Giovanni Dalmata
Giovanni Dalmata carried several names across his lifetime. Croatia called him Ivan Duknović, Italians knew him as Giovanni Duknovich di Traù, and Latin documents recorded him as Ioannes Stephani Duknovich de Tragurio. He lived from around 1440 to around 1514, a span that carried a Dalmatian stonemason's son through the workshops of Rome and the court of a Hungarian king.
A marble relief that surfaced only recently, sold at a London auction house, would force scholars to ask which works truly came from his chisel. Rome, Hungary, and his home city of Trogir each shaped a different chapter of his working life. What carried a stonemason's son from a small Venetian-ruled village into Rome's circle of leading sculptors? And how much of what he left behind can still be trusted as his?
Pope Paul II needed sculptors for his Palazzo di Venezia, and sometime between 1460 and 1465, Giovanni arrived in Rome to take up that work. Within a few decades he stood alongside Mino da Fiesole and Andrea Bregno. Together the three were counted among Rome's leading sculptors in the second half of the 15th century. Paul II himself commissioned a tomb monument for St. Peter's, since dismantled, along with work on the Tempietto of S. Giacomo in Vicovaro near Tivoli.
Two more tombs came from this period: Cardinal Bartolomeo della Rovere's monument in San Clemente, and Cardinal Bernardo Eroli's, later moved into the Grotte Vaticane. Each commission tied Giovanni to men who stood close to papal power. None of these Roman commissions marked the end of his career. Work waiting elsewhere would soon pull him beyond Italy entirely.
Around 1488-1490, Giovanni traveled to the court of King Matthias Corvinus in Buda, where he remained for a few years. He produced a number of works there, including the Fountain of Hercules in Visegrád, but nearly all of them were later destroyed or badly damaged.
Little survives to show what Giovanni's Hungarian years actually looked like in stone. When his time at Buda ended, he turned back toward the Adriatic and the coastal city of Trogir, where he'd started.
Trogir Cathedral now holds Giovanni's statue of St. John the Evangelist inside the Orsini Chapel. Historians generally regard it as the most important work he left in his hometown. On the nearby island of Čiovo, he carved a sculpture of St. Magdalene for the Franciscan monastery of St. Anthony. He also worked with Niccolò Fiorentino and Andrea Alessi on Trogir's Renaissance Cippico Palace.
Long before any of this, Giovanni had been born in Vinišće, a small village in Venetian Dalmatia now absorbed into Marina. His father, Stjepan Duknović, worked as a stonemason in Trogir, the trade Giovanni would carry into marble and monuments of his own. That stonemason's workshop in Trogir would not be the last place to shape his name. Within a couple of decades, Rome would call on him again.
Around 1503, Giovanni was back in Rome, working on the tomb of the papal protonotary Lomellino. In 1509, he completed the tomb of the Beato Giannelli for the church of S. Ciriaco in Ancona.
Documents from 1513 and 1514 mention a Magistro Joanni lapicida active in Trogir, likely the same Giovanni under yet another version of his name. He is presumed to have died in Trogir shortly after those records, sometime around 1514. Those final Ancona and Trogir records mark the last confirmed traces of Giovanni's working life. What came afterward would remain a matter of dispute for centuries.
A marble relief depicting the Virgin and Child was offered for sale at London's Katz gallery, described as a newly discovered work by Giovanni. Trogir City Museum bought it for two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, returning the piece to the sculptor's own hometown.
The authenticity of that relief remains doubtful, unresolved even after its purchase. Whether it truly came from Giovanni's chisel is a question the marble itself may never answer.
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Common questions
Who was Giovanni Dalmata?
Giovanni Dalmata, born Ioannes Stephani Duknovich de Tragurio and also known as Ivan Duknović, was a sculptor from Trogir, Dalmatia, who lived from around 1440 to around 1514. He worked mainly in Rome, Hungary, and his native Dalmatia during the Renaissance, and was counted among the leading sculptors active in Rome in the second half of the 15th century.
What did Giovanni Dalmata sculpt in Rome?
In Rome, Giovanni Dalmata worked on the Palazzo di Venezia for Pope Paul II and created a tomb monument for Paul II in St. Peter's, since dismantled. He also made the tomb of Cardinal Bartolomeo della Rovere in San Clemente, the tomb of Cardinal Bernardo Eroli now in the Grotte Vaticane, and the Tempietto of S. Giacomo in Vicovaro near Tivoli.
When did Giovanni Dalmata work at the Hungarian royal court?
Giovanni Dalmata worked at the court of King Matthias Corvinus in Buda from around 1488 to 1490. His works from this period, including the Fountain of Hercules in Visegrád, were later destroyed or badly damaged.
Where was Giovanni Dalmata born?
Giovanni Dalmata was born around 1440 in Vinišće, a Dalmatian village in Venetian Dalmatia now part of Marina. His father, Stjepan Duknović, was a stonemason in Trogir.
Why is a marble relief attributed to Giovanni Dalmata controversial?
A marble relief of the Virgin and Child, offered for sale at London's Katz gallery, was bought by Trogir City Museum for two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. The authenticity of this work as a genuine Giovanni Dalmata piece remains doubtful.
What names was Giovanni Dalmata known by?
Giovanni Dalmata was born Ioannes Stephani Duknovich de Tragurio and was also known as Ivan Duknović, Giovanni Duknovich di Traù in Italy, and Ivan Stjepanov Duknović in Croatia. Documents from 1513 and 1514 refer to a Magistro Joanni lapicida in Trogir, believed to be the same person.