BON, Giovanni

Venetian sculptor and architect. With his son, Bartolomeo, he ran the most successful Venetian sculpture workshop of the period. Father and son took on a number of joint commissions until Giovanni’s death, but the latter’s contribution seems to have been a minor one. Attributions to Giovanni and Bartolomeo are many and so diverse that no consensus has been reached on their oeuvre. A complete lack of secure attributions to Giovanni has meant that there is no reliable basis for a reconstruction and appraisal of his career.

Major work of the shop include the decoration of the Ca d’Oro (1422-34) and the Porta della Carta (1438-42) of the Doges’ Palace. They epitomize the survival of the Gothic style in Venice into the mid-Quattrocento.