Funeral Monument to Marino Caracciolo

From 1535 Bambaia was regularly mentioned in the records of Milan Cathedral as a sculptor in the workshop, commissioned to carve statues for one of the side doors and to instruct young apprentices. His responsibility for particular statues has not been defined. Works by Bambaia in Milan Cathedral include the grandiose marble monument to Marino Caracciolo (d. 1538), perhaps the best work of his later years, the small marble monument to Canon Giovanni Vimercati (d. 1548) and the marble altar of the Presentation of the Virgin (commissioned in 1543). He probably only provided the model for the last; he was then an old man and the marble altarpiece at the centre is noticeably different from his style.

The statues on the Caracciolo Monument represent (from left to right): St Ambrose, St Peter, Jesus resurrecting, St Paul, St Jerome. Beneath, the laying statue of the deceased, above the relief tondo of Madonna and Child can be seen.

Marino Caracciolo (1468-1538) was a Neapolitan cardinal and diplomat in the service of Emperor Charles V.