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Pietro Lombardo's tomb of Doge Pietro Mocenigo is his grandest funerary monument. Francesco Sansovino (1581) indicated that both Tullio and Antonio worked on it with Pietro, but their contribution is difficult to isolate. The tomb dates from between 1476 and 1481.
The vast wall tomb, arranged in the form of a triumphal arch, fills nearly one-third of the interior façade of the church and originally included 17 figures. The Doge stands on top of his sarcophagus, which is supported by three warriors, in the centre of the arch.
Pietro Mocenigo (1406-1476) was doge of Venice from 1474 to 1476. He was one of the greatest Venetian admirals and revived the fortunes of his country's navy, which had fallen very low after the defeat at Negropont in 1470. In 1472, he captured and destroyed Smyrna; the following year he placed Catherine Cornaro, queen of Cyprus, under Venetian protection, and, by that means, the republic obtained possession of the island in 1475. He then defeated the Turks who were besieging Scutari, (now Shkodër), but he there contracted an illness of which he died. He was interred in the Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo, a traditional burial place of the doges.
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