell'arte italiana, I, L'uso dei classici, Turin, 1984, 390-427. Triumph and Sacrifice (in the Conservatori), and in the Hadrianic Adlocutio from
41 These are (according to terminology of I. S. Ryberg) on the north the "Arco di Portogallo" described in fn. 43 supra. The anonymous artist respon-
face, left to right: Adventus, Profectio, Liberalitas, Submission; on the south sible for the British Museum drawing referred to in fn. 25 "corrected" the archi-
face: Rex Datus, Prisoners, Adlocutio, Lustratio. Ills. in Ryberg, 1967. tectural background of the Adventus relief in just this fashion.
Ryberg's identifications of the panels' subjects have been disputed by E. During the question period following the first presentation of the ideas in thi
Angelicoussis, 1984. Representations of the Aurelian panels in the paper at the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Colloquium entitled "Roma quanta fuit
Renaissance: Bober and Rubenstein, 1986, no. 161, 195 (Prisoners) and no. ipsa ruina docet," in April 1986), a comment by Prof. Matthias Winner encour-
162, 195 (Submission). On the meaning of Profectio and Adventus, see fur- aged this line of thought.
ther G. Koeppel, "Profectio und Adventus," Bonner Jahrbucher des 46 Koeppel, 1982, 518.
Rheinischen Landesmuseums in Bonn, CLXIX, 1969, 133. 47 Dimensions of panels in Conservatori given by Haskell and Penny,
42 Essential information about the Marcus Aurelius reliefs in the 1981, 255. See now Rilievi Storici Capitolini, 39-40.
Conservatori with a good summary of their history: Haskell and Penny, 1981, 48 The depth dimension of reliefs is rarely given in catalogue entries or
no. 56, 255-57, with ills. The very interesting fact that two additional panels other descriptive matter. The greatest relief projection of the pieces of the
were located in Sta. Martina in the sixteenth century was noted by great Trajanic frieze on the Arch of Constantine is 0.32 m. even though its
Angelicoussis, 1984, who quoted Ulisse Aldrovandi's 1516 list of statues in overall size "outdoes all of the historical reliefs extant today, for it measures
Rome (published as an appendix by L. Mauro, Le antichita della citta di nearly three meters in height, the figures being larger than life size, 2.30 m.
Roma, Venice, 1556, 271): "nel muro scoverto del cortiglio [of the on the average." Koeppel, 1982, 513-14. For the Trajanic frieze, see now A.
Conservatori] sono attaccate tre belle tavole marmoree... furono queste tav- Leander Touati, The Great Trajanic Frieze. The Study of a Monument and of
ole tolte da la chiesa di S. Martina... nella quale chiesa S. Martina si veggono the Mechanisms of Message Transmission in Roman Art (Acta Instituti
altre due tali tavoli [sic] marmoree..." For additional sixteenth-century refer- Romani Regni Sueciae, ser. in 4?, XLV), Stockholm, 1987; about Giuliano da
ences to them, see Rilievi Storici Capitolini, 1986, 38f. At the end of the cen- Sangallo's drawing: 13, fn. 5. For the depth dimension of the frieze, see 84
tury they were owned by Giacomo della Porta. Now they are located in the and fn. 424.
atrium of the Museo di Villa Borghese. See further Bober and Rubenstein, Rilievi Storici Capitolini gives the depth of the Adventus relief in the
1986, nos. 163, 196-97, and 167, 199-200. W. S. Sheard, Antiquity in the Conservatori as circa 30 cm. (13) and the depth of the two "Arco di Portogallo"
Renaissance, exh. cat., Northampton, Mass. (Smith College Museum of Art), reliefs as circa 25 cm. (Consecratio Divae Sabinae) and circa 29 cm.
1979, nos. 27-29 (n.p.), discusses three little-known seventeenth-century (Institutio Alimentaria [?]) (24). It fails to provide any depth dimension for the
drawings of the Conservatori reliefs. Haskell and Penny point out that the reliefs from Sta. Martina, possibly because they are inextricably embedded in
Conservatori reliefs "probably provided the most accessible and certainly the their sixteenth-century settings.
most convenient records of the life, customs and even architecture of ancient
177
For the less than life-size figures of Tullio's St. Mark reliefs, the reliefs' depth
55 Roman sculptors' means of transmitting the awe-inspiring power of
dimension of circa 11 cm. allowed highly dramatic, though broadly defined, an emperor were adapted by Tullio for a Christian program depicting a saint's
