On this day (2 March) in 1494, the sculptor, Niccolò dell’ Arca died. Variously known as Niccolò d’Apulia, Niccolò da Ragusa, Nichollò de Bari, and Nicolaus de Apulia, these sobriquets would suggest that the sculptor hailed from southern Italy.
Niccolò is renown for his synthesis of Gothic realism (from north of the Alps) with the formal compositional requirements of Renaissance sculpture. Although it cannot be clearly determined where Niccolò completed his artistic training, it has been suggested that he was either perhaps apprenticed to the Dalmatian sculptor, Giorgio da Sebenico or learned from the Catalan sculptor, Guillem Sagrera.
Images: Detail of Mary Magdalene from Niccolò dell’ Arca, Lamentation over the Dead Christ, 1463, polychromed terracotta, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna.
© Andrea Samaritani
Detail of Saint John from Niccolò dell’ Arca, Lamentation over the Dead Christ, 1463, polychromed terracotta, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna.
© https://www.italymagazine.com/when-600-years-old-statues-can-move-you-tears
Detail of Mary of Cleophas from Niccolò dell’ Arca, Lamentation over the Dead Christ, 1463, polychromed terracotta, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna.
© https://www.italymagazine.com/when-600-years-old-statues-can-move-you-tears
Detail of the dead Christ from Niccolò dell’ Arca, Lamentation over the Dead Christ, 1463, polychromed terracotta, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna.
© https://www.italymagazine.com/when-600-years-old-statues-can-move-you-tears
Detail of The Virgin Mary from Niccolò dell’ Arca, Lamentation over the Dead Christ, 1463, polychromed terracotta, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna.
© https://www.italymagazine.com/when-600-years-old-statues-can-move-you-tears
The Crowning of the Arca di San Domenico, 1469, marble, Basilica di San Domenico, Bologna. Wikimedia Commons.
San Floriano of the Arca di San Domenico, 1469, marble, Basilica di San Domenico, Bologna. Wikimedia Commons.
Madonna di Piazza, fifteenth century, terracotta, Comunale, Bologna. Wikimedia Commons.
References: Betsy Bennet Purvis, Palpable Politics and Embodied Passions:Terracotta Tableau Sculpture in Italy, 1450-1530, Doctoral Thesis, University of Toronto, 2009. https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Niccolo-dellArca
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/sculpture/niccolo-dell-arca.htm