MARIGLIANO, Giovanni
(b. ca. 1488, Nola, d. 1558, Napoli)

Biography

Giovanni Marigliano (Giovanni da Nola), Italian wood-carver and sculptor. He trained in Naples as a wood-carver under Pietro Belverte (d. 1513), executing polychromed wooden reliefs (1507; Naples, San Lorenzo; destroyed) and crib figures (1507; Naples, San Domenico Maggiore). In 1508 he and Belverte assisted Tommaso Malvito (active 1484-1508) on a frame for an image of St Anne and on doors at the Ospizio dell'Annunziata, Naples. Marigliano continued to work almost exclusively in Naples. His first independent commissions were the frame for the Virgin and Child (1511; Naples, San Pietro ad Aram) by Antonio da Rimpacta (active 1509-11) and the altar frame for Bartolommeo de Lino's Virgin and Saints (1513; Castelluccio, San Francesco). Around 1524 he carved crib figures for Santa Maria del Parto, Naples, and collaborated on the marble tomb of the Viceroy of Sicily Don Ramón de Cardona (d. 1522; Catalonia, Bellpuig, San Nicolás), a monument that reflects Andrea Sansovino's tomb designs and the decorative style imported by the Spanish sculptor Bartolomé Ordóñez. The lyrical tomb of Antonia Guadino (c. 1530; Naples, Santa Chiara) depicts the figure as a sleeping antique Cleopatra.

In 1532 he completed the altar of the Madonna del soccorso, commissioned by the Liguoro family (Naples, Santa Anna dei Lombardi), a pendant to another altar by Girolamo da Santacroce (c. 1502-c. 1537) for the del Pezzo family in the same church. Both follow earlier Tuscan models, and the juxtaposition highlights Marigliano's awkward figure designs and his dependence on other sculptors' formulae. His altar of the Madonna della neve (1536; Naples, San Domenico Maggiore) represents a more classical solution, as did his monument to Guido Fieramosca (c. 1535-36; church of Montecassino Abbey; destroyed). These precede the bizarre designs for the three tombs of the brothers Sigismondo, Ascanio and Jacopo Sanseverino (1539-46; Naples, Santi Severino e Sossio), who were poisoned (1516) by their uncle. Here Marigliano's training in wood-carving is revealed in the armour-clad figures, like wooden lay-figures perched on their severely architectonic ledges. The grandiose tomb of the Viceroy of Naples (reg. 1532-53) and his consort, Don Pedro of Toledo and Maria Ossorio Pimental (c. 1540-46; Naples, San Giacomo degli Spagnoli), combines Lombard influences with Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli's classical style, derived from Michelangelo, detectable also in such later marble figures as the St Peter in the Cappella Caracciolo (1547; Naples, San Giovanni Carbonara). Marigliano's last surviving sculpture, the Deposition (c. 1549; Naples, Santa Maria delle Grazie a Caponapoli), is a highly emotive scene.



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