Josef Vincent Lombardo (1908–1992) was an American art historian, author, and cataloguer whose scholarship contributed to the early documentation of twentieth-century American sculpture. His work remains central to the academic record of key artists, particularly Chaim Gross and Attilio Piccirilli.

Lombardo authored Chaim Gross: Sculptor (Dalton House, 1949), the first dedicated monograph on Gross, including extensive photographic plates, catalogue entries, and analytical documentation of the artist’s sculptural and graphic work. His research captured Gross’s formative period, preserving material that continues to serve as the structural basis for subsequent study.

Prior to this, Lombardo completed Attilio Piccirilli: Life of an American Sculptor (Pitman Publishing, 1944), a detailed biography and visual account of one of the leading figures of the Piccirilli atelier. His writing remains referenced in museum bibliographies and scholarship on American stone carving and architectural sculpture.

In addition to his work on American sculptors, Lombardo contributed to the broader art historical record through illustrated writing on Renaissance masterworks, including focused studies of Michelangelo’s treatment of devotional form. His dual background in technical drafting and sculptural analysis informed a precise and material-centered approach to documentation.

For VLAF, Lombardo’s publications and research form a critical archival foundation. His early cataloguing and photographic documentation connect directly to works held by the Velvet Foundation for the Arts, positioning the VLAF collection within the earliest scholarly framework established for Gross’s oeuvre. His methodology continues to guide the Foundation’s approach to stewardship, documentation, and curatorial preservation.