Amadeo (Omodeo), Giovanni Antonio

AMADEO (Omodeo), Giovanni Antonio. - Lombard architect and sculptor (1447-1522), he brought decisively Renaissance characteristics to the Lombard tradition. A youthful work was the sculptural decoration (capitals) of the cloister of Pavia and, according to A. Venturi, La danza degli Angeli in S. Eustorgio. In the Colleoni chapel (1475), a happy union of architecture and sculpture, A. gives proof of his sensibility, which resolves itself into a plethoric decorativism that is without doubt a trace of the still unextinguished Gothic taste, but which nevertheless reveals a sincere adherence to original and fully fifteenth-century characteristics. And in this sense no less than in the Lombard tradition, the statue of Medea Colleoni represents a definitive result. Other examples of A.'s tireless activity are the aedicule of captain Tarchetta in the cathedral of Milan (1480), the monuments to St. Francis and to St. Airaldus in the cathedral of Cremona (1481). From 1481 to 1515 A., architect of the Milanese cathedral, worked on the construction of the tiburio, completed its interior and erected the lantern tower that bears his name. He also attended to the construction and ornamentation of the facade and the two cloisters of the Certosa di Pavia, assisted, in this as in other works, by a numerous host of followers. - See Plates LXXIII-LXXIV.

Marcello Dussio