Today (17 November) is the anniversary of Venetian sculptor-architect Tullio Lombardo’s death in 1532. Trained by his father Pietro, Tullio, together with his brother Antonio, were among the leading sculptors of the North Italian Renaissance. One of Tullio’s most important early projects was the tomb of Doge Andrea Vendramin created for the church of Santa Maria dei Servi in Venice. The complex included a figure of Adam, the first monumental classical nude carved from marble since Roman times, which was removed from its original home in the early nineteenth century, eventually making its way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. There, on 6 October 2002, the sculpture crashed to the floor, multimedia exhibition that will run through July 2015.
Adam, c. 1490-95, marble. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Fletcher Fund, 1936; originally from Tomb of Doge Andrea Vendramin, now SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice
A Couple (Self-portrait?), c. 1490/1495, marble. Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca’ d’Oro, Venice
Young Warrior, 1490s, marble. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931
Bacchus and Ariadne, c. 1505, marble, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Kunstkammer
Miracle of the Miser’s Heart, 1520-25, marble, Basilica di Sant’Antonio, Padua
For more on the reconstruction of Tullio Lombardo’s Adam, see Conserving Tullio Lombardo’s Adam: Order of Assembly.
Further reading: Sarah Blake McHam. “Lombardo.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T051615pg2.