LOMBARDI, ALFONSO. – Sculptor, probably born in Ferrara in 1497, to Niccolò Cittadella of Lucca and Eleonora L.; died in Bologna on 2 December 1537.
The native qualities of this master, who adopted his mother’s surname and worked industriously above all in Bologna and Romagna, are perceptible, though transformed, in the terracotta busts of Christ and the twelve Apostles, formerly in the Bolognese church of S. Giuseppe and, when it was suppressed in 1769, transferred to Ferrara Cathedral, where they were painted. In them one admires vigorous modelling, combined with penetrating somatic and psychological characterization, wholly Ferrarese (Francesco Filippini, however, attributes them to Baccio da Montelupo: cf. F. Filippini, Baccio da Montelupo in Bologna, in Dedalo, 8 [1927–28], pp. 527–42 ff.). By comparison, the figures in the grandiose and crowded group in S. Maria della Vita, Bologna, representing the Transit of the Virgin, display an academic theatricality; in a certain sense, it is a sculptural equivalent of the finest paintings by Gerolamo da Carpi, owing to the courtly Romanism of the poses and the classically styled architectural background (1522). Also belonging to this period is a gigantic and proud Hercules in the Palazzo comunale, while from 1526 to 1530 L. executed in marble several panels with biblical subjects and a solemn, harmonious Resurrection of Christ for the portal to the left of the church of S. Petronio. Having won the favor of Charles V in 1530, on the occasion of that Emperor’s stay in Bologna, he portrayed his features, and likewise made portraits in Rome of Clement VII and Giuliano de' Medici. Works from his final period are the statue of the Virgin and figures of saints at the Madonna del Baraccano, the Pietà in S. Pietro, and the elegant marble predella for the famous arca in S. Domenico, with an Adoration of the Magi and episodes from the life of the Saint (1533).