Alessandro Leopardi
sculptor, architect, and goldsmith; d. sometime between June, 1522, and March, 1523.
His name first appears signed to a document dated June 25, 1482. February 27, 1484, he was appointed by the Council of Ten in Venice special designer at the mint. August 9, 1487, he was banished from Venetian territory for five years for forgery. He went to Ferrara, and probably entered the service of the Este family. At the death of Verrocchio the great equestrian statue of Bartolornmeo Colleoni was turned over to his pupil, Lorenzo de Credi. As Credi was unable to complete it, the Venetian government recalled Leopardi. He finished the statue and cast it before August 11, 1492. It is not clear how much of the work is due to Leopardi. The inscription, ALEXANDER LEOPARDVS V. F. OPUS, is found on the saddle girth. The superb pedestal is undoubtedly his work. The famous monument to the Doge Vendramini in the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo is attributed to Leopardi by Temanza. Müntz supposes that he was assisted in this work by Tullio Lombardo. Paoletti attributes to him at this time the two Mori, or figures which strike the bell on the clock tower (Torre dell'Orologio) of the Piazza di S. Marco. Before August 15, 1505, he made and placed in position the bronze bases for the masts in front of S. Mark's. According to a memorandum of the Council of Ten, dated November 22, 1509, Leopardi at that time fortified the city of Padua (during the war of the League of Cambray). February, 1521, he was called to make a new model for the church of S. Giustina at Padua (see Andrea Briosco). He took up the construction of that building in 1522, just before his death.
Bernardo Pinturicchio
painter; b. 1459; d. 1513.
Pinturicchio painted frescoes at the Sistine Chapel (Rome), which still exist; the Borgia apartments at the Vatican, recently restored; and the decorations of the library of the cathedral of Siena.
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