LEONI, LEONE. - Sculptor, medallist, and architect, born at Menaggio (Como), of an Aretine father, in 1509, and died at Milan in 1590. He worked principally in Milan and in Spain, at the court of Filippo II, displaying eminent gifts as a modeller and bronze-worker, following the examples of Michelangelo and Sansovino.
He is remembered above all for the solemn tomb of Gian Giacomo Medici in the cathedral of Milan; that of Ferrante Gonzaga, at Guastalla; the statue of Vespasiano Gonzaga in the Incoronata at Sabbioneta (Mantova); and statues and busts of Carlo V and Filippo II, at the Prado and in the Escutiale of Madrid. His rare gifts of incisive and dignified realism enabled him to rank among the finest medallists of the period, with some sixty pieces (noteworthy are the portraits of Carlo V, Filippo II, Maria d'Ingheria, and Michelangelo). He also left a significant mark in the field of civil architecture with the design of his own Milanese house, known as that of the Omenoni, from the gigantic caryatids adorning its façade, a typical pre-Baroque motif.
His son POMPEO (born about 1533 and died at Madrid on 13 Oct. 1608) proved a faithful and worthy collaborator of L. L. Protected by Filippo II of Spain, he completed in the Escutiale the great altar begun by his father, and also executed there the tombs of Carlo V and Filippo II, as well as that of the dukes of Lerma at Valladolid. He further continued his father's manner in the art of the medal.