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While working on the redecoration of the Cappella dell'Arca di S Antonio in Il Santo, Padua, Tullio must have also executed the tomb of Doge Giovanni Mocenigo in Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. The Doge died in 1485, but his funerary monument was not erected before 1522, although its sculpture is generally presumed on stylistic grounds to have been carved in the first decade of the 16th century. The bold, undecorated simplicity of the tomb's heavy classical architecture makes a striking contrast to the comparatively two-dimensional structure and profusion of carved ornament of the Vendramin tomb of the early 1490s. Tullio seems to have abjured the decorative carving that was the hallmark of Pietro's and his own earlier production; the elegance of the Mocenigo tomb depends on its proportions and the beautiful white, grey and caramel-coloured marbles of its austere architecture.
The interior façade of the Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo is taken up by the mausoleum of the Mocenigo family (Doge Alvise Mocenigo by Girolamo Grapiglia and Francesco Contin; Doge Pietro Mocenigo by Pietro Lombardo; and Doge Giovanni Mocenigo by Tullio Lombardo).
The monument to Giovanni Mocenigo (died 1485) was carved in Carrara marble by Tullio Lombardo. Behind the recumbent effigy of the doge, is a low-relief: Giovanni Mocenigo presented by St John the Baptist to the Virgin, whilst an angel offers St Teodoro the doge's crown. On the front of the sarcophagus are three low-reliefs perhaps representing the conquered cities of the delta area of the river Po. On either side are statues representing two Virtues and on the basement are two low-reliefs: the Baptism of Christ and St Mark Baptising St Anianus, wife and baby boy.
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