Tomb of Cardinal Guglielmo Longhi

The group of sculptors and architects, who were active in northern Italy and elsewhere from the mid-12th century to the late 14th and originated from Campione (Campigliono) di Lugano, has been termed “Campionesi” in the 19th century.

In the works of the Campionesi masters active in the 14th century in Lombardy, Romanesque structural elements are blended with Gothic details. Among the most important examples is the tomb of Cardinal Guglielmo Longhi (d 1319; Santa Maria Maggiore, Bergamo), attributed to Ugo da Campione.

The tomb of Guglielmo Longhi is typical of Lombard sculpture about 1320, at which the Gothic structure of the tabernacle seems designed to draw attention to the essentially un-Gothic sculptural forms. It was on sculpture of this class (much of it turned out by carvers from Campione near Lugano) that Tuscan sculpture reacted after the arrival in Milan, about 1324, of Giovanni di Balduccio.