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previously, Pomponius Gauricus in his tract “De Sculptura” (about 1504)
described it as compressius. Antonio rizzo’s frontale on the altar of St Paul
in S. Marco (c.1465–67), the pilaster on the Scala dei Giganti in the court
of the Doge’s Palace (since 1483), and the mirrored pilaster upon its east-
ern façade are examples of this technique. Another relief style, likewise
described by Gauricus, was chosen by the sculptor (tullio Lombardo?)
for the life of Mark reliefs on the façade of the Scuola Grande di S. Marco
(soon after 1480). He layered flat and very flat figures, which he allowed to
move almost identically to figures in roman reliefs that were well known
at the time. thereby, he could be confident that an educated public would
recognize these formal peculiarities as references to antique prototypes.
rather differently, tullio’s autographed “pala” of the capp. Badoer in
SS. Giovanni crisostomo (1504–06) of the coronation of Mary with its
rigid, lined-up figures shows a stylistic relationship with a relief (of the
13th century) in the tesoro of S. Marco, partially recut about 1530. not
only tullio’s important work but also that of other artists raises questions,
the answers to which are made no easier by signatures on stylistically and
qualitatively heterogeneous works.
the supremacy of painting in the standing of the arts, which had been
decreed by various texts since the middle of the 16th century, had not
been able to displace the sumptuously sculpted altars so prized by out-
standing patrons in Venice. in chapels (early examples: capp. Gussoni
[S. Lio], capp. Zen [S. Marco], capp. Badoer [S. Giovanni crisostomo],
and later the capp. del SS. Sacramento [S. Giuliano]) but also in the high
altars in Andrea Palladio’s churches, S. Giorgio Maggiore and il redentore,
marble, precious stones, and bronze were highly valued.
the appetite of Venetian collectors for antiquities was hardly satiable,
and imitations and even forgeries, also produced by outstanding sculptors
such as tullio Lombardo and tiziano Aspetti (post-1587), were the result.
the enhancement of antiquities was among the tasks, skillfully executed,
of Venice’s master sculptors—among them tullio Lombardo, Alessandro
Vittoria, and tiziano Aspetti (1565–1607). the purification (beginning in
1923–26 and even continuing after 1945) of figures in the archaeological
museum, and those from the Grimani collection, along with the impos-
sibility of finding all the heads and limbs removed during that process,
was a great misfortune both for art history and archaeology. identifying
imitations and forgeries was also difficult in the 16th century, as evidenced
by the circumstances surrounding the sale of the Loredan collection to the
Bavarian Duke Albrecht V that Jacopo Strada brokered in 1568.