ALESSANDRO

LEOPARDO (d. c. 1512)  , Italian sculptor, was born and died at Venice . His first known work is the imposing mausoleum of the doge Andrea Vendramini, now in the church of San Giovanni e Paolo; in this he had the co-operation of Tullio Lombardo, but the finest parts are Leopardo's . Some of the figures have been taken away, and two in the Berlin museum are considered to be certainly his work . He was exiled on a charge of fraud in 1487, and recalled in 1490 by the senate to finish Verrocchio's colossal statue of Bartolommeo Colleoni . He worked between 1503 and 1505 on the tomb of Cardinal Zeno at St Mark's, which was finished in 1515 by Pietro Lombardo; and in 1505 he designed and cast the bronze sockets for the three flagstaffs in the square of St Mark's, the antique character of the decorations suggesting some Greek model .