Sunday, February 12, 2017

Antonio Lombardo (ca. 1458-1516)

Antonio Lombardo
Rosette with Gryphons
ca. 1508
marble relief panel
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Antonio Lombardo belonged to a family of Venetian marble carvers. His own career led him to court service in Ferrara where he ran a workshop producing extremely refined relief-work such as the set of decorative panels seen here (each between three and four feet long). Much later, this set was purchased in Italy by Russian plutocrats and shipped home. Yet the panels did not enter the Hermitage until a relatively late stage  in the 1930s  during the nastiest period of Stalin's domestic terror. They were confiscated from a noble palace under circumstances that have sunk already into the longer, semi-legendary history of these objects. What is truly startling about them is the fact that  despite their spectacular beauty and their Renaissance provenance  they are at present, according to the museum's information, consigned to storage rather than display.

Antonio Lombardo
Phoenix between Tritons
ca. 1508
marble relief
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Antonio Lombardo
Rosette with Hippocamps
ca. 1508
marble relief
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Antonio Lombardo
Unicorns flanking Armor
ca. 1508
marble relief
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Antonio Lombardo
Pelican with Foliated Ornament
ca. 1508
marble relief
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Antonio Lombardo
Winged Sphinxes with Foliated Ornament
ca. 1508
marble relief
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Antonio Lombardo
Triumph of Herakles
ca. 1508
marble relief
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Antonio Lombardo
Rosette with Hippocamps
ca. 1508
marble relief
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Antonio Lombardo & workshop
Tritons flanking Naiad
ca. 1508
marble relief
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Antonio Lombardo & workshop
Woman between Tritons
ca. 1508
marble relief
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Antonio Lombardo & workshop
Female Faun flanked by Tritons
ca. 1508
marble relief
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg
 
Antonio Lombardo & workshop
Dolphins flanking Mask
ca. 1508
marble relief
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Antonio Lombardo & workshop
Youth with Foliated Ornament
ca. 1508
marble relief
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Antonio Lombardo & workshop
Palmette with Foliated Ornament
ca. 1508
marble relief
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg