With the approach of the 14th century, the family – already much branched out – occupied a position of predominance in Bergamo politics. Proof of this is the large fresco of the Tree of Life by an unknown artist in 1342, in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, commissioned by Guido Suardi – as the cartouche Dominus Guidius de Suardis reports – who had himself depicted as a devotee kneeling at the base of the painting.
Evidence of the power that the civil and religious authorities gave to the family is precisely the concession of an entire wall of the city’s most important basilica to the same family. Some of its members also distinguished themselves elsewhere. Suardino was Captain in Milan, considered a friendly city, since the family was amongst the architects of the Visconti’s seizure of power, who reciprocated by helping the Suardi with their objectives. Of note was Vincenzo, who supported the Italian enterprise of the German King Ludwig of Bavaria and, in 1328, was awarded by the latter a seigniory (in reality, rather ephemeral) over the territories around Brembo and Romano di Lombardia. In the violent unrest of that period, Ghisalberto (or Alberto) was elected Podestà in Bergamo in 1330, also going down in history.