Andrea Loredan

Andrea's career can be followed from the Venetian diarist and historian Marino Sanudo’s writings and from archival sources.[5] Although he never became doge, Loredan attained the most prestigious titles in the Venetian government during his lifetime, beginning in the 1490s with his election to the Senate and appointment as the state’s attorney. In 1502 he was elected Wise Man of the Terraferma and relocated to Brescia in Lombardy to take up duties as podestà (chief magistrate) and rettore (Venetian delegate for economic and military matters) in the city. Andrea’s success in this role led to his re-election as podestà in Brescia, in which office he served in 1503 and 1504. The following year he was first elected Wise Man of the Council on the judicial board of the Venetian government, and then attained the position of head of the Council of Ten, a role to which he also held later in 1510 and 1511–12.

Painting of Andrea Loredan, by Joseph Lindon Smith, Harvard Art Museums

Just before the War of the League of Cambrai, in which Venice was led by Andrea's cousin, Doge Leonardo Loredan, he was dispatched to the city of Udine in Friuli in 1507 as a lieutenant, but refused the Senate’s request to return there in 1509. This notorious objection led to his enforced temporary retirement to the island of Mazzorbo in the Venetian Lagoon, ‘in a most esteemed residence, living very honourably, because he was rich’. He soon returned to favour, and served the first of two terms as sopragastaldo (judicial magistrate), and again on the Council of Ten in 1509–10. In 1513, as provveditore generale of the entire terraferma, he was ordered by the Senate to join the Venetian army encamped near Vicenza to rally a defence against invading Spanish and German troops. It was owing to the dangerous nature of this assignment that Loredan hastily made his will in June 1513. His fears were soon realized, for he was beheaded and died in the Battle of La Motta at Creazzo outside Vicenza several months later. According to his last wishes, he was buried in the cappella maggiore of the church of San Michele in Isola whose construction he had helped to finance.[6]