Alfonso Lombardi

Alfonso Cittadella, known as Alfonso Lombardi, spent his youth producing works for the residences of the Este Dukes of Ferrara. In Bologna, starting in 1519, he modelled a monumental group depicting Hercules and the Hydra in terracotta painted to emulate bronze for the Sala degli Anziani in the town hall, and the Funeral of the Virgin in the upper oratory of Santa Maria della Vita. In the same city he made the Bottrigari tombs in the church of San Francesco, the tomb of the mercenary captian Armaciotto de’ Ramazzotti in San Michele in Bosco, decoration with the Saviour and the Apostles in the Servite church of San Giuseppe in Via Galliera and a Lamentation over the Dead Christ in San Pietro. He also worked in Romagna, in Castel Bolognese and in Faenza. In San Petronio in Bologna, he made the reliefs for the lunette over the north aisle door and for the inner façade between 1522 and 1529, while his Saints for the vault of the Podestà are dated 1525. In 1532 he carved the relief for the Arca di San Domenico, St. Dominic’s Tomb, signing his work with his maternal surname “Alphonsus de Lombardis Ferrariensis”. Much appreciated by the Emperor Charles V, whose marble portrait he carved, by King Francis I of France and by the Medici, he was an eminent artist whose reputation extended from Mantua and Ferrara to Florence and Urbino thanks to his skill in modelling terracotta, wax, stucco and bronze as well as in carving stone and marble. A commission in Rome entrusting him with carving the tombs of the Medici Popes Leo X and Clement VII never came to fruition: he died while still a young man in Bologna in 1537. Following in the furrow of the local tradition in monumental statuary forged by Niccolò dell’Arca and Guido Mazzoni, Alfonso Lombardi had the merit of developing a dialogue between sculpture and the painting of Raphael and his followers in Emilia such as Girolamo da Treviso and Girolamo da Cotignola.