GIOVANNI da Nola. — G. Marigliano or Merliano or Merlano, sculptor, born in Nola c. 1488, died in Naples in 1558, worked there. In 1508 he was employed by the Lombard Pietro Belverte on some wood carvings, according to Summonte, and in the same year, together with T. Malvito, executed the doors of the Ospizio dell’Annunziata.
His training is to be sought in the lively figurative environment of the Aragonese capital, where Tuscan, Roman and Michelangelesque experiences converged.
C. 1524 G. da N. carved the tomb of the viceroy don Ramón de Cardona, later sent to Bellpuig in Catalonia, but before that, according to Summonte’s account, he must have carved the life-size wooden Nativity scene for S. Maria del Parto and a now-lost Crucifix in the church of Monteoliveto. The high altar of S. Lorenzo dates to 1528, of which three bas-reliefs and four statues remain, and two years later the tomb of Antonia Gaudino, who died on 30 Dec. 1530, in S. Chiara. The tomb of Guido Fieramosca at Montecassino, now lost with the destruction of the Abbey, dates to 1535.
Many other notable works survive, among which it is worth recalling a St Dorothy in S. Agnello, the altar of the Madonna della Neve in S. Domenico, the tomb of the Sanseverino in the church of the SS. Severino e Sossio and that of the viceroy don Pedro de Toledo in S. Giacomo degli Spagnoli (c. 1540–46), and a bas-relief of the Deposition in S. Maria delle Grazie at Caponapoli. More controversial is the part attributed to him in the Caracciolo chapel in Vico, in S. Giovanni a Carbonara, begun in 1516 by the Spanish sculptor Pietro de la Plata and later continued by G. da N. and his pupils Annibale Caccavello and Girolamo d’Auria.
G. da N. exerted a great influence in Naples and throughout the Mezzogiorno, as far as Calabria. A Madonna della Neve in the church of S. Leoluca at Vibo Valentia reveals characteristics akin to his art.