chiaroscural effects, and constituted a deep relief or, in Vasari's term, "mez-
supernatural powers, first in the narratives of St. Mark's healing and baptism
zorilievo" (Sheard, 1984, 158f., 164). P. Stepan, Die Reliefs der Cappella of St.del
Anianus on the Scuola di S. Marco facade and later for the three reliefs
Santo in Padua: Quellenstudien und Untersuchungen zu ihrer Ikonographie, he and Antonio Lombardo carved for the burial chapel of St. Anthony of
Inaugural dissertation, Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat, 1982, 249-50, pointed
Padua in the Santo. See fn. 63 below.
out that Vasari singled out the relief type and technique in the Chapel of56St. Sheard, 1984, 150, 156-61.
Anthony as the prime example of mezzorilievo in his own time (cited 57inKoeppel, 1982, usefully summarizes earlier discussions of the char-
McHam, 1994, 187, fn. 50). My thanks to Alison Luchs for arranging access of Roman grand style reliefs (e.g., by J. Sieveking and P. Hamberg)
acteristics
to Stepan's dissertation. by way of providing a full historiographic background for his own theory about
A different use of the depth dimension occurs in Donatello's Cavalcanti
the relationships of such reliefs to older pictorial precedents.
Annunciation tabernacle in Santa Croce, Florence (H. W. Janson, The of anamorphic distortion employed in both ancient and
Examples
Sculpture of Donatello, 2 vols., Princeton, 1957, I, plates 141-50 and Renaissance-era
II, 103- reliefs as a device to counteract foreshortening are difficult
8). There the "stage set" possibilities are seized upon and the frame is utilized
to demonstrate because published photographs normally reflect the "correct"
as a proscenium. There is some compression of planes, but not the layeringviewing angle and therefore do not document technical means of creating var-
of planes derived from imperial reliefs. A feeling of plastic modeling or mal-
ious illusions or corrections. An exception is an excellent photograph of
leability of surface belies the medium, limestone, and the remains of poly-
a detail of the head of Faustina Aeteritas in the Aurelian Adventus relief on
chromy and gilt suggest a painting in three dimensions rather than a funda-
the Arch of Constantine (Ryberg, 1967, fig. 47a), which shows the artificial
mentally glyptic conception, or one dominated by antique revival inspiration.
pulling forward of the inner cheek and eye that allows the latter to be seen
Cf. the discussion of Donatello's Annunciation, tabernacle in McHam,despite 108. its hidden position. Attentive study of the detail photographs included
49 Donatello's influence on Jacopo Bellini: C. Eisler, The Genius
in theofplate volume of L'Orange and von Gerkan, 1939, reveals a number of
Jacopo Bellini, New York, 1989, 46, and references cited by Lightbown,
comparable views. Ryberg, 1967, comments on the optical corrections
Mantegna (as in fn. 19), 254, fn. 59, to which should be added J. Hoag, by Greek sculptors (7, fn. 30).
employed
"Jacopo Bellini and the Antique," M.A. Thesis, Yale University, 1953, It
passim.
is interesting and perhaps relevant to the question of Tullio's antique
Donatello's influence on Mantegna: L. Puppi, "Osservazioni sui riflessi del- that an example of anamorphic distortion that is extremely close to
sources
I'arte di Donatello tra Padova e Ferrara," in Donatello e il Suo Tempo. Atti
Lysippus can be found in an Eros head (Padua, Museo di Scienze
dell'VIII Congresso Internazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento (1966), Archeologiche de I'Arte dell'Universita di Padova, inv. MB 127) that once
Florence, 1968, 307-29; M. L. Dunkelman, "Donatello's Influence on belonged to the Paduan collector Marco Mantova Benavides (good ills. which
Mantegna's Early Narrative Scenes," Art Bulletin, LXII/2 (1980), 226-35; reveal
J. the distortions, and an up-to-date catalogue entry with bibliographic
Martineau, ed., Andrea Mantegna, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, references, are in: Lisippo: L'Arte e la Fortuna, exh. cat., Rome, Palazzo delle
and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1992, index, s.v. "Donatello." Esposizioni, Monza [?], 1995, no. 4.15.1, 112-14). In an example of the same
