Relief with Inscription, Floral Decoration and Eagles
Antonio Lombardo (1458–1516)
1508
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Antonio Lombardo, alongside his father Pietro and his brother Tullio, belonged to an exceptionally gifted family of sculptors in Venice, for all that it was not their original home, since the surname means they came from Lombardy. They engaged upon monumental public works, such as the tombs of doges, but were also extraordinarily gifted when it came to the carving of exquisite small-scale portraits and mythological or allegorical reliefs.
The present piece was originally part of an extremely elaborate decorative scheme executed for Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, which included decorative friezes like this one and also narrative reliefs of classical subjects, some of them dated 1508. They adorned a pair of rooms known as the Camerino d’Alabastro and the Studio di Marmo (the Alabaster Chamber and the Marble Study), which formed part of a sequence of spaces that connected the Este palace and castle. It is known that major paintings dating from the 1510s and 1520s by Giovanni Bellini and Titian, together with others by Dosso Dossi, were in the Camerino d’Alabastro, where they must have been combined with pieces by Antonio, but it is impossible to establish which of his reliefs went where.
Both the elegantly symmetrical eagles here and the inscription on the antique 'tabula ansata' in the centre allude to the patron. The birds, as well as having imperial connotations, are part of the Este coat of arms, while the text combines Duke Alfonso’s name with a classical tag from the Roman philosopher and sage, Seneca, ‘He who is indolent should work, and he who works should take rest’. In view of the fact that there are no fewer than forty surviving marble elements from the two rooms, it is unrealistic to suppose that they were carved in their entirety by Antonio, but it should be added that the workmanship here, not least in the marvellous swag of fruit and flowers sustained by the eagles, is exceptionally fine.
- Material/technique
- marble
- Measurements
- 36 × 106 × 8 cm max. depth in the centre
- Acquisition
- acquired in 1887 by Prince Johann II von Liechtenstein
- Currently exhibited
- Garden Palace, permanent presentation
- Artists/makers/authors
- Antonio Lombardo
- Inventory number
- SK 146
- Signature/inscriptions content only available in German
- Bez. auf der Inschrifttafel: ET QVIESCENTI / AGENDVM EST / ET AGENTI QVIE / SCENDVM ALF.D.III
- Provenance
- acquired in 1887 by Prince Johann II von Liechtenstein
- Place of origin
- Ferrara
- Iconography
- Eagle
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