VITTORIA, ALESSANDRO. — Sculptor and architect, born in Trento in 1524, died in Venice on 27 May 1608.
Sent to Venice at the age of nineteen by Bishop Madruzzo (1543), he entered Sansovino’s workshop, collaborating with him on the decoration of the Libreria. The first certain work by V. bears a distinctly Sansovinesque imprint: the Baptist in S. Zaccaria, perhaps dating from before 1547.
Having come into conflict with the Florentine master, he separated from him and between 1547 and 1553 worked in Vicenza, decorating the Arnaldi and Thiene Palaces there with stucco, and the Palazzo Porto with other sculptures. Reconciled with Sansovino, he thereafter resided almost always in Venice. From 1553–55 date the Jeminoni of the doorway of the Libreria di S. Marco (partly executed by his assistants Lorenzo Rubini and Giovannantonio Vicentino); from 1555 the angels for the bell tower of Verona cathedral (one now in the bishop’s palace). These were followed by the figures of Slaves and the statue of Fame in the Contarini monument at the Santo in Padua (1555–58); the statue of Mercury on the exterior of the Palazzo Ducale; the lunette and the statue of the deceased in the Sansovinesque tomb of Francesco Venier at S. Salvatore (1557–58); the altar with SS. Anthony, Sebastian and Roch in S. Francesco della Vigna (1561–63); in the same church, a Baptist and a bronze S. Francis; the stucco decorations in the Villa Barbaro at Maser (ca. 1565); the altar of S. Girolamo at the Frari (before 1568), with the statue of the Saint, V.’s best-known work; the emphatic statues of the Evangelists in S. Giorgio Maggiore (1574); the monument of Bishop Bollani in Brescia (1577–78, now in the bishop’s palace and the Museo civico); the decorations of the pergolas of the Palazzo Ducale (1577–79); the bronze Fugger altarpiece, now in America (1580–83); the Christ of the Frari (1581); the Baptist of Treviso cathedral (1583); the decorations and statues of the Scuola di S. Fantin (Ateneo Veneto), of the Mercers’ altar at S. Giuliano (1583–84), and of the Chapel of the Rosary at SS. Giovanni e Paolo (1587; there also an Addolorata, an S. John and an S. Girolamo). Among his late works are an altar in S. Salvatore and the tomb prepared for himself in S. Zaccaria (1602–1605).
In V.’s art, the decisive importance of Sansovinesque “pictorialism” and the Mannerist influence of Parmigianino are joined by a personal dramatic energy and a sculptural quest inspired by Michelangelo. Intensity of life and pictorial plasticism are also the characteristics of the numerous portraits in which V. excelled: from the sober, almost gaunt early busts of Priamo da Lezze at the Jesuits and of Parroco Manzini at the Ca’ d’Oro (before 1561; also there are the powerful Venetian Procurator and the two Diedo busts), to that of Tommaso Rangone (Ateneo Veneto), and the splendid series in the Museum of Berlin and the Seminary of Venice, with several late portraits in which an increasingly pronounced luminism may be observed. Pictorialism and Mannerism then lend a wholly distinctive character to V.’s sculptural decorations; in the stuccoes of the Scala d’oro in the Palazzo Ducale, in the vault of a chapel at S. Giuliano, and elsewhere, he left celebrated examples that in a certain sense anticipated the Baroque.
Numerous small bronzes by V. also survive (in the museums of Berlin and Vienna, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, etc.), as well as several medals from his youthful period. In addition to the numerous altars and the decorations of the Collegio hall in the Palazzo Ducale, V. the architect is, with good reason, credited—though without precise documentation—with the Palazzo Balbi on the Grand Canal.
Nolfo di Carpegna