The Frick Collection
Andrea Riccio: Renaissance Master of Bronze
 
Exhibitions: Andrea Riccio: Renaissance Master of Bronze
 

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Andrea Riccio

Introduction to the Exhibition

Chronology

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Chronology and Documented Sculptures of Andrea Riccio (1470–1532)

Praxiteles rules marble; brilliant Apelles painting Vulcan, lord of fire, rules iron; Riccio is sovereign over bronze.

— Francesco Savonarola, 1560

1470 Born in Trent. Trained as a master goldsmith by his father, Ambrogio Briosco.
1492 Ambrogio moves the family workshop to Padua.
c. 1497 First mentioned as a bronze sculptor, working for Donatello’s pupil Bartolomeo Bellano.
c. 1500 Creates the bronze reliquary Altar of the True Cross in Santa Maria dei Servi, Venice.
1504 Pomponius Gauricus’s treatise De Sculptura extols Riccio as a master modeler and bronze sculptor.
1505–7 Riccio’s Story of Judith and David reliefs complete Bellano’s Old Testament narrative series for the choir of the Basilica del Santo, Padua.
1507–16 Works on the Paschal Candelabrum, his greatest bronze monument, for the center of the Santo’s choir. The War of the League of Cambrai (1508–16) slows progress.
1513 Completes the Moses/Zeus Ammon, exhibited here, for a font in the monastery of Santa Giustina, Padua.
1516 The Paschal Candelabrum is inaugurated on January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany.
c. 1516–21 Works on the tomb for the scholars Girolamo and Marcantonio Della Torre at San Fermo Maggiore, Verona. (The Triumph of Humanist Virtue relief from this tomb is exhibited here.)
1520 Installs the life-size terracotta Enthroned Madonna and Child at the Scuola del Santo, Padua.
1521–24 Works on Antonio Trombetta’s tomb and bronze portrait bust in the Santo.
1520s Chronicler Marcantonio Michiel records Riccio’s public works and a (lost) bronze statuette of a male nude carrying a vessel.
1530 Finishes the Lamentation, a life-size terracotta group, for San Canziano, Padua.
1532 Dies in July. His tomb is erected in San Giovanni di Verdara, Padua.