Alessandro Leopardi

   Alessandro Leopardi was an Italian sculptor: born in Venice in the last half of the 15th century; died there, about 1512. His earliest known work is the magnificent mausoleum of the Doge Andrea Vendramini in the church of San Giovanni e Paolo at Venice. Some of the figures are missing, two of which authorities agree are in the museum at Berlin. Leopardi was charged with forgery and banished from Ven¬ice in 1487, but the necessity for finishing the statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni, begun by Verrocchio, caused the Senate to recall Leopardi in 1490. The pedestal of this work is his own creation and he cast the bronze statue. The bronze sockets for the three standards in the square of Saint Mark's were designed and cast by Leopardi, and he worked on the tomb of Cardinal Zeno at Saint Mark's in 1503-05, the tomb being finished by Pietro Lombardo. Among the works believed to be his but not fully verified are ‘Elijah in the Fiery Chariot’ in the Morgan collection, New York, a bronze relief; and the three bronze reliefs of the ‘Assumptipn of the Virgin’ in the Museo-Archeologico, Venice.