Tullio Lombardo


Tullio Lombardo, also known as Tullio Solari, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor. He was the brother of Antonio Lombardo and son of Pietro Lombardo. The Lombardo family worked together to sculpt famous Catholic churches and tombs. The church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo contains the Monument to Doge Pietro Mocenigo, executed with his father and brother, and the Monument to Doge Andrea Vendramin, an evocation of a Roman triumphal arch encrusted with decorative figures. Tullio also likely completed the funereal monument to Marco Cornaro in the Church of Santi Apostoli and the frieze in the Cornaro Chapel of the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. He also participated in the work to decorate Santa Maria dei Miracoli, Venice.

Smashing and Restoration of ''Adam''

The Lombardo sculpture of Adam is of prime importance as the first monumental classical nude since antiquity.
On the evening of October 6, 2002 Adam, part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection, crashed to the floor of the Vélez Blanco patio where it was displayed, breaking it into 28 larger pieces and hundreds of small fragments. An investigation into the disaster established this occurred when the wooden pedestal the sculpture was displayed on proved inadequate for the weight of the marble and gave way. After more than a decade of painstaking restoration Adam is now on display at the museum. Museum officials assert that their process for restoring the sculpture helped create a new model for the conservation of large sculptures. Since 2014 the restored sculpture has been on public exhibition.