LOMBARDO, the name of a family of Venetian sculptors and architects;
their surname was apparently Solaro, and the name of Lombardo was given
to the earliest known, Martino, who emigrated from Lombardy to Venice in
the middle of the 15th century and became celebrated as an architect. He
had two sons, Moro and Pietro, of whom the latter (_c._ 1435-1515) was
one of the greatest sculptors and architects of his time, while his sons
Antonio (d. 1516) and Tullio (d. 1559) were hardly less celebrated.
Pietro's work as an architect is seen in numerous churches, the
Vendramini-Calargi palace (1481), the doge's palace (1498), the façade
(1485) of the _scuola_ of St Mark and the cathedral of Cividale del
Friuli (1502); but he is now more famous as a sculptor, often in
collaboration with his sons; he executed the tomb of the doge Mocenigo
(1478) in the church of San Giovanni e Paolo at Venice, and a bas-relief
for the tomb of Dante at Ravenna, and in 1483 began the beautiful
decorations in the church of Sta Maria de' Miracoli at Venice, which is
associated with his workshop (see also VENICE for numerous references to
the work of the Lombardi). Antonio's masterpiece is the marble relief of
St Anthony making a new-born child speak in defence of its mother's
honour, in the Santo at Padua (1505). Tullio's best-known works are the
four kneeling angels (1484) in the church of San Martino, Venice, a
coronation of the Virgin in San Giovanni Crisostomo and two bas-reliefs
in the Santo, Padua, besides two others formerly in the Spitzer
collection, representing Vulcan's Forge and Minerva disputing with
Neptune.
LOMBARDS, or LANGOBARDI, a Suevic people who appear to have inhabited
the lower basin of the Elbe and whose name is believed to survive in the
modern Bardengau to the south of Hamburg. They are first mentioned in
connexion with the year A.D. 5, at which time they were defeated by the
Romans under Tiberius, afterwards emperor. In A.D. 9, however, after the
destruction of Varus's army, the Romans gave up their attempt to extend
their frontier to the Elbe. At first, with most of the Suevic tribes,
they were subject to the hegemony of Maroboduus, king of the Marcomanni,
but they revolted from him in his war with Arminius, chief of the
Cherusci, in the year 17. We again hear of their interference in the
dynastic strife of the Cherusci some time after the year 47. From this
time they are not mentioned until the year 165, when a force of
Langobardi, in alliance with the Marcomanni, was defeated by the Romans,
apparently on the Danubian frontier. It has been inferred from this
incident that the Langobardi had already moved southwards, but the force
mentioned may very well have been sent from the old home of the tribe,
as the various Suevic peoples seem generally to have preserved some form
of political union. From this time onwards we hear no more of them until
the end of the 5th century.
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