Lightbown minimizes Donatello's influence on Mantegna even with respect head type from the Capitoline Museum (no. 4.15.2, 114-15), the deformations
to the latter's altarpiece for San Zeno, Verona (1986, 27, 67f.); cf. the more
were even easier to see on direct examination in the exhibition. The right eye
typical position expressed by C. Cieri Via, Andrea Mantegna, Pala di San is pulled out and the corresponding cheek brought forward, whereas the left
Zeno, Venice, 1985, 13-15 (and references, 30f.), and by K. Christiansen cheek is rounded normally. The distance between the corner of the right eye
(but with new emphasis on the intermediary role of Niccolb Pizzolo): and see the nose is shortened and the eye's outer corner distorted and exagger-
Andrea Mantegna, exh. cat. cited above, 99-102, 115, 119, 123, 141, 143, ated. These distortions counteract the foreshortening that would result from
403. J. Pope-Hennessy stressed Donatello's influence on Mantegna's viewing the head from the statue's proper left (the viewer's right). Possibly
Madonnas: Donatello Sculptor, New York, 1993, 249, 261 (and see Tullio saw the Paduan example.
Christiansen in Andrea Mantegna, cat. no. 12, 139; 153f.; cat. no. 41, 205). The Eros head in Padua or another belonging to the same type could very
K. Clark, "Mantegna and Classical Antiquity," in his The Art of Humanism, well have furnished the antique source for the head of the right-hand Angel
London, 1983, 107-40, noted relationships between Donatello's and on the Altar of St. Luke in San Giobbe, Venice, whose design has been per-
Mantegna's drawing styles. On Pizzolo, see the seminal article by E. Rigoni, suasively attributed to Tullio by A. M. Schulz. An excellent detail photograph
"II Pittore Niccolb Pizzolo," Arte Veneta, II (1948), 141-47, and on Francesco published in that author's Giambattista and Lorenzo Bregno. Venetian
Squarcione, M. Boskovits, "Una ricerca su Francesco Squarcione," Sculpture in the High Renaissance, Cambridge, 1991, fig. 70, reveals com-
Paragone, XXVIII, 325 (1977), 40-70, and Christiansen in Andrea Mantegna, parable facial morphology, especially the overall shape of the face and
94-99, with references. Excellent color photographs of Donatello's bronze cheeks, and the formation of the eyelids and lower lip, although the curls
reliefs in the Santo by Elio Ciol are published in G. Mazzariol and A. Dorigato, falling over the forehead of Tullio's Angel, in their forms and abundance, are
Donatello. Le Sculture al Santo di Padova, Padua, 1989, 106-39. not found in the antique model, whose rounded forehead is nearly fully visi-
50 For the Arch of Trajan at Benevento-one of the few honorary arch- ble. Decisive for the derivation are the anamorphic distortions visible in the
es outside Rome itself that incorporates outstanding examples of monumen- (proper) left half of the Angers face, which, closely parallel to those of
tal grand style reliefs-see F. Kleiner, The Arch of Nero in Rome: a Study of Lysippus's Eros head, are present to counteract the rightward turn of the head
the Roman Honorary Arch before and under Nero, Rome, 1985, s.v. index in both figures (compare Schulz's figs. 69-71). See Schulz's catalogue entry
under "Benevento, Arch of Trajan." on the Altar of St. Luke, no. 30, 200-3.
51 Sheard, 1984, 161 and fn. 54. On Donatello's use of optical correction devices, see R. Munman, "Optical
52 Koeppel, 1982, passim and ills.; Strong, Roman Art (as in fn. 24), Corrections in the Sculpture of Donatello," Transactions of the American
figs. 57, 59, 62, 69, 70, 88, 91-93, 111-12, 132-35. Philosophical Society, LXXV/2, 1985, 1-96, with references to the pioneering
53 Koeppel, ibid., 527; Strong, ibid., 86-87. observations of Charles Seymour, Jr.
54 Strong, ibid., 97, 110; P. Hamberg, Studies in Roman Imperial Art, 58 R. Lieberman, The Church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Venice,
Uppsala, 1945, 101. Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1972, and Renaissance Architecture
178
in Venice, s.v. "Santa Maria dei Miracoli" in index. A new book on the MiracoliStudies. A Tribute to the Late Cecilia M. Ady, New York, 1960, 455-83. Luchs,
in celebration of its restoration by Save Venice (1993-97), to be edited by 1995, ably summarizes the conclusions of several scholars on pertinent
