Cenotaph of Don Pedro of Toledo and Maria Ossorio Pimental

The grandiose tomb of the Viceroy of Naples (reg 1532-53) and his consort, Don Pedro of Toledo and Maria Ossorio Pimental, combines Lombard influences with Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli’s classical style, derived from Michelangelo.

By Roman standards the cenotaph is strikingly unorthodox. It consists of a square platform, with the figures of the Viceroy and his wife at the front corners, kneeling in prayer. On the faces of the platform are the epitaph and three scenes from the Viceroy’s life, and beneath is a second platform, at the corners of which are projecting consoles with four statues of Virtues.

Vasari tells us that the tomb was to be dispatched to Spain (like the earlier monument by Marigliano, which is at Bellpuig), and though there is some doubt whether this is correct there can be no doubt that Spain is its source of inspiration. Through the first quarter of the sixteenth century Spanish sculptors were at work in Naples.