GIOVANNI, DALMATA. - Sculptor and architect, b. at Traù around 1440, d. after 1509. In 1464 he sculpted a bust of Pio II. Another famous bust by G. is that of Paolo II, in the Museo di Palazzo Venezia in Rome, formerly erroneously attributed to Bellano and Mino da Fiesole. Dalmata’s manner is in fact distinguished from that of the aforementioned sculptors by the clear definition of masses and by sharp, faceted planes.
In collaboration with Mino, G. worked on the construction of an altar now in the sacristy of S. Marco in Rome and on the tomb of Paolo II (fragments in the Grotte Vaticane and the Museo Petriano), and showed that he had been influenced by him when, in 1476, he sculpted the tomb of Cardinal Roverella in S. Clemente in Rome. Then, from about 1481 to 1491, G. was in Hungary, a guest at the court of Mattia Corvino. In 1491 he was in Venice, where he worked for Bishop Nicolò Franco; it is precisely from this period that the bust of Carlo Zen dates, preserved in the Museo Correr.
In 1509 he sculpted his last work: the mausoleum of Bl. Girolamo Gianelli in the cathedral of Ancona.
As an architect, he is assigned, with some basis, the loggia on the square and the two entrance portals of Palazzo Venezia in Rome, the door of Palazzo Vitelleschi at Tarquinia, and above all the crowning of the door of the tempietto of Vicovaro.