Wolfgang Wolters, is in preparation. themes: 15-17, 29-30, and chs. 3 and 4. See esp. 'The Romantic Mood," 64-
59 R. Munman, 'The Lombardo Family and the Tomb of Giovanni 66 and her discussion of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili in relation to Tullio
Zanetti," Art Bulletin, LIX/1, 1977, 28-38. An imposing eagle (Munman, fig. 24)
Lombardo's Ca' d'Oro relief: 53-54, 61-65 (and s.v. "Colonna" in index), with
is perched on a thick garland slung between the lower two consoles of the references in fns. The role of Bernardo Bembo in transmitting aspects of the
tomb (attributed to Antonio Lombardo by Munman). If the two brothers had neo-courtly ethos of Lorenzo de' Medici's Florence to Venice, and specifical-
visited Rome as proposed here, the famous Trajanic imperial eagle walled ly to Pietro Lombardo and his sons, is suggested by this writer's "Bernardo e
into the portico of SS. Apostoli in Rome by Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere Pietro Bembo, Pietro, Tullio e Antonio Lombardo: Metamorfosi delle tem-
during his campaign of restoration of the church (beginning c. 1474) could atiche cortigiane nelle tendenze classicistiche della scultura veneziana," in
have been its source (ill. in Bober and Rubenstein, 1986, fig. 186 [no. 186,Tiziano. Amor Sacro e Amor Profano (as in fn. 24), 118-32. The transforma-
219-20]). In fact, Bishop Zanetto had enjoyed the affection and patronage of
tion of Florentine neoplatonism into a more generally accessible cultural phe-
Francesco della Rovere, Cardinal Giuliano's uncle, who as Pope Sixtus IV nomenon available to poets and artists, that contributed in important ways to
had died in 1484. This means that the eagle was not placed on Zanetto's the Romantic mood, is suggested in Sheard, 'The Widener Orpheus:
tomb merely for generalized all'antica effect, but was instead a specific Attribution, Type, Invention," in idem and J. T Paoletti, eds., Collaboration in
homage to his patron.'s family, the della Rovere, which had claimed the Italian Renaissance Art, New Haven and London, 1978, 189-219, see esp.
Trajanic imperial eagle symbolism by installing the relief in the SS. Apostoli
appendices 2-5, 212-19. See also the cat. entries by A. Ballarin in Le Siecle
portico with its accompanying inscription (quoted by Bober and Rubenstein, de Titien. L'age d'or de la peinture a Venise, rev. ed., exh. cat. Paris, Grand
220, but also see R. Weiss, The Medals of Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484), Palais, 9 March-14 June 1993, Paris, 1993, and P. F. Brown, Venice and the
Rome, 1961, 36). Because the Trajanic eagle at SS. Apostoli had earlier been
Past (forthcoming from Yale University Press).
adapted as a source by Laurana in the Palazzo Ducale, Urbino (Bober and 63 Sheard, 1984, 150: S. Wilk [McHam], "La decorazione cinquecen-
Rubenstein, 220), we might conclude that it was well enough known through tesca della Cappella dell'Arca di S. Antonio," in G. Lorenzoni, ed., Le sculture
drawings and three-dimensional representations that a trip to Rome would notdel Santo di Padova (Fonti e studi per la storia del Santo a Padova, fonti 8,
studi 4), Vicenza, 1984, 114-17. The same conclusion was reached indepen-
have been necessary for the Lombardos to be familiar with it; yet here too the
style of its carving strongly suggests knowledge of the original. dently by Stepan, Die Reliefs (as in fn. 48), 20-22. In his Ph.D. dissertation,
'The Sculpture of Jacopo Sansovino," B. Boucher challenged the traditional
For Bishop Zanetto's life, a summary of Pietro Lombardo's work at the duomo
ot Treviso undertaken as a result of the bishop's testament, and a catalogue
attribution of the chapel's design to Andrea Riccio (consulted in 1983 while in
entry on the Shrine of SS. Theonistus, Tabra and Tabrata, which was eventu-progress: typescript, 20, fn. 15), as did J. Draper, "Andrea Riccio and His
ally carved by Lorenzo Bregno (completed in 1505), see Schulz, GiambattistaColleagues in the Untermyer Collection," Apollo, n.s., CXCIII, no. 107 (1978),
and Lorenzo Bregno, as in fn. 57, 152-55 (with full bibliographic references).
179-80, fn. 8. Boucher summarizes the arguments in The Sculpture of Jacopo
