Leonardo Sormani

Leonardo Sormani (active ca 1550- ca 1590) was an Italian sculptor active in Rome during the Renaissance. Details of his life are not well known, and authors seemingly refer to him by different names: Giorgio Vasari spoke of a Lionardo Milanese; Giovanni Baglione wrote biographical details of a Lionardo da Serzana or Sarzana;^[1] while by the 1670s Giovanni Vincenzo Verzellino and Raffaele Soprani tried to distinguish Vasari's Lionardo from a Leonardo Sormani, originally from Savona. These names, however, appear to refer to the same sculptor. Attributions however of individual works are difficult.^[2]

Sarzana appears to have been a restorer as well as a sculptor. Works attributed to Sarzana include:

Seated statue of Pope Pius V (died 1572) made for the Papal tomb at the Sistine Chapel at Santa Maria Maggiore,^[3] commissioned by Cardinal Peretti, soon to be Sixtus V^[4]
Bust of Cardinal Rodolfo Pio da Carpi (died 1564) in the Church of Santa Trinità dei Monti, Rome
Saints Peter and Paul for the chapel of Cardinal Giovanni Ricci of Montepulciano in San Pietro in Montorio.
Contributions to statues in the tomb of Pope Nicholas IV in Santa Maria Maggiore
Contributions to the statue of Moses for the Fountain of Acqua Felice in Rome
Statue of enthroned Pope Paul III Farnese

Notes

^ Baglione, Giovanni (1733) [1641]. Le Vite de' Pittori, Scultori, Architetti, ed Intagliatori dal Pontificato di Gregorio XII del 1572. fino a' tempi de Papa Urbano VIII. nel 1642 [Lives of the painters, sculptors, architects, and engravers during the papacies of Gregory XII in 1572 to Urban VIII in 1642]. Naples: Giovanni Battista Passari. p. 85.
^ Treccani Encyclopedia, Entry on SORMANI, Leonardo, by Alessandro Grandolfo; Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 93 (2018).
^ Storia della scultura dal suo risorgimento in Italia, Volume 3, by Count Leopoldo Cicognara, Tipografia Picotti, Venice (1818) page 34.
^ Steven F. Ostrow, "The discourse of failure in seventeenth-century Rome: Prospero Bresciano's Moses," The Art Bulletin (June 2006).

[1] Baglione, Giovanni (1733) [1641]. Le Vite de' Pittori, Scultori, Architetti, ed Intagliatori dal Pontificato di Gregorio XII del 1572. fino a' tempi de Papa Urbano VIII. nel 1642 [Lives of the painters, sculptors, architects, and engravers during the papacies of Gregory XII in 1572 to Urban VIII in 1642]. Naples: Giovanni Battista Passari. p. 85.

[2] Treccani Encyclopedia, Entry on SORMANI, Leonardo, by Alessandro Grandolfo; Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 93 (2018).

[3] Storia della scultura dal suo risorgimento in Italia, Volume 3, by Count Leopoldo Cicognara, Tipografia Picotti, Venice (1818) page 34.

[4] Steven F. Ostrow, "The discourse of failure in seventeenth-century Rome: Prospero Bresciano's Moses," The Art Bulletin (June 2006).

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