Giovanni Dalmata

Dalmata, Giovanni aka Ivan Duknovic. Sculptor, mainly active in Rome, Hungary and Dalmatia. Dalmata was, with Mino da Fiesole and Andrea Bregno, the leading sculptor in Rome in the second half of the 15th century. He was born in Trogir (Dalmatia) around 1440 and came to Rome around 1460/65 to work for Pope Paul II. on the Palazzo Venezia. Other works in and around Rome include: the Tempietto S. Giacomo in Vicovaro (near Tivoli), the tomb monuments of Pope Paul II. in St. Peter's (now dismantled), the tomb of Cardinal Bartolommeo della Rovere in S. Clemente, the tomb of Cardinal Bernardo Eroli (now Grotte Vaticane). Around 1488-90 Dalmata went to the Court of King Matthias Corvinus in Hungary, where he stayed for a few years, executing a number of works which are unfortunately all either completely destroyed or badly damaged (e.g. the Fountain of Hercules in Visegrad). After his stay in Hungary Dalmata went back to Trogir where he executed a number of works, most important among those is the statue of St. John the Evangelist in the Orsini chapel in the Cathedral. Around 1503 we find Dalmata in Rome again, working on the tomb of the Papal Protonotary Lomllino. 1509 he executes the tomb of the Beato Giannelli for S. Ciriaco in Ancona. Some documents of 1513 and 1514 mention a "Magistro Joanni lapicida" in Trogir where he presumably died soon afterwards.