60 G. Biscaro, "Note Storico Artistiche sulla Cattedrale di Treviso,"
Sansovino, 2 vols., New Haven, 1991, vol. 1, 90. S. Wilk [McHam] had
Nuovo Archivio Veneto, XVII, 1899, 194. C. Kolb Lewis, The Villa Giustinian already implied an attribution of the design to Tullio in her dissertation of 1977
at Roncade, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1977, reviewing Tullio's (Sculpture of Tullio Lombardo, as in fn. 24), 25, fn. 43. See now McHam,
architectural career, highlighted the fact that his signature on the contract for1994, 30-33 and 95-97. The most convincing date for the chapel's design is
the rebuilding of the collapsed dome at Treviso Cathedral constituted the ear-1497-99; "lo modello ultimo," on which Riccio collaborated, was completed by
liest official record of his personal responsibility for any work of art (75-80).22 June 1500: McHam, 1994, 30-32.
61 See L. V. Gerulaitis, Printing and Publishing in Fifteenth-Century 64 R. Jones and N. Penny, Raphael, New Haven and London, 1983, ch.
Venice, Chicago, 1976, 22-26, 65-92, and 114f., and, for individual printers' 3 and 133-47.
publications of classical texts, M. Lowry, Nicholas Jenson and the Rise of 65 G. Becatti, "Raphael and Antiquity," in The Complete Work o
Venetian Publishing in Renaissance Europe, Oxford, 1991, and idem, The Raphael, New York, 1969, 491-568; R. Steiner, "II Trionfo di Bacco di
World of Aldus Manutius. Business and Scholarship in Renaissance Venice,Raffaello per il Duca di Ferrara," Paragone, CCCXXV (1977), 85-99; an
Ithaca, 1979. Much information about classical texts, both printed and in the Bober and Rubenstein, 1986: page and cat. references to Raphael's and h
form of de luxe, lavishly illustrated manuscripts, can be found in J. J. G. workshop's drawings after or incorporating antique models are at 466.
Alexander, ed., The Painted Page. Italian Renaissance Book Illumination, 66 On Titian's adaptations of motifs from the Lombardos' reliefs: S. Wilk
1450-1550, exh. cat., London, Royal Academy of Arts, and New York, The[McHam], 'Titian's Paduan Experience and Its Influence on His Style," A
Pierpont Morgan Library, Munich, 1994, which includes abundant high-quali-
Bulletin, LXC (1983), 51-61 (Mauro Lucco disagrees, believing that the relief
ty ills. in color that permit encounters with several examples of the were not installed in the chapel by 1510-1511 and thus were not available
Titian: personal communication). See also W.S. Sheard, 'Titian's Paduan
Renaissance response to classical culture in both the decoration of printed
Frescoes and the Issue of Decorum," in F. Ames-Lewis and A. Bednarek
and manuscript books and in how they were written, printed, and designed. A
eds., Decorum in Renaissance Narrative Art, London, 1992, 89-102.
full bibliography of all aspects is included: 258-69; n.b. the publications of
Lilian Armstrong cited there, in addition to her book on Renaissance Miniature 67 Most of the documented facts about Tullio's life are referred to b
Painters and Classical Imagery, cited in fn. 4 above, as well as her essay and
Luchs, 1995, s.v. "Lombardo, Tullio" in index. Additional information relating
catalogue entries in The Painted Page. the patronage circles and working conditions Tullio encountered during his lon
62 On Venetian humanists (mainly patricians): M. L. King, Venetian tenure as head architectus of San Salvatore (1507-1532) may be found in C.
Humanism in an Age of Patrician Dominance, Princeton, 1986. Venetian and Bums, San Salvatore and Venetian Church Architecture: 1490-1530, Ph.D. di
Paduan collecting of classical antiquities: I. Favaretto, Arte antica e cultura
sertation, New York University, 1986, esp. ch. 1. For an idea of the difficulties fac
antiquaria nelle collezioni venete al tempo della Serenissima, Rome, 1990, ing sons in father-son partnerships such as the Lombardo family firm, consult
with complete bibliographic references. The Mantegna-inspired fusion Connell, of The Employment of Sculptors and Stonemasons in Venice in t
archeological investigation and role-playing: C. Mitchell, "Archaeology and Fifteenth Century, New York and London, 1988, 36-48, which includes "Legal
Romance in Renaissance Italy," in E. F. Jacob, ed., Italian Renaissance Position of an Unemancipated Son," (36-38) and "Emancipation" (38-39).
179

