BONINO DA CAMPIONE
(active 1350-1390 in Lombardy)

Monument to Cansignorio della Scala

1376
Marble
Santa Maria Antica, Verona

The history of the free-standing Veronese tabernacle tomb opens about 1320 with the Castelbarco Monument outside Sant'Anastasia. This supplied the basis of the monument of Mastino II della Scala, where we find the scheme enriched with reliefs above the arches, small tabernacles at the corners of the tomb, and a surrounding grille adorned with statuary.

Bonino da Campione's tomb of Cansignorio della Scala is planned on the same lines but with greater complexity. The rectangular surround of the Mastino monument gives way to a six-sided grille, on the support of which are tabernacles containing statues of warrior saints. In the tomb proper heavily decorated spiral columns are substituted for the simple pillars of the earlier monuments, the small angels keeping guard over the effigy have an unwonted prominence, and the figurative content of the sarcophagus reliefs is much increased. Above, a heavy cornice lends coherence to the upper section of the monument, where niches contain figures of the Virtues.

The Cansignorio monument is an impressive work, which, in its subordination of sculpture to ornate architectural forms, anticipates the style practised in Lombardy in the last decade of the century.