Funerary Monument to Lancino Curzio

The first work generally attributed to Bambaia is the funeral monument to the Milanese poet Lancino Curzio (1460-1512), commissioned in 1513 for San Marco, Milan. Modelled on an antique funeral stele, it has mythological and allegorical figures but no religious references, despite the fact that it was intended for a church. A document of 1515 in the cathedral archives indicates that the sculptor Cristoforo Lombardo, who collaborated with Bambaia on other projects, was called in to complete the monument, though probably only the final details. Bambaia’s failure to finish the work may have been due to his absence from Milan in 1514.