DE BARDI, Giovanni di Antonio Minelli. Sculptor and architect, b. in Padua around the mid-15th century, d. in 1527. He is recorded as being involved in the restoration of the Chapel of the Madonna Mora and as the builder of the Leoni Chapel in the church of S. Bernardino in Padua. From 1500 to 1519 he directed the works on the Antonine Chapel in the basilica of the same name.
Among his principal sculptural works may be recalled, in addition to the statues of Christ and three Apostles (now in the Civic Museum) and the decorations of the Antonine Chapel, the *Pietà* in the church of S. Sarmago in Vicenza and the *Deposition of Jesus Christ*, now in Boston. Following the example of Bellano, De Bardi compresses and deforms his figures, often treating them with a rough exaggeration, in hasty and rhetorical poses. Because of these stylistic traits, one is inclined to deny Giovanni the attribution of the terracotta *Madonna* preserved in the sacristy of S. Giustina in Padua, a work that reflects a quite different sensibility. More prominent is De Bardi’s role as a decorator, as shown by the marbles framing the reliefs of Bellano and the aforementioned decorations (both in the Basilica of St Anthony). His son Antonio, who repeated his father’s forms, is remembered, besides the infectious relief of the vesting of St Anthony, for the monument to Giovanni Calfurnio (cloister of S. Antonio).