Leonardo Loredan

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Portrait of Leonardo Loredan (1501) by Giovanni Bellini.

Leonardo Loredan or Leonardo Loredano (November 16, 1436 – June 21, 1521) was the doge of the Republic of Venice from 1501 until his death, in the course of the conflict with the League of Cambrai. Upon the death of Pope Alexander VI in 1503, Venice occupied several territories in the northern Papal States. When Julius II was elected as Alexander's eventual successor, the Venetians expected their seizure of papal territory to be tacitly accepted, as Julius had been nicknamed Il Veneziano for his pro-Venetian sympathies. But instead the new Pope excommunicated the Republic and united the Papal States in an alliance with France, the Holy Roman Empire and several other Christian states.

After losing to the league's forces at the Battle of Agnadello, Venice found her holdings in Italy shrinking exponentially. Soon Padua, Venice's most strategically vital terraferma holding, had fallen, and Venice herself was threatened. Loredan united the population, calling for sacrifice and total mobilisation. Padua was retaken, though Venice was still forced to accept a humiliating peace, following which it joined the Pope as a junior ally in his new war against the French. When the Pope betrayed them, however, upon the verge of victory over France, they instead allied themselves with the French King Louis XII and were able to secure back many of the territories they had lost. In addition, the Papacy was forced to repay many outstanding debts to the Loredan family totaling approximately 500,000 Ducats.

Giovanni Bellini's portrait of Loredan is notable for being one of the first frontal portraits of a reigning doge; throughout the Middle Ages, mortal men had been portrayed in profile, while the frontal view had been reserved for more sacred subjects.

[edit] References

Norwich, John Julius, A History of Venice. New York: Vintage Books, 1989. ISBN 0-679-72197-5
Wills, Garry, Venice, Lion City: The Religion of Empire. New York: Washington Square Press, 2002. ISBN 0-671-04764-7