Tullio Lombardo in Rome. The Arch of Constantine, The Vendramin Tomb, and The Reinvention of Monumental Classicizing Relief

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Tullio Lombardo in Rome. The Arch of Constantine, The Vendramin Tomb, and The Reinvention of Monumental Classicizing Relief

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Tullio Lombardo in Rome?

The Arch of Constantine, the Vendramin Tomb, and the

Tullio Lombardo in Rome? The Arch of Constantine,

To imagine that Tullio Lombardo created the drawings

1) Tomb of Doge Andrea Vendramin. Venice, SS. Giovanni e Paolo.

angles of porphyry marble in the four corers around each circle

3) Arch of Constantine. Rome.

sible contradictory readings of the events of the later 1470s, Andrea

---P' 6) Arch of Constantine, detail, view from above of <Lustra

commemorated a crucial phase of Venice's struggle with the Turks

As we would expect, the tomb imitates Constantine's Arch in

. ,,,.... . . . ... . - .--~ *~ .! *i:

i:1 . ,1?: :7;:.A

7) Arch of Constantine, detail from Trajanic frieze.

imperial grand reliefs, even more insistently.26 The new facadeCodussi;

ferences in format and compositional type could hardly have

8) Scuola di San Marco. Venice. Detail of facade.

would have been struck by their exceptionally large size in compar-

-;: - ' jE;-=ZL8oL rf. " '

9) Scuola di San Marco. Detail, relief

trast to Donatello's schiacciato or low relief, which Tullio knew from

be documented in still photographs, however. Tullio's re-creation of

in Venice after about 1480, that the city of Rome, even wi

In conclusion, the High Renaissance aspects of Tullio

over Maxentius with Venice's repulsion of the Turkish advance Arch,

Anda mungkin juga menyukai

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